Every year Scottish Fencing presents three awards:
· The Crosnier Quaich for Performance,
· The Crosnier Coaching Award, and
· The Sword of Merit.
The awards were open to nominations from the Scottish Fencing membership with the Crosnier Quaich for Performance being decided by a member vote. The Scottish Fencing Board voted on the winner of the Sword of Merit award.
The winners were announced at last nights’ AGM and were as follows
The Crosnier Quaich for Performance - Zoe Wagstaff
Zoe has had a fantastic year in 2023, making great progress with her fencing. At the end of last season she represented GBR at the Cadet European Championships 2023, she also came 7th British Senior Championships and 13th at the British Open Championships. This season (in her first year of juniors) Zoe has won the Manchester B BRC, Junior A1 BRC, Junior National Championships and U23 National Championships.
We would like to pass on our congratulations to Zoe on her fantastic achievements so far, and wish her the best of luck for the remainder of the season.
The Crosnier Coaching Award - John Oates, Forth Valley Fencing Club.
On top of a full time job, John coaches at FVFC at least 3 times a week, giving up his own free time without remuneration, running group sessions, 1 to 1 lessons and providing armoury support.
John makes sessions entertaining, for example, he hosts team matches with quirky, fun challenges. If one to one lessons are not for you he will fence you and suit his style to your level and what you need to develop, providing a very bespoke coaching service.
He is friendly, welcoming and encouraging to all ages and no matter your question is always helpful and supportive. John takes time out of his weekend to support his younger fencers at competitions and keeps an eye on competition results so that he can mention to fencers when he sees them. Furthermore he supports parents, finding ways for the less able to attend competitions.
John regularly attends coach development courses and actively encourages and supports teenage fencers to become coaches themselves. A very worthy winner of the Crosnier Coaching Award, Congratulations John.
The Sword of Merit.
George Smith has spent his lifetime contributing to fencing throughout Scotland. He has introduced the sport to a huge amount of people both young and old and has set up and coached at a variety of different clubs. Perhaps George’s most profound achievement was setting up Stirling Fencing Club which he coached at every week for 50 years only stepping back from in with the onset of covid. George’s contributions to fencing cannot be summed up in just a 100 words and without him many people would never have experienced the joy of fencing.
Many congratulations to George, who has made an incredible impact on fencing, particularly in the Stirling area. He is a very worthy winner of the 2023 Sword of Merit. Congratulations George.
