Representing Scotland, RTWFC’s Eilidh Paterson, 15, returned from the Youth Commonwealth Games in New Zealand in July with an impressive personal medal tally of three medals – and 16-year-old team-mate Andrea Ross bagged a brace.

Eilidh completed her set with a bronze in the Junior (U20) team epee event alongside Andrea, but it was securing the other two medals that proved to be the most eyebrow-raising.

Medal number two was won in the Junior individual event, where Eilidh was up to five years younger than some of her opponents. She scored four wins in the poules, then clocked up two 15-8 wins then an excellent 15-12 victory in the quarters against an in-form fencer to secure her medal.

But it was in the Cadet (U17) team event that Eilidh engineered one of the great fencing comebacks. With her team – which included Andrea – trailing 40-31 going into the final leg of the quarter final against a strong Australian trio, Eilidh lit the blue touch paper to rocket back to 43-43 by the end of regulation time. Cue a priority minute, then cue pandemonium as Eilidh scored the final hit and the whole Scottish team went into orbit somewhere over the city of Christchurch.

Commenting on Instagram, Eilidh reflected on her Commonwealth experience as follows: “The comeback, not only in the team event, but from the shaky start in the poules, was nerve-wracking but definitely worth it for the reward. I’m extremely happy with my results.”

Eilidh’s fireworks have earned her a new nickname: ‘The Comeback Queen’. Fittingly, Eilidh then came to Britain and two days later won a bronze medal at an under-17 British Ranking Competition in Cardiff. This secured her selection for the British team travelling to Hungary in October for the European Cadet Circuit event, which is the first step on the journey to World Championship selection – one of Eilidh’s next big goals.

Lloyd Osborne spearheaded a strong club performance at the British Yourh Championship in early May by winning the under-16 British title. RTWFC’s fencers also picked up two bronzes and two ‘extended podium’ places over three days of competition as the club underlined its status as one of the strongest youth epee fencing clubs in the country.

Lloyd, having finished as runner-up in the U14 age group two years ago, was determined to take his chance and go one step further this time. Following a strong start in the poules and a comfortable first two knockout rounds, Lloyd then had to dig deep to keep progressing. In the quarter-final, his opponent started like a whirlwind, leaving Lloyd to claw his way back from 2-7 down for a thrilling 15-14 win, while in the semi-final Lloyd had to quell a classic comeback to again score a one-point victory. Phew! In the final, ‘Lord Airborne’ fenced immaculately to score a 15-12 win over the top seed. Lloyd then climbed to the top step of the medal rostrum with his customary podium poker face.

Competing on the same day, Eilidh Paterson, 14, bagged a brilliant bronze in the U16 girls event, having turned a 10-12 deficit into a 15-13 win in a high-quality quarter, while on the final day 10-year-old Artemis Nakos took bronze in the U12 event. Add to this our quarter-finalists Izzie D’Abbraccio and Miles Raymond, and a slew of strong performances from the rest of the team, and the BYCs 2024 were RTWFC’s best national youth results to date.

RTWFC’s fencers put in a great performance at the South East Regional Championships in Burgess Hill (4th February 2024) for the second year in succession. A whopping 19 of our 22 entrants – a club record – qualified for the British Youth Championships in Sheffield in May, the club’s royal blue adorned six of the eight podiums, and Eilidh Paterson was crowned U16 girls champion after fabulously holding firm in a nail-biter of a final. Huge congratulations to Eilidh, and fist bumps to all of our fencers for their character, camaraderie and competitive spirit.

Final places:
1st Eilidh Paterson (Q) – U16 Girls
3rd Lloyd Osborne (Q) – U16 Boys
3rd Benedict Graham (Q) – U18 Boys
3rd Alec Hargreaves (Q) – U14 Boys
3rd Hannah Taylor (Q) – U18 Girls
3rd Artemis Nakos (Q) – U12 Girls
5th Annabelle Lavin (Q) – U18 Girls
7th Andrea Ross (Q) – U16 Girls
7th Miles Yiu (Q) – U12 Boys
7th Joanna Szarowicz (Q) – U18 Girls
8th Izzie D’Abbraccio (Q) – U16 Girls
9th Zach Bench (Q) – U16 Boys
9th Hiba Rochdi (Q) – U16 Girls
9th Timofey Yakovlev (Q) – U12 Boys
10th Roy Ching (Q) – U14 Boys
10th Lorenzo Rehman (Q) – U12 Boys
11th Daisy Beadsworth (Q) – U16 Girls
12th Laurie Briggs (Q) – U16 Boys
12th James Dunmall (Q) – U14 Boys
21st Logan Brown – U14 Boys
25th Thomas Lavin – U14 Boys
38th Aubrey Cassleton-Elliott – U16 Boys

