U14 Trips 22/23 Season

England Fencing trips in 22/23 were a great success.

Feedback from the parents’ WhatsApp groups

We had a WhatsApp group for each trip to help with coordination and also to share photos and other information.

This is just a selection of the feedback posted spontaneously to those groups.

Foil

“Thank you England Fencing for fantastic organisation and support!”

“Thanks again to England Fencing for this opportunity to launch these young athletes on their international journey…Really appreciate the time that Richard, Maxine and Seb have given up to support our boys and girls this weekend.”

“Your advice and kind words for the boys and girls were very much appreciated and provide great motivation…”

“Thank you everyone for being so kind and helpful throughout the trip”

Sabre

“Thanks Bryn! It has been a great introduction to international fencing…. See you at the next competition…. 😘”

“Congratulations fencers. Huge thanks to Bryn for todays coaching. great to see them all bonding so well.
❤️”

Epee

“A big thank you to Richard and Sam for their invaluable support throughout the weekend as well as to all the fencers and parents who made this event such a rewarding experience!”

“Well done to all the fencers and all the parents too! Fantastic achievements all round. I was very impressed with how mature and composed all the fencers were despite some very tough bouts. Very proud of them all..”

“Thanks so so very much Richard. We are so very grateful for all your help.
And Sam and Roman too- invaluable help🙏🙏”

 

Thank you to the parents and fencers

You don’t often hear positive feedback to parents and fencers, so we would like to take this opportunity to share some with you from the same groups:

“It was an absolute pleasure to lead this trip…We couldn’t have asked for a better group of athletes and parents.”

“It was a pleasure coaching everyone today and I hope all the fencers came away with a positive experience that they can build on in future trips.”

“Massive thanks… to all the parents [who] make this possible!”

“Thanks everyone for a memorable & great trip. See you all again soon! :)”

 

First off was the Foil trip to Paris.

This is a huge competition spanning mutiple venues and the first England Fencing trip since Covid-19 struck.

Things have changed in recent years but we feel it is important to give young fencers and young coaches the opportunity to develop through trips abroad.

First requirement was getting some excellent team managers to guide the fencers and parents at the venue and these we had in Maxine Foxwell-Moss and Richard Bernstein. Then we needed a young coach and found an excellent one in Seb Pallier. Not to forget the parents to get the fencers to the competition!

At the moment we are not in a position to go back to fully managed trips with a handover and then return of athletes in the UK. Whether we ever get back to that is a matter of debate. Though the athletes may have missed out on some independence they didn’t miss out on the competition experience and the fun and camaraderie of operating as a squad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The results are secondary, but you can find them here:

Don’t forget, that clicking on the athlete in the results will  let you open up their fencing biography if it’s available. Lots of fun to see your own progress and share with others.

 

Next up was the Sabre in Ciudad Real, the home of Don Quixote!

For this fantastic trip we had young coach Bryn Saunders and Richard Bernstein was the sole team manager. Except Richard had to do his role remotely as his flight was cancelled at the last minute! So Bryn stepped up to do both roles with David McDougall rising to the challenge to help everyone out as well as support his daughter. A huge Thank You to David.

This trip really brought the fencers and parents together as fencing bags went missing at the airport – a not uncommon occurrence unfortunately – which provided a great opportunity to all chip in with spare kit to save the day!

 

What did we learn? Never pack your England Fencing Zoodie in your Hold luggage!

Seriously? Our people are kind and helpful and genuine team players.

The reception was great and the venue fantastic. Some also did the sightseeing tour afterwards.

Tosin won a bronze medal and got to stand on the podium and take back some crockery! Coach Bryn got some of the limelight too.

With 33 girls and 40 boys competing in a single venue

 

 

Oh, and they got to eat lots of great Spanish food and relax with each other! The parents and the athletes!

The results are secondary but you can see them here

Don’t forget, that clicking on the athlete in the results will  let you open up their fencing biography if it’s available. Lots of fun to see your own progress and share with others.

 

Latest in the calendar was the Epee trip to Osijek in Croatia

This was an exciting trip with young coach Sam Boyle accompanied by Richard Bernstein as team manager. Maxine Foxwell-Moss had to pull out through no fault of her own and Richard stepped in at the last minute. As he had been doing the organising,  including coordinating bus transfers from the airport, it was rather lucky as there is a dire shortage of trained team managers. Yes this is an unashamed invitation for you to get in touch and volunteer as a trainee team manager 🙂

Osijek featured a large number of different age group competitions from U13 to U23 at the same tournament. This provided some very eager athletes the opportunity to do more than one event during the trip and they seem to have enjoyed that immensely. It’s not for everyone but it was definitely good to have the opportunity.

The England Fencing trip was all about gaining experience and coming together as a squad in the U14 event, but the other opportunities were a bonus. With 47 girls and 52 boys competing in the U14 events there was no shortage of competition.

 

 

Isabella Howser won a Silver medal, allowing her to model the England Fencing Zoodie on the podium.

And Alex Nicholas won a Bronze medal but must have escaped the podium photographers!

 

As with all the weapons and all the trips, the results are secondary to the experience and the friendships made but you can see them here

Did we mention you can click on the athlete in the results and see their fencing biography? It includes the England ranking events results of course but also any EFC U14 circuit results as well as other international results.