Delighted to announce that Louth Sports Partnership has allocated Boyne Valley Fencing Club funding to buy a full set of scoring equipment.

To date we have been gratefully using spools, box and leads from DkIT Sabre Club. However, this will really enable Boyne Valley to continue developing.

BVFC has recently completed its inaugural ten week introductory course, teaching children and adults the basics of Sabre Fencing. Feedback has been very promising - the vast majority of the beginners are continuing in the club and we have scheduled for a new course to run in January.

Boyne Valley Fencers make their first venture into competition at the Irish Open this week-end, preparation for which has been two friendly matches vs DKIT.

Emma Foy and John McCabe are also continuing to teach Sabre in a number of schools in the Louth / Meath area and are getting involved with Louth Sports Partnership training courses.

Marcos

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Photo taken at recent IFF Strategy Day - 18th October 2009

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Our team for the Junior Europeans in Denmark next week is:

Raisa Greer, Derry	Women's Epee
David Burnside, Derry	Men's Epee
Brendan Cusack, New Jersey	Men's Foil

Both Raisa and David achieved top-64 results in Ponte de Sor recently, and Brendan reached the quarter-finals today in Montreal.

Good luck!

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For the information of those attending the Strategy meeting this Sunday, October 18: the primary purpose of the meeting is intended to be the start of the process to create a new strategy document for Irish Fencing. The last time a fully new strategy was developed was in 1998. This is an important document both for the future direction of the efforts of Irish fencing and those involved therein and in the processes of funding applications to the Sports Council. In the process of the creation of this vital document we welcome and encourage the participation of as many interested parties in Irish fencing as possible.

Marcos Simpson and Stephen Concannon will be chairing/moderating breakout sessions in the course of the day.

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Ireland will participate at forthcoming Five Nations event to be held in the University of Ulster, Jordanstown on Saturday 21 November, 2009

See below for details of team and officials

MEN

Foil	Epee	Sabre
Louis Arron	Kenneth Barrett	Stephen Concannon
Evgeniy Kazantsev	Paul Fitzpatrick	Daniel Corcoran
Conor Nagle	Colm Flynn	Owen McNamee
Lachlan Sykes	Eoin O'Hanlon	Chris Mooney
Captain: Louis Arron	Captain: Colm Flynn	Captain: Owen McNamee

WOMEN

Overall Team Captain: Conor Nagle

Referees: Tony Quinn, Hakan Elmali

Officials: Julian Smith, Michael Ryan

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Andrew Fenwick from Derry, our sole competitor at this year's World Championships in Antalya, Turkey, exited the competition today in 121st place out of 162 fencers in Mens Epee

He had 2 defeats against Koh (Malaysia) and Font (Spain) before 2 victories against Hansen (USA) 5/3 and Tarkowski (Norway) 5/4 before taking 2 hits off Jeannet (France) and losing final match to Al Zamel (Kuwait). He progressed to last-128 but was defeated in his first DE match by Torkildsen of Norway (15/5)

The final result will not be known until Sunday next when the last-64 will be held, following a change in this year's format.

Nuala McGarrity in Antalya.

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Training Camp - open to all fencers minimum standard Intermediate.

• Coaches: Tristan Parris and Marcos Simpson
• Saturday 17 October, 2009 from 10.00 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Venue : Trinity College Gym
• Cost: 20 Euro each

First come, first served - numbers limited. Email to reserve place:

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Congratulations to Philip Lee who was narrowly beaten (10/9) at the quarter-final stage of the Mens Foil Veteran World Championships in Moscow today. He won just 1 match in his first round pool giving him a low seed going into the DE where he first beat the no. 5 seed Aubert of France and then went on to beat Prater of Germany in the top-16 before being eliminated in the top-8 by Galvan of Italy.

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The new Boyne Valley Fencing Club opens its doors on Tuesday 15th September in St Oliver's college, Drogheda.

To raise the profile of the sport, fencers will be conducting a demonstration of the sport in Scotch Hall Shopping Centre around lunchtime Saturday 5th September.

