Following the success of Royal Navy fencing events around the country over the last couple of years, Portsmouth & Southsea Fencing Club has been asked to an invitational match at HMS Temeraire, the RN Sports facilities, near Gunwharf in Portsmouth (parking on site).
The competition will be on Saturday 5 April at 10am in the Fleet Gym at HMS Temeraire. The aim is to finish by 4pm. It is a team competition deliberately pitched at intermediates or beginners.
All 3 weapons will be fenced, i.e. foil, epee, sabre (teams can be mixed in terms of ages and male/female). There will be no doubling up (i.e. one player being in more than one weapon) as it makes the administration very difficult, reserves may be used to swap fencers in and out the teams.
If there are extra fencers the organisers will quite happily try and combine them as extra teams on the day to ensure everyone gets as much fencing as possible. Typically each fencer will get 12-15 fights.
No entry fee will be charged. Kit rules will not be vigorously enforced (i.e. can swap kit, no need for spare foils by the side of the piste or spare body wires etc) as long as fencers are safe and protected. There should be some spare kit to borrow as well.
So hopefully it will have a fun day, no prizes, but the idea is for everyone to gain some experience of team fencing. Afterwards everyone is invited to drinks in the evening.
We need to let the Navy know approximate numbers of teams by 25 March, so if you are interested in fencing in this competition please can you let Jenny know and she will get the teams together.
We will need a firm list of names by the Thursday evening of the 2 April, so that we can submit a list of attendees for gate security. If you have any parents, children or friends who wish to come on to the base and watch then please add them to your list. This list is just for security and so if in doubt as to their attendance put them on the list. It is much easier if they then don’t turn up than if they subsequently arrive and are not on the list.
