Welcome to the November edition of the Newton Abbot & Totnes Fencing club newsletter.
Another very useful artice from our own fencing Master, Jan Lacey:-
‘The Use of the Stop-hit when fencing foil
The STOP-HIT is a counter offence action used against opponents who prepare their attacks with ONE OR MORE steps forward and/or delivers and attack in two or more periods of FENCING TIME.
THE STOP HIT to be valid must arrive before the opponent has started their LAST & FINAL ACTION.
CAUTION must be taken when using the STOP-HIT as an experienced fencer will be able to invite the STOP-HIT PARRY & make a RIPOSTE.
Jan Lacey, B.A.F. Newton Abbot Coach
Andy started fencing with Bath Sword Club in 1966 initially with foil then sabre. It was a very friendly and active competitive club with about 20 members. Lynne started in 1973 and we got married in1977. During the next 40 years we together with the rest of the committee built a highly respected and successful club.
We devoted many hours of our time looking after new fencers and running most of the junior and adult courses. Lynne with her teaching skills coached at many schools in Bath, sometimes as many as 8 or 9 per week.which fed more members into the Club.
Club membership grew to over 200 with the club employing 6 professional coaches and training was on 18 to 20 electrical boxes. We ran 24 competitions for club members each year. When Andy retired we formed a double act.
We taught hundreds of children over the years. We were very proud when some of them achieved excellent results in age group competitions and were selected to represent the Great Briton Squad. Two were on the “Olympic Pathway” elite squad training for London 2012 and another became World U20 Epee champion.Andy has been County and South West Captain and has achieved a range of results in Club, County, Section, National and International competition:
14
times Somerset county champion
7 times South West Master at Arms
2 times Great Britain Veterans Master at Arms
1971 Gold at British Polytechnic Championships
1978 Winner of the National Coaches Trophy
1981 Awarded “Tudor Rose” for representing England in Rest of Britains
matches
1985 Awarded England Colours by fencing in the quadrangular.
1990 Winner of the South West sabre championships.
1990 Ranked No: 11 on the National Sabre Rankings.
2000 Winner of the Ridley Martin trophy – ( National)
In 2001 We were both awarded Bronze medals by British Fencing Association for services to fencing.
In Veteran International Events Andy has taken part in three Commonwealth, three European Team , ten European Individual Championships and eleven World Championships! Best result was a Bronze medal in Veteran World Championships in front of a home crowd at Bath in 2006! Also won a Team Silver medal in World Championships in Stralsund, Germany in 2016.
Lynne has represented Great Britain in eight Veteran European Individual Championships best result being winning the Womens Sabre event in Cologne in2001 also in eight Veteran European Team Events at both Epee and Sabre winning one Gold, three Silver and two Bronze medals. Also in three Veteran Commonwealth Championships coming home with six Individual and Team Medals from Toronto!She has also fenced in nine Veteran World Championships best result was a Bronze medal for Sabre in Tampa, Florida in 2005.
In 2014 we moved to Devon to see our grandchildren grow up where we are now members of Newton Abbot Fencing clubCan a say a very big thank you to one our newest members, Chris Empson, who has only been fencing for under 3 months and has managed to secure sponsorship for our club for the value of £250. A very big thank you Chris, you’re a true valued member of our club.
Ps Don’t forget about ‘The Dart team of 2’ at Totnes Pavillions on Sunday 24th November