RTWFC’s Cadets (U17) have had another successful season of domestic ranking competitions, with two fencers embedded in the top 10 of the British rankings, another in the top 20, and five more who’ve put themselves in with the chance of climbing into the top 20 next season.

Building on the success of the 2022-23 season, when Benedict Graham and Lloyd Osborne were ranked in the top 15 and the former won a bronze medal at a British Ranking Competition (BRC), this season Lloyd and Eilidh Paterson have maintained top 10 rankings throughout the season, with both reaching the quarter-finals of the National Championships. Our dynamic duo have also added to their medal collections this season: Lloyd has bagged one BRC bronze (Manchester) and Eilidh two (Rickmansworth and Hendon).

At the close of the 2023-24 domestic Cadet ranking season, our fencers are ranked as follows:

Girls:

6th Eilidh Paterson (10,575 points)

19th Andrea Ross (5,534)

22nd Izzie D’Abbraccio (4,994)

32nd Daisy Beadsworth (3,403)

33rd Hiba Rochdi (3,280)

34th Annabelle Lavin (2,889)

53rd Hannah Taylor (656)*

(*didn’t do half of the ranking comps)

Boys:

8th Lloyd Osborne (12,097)

40th Zach Bench (2,768)

75th Alec Hargreaves (652)*

(*not yet a Cadet; only did one BRC)

Last season, our competitively active Cadets finished in 16th, 21st, 26th and 29th position, so the club’s march up the rankings this time around has been impressive.

All of our Cadets have benefitted from training with our Junior (U20) fencers – Benedict, Miles Raymond, Will Briggs and Matthew Gathern – this, and the training camp in Budapest, has really served to sharpen everyone up.

To pick just two examples of how well our fencers have progressed this year, Andrea was beaten 15-9 in the U16 final of the Regional Championships in February: at the Cadet BRC in London on 2nd December, Andrea fenced the same opponent – and won 15-4! In May, Eilidh was bested in the British Youth Championship U14 final by a score of 15-12: at the Cadet BRC in London, she beat the same adversary by a score of 15-7!

Eilidh and Lloyd have also been selected to fence for Britain on the European Cadet Circuit four times already this season, and Andrea Ross once. Lloyd reached the last 64 of the event in Klagenfurt, Austria – his 54th place comfortably beating the previous club record European finish of 109th set by Benedict in 2022-23. This result means that Lloyd is part-qualified for the Cadet World Championships in April 2024, but has his sights set on the Worlds next season instead. “Ive achieved what I wanted for the year, next year I’ll fence even better,” Lloyd commented. He will now decline his GB selections for the rest of this season to focus on his GCSEs. Smart, Lloyd!

For Eilidh, though, this season continues with the Euro Cadet event in Bratislava in January, then Krakow in February. “I’m looking forward to continuing my journey and gaining more experience whilst having fun along the way”, said Eilidh.

Looking ahead
Next season, when the current final-year Cadets have moved into the Juniors, everyone else will move significantly up the Cadet rankings.

Assuming that the rankings stay more-or-less the same through until the end of the international season in April, and that British Fencing won’t tinker with the selection system in the meantime, we can guesstimate in what ranking positions our continuing Cadet fencers will start the 2024-25 season by doing the following:

• Removing the final-year Cadets (born 2007) from the projected rankings;
• Factoring in the 35% carry-over of this season’s points to next season; and
• Predicting which fencers with an U14 transition bonus for making the podium at the British Youth Championships (BYCs) in April/May 2024 could leapfrog their way up the rankings.

