James Dunmall won a superb silver medal at an EFC under 14 event in Zrenjanin, Serbia, on 10th May. The medal is Royal Tunbridge Wells Fencing Club’s first ever step onto an international podium.

The Serbian success strengthens James’s hold on second place in the British U14 rankings and all-but guarantees his selection to fence for GB at the European Fencing Festival in Istanbul in June – his main goal this season.

James made a strong start in Serbia, winning all of his poule bouts, then took out two Serbs and a Netherlander on his way to the final, where a Serb ref mysteriously disallowed five of James’s hits against his Serbian opponent.

Despite this questionable conclusion, James was delighted with his silver medal, and sees it as the product of all his hard work: “It is the achievement of all the hours put in training and attending fencing camps over the last few years,” he said. “I am thrilled that all this work got rewarded with a silver medal at an EFC U14 competition.”

James sees his semi-final victory as particularly satisfying: “I had to deliver very high standards of fencing against my opponent, who has won a few EFC U14 competitions himself. It was a very close game to the end.”

James’s silver adds to his impressive collection of medals this year, with gold at the Regional Championships, Elite Epee Junior Series and Leon Paul Junior Series golds, as well as silvers at both series and also a bronze at the British Youth Championships.

James Dunmall (pictured, above) and Timmy Yakovlev both won bronze medals on the final day of the British Youth Championships (BYCs) in Sheffield on 5th May to keep the club’s podium streak going strong at national level.

In the U14 event, James fought his way past lefties and pommellers then the British number one in the quarter finals before going down to the eventual winner in a semi-final see-saw bout.

Timmy started strongly in the under 12 event, and held firm in his quarter final to win 10-7. He promptly celebrated with a Premiership-worthy knee slide then a 60-metre dash shouting “Yessss!” and waving his arms frantically in the air. Despite a tight loss in the last four, Timmy smiled all the way to the podium.

Backing up these best of British performances on the final day of the BYCs, both Logan Brown in the U14 boys and Artemis Nakos in the U12 girls made the last 16, whilst Willa Raymond (U12), Lorenzo Rehman (U12) and Roy Ching (U14) reached the last 32.

The first two days of the BYCs featured plenty of tough draws and near misses – with Sasha Yakovlev unfortunate to be double-whammied by both in the U18 boys event. However, Daisy Beadsworth and Annabelle Lavin made the last 32, and Izzie D’Abbraccio dazzled with 5th place in the U16 girls, signalling a turn in RTWFC’s luck as the nail-biters then started to go our way on the final day.

Throughout the competition, our fencers fought as hard as they could and conducted themselves admirably, and BYC newcomers Willa, Elsa Brondbjerg, Miles Yiu and Hugo Claringbull all acquitted themselves well.

As ever, our pride of lions made us all proud to be part of Royal Tunbridge Wells Fencing Club.

Full results:

3rd James Dunmall (U14 Boys) (78 fencers)

3rd Timmy Yakovlev (U12 Boys) (45)

5th  Izzie D’Abbraccio (U16 Girls) (53)

13th Logan Brown (U14 Boys) (78)

14th Artemis Nakos (U12 Girls) (39)

17th Alec Hargreaves (U16 Boys (68)

23rd Willa Raymond (U12 Girls) (39)

23rd Daisy Beadsworth (U18 Girls) (36)

24th Annabelle Lavin (U18 Girls) (36)

28th Roy Ching (U14 Boys) (78)

28th Lorenzo Rehman (U12 Boys) (45)

37th Sasha Yakovlev (U18 Boys) (63)

40th Hugo Claringbull (U16 Boys) (68)

46th Elsa Brondbjerg (U16 Girls) (53)

52nd Miles Yiu (U14 Boys (78)

Sasha Yakovlev and Walter Cheung (pictured, above) took gold, James Dunmall won silver and Timmy Yakovlev scooped a bronze at the Elite Epee Junior Series in Surrey on 12th April.

Among the earliest starters, Sasha was in control throughout and scored an impressive victory in the Cadet Men’s Epee; teammate Rudi Madams gained invaluable experience and finished in 40th. Izzie D’Abbraccio and Hiba Rochdi very nearly medalled in the Women’s event, both quelled at the quarter-final stage, whilst Elsa Brondbjerg battled a diabolical draw to finish in 25th.

Next up, Walter won gold in the U10 event via a duo of dominant DE performances, and Timmy added an U12 bronze to his growing collection.

The last two under starters orders were James Dunmall and Logan Bown in the U14s. Both needed big comebacks to make it to the quarters, and duly delivered, where the former squeaked his way through against the latter 11-10, before another 11-10 win took James to the final and an eventual silver medal.

RTWFC’s very own Eilidh Paterson made a stellar start to her major championship career at the European Cadet Championships 2025 in Antalya, performing to a high standard in both individual and team events.

Eilidh made the cut in the individual event, on 24th February, even though she was in the same poule as European number one Linnea Eriksson and eventual silver-medalist Ludavica Costatini. Qualification for the direct eliminations (DEs) came down to her final poule bout, against Gryte Stoskute – a left hander from Lithuania.

“There was a small sense of doubt that I might not make it through to the DEs,” said the 16-year-old GCSE student. “However, due to prior training, I think I was able to suppress this thought and focus purely on the next fight ahead.”

