Fencers show their mettle at Nationals

6th May, 2011

Seven Packwood pupils travelled to Sheffield over the Royal Wedding weekend to take part in the British Youth Fencing Championships.

Representing their school and the West Midlands region they joined 1,076 fellow competitors from around the country at the Sheffield Institute of Sport. Despite the size of the venue (36 pistes, treble our sports hall!), the flags (Welsh, Scots, Northern Irish and scariest of all ...Cornish!) and the noise (at this level every hit is worth a huge cheer) the Packwood team (and two Old Packwoodians) kept their composure and produced some of the best results that we have ever achieved.

There aren’t many schools who qualify more than one fencer for ‘The Nationals’ let alone seven so it was a fantastic achievement by all of them to get this far. Well done to Under 12s Antonia Barlow-Evans, Issy Wythe, Scott Walker and Jessie Hunt and special mention to our three Under 14s, all of whom competed in the largest age group at the Championships and have all now been awarded their Packwood fencing colours:

Charlotte Dixon, our first ever female sabreur (the cavalry slash-y weapon) who finished in 24th place.
Edward Stanton who qualified in both Epee (32nd) and Sabre (39th) – he now wants to try Foil as well!
Fran Hughes who finished 10th and so became Packwood’s first ever Under 14 ‘top-ten’ ranked fencer.