NOVEMBER 11
20.11.110 - Wellington AGM
We recently held our annual AGM which was well attended.
There were a few changes to the board and we would in particular like to thank Tim Wilson our outgoing treasurer for his work for Wellington Swords over the years.His effort and dedication has helped us enormously through some often turbulent times.
The new line up will be revealed on our pages shortly.If you were unable to attend the AGM please find a copy of the Chairmans report on the Commitee page.I have been promised some minutes too and will post them as and when I get a copy.
OCTOBER 11
07.10.11
A Wellington Swords team of Clarke, Gundry, Hay, Hughes, Denham, Parr, Townsend and Willson set off for the British Cadet and Junior Fencing Championships in Sheffield last weekend with high hopes of medals. All 3 top contenders dropped a fight in the poules which put them down the rankings going into the DE’s. This meant that they met the top seeds in their weapon ‘too soon’ and were knocked out in the last 8.
04.10.11
Wellington Swords Fencing Club were lucky enough to be one of the Waitrose Community Fund Recipients. The 'little green discs' provided a talking point for weeks amongst club members and friends - great competition to see who handed in the most each week! We wish to say a huge thank you to both the partners and shoppers at Waitrose for the £330.00 received by the club. It will be spent on new safety equipment and the club's school fencing programme.
01.10.11 - Local fencer selected for Team GB for Senior World Fencing Championships.
Jenny McGeever has been selected to represent GB at the Senior World Fencing Championships in Sicily next week. Jenny will compete in the Women’s epee individual and team events. At 19, Jenny will be the youngest team member. Her selection will give her the opportunity to experience the atmosphere and stresses of international fencing at this level.
Jenny first tried fencing at school at 9 years of age and hated it! She revisited fencing whilst doing Modern Pentathlon and discovered she really enjoyed the challenge of the sport. In 2006 she entered her first ‘serious’ fencing competition and has not looked back since. She moved to Wellington School for her sixth form years to be close to training facilities, club and coach, György Felletár.
Her selection to the GB team in her first year at Senior level is a testament to her determination and dedication. She received TASS (Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme) last year and had to move to a ‘hub’ university. The course she wished to read was at Royal Holloway, London but sadly there was no fencing coach. She spent last year travelling 3 hours three times a week to fencing at London clubs, then coming back to Somerset for weekend training and to fence with her club, Wellington Swords. This year she will be reading Sports and Geography at St Mary’s, London.
Coach György Felletár will already be at the World Championships as a GB referee for wheelchair fencing so will be able to support Jenny. Swords members and friends wish Jenny a good poules selection and every success.
JUNE 11
Match Report
25.06.11 - St Dunstan Open Foil and Epee Competition – Wellington Swords Storm Glastonbury !
Wellington Swords Fencing Club sent a strong team of individuals ranging in age from 10 to 60 to compete in the Dunstan Open Foil and Epee competition held in Glastonbury on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far.
First off in the Boys Age Groups at the Under 11years Foil and the Under 13 years were Alexander Griffiths and Thomas Nash who were entering one of their first competitions against a strong group from the local Glastonbury area. They fought well in the heat and came a creditable 10th and 6th place respectively. Naomi Fielder faced a strong challenge in the Under 11 girls but kept her nerve in the final nail -biting fights and eventually triumphed over a much more experienced group from Bath. She was awarded first place and presented with a handsome trophy – the first of many more to come.
By midday, the temperature had really soared and the Open All Age competition was soon underway with nine Wellington Fencers vying for top places. This meant up to 21 fights each in the epee competition and 18 fights each in the foil event. Fencers had come from as far away as the Isle of Man and Cardiff and also included Mike Hanney from the UK Paralympic Team , so the fights were fast and furious with different styles and speeds to contend with at every level. In the Epee, Wellington swept all before them with Ben Hodgson retaining his title from last year but with Chris Hay and Lawrence Burr tying on victories for 2nd and 3rd place. The father - daughter combo of Raoul and Bryony Wedge-Thomas took 6th and 12th place but with Bryony coming away with the prize for top lady epeeist, beating Toni Denham into 2nd place. Will Parr and Ben Judge fenced gallantly and were happy enough with their final placings of 8th and 14th in what was an extremely strong field. Lawrence Burr also took the first prize for the “best veteran”!
Our foilists were equally successful, especially since their additional lame clothing made fencing in the heat really uncomfortable. Jan Ondrej was never seriously challenged and came away a clear winner. Daniel Wilson, who has been really improving his blade work over the past year, fought impressively and took a highly commendable 3rd place.