It worked. Eilidh went on to win 5-1 and also took victory in her first knockout bout via a steely come-from-behind victory, then faced eventual champ Alina Dmytruk in the next round.

“I think something that was really key in Antalya was accepting that it was a hard competition as the concentration of good fencers is higher, yet they all competed in the same European Fencing Conferdation (EFC) Cadet competitions that I have – and every opponent is beatable.”

When fencing Ukraine’s Dmytruk in the last 64, Eilidh now realises that she temporarily lost this mindset: “In my last DE I went against this logic, and to start with I wasn’t very confident due to my opponent’s higher seeding, so I sat back. Yet, later on I discovered that if I had more confidence in pushing her more I was scoring those hits.”

Lesson learnt, in the team comp two days later Eilidh’s performance was peppered with many moments of brilliance, helping GB to two wins – over Belgium and Romania – and a final placing of 12th.

With one year still remaining as a Cadet, Eilidh has laid down a marker for next season, which she will start ranked in Europe’s top 60.

“For next season I would again like to qualify for both the Euros and Worlds and produce good performances using the experience I gained from last season.”

First, though, the British number one has to qualify via the EFC Cadet Circuit, where top 64 finishes are an initial benchmark of success – but having chalked up three top 64s last season, Eilidh is hoping for more.

“I hope to consistently place in the top 64 in the EFCs, with an aspirational goal of the top 16 – or higher.”

Possessing all of the attributes required of a top fencer, and certainly prepared to put in the hard work, Eilidh has every chance of pushing on from her exploits during the 2024-25 season and reaching even greater heights.

Image: Eilidh with Paul Beasley, RTWFC Head Coach, at the Cadet Euros in Antalya

On a busy weekend for the club’s fencers, with six of our most deadly U16s and U18s engaged elsewhere, the RTWFC team at the South East Regionals still absolutely smashed it – winning two golds, a silver and four bronzes to secure a full fistful of medals.

James Dunmall and Lorenzo Rehman (pictured) took gold in the U14 boys and U12 boys events respectively, while Artemis Nakos took silver in the U12 girls event, and Zach Bench (U18), Hiba Rochdi (U18) Logan Brown (U14) and Willa Raymond (U12) all went home with well-earned bronzes.

As well as seven of the team making the podium, six made the quarter finals and another two fencers qualified for the British Youth Championships in Sheffield in early May.

The results underlined Royal Tunbridge Wells Fencing Club’s status as the most successful epee club in the region for under 18s in recent years, and bodes well for the national finals in early May.

Results

1st James Dunmall, U14 Boys (Q)

1st Lorenzo Rehman, U12 Boys (Q)

2nd Artemis Nakos, U12 Girls (Q)

3rd Zach Bench, U18 Boys (Q)

3rd Hiba Rochdi, U18 Girls (Q)

3rd Logan Brown, U14 Boys (Q)

3rd Willa Raymond, U12 Girls (Q)

5th Alec Hargreaves, U16 Boys (Q)

6th Daisy Beadsworth, U18 Girls (Q)

6th Roy Ching, U14 Boys (Q)

6th Timmy Yakovlev, U12 Boys (Q)

8th Elsa Brondbjerg, U16 Girls (Q)

8th Adam Horan, U12 Boys (Q)

10th Laurie Briggs, U16 Boys (Q)

12th Miles Yiu, U14 Boys (Q)

15th Sylvie Davidson, U16 Girls

29th Rudi Madams, U16 Boys

It was a bitter sweet experience for the club’s six fencers in action for Britain in Novi Sad, Serbia, on 26th January, as five scored their best European results to date – but four were in their final U17 action on the continent, and two agonisingly missed out on Euro Champs selection by a whisker.

Eilidh Paterson led the way, placing an excellent 35th – her second top 64 finish of the season – which suggests she is in good form going into the European Cadet Championships in Turkey in February. Having secured a coveted British selection to the Euros in November with a gritty 80th place in Grenoble whilst wearing borrowed kit (hers was stolen), Eilidh then stepped back from competition to prepare for her GCSEs – but is rounding back into top form at just the right time.

It wasn’t just Eilidh having a good day, though: Hiba Rochdi made the knockouts for the first time courtesy of a stirring four-point comeback in her last poule bout, while Andrea Ross and Izzie D’Abbraccio made the last 64 for the first time with steely performances in tight bouts.

However, both narrowly missed out on the last 32 – results that would have seen both qualify for the World Championships in China in April. Compounding matters, this was Andrea’s last competition in the GB Cadet team before moving onto the Juniors – and Hiba, Sasha Yakovlev, Zach Bench and the injured Lloyd Osborne (who qualified for both the Euros and Worlds) are also ‘aging out’ too. So are some of our favourite travelling companions on the GB team – Emma Mitzova, Katy Hawthorne, Robin Silk and Charlie Lutyens-Humfreys, to name but four.

Still, if you are signing off, then sign off in style. That was Sasha’s approach, as he made the last 64 for the first time and finished in a fantastic 41st, whilst teammate Zach Bench finished in 133rd.

It won’t be every season that RTWFC has seven fencers selected for the British Cadet team – more than any other club in 2024-25 – but the next generation is beginning to come through, so hopefully Eilidh and Izzie will have some club team-mates for company in Europe next season.