With this in mind, the positions will be:

GIRLS:

2nd Eilidh (3,701 points)

11th Andrea (1,936)

14th Izzie (1,749)

24th-26th Daisy (1,191)

25th-27th Hiba (1,148)

BOYS:

3rd Lloyd (4,233)

23rd-26th Zach (968)

45th-48th Alec (228)

In fact, Alec’s number of ranking points at the start of next season could be as high as 1,500 if he wins the BYC U14 title in 2024, and his Cadet ranking could be as high as 20th as a result of this ‘transition bonus’.

Incredibly, RTWFC has a shot at making up about 20% of the British Euro Cadet Circuit team for the first EFC U17 event of next season (that’s assuming British Fencing selects 20 fencers like it did this season)! Lloyd and Eilidh are in strong positions, and just with carry-over alone will be selected for the first Euro Cadet Circuit comp of 2024-25, and Andrea and Izzie are well positioned too.

Whether it’s Alec in his first year as a Cadet, Eilidh and Izzie in their middle year, or Lloyd, Andrea and co in their final year, it’ll be onwards and upwards for RTW’s fantastic Cadet fencers next season.

With the 2023-24 domestic Cadet (U17) ranking season finished, and with last season’s carry-over points removed (and other nationalities in the rankings taken out of the equation), we now know where our fencers are ranked based solely on their performances in the British Ranking Competitions (BRCs) this season. A roll on the drums, please…

GIRLS:

6th Eilidh Paterson (10,575 points)

19th Andrea Ross (5,534)

22nd Izzie D’Abbraccio (4,994)

32nd Daisy Beadsworth (3,403)

33rd Hiba Rochdi (3,280)

34th Annabelle Lavin (2,889)

53rd Hannah Taylor (656)*

* Didn’t do half of the ranking comps

BOYS:

8th Lloyd Osborne (12,097)

40th Zach Bench (2,768)

75th Alec Hargreaves (652)

These rankings could change a bit before the end of the international season due to European Fencing Confederation (EFC) U17 events in Copenhagen, Bratislava, Belgrade and Krakow, as well as the European & World Champs. However, as it’s only the top 14 fencers in action in Copenhagen and Bratislava – which are ‘Nominated’ by British Fencing and therefore score 5-7 times more ranking points than the other two comps – the resulting changes will be limited to a potential reshuffle at the top of the tree. It’s worth noting, though, that BF has designated Belgrade and Krakow as ‘Development’ competitions, which means that any Cadet in the top 40 can apply for entry, so there could be the odd sneaky leapfrog going on from fencers outside the top 14.

Starter’s orders

Assuming the rankings stay more-or-less the same, and that British Fencing won’t tinker with the selection system in the meantime, we can guesstimate in what ranking positions our continuing Cadet fencers will start the 2024-25 season by doing the following:

• Removing the final-year Cadets (born 2007) from the projected rankings;
• Factoring in the 35% carry-over of this season’s points to next season; and
• Predicting which fencers with an U14 transition bonus for making the podium at the British Youth Championships (BYCs) in April/May 2024 could leapfrog their way up the rankings.

With this in mind, the guesstimated positions are:

GIRLS:

2nd Eilidh (3,701)

11th Andrea (1,936)

14th Izzie (1,749)

24th-26th Daisy (1,191)

25th-27th Hiba (1,148)

BOYS:

3rd Lloyd (4,233)

23rd-26th Zach (968)

45th-48th Alec (228)*

* Could be as high as 1,500 if he wins the BYC U14 title, and his ranking could be as high as 20th.

Looking ahead

Incredibly, RTWFC has a shot at making up about 20% of the British Euro Cadet Circuit team for the first EFC U17 event of next season (that’s assuming BF selects 20 fencers like it did this season)! But how does one get on this team?

Lloyd and Eilidh are in strong positions, and just with carry-over alone will be selected for the first Euro Cadet Circuit comp of 2024-25. This season, at the first selection point, the 20th fencer in the rankings had around 2,200 points (Girls) and 2,800 points (Boys). So, how does one accumulate these points?