In all, Wellington Swords came away with 8 of the major trophies and medals from the competition and are now looking forward to confirming their success in the forthcoming championships that start in September.
JANUARY 11
From the Somerset Gazette 07.01.11
Wellington Swords Fencer Chris Hay battled through the recent bad weather to compete in the prestigious Hereford and Worcester Open competition.
He was on good form and won all his poule fights to be made number one seed. This seeding gave him a bye into the last 64 of the direct elimination.
He had comfortable wins in the following three rounds and then met Greg Carty from Stockport in the last eight. This was a closely fought match but Chris’ patience paid off as he won 15/14.
He went on to beat Lesley McDonald of Bath Swords in the semi-final and then took control of the final to beat James Harris from Plymouth 15/11.
Chris was presented with the Cup, gold medal and a glass trophy and also won the trophy for the most successful Under-20 fencer
SEPTEMBER 10
Wellington Swords at The Worlds
Wellington Swords Fencing Club had more international success last month after earlier news that three members of their Club had been selected to fence for GB at the World Veterans Individual Championships in Croatia. Whilst the Commonwealth Games were taking place in Delhi, Wellington’s fencers were battling it out in the International Sports arena at Porec with opposition from over 32 other countries – a total of 660 fencers in all.
Lawrence Burr, the Chairman of the Club, was fencing in the over- 60 Men’s Epee and achieved a personal best being placed 12th overall having beaten a succession of high ranking epeeists from Russia, Spain, France, Holland and Sweden. Maggie Myers was also fighting in the over 60s Women’s Foil and Women’s Sabre where she fought with great energy and stormed to first place in the opening rounds and was unlucky not to reach the medal podium after losing by 3 hits to an American sabreur. Her final placing of 5th was still an impressive achievement in such a strong field.
Jim Pilkington – a great inspiration to every Veteran as he is still fencing at International level in his seventies – was selected to fence at all three weapons – foil, epee and sabre. Although never managing to reach a medal position, his unique style and great sportsmanship promoted him to 11th place in the foil and sabre final rankings.
This was a great result for the three fencers which now gives each of them a World ranking for next year’s Championships which are being held in Bulgaria. Their coaches, Cefi Felletar and Sue Benney, are delighted with their success and will be working to improve their results next year.
AUGUST 10
09.08.10 website updated.Summer training times added.National results link up.All quiet.
JULY
04.07.10 Bronze at the 2010 England Youth Championships
Jade Clarke produced the best Wellington result at the 2010 England Youth Fencing Championships. A bronze in the Girls U13 Foil. She fought well in the poules to finish seeded first. Unfortunately Stanner, the eventual winner, had a slow start which meant that the best fight of day occurred in the quarter finals rather than the final. Having taken an early lead, Clarke went out 6/10 to Stanner's greater experience. Jess Gundry at the younger end of the U15 age group had some excellent fights to finish 8th in the foil and 10th in Epee. Pentathlete William Parr finished 12th in the U15 Boys Epee, a good result for a pentathlete at a major fencing competition. Tom Brain, although not making the L16's, gained some valuable experience for next year when he will be at the older end of the U15 age group.
MAY 10
21.05.10 Somerset Gazette article :
"Wellington Swords congratulate their Head coach, György (George) Felletàr on winning the coveted Active Devon Performance Coach Award for 2010 against strong opposition from the sports of Karate, Netball and Athletics George is also fencing master at Wellington School.. His fencers currently hold 12 British titles and 3 are in the British Junior (U20) Fencing Team. All the current title holders live in or are at school in Devon. His support of two new coaches Ben Hodgson (Tiverton) and Nick Clapham (Exeter) was also recognised. George is also involved with the British Disabled Fencing Association coaching their Wheelchair fencers. This is a well deserved acknowledgement of his dedication to his fencers and the sport since his arrival from Hungary 8 years ago."
10.05.10 We are now on Facebook !
Wellington Swords Official Facebook Group has now been launched.Use this to discuss fencing and club matters as well as to keep updated of forthcoming events.
01/02.05.10 British Youth Championships.We had a strong contingent of Swords representing the South-West at the championships in Sheffield, and once again some very good results were achieved against the countries best youth, proving we remain amongst the best clubs in the UK at youth level.Full results are up on the results page and some pictures have been added to the photo page as well.
