Rising Stars - Evolve to compete

The Rising Stars series of competitions are the premier youth sabre development events in Scotland where future potential gathers to take their early steps towards developing their skills in a performance environment.

·       Great for parents and fencers to learn about fencing competitions

·       Learn how to prepare for competition

·       Learn to compete

·       How does the scoring system work?

·       Learn how to interact positively with competitors, referees and spectators

·       A great cafe and time for parents and competitors to get to know each other

Format: A unique format designed to maximise development opportunities. One round of poule fights to 5 points followed by one round of poule fights to 15 points (10 points for u12's). No elimination.

Age Groups: U12 and U14 events for all boys and girls. You have to be u12 or u14 at the time of the competition. You can enter both events.

Medals: We are rewarding your commitment to development, so fencers who attend 1/3 events get a bronze medal: 2/3 events get a silver medal: and 3/3 attendances earns a gold medla.

Times: U12 events start at 10am and finish around 1230pm. U14 events start at 1pm and finish around 4pm.

Dates:

Rising Stars I: Saturday 3rd February 2024

Rising Stars II: Saturday 2nd March 2024

Rising Stars III: Saturday 27th April 2024

Entry: Entry will be via online booking which is essential. Entry details will be posted shortly. Please keep an eye on Salle Ossian’s Facebook page for more information.

Cost: Cost is £12 per event.

Recruitment - Chief Operating Officer and Head of Pathways

Scottish Fencing is looking to recruit a motivated individual with excellent leadership skills to support fencing clubs and the wider fencing community. A key element of this role is to increase the impact of the sport of fencing across Scotland as a driving force for inclusion and change within the sporting community.

This is a dynamic period for Scottish Fencing and we are looking for an individual who will lead the growing presence of fencing within Scotland through supporting and encouraging fencing communities to participate in innovative development and inclusion activities.

The key responsibilities of the post are:

·       Operational management of Scottish Fencing, forward planning of events, communications, and activities.

·       Leadership of the employee team.

·       Maintenance and management of key stakeholder relationships.

·       Facilitation of the work of the Board of Directors.

·       Management of and delivery against the SF budget.

·       Leadership of the development and implementation of the new Scottish Fencing coaching qualification aligned to the CIMSPA standards and SQA framework.

·       Development of pathways into Fencing for athletes, coaches, referees and all volunteers from grassroots to performance, increasing enjoyment and membership.

·       Engagement with the British Fencing Pathway staff to support the development of the talent pathway system.

·       Provision of support to SF communities to overcome barriers to participation through the #ChangingLives ethos.

·       Encouragement of participation in all aspects of the sport, increasing membership, equality and inclusion.

To apply please complete the application form and return it with a covering letter and the accompanying equal opportunities monitoring form to: admin@scottish-fencing.com by noon Monday 22 January. Please include the text COOHoP in the subject field of your email.

COOHoP Advert

COOHoP Job Description

Scottish Fencing Application form

Equality monitoring form

Merry Christmas to our members and supporters

Clare Queen departs Scottish Fencing

Clare Queen, Scottish Fencing’s COO and Head of Pathways, will move to pastures new in February.  Recruitment to her role will begin in early January.

George Smith

Scottish Fencing are sad to announce the death of George Smith. George passed away this week. He established Stirling Fencing Club where he coached every week for 50 years. George will be much missed by the members of Forth Valley Fencing Club where he attended until recently.

The details of his service are

Thursday 4th January 2024

 Service at St Ninians Old Parish Church, Kirk Wynd, St Ninians, Stirling FK7 9AJ at 1100.

Followed by interment at Logie Kirk, Blairlogie, FK9 4LB at 1200 

Members of the fencing community wishing to pay their respects are very welcome.

Scottish Fencing Awards 2023

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.

Community Anti-Doping education Wednesday 13th December

Scottish Fencing are supporting British Fencing with the delivery of Community Anti-Doping education session next Wednesday 13th December at 18.00.

The session is open to all British Fencing members to help you understand your rights and responsibilities and to recognise the risks in relation to Anti-Doping.

For more information and to register, please click here.

Stephen D'Agostino

Scottish Fencing was sorry to hear of the loss of Stephen D’Agostino. Sadly, Stephen passed a week ago having been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Many in the fencing community will remember Stephen helping out at competitions setting up and taking down equipment and helping with IT.

For those wishing to pay their respects Stephen’s funeral service and Mass is at 10:30am, on Wednesday 13th December 2023 in St Albert’s Catholic Chapel in the University Catholic Chaplaincy, 24 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LD, to which all are welcome. 

 St Albert’s Chapel is located in the garden, behind No 24 George Square. Level access is from George Square Lane, behind 23 & 24 George Square and beside Middle Meadow Walk. 

Coffee and tea will be available after the service. 

 A private cremation service for the family will be held immediately after. 

Refreshments in the Royal Forth Yacht Club, Middle Pier, Granton Harbour EH5 1HF to which all are invited 

 Our condolences to Stephen’s family.

2023 Scottish Fencing AGM - link to register

Further to our earlier posts you can now register to attend the online AGM for Scottish Fencing which is at 6pm on 11 December 2023.

Please register for the AGM here

You can send your apologies using the same link. Also, if you have any questions for the Board you can send these in advance of the meeting using the link whether you can attend or not.

We will send a meeting invite to those registered so if you have do not sign up you won’t be able to attend. Registration closes noon Friday 8 December 2023. We will send the meeting link once registration closes.

Scottish Open 2023 round-up

The Scottish Open took place at The Peak, Stirling last weekend with over 160 fencers taking part over the two days. The event featured an open wheelchair event for the first time, four fencers competed in two rounds of poules, followed by a tableau to determine the medal winners. Scottish Fencing are grateful for the guidance and support received from the team at British Fencing and hope we can build on wheelchair event going forward.

The first day of competition featured Men’s and Women’s foil and Men’s Sabre with two rounds of poules followed by DE. In Men’s Foil Jaimie Cook defeated Vinson Wong in the final. Katie Smith defended the Women’s epee title she won in 2022 when she defeated Mhairi McLaughlin and Calum Kettles won the Men’s sabre title with opponent Quentin Geoffroy pulling up injured early in the final.

Sunday’s schedule featured Men’s and Women’s epee, Women’s Sabre and the Open wheelchair event. The open wheelchair sabre event saw James Burke winning gold in the men’s section, with Stuart Gurney taking silver, and Susie Seddon-Cowell taking gold in the women’s section with Wiktoria Mucha taking silver. In the Women’s epee event Lydia Stannier defeated Zoe Counter in an all Edinburgh Fencing Club final and Kate Daykin defended her Women’s sabre title, beating Elsie Llewellyn in a rematch of the 2022 final. Calum Johnston claimed the Men’s Epee title for an incredible 9th time following the final with Tobias Berry.

Congratulations to the medallists and well done to everyone who took part across the two day of competition.

For full results, please click here.

Scottish Fencing would like to extend thanks to the everyone who helped with the set-up, organisation and general running of the event, especially DT, the referees, armoury and the team of volunteers from Forth Valley FC who gave up their Friday and Sunday evenings to lay pistes and help with the clear up. 

It was great to have Leon Paul Scotland there all weekend with a range of fencing kit and equipment for fencers to try and buy. Visit their website to check out their latest offers https://www.leonpaul-scotland.co.uk/