The BRCs are either the National Championships or A or B grades, which have multipliers of 200, 175 and 100 respectively. If you finish 1st at the Cadet Nationals it scores 4,000 points (the ‘final position multiplication factor’ for 1st is 20, so it’s 20 x 200 points); 3rd is about 2,800; 8th 2,200; 16th 1,500; 32nd 1,100, and so on. The A grades score a slightly lower amount and B grades score only half of these points. Note that you have to finish in the top 80% to score more than 1 point at a BRC, and only your top 6 finishes count towards your ranking points total.

With two B grades usually held before the first selection point in the season (typically, this is early September), and top 32 finishes in both, our fencers can add 1,200 points to their total, while two last 16s will add 1,800. If you start the season with carry-over of about 1,000, two top 16 finishes should be enough to secure selection for the first Euro Cadet event of the season (again, assuming that BF selects 20 male and 20 female fencers). The Cadet National Champs, with its chance to add as many points in one go as two B grades put together, is usually held in September. You may need to make the best of this potential points bonanza, though, because BF might only select the top 14 in the rankings after the Nationals for the second EFC U17 event of the season. The points difference between 20th and 14th can be as much as 2,000, so if you start the season outside the top 20, you may well need three last-16 finishes in a row to make inroads into the top 20.

In this respect, it is crucial that you beat your closest rivals when you fence them – especially in direct elimination bouts, because if you knock them out you’ll score more points than them and can either overtake them in the rankings (if they’re ahead) or stay ahead of them (if they’re behind).

It’s in Europe at the comps that BF nominates for selection that you can really start racking up the points: finishing 64th will score about 3,500 points, and winning will score 20,000 points or more. Wowser! We’ll cover the European Circuit in more detail, and how to qualify for the Euro & World Champs, in another article.

RTWFC’s young fencers have made a strong start to the 2023-24 season, winning medals and securing British selections

Following a fantastic 2022-23 season, which was capped by four fencers being selected to represent Britain on the European cadet circuit on numerous occasions, a silver at the British Youth Championships, a bronze at the England Youth Championships, and a slew of medals in the Elite Epee and LPJS, the team has picked up where it left off.

In the first domestic cadet (U17) ranking competition of the season, both Eilidh Paterson and Lloyd Osborne reached the quarter-finals, and backed that up with similarly strong performances in the second event. These two performance were more than enough to secure Eilidh and Lloyd to selection for the British U17 team travelling to Budapest in October. Fellow RTWFC cadet Andrea Ross only just missed out on selection, whilst Annabelle Lavin, Izzie D’Abbraccio and Zach Bench all rocketed up the rankings.

Following a week-long summer training camp at the famous Vasas Fencing Club in Budapest, which is home to the current men’s world epee champion (pictured, above, with the team), our 12-strong squad is ready for the continuation of the domestic ranking quest at the Cadet & Junior National Championships in Nottingham on 16-17th September.

Two of the squad – Izzie D’Abbraccio and Daisy Beadsworth – travelled to the Elite Epee Junior Series in Moulton on 9th September to tune up for the Nationals, and both came home with bronzes. Team-mate Timofey Yakovlev went one better at the same event, finishing second in the U10 boys comp.

All in all, Team RTWFC is in better shape than ever to build on its flying start and go from strength to strength this season.

A fantastic 14 of RTWFC’s regional qualifiers ventured to the British Youth Championships in Sheffield on the early May Bank Holiday weekend, and they all showed their mettle once again

Day 1
BOYS OF STEEL

The Royal Blue Army’s first wave rolled into Sheffield for the British Youth Championships 2023, and it certainly made an impact.

First up was Alec Hargreaves in the U14 Boys Epee. Once he’d shaken off his customary slow start, Alec notched up three wins and three losses in the poules and got a bye into a last 32, where he got whacked on the hand and subsequently struggled on to a 10-15 loss. Alec, though, demonstrated exemplary sportsmanship with the score at 8-all when admitting that he’d actually hit himself in the foot and not his opponent. Well done, Alec – you showed great character.