APRIL 10
29.04.10 Under 23 European Fencing Championships in Gdansk, Poland. Jenny McGeever was chosen to represent GB once again last week at the high profile Under 23 European Championships in Poland. Fresh from her hard work in Baku at the World Championships, she soon got into her stride fencing with speed and agility to dominate a strong first round pool and being placed 14th out of a field of 51 fencers from 26 nations. She then confidently saw off a resilient Roxana Lazar from Roumania 15 -13 and entered the last 16 as the highest placed Brit in the Championships. Her next fight was against the powerful Russian, Olga Kochneva, who gained an early lead and proved just too far ahead for Jenny to catch, losing the bout a highly creditable 15 – 7. Kuchneva went on to gain a podium Bronze. Well done to Jenny for a really excellent performance!
24.04.10 LPJS Warwick Epee. Jessica Gundry was Wellington’s only candidate in the U15 Women’s Epee for this tough competition and certainly showed real grit and determination in powering through the two seeding rounds to come out in 5th place for the DE. After overpowering Isabella Martin 15 – 8, she then only lost out to the older Charlotte Wardle by one hit in a thrilling quarter final match. Congratulations for achieving 5th place overall in a field of 24 fencers.
18.04.10 Elite Epee Senior Open held at City of London Freemans. Congratulations to Raoul Wedge Thomas for fencing very well to come a creditable 45th place in a strong field of 89 fencers.
01.04.10 Devon Sports Performance Coach 2010.Gyorgy Felletar has picked up another award for his mantlepiece at the Devon Sports Awards 2010, beating strong opposition from the sports of Karate, Netball and Athletics to scoop this years Sports Performance Coach Award.
The Devon Sports Awards not only honours the achievements within the sporting arena, but also recognises the dedication and commitment that often goes unnoticed of the many coaches, volunteers and officials involved in sport.
Whether it is coaching a future athlete for international and Olympic success, providing sessions for young people to enjoy or wading through seemingly endless club paperwork, it is the time and effort given by these volunteers across the county which makes all the difference.
Our club secretary Jane Browne attended the awards ceremony held at Paignton Zoo to pick up the award from england cricketer Caroline Atkins.For further coverage and photos from the event please see ...
The Devon Sports Awards 2010 Website
MARCH 10
29.03.10 Weekly website update complete.Invicta results added.Menus amended.SEO started.Links requested.Keyword density and MetaTags.Wellington Swords email addresses now available for Committee by request.
22.03.10 Weekly website update complete.Training times amended.SW Gallery added.Links updated.
22.03.10 South West Epee Fencing Championship 2010 photos have now been added.The gallery is available from both the front page and the photos page.Please let the webmaster know what you think of the design as it hasnt been finalised.
19.03.10 Public Schools Success.The results are just in from this weeks public schools fencing championships including several firsts and a team triumph for Wellington School in the Graham Langton Trophy for most improved results.See the results page for further details.
17.03.10 Southwest Senior Epee results now available on website.Beginners course sign up now open for April Courses.Please download a form and return to club secretary.
15.03.10 South West Champions.Well done to Chris Hay and Jenny McGeever on winning their respective South West Epee titles last Sunday.Many thanks must also go to all who participated and contributed to making the 2010 event another resounding success.
There was as usual a high standard of fencing throughout the day and some close fights which I'm sure will be remembered for some time.We here at Wellington Swords Fencing Club hope you had an enjoyable day and look forward to seeing you again next year.
14.03.10 Congratulations.Congratulations to our very own Jenny McGeever for her selection to represent Great Britain at the Junior Fencing World Championships in Baku in April 2010. She has also received additional sponsorship for this event from The Epee Club. Well done!
14.03.10 Public Schools Fencing Championships.A number of our club members are representing Wellington School and Exeter at the Public School Fencing Championships being held the week (16 – 18 Mar 10) at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre together with a posse of parents and club coaches.
We wish them all well!
14.03.10 New Pistes .The Club has now bought two further electric fencing pistes with the grant money awarded to us from the Somerset Community Foundation. These pistes were used at the Leon Paul Junior Series Epee and South West Regional Epee Championships held at Wellington over the past 6 weeks. This now means that we have five electric fencing pistes, two rubber pistes and 10 FIE/Updated Leon Paul/Allstar boxes for use on club nights and tournaments.
10.03.10 A Welsh Challenge ! The Club has received a challenge to a 3 Way match to be held in Wales (Wrekin) at the end of May. This will be all three weapons at cadet, Junior and senior level. Watch this space!
05.03.10 Website Update . Results and News will now be added as they occur.Dont forget to bookmark the site and tell your friends.
FEBRUARY
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