We hope to teach beginners of all age groups:

• 7-8.15pm: 11-17yrs old
• 8.15pm+: Adults

The coaching staff will be:

• Marcos Simpson
• John McCabe
• Emma Foy

:: Info Pack ::

Please contact Marcos on 0879888402 or email:

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Foil, Epee and Sabre Training Camp will be held from Friday 4th to Sunday 6th September next. This is a valuable opportunity for pre-season training with highly qualified and experienced coaches.

Times:	Friday : start at 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

All fencers are expected to complete the full weekend (suitable for fencers of Intermediate standard upwards)

Coaches: Tristan Parris (foil) with visiting coaches from Roumania, Octavian Zidaru (epee) and Emilian Nuta (sabre)

Venue: Trinity College, Dublin, Gym

Places limited - first come first served - Cost €25

To reserve place, please email: or complete the online application.

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Andrew Fenwick in Mens Epee, having defeated Beskin of Israel in his first round pool, subsequently suffered an injury to his ankle and had to withdraw from the competition.

Siobhan Byrne in Womens Sabre got through to top-32 but was defeated by Marcos of Spain.

This competition was very strong with some of the World Top-16 not getting through the first round pool, e.g. Nagy of Hungary who won the recent World Cup in Gent. Velikaia of Russia did not make it further than top-32. The competition continues.

Nuala McGarrity in Plovdiv.

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Yesterday, Andrew Fenwick finished in 51st place out of 94 mens epeeists. In his preliminary round he had 3 victories and 3 defeats, got a bye into the top-64 but was defeated in the 64 by Spaniard Alvarado who later progressed to the top-8.

Today, Siobhan Byrne got 5th place in her Womens Sabre event. In her first round she had 4 victories and 1 defeat and was seeded 9th out of 50 fencers in the competition after the pool round. She had a bye direct into the top-32 where she defeated Ostojska of Poland to go into the top-16 where she defeated Kozlova of Ukraine. In the top-8 she met no.1 seed Tan of China where she fought well but was beaten 15-8.

All in all, good preparation for both fencers for the European Championships in Bulgaria next week.

Nuala McGarrity in Belgrade.

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The new FIE rules for the use of an electric bib on foil masks will be enforced in Irish competitions from 1 September 2009 onwards. All foil competitions after this date will require the new equipment.

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The 25th World University Games gets underway this week in Belgrade, with the Irish team confident of success at the competition.

The camp is in an upbeat mood in the Serbian capital ahead of the campaign kicking off on 30 June when the footballers take to the field to play their first round matches. The men taking on Uruguay at FC Indjija just outside the capitalm and the women, who made it to the semi-final in 2007, face Japan.

Five Olympians from the 2008 Beijing Games feature in the 69-strong Colleges and University Sports Association of Ireland (CUSAI) squad - Fionnuala Britton and Joanne Cuddihy on the track, Melanie Nocher in the pool, Eileen O'Keeffe in the hammer, and Siobhan Byrne in fencing.

More information

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Thanks to a personal pledge secured by our President, Tom Rafter, the Federation is in a position to assist ambitious young fencers willing to travel overseas for suitable training camps.

There will be a total of €3,000 available per annum from the Federation on the basis of the fencers travelling spending at least €1,500 themselves. The Federation's contribution is being funded 50/50 between the donor and our own resources.

The number of fencers supported in this fashion will depend on the quality of the applications and their suitability. The applications will be adjudicated upon by the Selectors, but we would envisage that we could assist about five such fencers.

If you would like to be considered for this funding, please fill in the following PDF, FundingApplication.pdf, and return the IFF at the address on the left along with any supporting documentation, or fill in our on-line form.

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For future communication with the Secretary of the Irish Fencing Federation, please use the following email address:

And new phone/fax numbers:
Tel: 01 - 298 4039
Fax: 01 - 298 4039

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Bronze for Grant Anderton in the European Veteran Championships in Hungary
Bronze for Daniel Corcoran at Helsinki Satellite
14th Place for Andrew Fenwick at Sydney A-Grade

Well done to all.

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The IFF selectors are delighted to announce the Quad team for 2009. We would like to thank you for getting back to us so quickly with your availability. Where four or more fencers have confirmed their availability, the IFF rankings have been used to ensure impartiality.