In the afternoon, our trio of U12 Boys lunged into action. James Dunmall and Roy Ching (V4 L1 in the poules) and Dean Gigg (V3 L2) all got a bye into the last 32, and progressed smoothly through to the last 16. Roy then knocked out James 10-5 and Dean took out number 2 seed Winston Fung 10-8. In the quarters, Roy fenced the eventual winner Leo Varkey and Dean the runner-up, but both boys proudly took their place on the podium to receive their quarter-finalist medals. Boom!

Final Positions:

U12 Boys (43 fencers)

6th Roy Ching

8th Dean Gigg

11th James Dunmall

U14 Boys (66)

42nd Alec Hargreaves

Day 2
SEVEN SAMURAI

The middle day of the BYCs saw the Royal Blue Army’s seven under-16 qualifiers in action.

Lloyd Osborne and Zach Bench fought hard in the morning, with Zach going down in priority in the first knockout round. Lloyd – V4 L1 in the poules – won his L64 bout 14-6 and a high-quality L32 match against lefty Jack Murray 15-11, but in the L16 Brandon Jack proved too tricky with his back-of-the-piste defiance, meaning Lloyd finished up in 13th place.

Both Lloyd and Zach have another year in the U16 age group, as do Hiba Rochdi, Andrea Ross and Daisy Beadsworth, who all fenced well. Daisy got squeezed out 15-14 in the 64, and Hiba and Andrea went out in the L32 – the latter competing evenly with British no 6 Reya Farlam before the latter pulled away in the final period.

RTWFC’s two U16 ‘elder stateswomen’ also made it into the L32. Hannah Taylor and Annabelle Lavin both powered through their L64 bouts before Annabelle ran into the excellent Emma Mitzova and Hannah got pipped by the awkward Jessica Spoulton 15-14.

Once again, our U16 samurais proved to be a credit to the club with their skills on the piste and their camaraderie off it.

Final Positions:

U16 Boys (69 fencers)

13th Lloyd Osborne

T68th Zach Bench

U16 Girls (55)

18th Hannah Taylor

20th Hiba Rochdi

25th Andrea Ross

27th Annabelle Lavin

35th Daisy Beadsworth

Day 3
FINAL FLOURISH

On the third and final day, three of our most accomplished Lions entered the fray – but could they deliver a big finish…

First up, Benedict Graham and Miles Raymond were in action in the U18 Boys event. Following three wins for the former and one for the latter in the poules, Benedict then beat Ka Him Cheung 15-6 in the last 64 and Miles rallied brilliantly to beat 17th seed Lucas McKerr 15-11. In the 32, Milies lost out to 16th seed Harrison Blumfield 15-10 and Benedict nearly overturned a 5-1 deficit but was edged out 15-14 by 11th seed Bence Botond Farago. Ouch!

Both boys then stayed around to cheer on Eilidh Paterson in the poules of the U14 Girls competition. Eilidh duly chalked up six wins and an indicator of +23 to finish tied for 1st seed with Izzy Howser. Our lionness then continued her dominance in the DE rounds, winning 15-3, 15-4, 15-9 and 15-9 to reach the final against Howser, who’d progressed in equally dominant style. In a high quality match, Eilidh came from 6-3 down to even the score at 10-10 with some scintillating swordplay, but Howser’s great timing then enabled her to secure the win 15-12. So it was a superb silver for Eilidh – and a thrilling three days for RTWFC’s fiercely competitive but fantastically friendly lions. We salute you, one and all!

Final positions

U18 Boys

21st Benedict Graham

32nd Miles Raymond

U14 Girls

🥈 Eilidh Paterson

RTWFC’s fantastic fencers bagged a hat-trick of medals at the Elite Epee Junior Series in Ashtead today, with Eilidh Paterson, James Dunmall and Lorenzo Rehman bringing home the bling.

Having faced the poule from hell and emerged as third seed, Eilidh found top gear in the knockouts – winning 15-3, 15-6 and 15-8 to reach the U14 Girls final, where she brilliantly pulled away from Lea Panyandee-Cappelli to win 15-11.

Earlier in the day, fast-improving James won five of his seven poule bouts and a quarter-final before falling 6-5 to eventual U12 Boys winner Winston Fung.

Closing the show, Lorenzo won an incredible eight out of nine poule bouts in the U10 Boys event then a quarter-final 10-7 before losing 10-9 in the semi-final to a boy whose constant tearful ‘injury’ breaks influenced the result.

