Competitions coming up

For those of you looking for the next competition, or perhaps your first, there are two coming up shortly which you might want to enter. Both are team competitions.

The first is the Southern Region Mixed Age Group Team Competition on Sunday 30th November 2014. Places are limited so we will need entries in soon. The venue for this is Wellington Health & Fitness Club, Wellington College Dukes Ride, Crowthorn, Berkshire, RG45 7PT. There will be both U14 (anyone born in 2001, 2002, 2003 or 2004) and U18 (born in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000or 2001) categories(NB those born in 2001 can fence in an U14 or U18 team if they wish. This is a mixed gender competition, so teams including boys and girls are encouraged. Single gender teams will be accepted. Teams are of three or four (three plus one reserve). We will enter more than one team if we can. The closing date is 10pm on Fri 21 November and the entry fee is £9 each.

The second is the Bucks, Berks & Oxfordshire Foil Rally on Sunday 7th December 2014. (This is a fun event where fencers often decorate their kit with tinsel and similar Christmas decorations and come up with a silly Christmas-themed team name.) It will be held at the Sports Hall, Moulsford Preparatory School, Moulsford-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, OX10 9HR. The only rule about teams for this one that you need to know is that all team members must be born on or after 1st Sept 1996 (ie, be under 18 on 31st August 2014). Again, it’s teams of three (plus reserve if we want) and we can enter more than one team. The closing date is Wednesday 3rd December and the entry fee is £8 each.

In both cases, there is a limit on the number of teams that can enter the competition overall, which means that we should get our entries in as early as possible. Because it’s a team event, we need to do a single team entry for each team we enter. James Kingston will coordinate entries; club members will need to tell him if they want to take part.

In order to enter, let James know that you want to enter (and which event) and tell him your date of birth and British Fencing Membership Number. If you’d like to enter and you don’t have a BF membership number, let him know and he'll tell you how to go about getting one.

New term starts 18th September

The new fencing term starts on Thursday 18^th September, at Thame Leisure Centre as normal – 6pm for 7-11s, 7pm for 11s and up. (Normal sessions for 11s and above will start at 6.45; it’s just 7pm for the first week of term.)

As a courtesy to other members please have your club membership fees ready for the start of the session. This means that we can process these quickly and not waste anyone's time. Fees are the same as last term (and are as shown on the fees page.

A reminder for existing members (and new members please note) you should wear loose-fitting comfortable clothes, ideally tracksuit trousers or similar (not shorts) and trainers (not crocs). You may want to bring a bottle of water with you. No food in the sports hall please.

Also, those fencers who have had two terms’ continuous membership (ie. were members in the Spring and Summer terms) and who did not receive a voucher last term will be eligible for a £10 kit voucher this term – we will send those out direct to eligible members.

Term dates for this term are on the When And Where page.

Summer fencing sessions 2014

this Thursday 31 July it's the first of our Summer fencing sessions at Thame Leisure Centre (as normal). We will be starting at 6pm, the same start time as for the 7-11 year olds group. Our summer sessions are unstructured, ‘turn up and fence’ evenings (so older fencers can arrive at 6 pm if they wish), with no formal sessions, but I’ll be around all evening if anyone wants any assistance. New/prospective members are welcome so use the summer sessions to try us out for free before joining in September. The summer sessions are free! The other summer fencing session is on Thursday 28th August. We look forward to seeing you there!