More information

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David Burnside has been selected to represent Ireland at the Mens Epee Junior event. He will join Owen McConnell and Ulysse Coneys who will be taking part in the Mens Epee Cadet event. Owen and Ulysse will be fencing on Monday 6th April and David on Thursday 9th April.

Good Luck to all.

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Owen McNamee won bronze in the Internation Satellite tournament in Orebro, Sweden.

This moves him up the world ranking and is his first international medal of the season. He was seeded 7th after the opening two pool rounds, but he beat the Latvian 2nd seed to make the podium

Full results are here

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20 Irish fencers took part in the Merseyside Open in Liverpool. Full results are on www.moft.co.uk

Highlights include NUIM's Fergal Martin in Men's Foil who got a quarter final place after seeding 2nd and not dropping a fight in the pools. NUIM also celebrated Noel McGlynn's "best begginer" award

Sarah Steacy and Kate Harvey both got quarter final places in the Ladies foil, with Isabella Codd winning "best placed veteran" with her foil L16 in what is a British Veteran nominated event. Donna Donnelly reached the quarter-finals in the Ladies Epee

John McCabe lost just two bouts in the Mens Sabre pools and was seeded 12th before finishing 17th. Emma Foy, despite only fencing a year, beat a higher seeded fencer to equal Eimear Counighan's L16 in Women's sabre.

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Applications are invited for membership of Irish team - deadline 27th March

Email:

More information

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OB Sports on on RTE2 will be showing highlights of the East of Ireland Fencing Championships on Saturday 21st February, at 1.55pm. Don't miss it!!

OB Sports Homepage

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Owen McConnell from Foyle & Londonderry College and Ulysse Coneys from Saint Doulchard, France have been selected to take part in the Cadet European Championships which will take place in Bourges next month. Owen and Ulysse will both compete in Mens Epee

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On Saturday 24th Jan 09 a demonstration day was held at the MCR Community Centre to introduce the art of fencing to the people of Sligo. This event was organised by Mark McEvoy, a certified fencing coach with over ten years of experience, with support from Sligo Sport and Recreation Partnership. This event was co-hosted by guest coaches Dr Chris Gill and Mr Alistair Davidson, from the University of Ulster Coleraine fencing club.

The purpose of the demonstration day was to find out if the people in Sligo had an interest in the sport of fencing, to show that a sustainable fencing club could be developed in the town. From this point of view this event was deemed successful. There was a lot of foot traffic throughout the day, and people who turned up at the demonstration got to find out about fencing and most got to try on the protective equipment and handle the blades themselves.

Full details...

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The Irish Open Championships 2008 were held on 29/30 November, 2008 at DCU, Dublin.

The Championships incorporated the prestigious Mens Epee FIE Satellite competition with 44 competitors in the hunt for the important world ranking points on offer. Joao Coreiro from Portugal won an exciting competition, beating off challenges from top quality opposition for Hungary and Italy. There were excellent local performances in the event with Derry - based David Burnside coming 5th. Andrew Fenwick from Derry was the next placed Irish competitor, in 13th place.

Ireland's outstanding international fencer Siobhan Byrne won the Women's Sabre event at DCU, representing US College Ohio State. Siobhan made a major breakthrough in 2008 by qualifying for the Beijing Olympics.

It was a great weekend for the Pembroke Club in Dublin with 2 overall victories. The Womens Foil was won by Linda Schultze who defeated Sonja Waloszek from Germany in the final. The double for Pembroke was completed by Olga Velma who defeated Raisa Greer from Derry in the final of the Women's Epee.

There was a home victory in the Men's Foil for Louis Arron of Dublin University Fencing Club who defeated Evgeniy Kazantsev from Pembroke Club in the final.

The Mens Sabre which was dominated by the visiting team from USMT in Paris with Raphael Gilmas the winner, with Stephen Concannon from UCD placed joint third.

The competition was greatly helped by the presence of specially invited FIE International Referees and weapon control personnel all of which contributed to the efficient running of the competition.

Full Results

Further Information:
Nuala McGarrity
Hon. Sec. Irish Fencing Federation

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