On a day of strong performances by RTWFC, honourable mentions go to Izzie D’Abbraccio – who missed out on a medal by a single point – as well as Hiba Rochdi, Odin Cheung and Annabelle Lavin, who also lost narrowly at the quarter-final stage.

Big back-pats go to Timofey Yakovlev, Willa Raymond, Elsa Brondbjerg, Gabriel Lam and Zach Bench for their fine fencing and steadfastly supporting each other to the hilt.

Results:

🥇 Eilildh Paterson, U14 Girls
🥉 James Dunmall, U12 Boys
🥉 Lorenzo Rehman, U10 Boys
5th Hiba Rochdi, U17 Girls
6th Odin Cheung, U10 Boys
7th Annabelle Lavin, U17 Girls
8th Daisy Beadsworth, U17 Girls
8th Izzie D’Abbraccio, U14 Girls
9th Timofey Yakovlev, U10 Boys
9th Willa Raymond, U10 Girls
10th Elsa Brondbjerg, U14 Girls
20th Gabriel Lam, U14 Boys
30th Zach Bench, U17 Boys

A total of 56 fencers from three schools and RTWFC participated in the first TWIST competition of the year, and all fenced in a friendly spirit whilst battling hard for every single point. The full results are below.

U10 Mixed (pictured)

1.Timofey Yakovlev (RTWFC)

2.Odin Cheung (RTWFC)

3.Willa Raymond (RTWFC)

3.Amie Bruce (Brambletye)

5.Freddy da Silva (Brambletye)

U10 Girls

1.Willa Raymond (RTWFC)

2.Amie Bruce (Brambletye)

U12 Boys

1.Dean Gigg (RTWFC)

2.Roy Ching (Brambletye)

3.James Dunmall (RTWFC)

3.Miles Yiu (RTWFC)

5.Andrew Watt (Brighton College Prep)

6.George Stenhouse (Brambletye)

7.Carter West (Brambletye)

8.Gabriel Kempston (RTWFC)

9.Teo Bailey (St Andrews Prep)

10.Dan Lupa (Brighton College Prep)

11.Edward Tarrant (Brighton College Prep)

12.Carter Robinson (Brighton College Prep)

U14 Mixed

1.James Dunmall (RTWFC)

2.Dean Gigg (RTWFC)

3.Alec Hargreaves (RTWFC)

3.Rudi Madams (RTWFC)

5.Harry Gigg (RTWFC)

6.Elsa Brondbjerg (RTWFC)

7.Alfred John (Brighton College Prep)

8.Jack Knight (RTWFC)

9.Gabriel Lam (RTWFC)

10.Max Kitkat (RTWFC)

11.George Downey (RTWFC)

12.Alex Ashkinin (Brighton College Prep)

13.Taryn Peyton (Brighton College Prep)

14.Thomas Lavin (RTWFC)

15.Matthew Murray (St Andrew’s Prep)

16.Alex Pelluet (Brighton College Prep)

17.Kacey Au (Brighton College Prep)

U14 Girls

1.Elsa Brondbjerg (RTWFC)

2.Taryn Peyton (Brighton College Prep)

U14 Team

1.Harry Gigg, Laurie Briggs

2.Gabriel Lam, Alec Hargreaves, Max Kitkat

U16 Boys

1.Zach Bench (RTWFC)

2.Sai Maadhav Jayachandra Babu (RTWFC)

3.Aubrey Cassleton Elliott (RTWFC)

U16 Girls

1.Hiba Rochdi (RTWFC)

2.Andrea Ross (RTWFC)

3.Katy Bentham (RTWFC)

3Annabelle Lavin (RTWFC)

5.Daisy Beadsworth (RTWFC)

6.Karlie Yim (Brighton College)

U19 Boys

1.Benedict Graham (RTWFC)

2.Matthew Gathern (RTWFC)

3.William Briggs (RTWFC)

3.Leon Croxford (Brighton College)

5.Callum Hickman (Brighton College)

6.Bryan Chan (Brighton College)

7.Cosmo Calesini (Brighton College)

U19 Girls

1.Victoria Piong (Brighton College)

2.Joanna Szarowicz (RTWFC)

3.Sarah Gu (Brighton College)

3.Phoebe Duckworth (RTWFC)

5.Sasha Cook (RTWFC)

6.Eugenie Ho (Brighton College)

A 22-strong RTWFC team put in a record performance for the club at the South East Regional Championships in Burgess Hill on 5th February, with 11 medals and 16 qualifiers for the British Youth Championships in Sheffield later this year.

