Stars of the show at this event held in Oundle were our Under 13 Girls, who all still have another year in the event. Ellie Taylor fenced with a control and assurence that would not ge expected at this age and having been 3rd seed after the poules, calmly went about the task of defeating opponent after opponent, including Redhill & Reigate’s Ellie Parmer (who beat Maisie McCormack in the Quarter finals) in a technically excellent semi final, to reach a the final.
In the top half of the draw, Rachael Lever fenced with great confidence to take number 1 seed after the first round and then dispatched opponents 8-2 and 15-10 to reach the Semi-Finals. She then defeated, Event 1 winner, Messina Herrling 14-10 to make the final an all OPS match. Ellie’s excellent form continued to dispatch the spirited Rachael 15-5 in a dominant performance.
U13 Girls Local fencers results
1st Eleaner Taylor OPS
2nd Rachael Lever OPS
7th Maisie McCormack OPS
9th Niamh Noble OPS
17th Jessica Mickley OPS
The Under 11 girls event saw 10 local girls take part in their first competitions. Top spot went to Millie Rye who reached the Quarter Finals.
U11 Girls Local fencers results
8th Milie Rye OKCMS
9th Ella Wared Kings P’Boro
10th Freya Stephens-Dunn OPS
11th Georgia Pluke Kings P’boro
12th Ellie McLair OKCMS
13th Iliana Saenko OKCMS
14th Florrie Loseby OKCMS
15th Zoe Richardson Laxton Jnr
16th Isabella Goldsmith OKCMS
17th Rachel Kelly Peterborgh School
With Amelia McCormack off representing Eastern Region at the Cadet Winton, it was left to Tabby Pattison and Chrisie Schulman to carry the fight in the Under 16 girls event. Losses in all her first round fights left Christie languishing in 22nd place after round 1, however in the last 32 she gave Redhill & Reigate’s Alys Edwards, who was 12th seed and has fenced for over 5 years compared to Christie’s one, the fright of her life to take her to 14 all, with the fight won by Alys on the final hit. Tabby had a solid first round winning 3 of 5 matches to enter the knock-out as 10th seed. A controlled 15-9 win over Mathilda Grinling saw her face number 6 seed Elena Palano. After fencing really well for most of the match which Tabby lead, a 30 second lapse of concentration saw Elena turn the match on its head and with Tabby having to rush due to time becoming short was doubled out to a 15-13 scorline. Tabby’s performance shows that she can really compete again at the higher level and that she has the potential to become a real competitor in this tough age-group.
U16 Girls Local results
10th Tabby Pattison OPS
21st Christy Schulman OPS
The Under 16 Boys event was a tough event and career best first rounds at EEJS events for Marcus Arnold and Matthew Lever (both only losing 1 fight) put them seeded in 4th and 10th place respectively. Marcus won his first match 15-3, however could not continue that form into the last 16match to go out 15-12. Matthew just did not get the luck after such a good first round, drawing a former British Youth medallist Luke Jones in his first knock-out match who Chris coached from a beginner at Redhill & Reiagte Club for 5 years when Chris lived in Surrey. Luke won 15-10, however Matthew performance at every event is getting better and better.
U16 Boys Local results
10th Marcus Arnold OPS
18th Matthew Lever OPS
24th Alexander Richardson – Ondle Sch
25th Ben Naylor Kings Pboro
28th Ciaran Wells Kings Pboro
30th Henry Hart Kings Pboro
31st Harvey Stephens-Dunn Kings Pboro
The Under 13 Boys saw 3 local fencers take part. Only Oliver Lemmon had much experience of competition and both he and Oliver Hamilton managed 2 wins in round 1. Oliver Hamilton went out to Luka Piecefield, another of Chris’s old Surrey fencers, in the last 32, along with Thomas Stegeman who had had a very difficult day, however Oliver Lemmon won his first DE match to make the top 16 where he lost to 4th seed Steven McPherson.
U13 Boys Local results
13th Oliver Lemmon OKCMS
18th Oliver Hamilton OKCMS
24th Thomas Stegeman OKCMS
With many of our Under 11s having never fenced in competition before it was great that every one of them won matches in round 1 of the competition. With Luke Braithwaite, Josh Hull receiving a bye into the last 16, Willaim Furguson beat Oliver Haines to join them along with James Buck who beat Liam Kew. In the last 16 the ights were tough with all four knocked out at this stage.
U11 Boys Local results
10th Josh Hull The Pboro School
11th Luke Braithwaite OKCMS
15th James Buck OKCMS
16th William Furguson OPS
17th Ollie Haines OKCMS.
Finally well done to all the local fencers who competed and I hope you had a good experience at the event, whatever your final placing.