Cadet and Junior Commonwealth Fencing Championships 2024 - Support team

The Cadet and Junior Commonwealth Fencing Championships are taking place between the 12-19 July 2024 in Christchurch, New Zealand. 

Scottish Fencing are waiting for confirmation of plans for the event from the organisers. At this stage we are asking for applications from anyone who may wish to take on one of the following roles;
- Team Coach
- Team Manager 
- Welfare Officer 

For further information on the requirements of each role, please click on the links below.

Team Coach

Welfare Officer

To apply please return the application via email along with the equality monitoring form to admin@scottish-fencing.com.

The closing date for applications is Noon 12 February 2024.

George F Smith 1938 - 2023 Obituary

A black and white picture of George Smith holding a mask and foil

    

George Smith, who died aged  85 just before Christmas 2023, was a man of many and varied interests and accomplishments. He did his National Service in the Argylls, seeing action in Cyprus during the civil unrest there, and becoming a champion shot with the Bren gun. After the army he continued his love of shooting at the local Rifle and Pistol Club, owning a small armoury of firearms until it was all  shut down in the aftermath of the Dunblane massacre. George enjoyed travel, cooking and entertaining, telling stories, and generally fixing things – he may not have been able to mend a broken blade but he could certainly make a trophy out of it, and not just one either. In short if you wanted anything done George would be more than helpful.

  But it is as a stalwart of Scottish Fencing, or more properly, of the Scottish Amateur Fencing Union, its predecessor, that he will be best remembered. George was a very neat left-handed fencer, technically precise and, in his prime, fast and inventive enough to defeat many opponents. His true metier, however, was in coaching.

He had learned his craft at the hands of the redoubtable Christine Tolland in Glasgow, a teacher who would accept nothing less than perfection. Full of enthusiasm, George was able to start a beginners' class in fencing in his home town of Stirling, albeit with a very limited supply of kit and restricted to foil. The class grew to the point where the members decided to promote the class to being a SAFU registered club. Word spread and a small, but select, number of existing fencers who had recently moved to Stirling joined the club. Soon all 3 weapons were being practised and taught;  teachers brought their pupils along; members were entering, and occasionally winning, competitions. The Junior Championships, Section Championships and school pupils' competitions proved valuable avenues for development.  As the club prospered it attracted more and more members, both beginners and experienced fencers several of whom proceded to take coaching qualifications themselves, always encouraged by George who himself contined to coach both in the Stirling club and further afield. After he retired from work as Scottish manager for Semperit Tyres he joined the British Academy of Fencing, the professional body for fencing coaches, and extended his coaching over a wider field, both geographically and socially – including young offenders, pentathletes, university students – pupils of all ages and levels of skill. Stirling Fencing Club remained his base and became one of the premier clubs in Scotland. Many of George’s pupils went on to fence for Scotland at school/youth, junior and senior levels, and at all weapons. 

Club members found that their talents were in demand for administration, from positions within the club to ones at Section, Schools and National level. George himself was recognised by the sport, being awarded the Crosnier Coaching award in 1987 and more recently the Sword of Merit for services to fencing in Scotland.

The very existence of the Stirling club, albeit under a new name to reflect its expansion, is testament to George's enthusiasm and his enduring legacy.

 by Neil Melville

Wheelchair Fencing Coach CPD

In partnership with British Fencing, we will be hosting a Wheelchair Fencing Coach CPD session on Saturday 23rd March.

If you are a coach who has an interest in coaching wheelchair fencing, or if you would like to support your club to welcome wheelchair and seated fencers this session will be valuable. 

The details of the session are

Date - Saturday 23rd March 2024

Venue - West Fife Fencing Club, Main Street, Wellwood, Dunfermline, KY12 0NR

Timings - 10am - 4.30pm

Cost - SF members £10 per person, Non SF members £15 per person

To register, please click here.

2024 BYC Regional Qualifiers – Central Region volunteer coordinator required

The British Youth Championships (BYCs) will take place on the 4 – 6 May 2024 in Sheffield. To compete at this event fencers must enter a regional qualifier.

Currently there is no organiser for the Central Region in Scotland. Clubs in that region who are keen to enter fencers in the National event will need to recruit a volunteer to administer their Region’s entries. If you know of someone who can take on this role please ask them to email their contact details to admin@scottish-fencing.com

The role requires someone to collect entries (using sport80), organise a local event (if required) and send entries to British Fencing by the deadline 24 March 2024.

The organiser for the Scotland East regional qualifiers will share details of the Scotland East entries once they have finalised details for fencers in this region.

We must also thank David Fielding who has coordinated the Central Region entries for the BYCs for many years. Thank you for all your work supporting our younger fencers to compete at this great event.

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

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.