Serial medallists Benedict Graham, Lloyd Osborne, Eilidh Paterson and Izzie D’Abbraccio once again strode proudly onto the podium, but another seven club-mates joined them as RTWFC’s team spirit proved to be both infectious and inspiring.

The U12 boys got the medal mayhem underway, with all three lions – Dean Gigg, James Dunmall and Roy Ching – making it onto the podium; silver-medallist Dean just missed out on gold by one agonising point.

Club big gun Benedict Graham also fell just one short of bagging gold in U18 boys final, losing to fellow GB fencer George Hills 15-14 in a high-quality final; GB team-mate Miles Raymond took bronze, having superbly knocked out GB cadet Oliver Barlow in the quarter-final. Lloyd Osborne, RTWFC’s other ‘GB boy’, took a hard-earned silver in the U16 boys event.

In the girls U16 category, the royal blue takeover of the podium continued, with Andrea Ross finishing 2nd, and Hannah Taylor and Annabelle Lavin sharing 3rd place. Team-mates Hiba Rochdi and Daisy Beadsworth, in 5th and 10th respectively, also qualified for the BYCs, making it an incredible five out of five qualifiers for RTWFC in this age group.

The club’s superstar U14 girls got their feet on the podium too, Eilidh Paterson and Izzie D’Abbraccio securing silver and bronze respectively – having demonstrated their vast potential once again.

Seraphine Mathew (5th, U12 girls), Alec Hargreaves (9th, U14 boys) and Zach Bench (13th, U16 boys) also performed strongly and bagged themselves BYC berths as well.

Gabriel Lam, Laurie Briggs, an injured Sergey Khlemanov, and debutants Harry Gigg, Aubrey Cassleton Elliott and Joanna Szarowicz all scored victories, conducted themselves admirably and will come back stronger next time.

Commenting on the club’s success, chairman Martin Briggs said: “A few years ago we were barely on the map at the competitions but now we have a vibrant, competitive and friendly youth squad. Every time we go out we get closer and closer to the gold medal positions.”

Although RTWFC didn’t win a gold this time, last year’s regional ‘cup haul’ of four – one gold, one silver and two bronzes – was almost tripled this time to 11, and qualifiers more than doubled from 7 to 16. Kings Canterbury, which has three full-time coaches and an extensive fencing programme, topped the medal table with four golds, but overall scooped eight medals with a team of 42 fencers (one medal for every five entries); no other team won more than two medals. Nineteen Kings fencers – 45 per cent of their team – qualified for Sheffield, compared to 73 per cent for RTWFC, for which – incredibly – one out of every two entries won a medal.

Full results

(Q) = Qualified for BYCs

BOYS

U12 (9 entrants)

🥈Dean Gigg (Q)

🥉James Dunmall (Q)

🥉Roy Ching (Q)

U14 (31)

9th Alec Hargreaves (Q)

19th Gabriel Lam

20th Laurie Briggs

29th Harry Gigg

U16 (29)

🥈Lloyd Osborne (Q)

13th Zach Bench (Q)

23rd Sergey Khlemanov

28th Aubrey Cassleton Elliott

U18 (23)

🥈Benedict Graham (Q)

🥉Miles Raymond (Q)

GIRLS

U12 (7)

5th Seraphine Mathew (Q)

U14 (9)

🥈Eilidh Paterson (Q)

🥉Izzie D’Abbraccio (Q)

U16 (24)

🥈Andrea Ross (Q)

🥉Hannah Taylor (Q)

🥉Anabelle Lavin (Q)

5th Hiba Rochdi (Q)

10th Daisy Beadsworth (Q)

U18 (21)

18th Joanna Szarowicz