A record number of entries from Elgin Duellist Fencing Club was a fitting tribute to mark the 50th anniversary of the UK’s most northernly ranking fencing tournament held at Elgin High School on 24 and 25 September.
“With it origins going back to the Cairngorm Winter Festival, the Highland Open was first held in Aviemore as a team competition in 1972 where entry fees were an outrageous 10p not for one fencer but for the whole team!
Over the years, the tournament has been held in various locations in the north of Scotland but for the last eight years the competition has taken place in Elgin and is hosted by Elgin Duellist Fencing Club. Despite entry fees having increased in the intervening years somewhat, the competition is in good health and attracts fencers from both home and abroad”, said Robin Paterson, Head Coach and Secretary of the Organising Committee.
He added that “this year, there were 172 entries from 25 clubs competing in the men’s and women’s foil, epee and sabre categories from as far afield as Shetland to Norfolk over the two days of the tournament. Of these entries we were delighted that 18 members of Elgin Duellist Fencing Club took up the challenge to compete. With the nearest fencing tournaments usually being held in the central belt of Scotland, there has always been a strong equalities drive for the Club to offer this competition locally and many of our club members would not otherwise have the chance to ever experience this level of competition. Over the weekend, Elgin Duellists who fenced ranged in age from 13 to 70 and included three sets of parents and their off-spring and for many, this was their first competition outside the Club. In its own right, we consider this to be a terrific achievement for Elgin Duellist Fencing Club which was established in 2007”.
Elgin Duellist have created a full report on the results and you can read this report here. There are also results listed below with links for each event category.
For anyone looking to join Elgin Duellist Fencing Club the club meets every Thursday during term time at Elgin High from 6.30 to 9.00pm. Use this email link to get in touch with the club to find out more.
