Brilliant bronze for Benedict

On a busy day for RTWFC at the combined Elite Epee / BRC Cadet event in Manchester on 5-6th November, Benedict Graham proved to be the club’s top gun, blasting to his first podium finish at national under-17 level.

Having won 9 of his 10 qualifying bouts, Benedict took out two quality top 20 fencers on his way to the semis, where eventual winner William Paice sneaked past him 15-13.

Meanwhile, team-mate Lloyd Osborne slipped on the banana skin that was Jack Zino in the last 64, losing 10-9 – having been 9-4 down with a minute left.

In the girls’ U14 event, Eilidh Paterson fenced well throughout but missed out on a medal by 1 point in a high-level quarter-final match-up, Andrea Ross performed splendidly to finish 7th, and Izzy D’Abbraccio battled hard despite facing a nightmare draw.

Eilidh and Andrea were also in action on day two of the event, where they came within a hair’s breadth of achieving their goals of a last 16 finish and a wodge of ranking points respectively at the British Cadet competition. Eilidh, 13, won 5 out of 10 poule bouts, got a bye into to the last 32, but then suffered an agonising 8-7 loss to Charlotte Jordan to pull her up just short of the last 16.
Andrea, 14, won 3 poule bouts then turned a 5-9 deficit into a thrilling 15-13 victory in the last 64, but a 15-8 defeat to 3rd seed Kira Grahamslaw left her just one place outside the big points.

Team-mate James Dunmall, 10, bagged a couple of poule wins in the concurrent Elite Epee U12 event, finishing in a very respectable 12th place.