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

An 11-strong RTWFC team travelled to London for the Leon Paul Junior Series on 28th and 29th January, and headed home with a swag bag of six bronze medals. Both our older, more-experienced fencers and our younger ‘cubs’ – five of them competition rookies – performed strongly on a very positive weekend for the club.

On Saturday, Andrea Ross was on top form, winning a bronze medal in the U15 girls’ event. Andrea won seven out of 12 poule bouts, then progressed to the semi-final with DE scores of 15-5 and 15-10, where she ran out of gas against eventual winner Emma Mitzova. Team-mate Hiba Rochdi wasn’t at her combative best, but still managed to scrap her way to 11th place.

The U9 & U11 events got underway first on Sunday, and Willa Raymond and Odin Cheung duly won their quarter finals to bag bronzes before both ran into the eventual winners – Willa only losing 10-7 and showing great progress against an opponent she’d struggled with earlier in the day. Team-mate Joachim Mathew showed tenacity to finish 5th overall.

In the U11 Girls event, both Artemis Nakos and Seraphine Mathew fenced strongly in the poules to go into the knockout rounds as 4th and 7th seed respectively out of 15. Both then won their first two DE bouts comfortably before being halted at the semi-final stage. Team-mate Lorenzo Rehman showed plenty of potential in the Boys event, finishing a creditable 11th out of 17.

In the afternoon, three RTWFC fencers took on the U13 ranks. Elsa Brondbjerg and an under-the-weather James Dunmall both won their L32 bouts, before going out in the last 16, but it was Alec Hargreaves who provided the final podium moment for the club. Having started slowly and being seeded 11th out of 22 for the Direct Elimination rounds, Alec gained momentum, winning his L32 bout 10-0, then knocking out the 5th & 4th seeds 10-9 and 10-6 respectively before coming up 1 point short against the eventual winner in a nail-biting semi-final.

Final positions
🥉 Willa Raymond (U9 Girls)
🥉 Odin Cheung (U9 Boys)
5th Joachim Mathew (U9 Boys)
🥉 Artemis Nakos (U11 Girls)
🥉 Seraphine Mathew (U11 Girls)
11th Lorenzo Rehman (U11 Boys)
15th Elsa Brondbjerg (U13 Girls)
🥉 Alec Hargreaves (U13 Boys)
15th James Dunmall (U13 Boys)
🥉 Andrea Ross (U15 Girls)
11th Hiba Rochdi (U15 Girls)

On a chilly December day, the TWIST made a triumphant return as pupils from Brambletye, Brighton College Prep, St Andrew’s Prep and the ‘Daventry Five’ engaged in combat with RTWFC pupils.

The TWIST stands for ‘Tunbridge Wells Individual & School Team’ and is intended as a first or second external competition so that young fencers taking a first step away from their regular classes can enjoy the fun of fencing new people in a medal-rich environment. And so it proved as a total of 40 fencers competed in U10, U12, U14 Mixed, and U10 and U12/14 Girls individual events, then 6 teams battled it out for the U14 Mixed and U12 Boys team titles.

Although the more numerous home team did top the medal table, all the visiting teams did win medals – and the ‘Daventry Five’ and Brambletye both made several visits to the podium. Most importantly, matches were fenced in a good spirit, every fencer improved throughout the day and a good time was had by everyone.

Many thanks to all the fencers and parents who attended the TWIST and made it an enjoyable occasion, and also to Rob Parsons, Don Coe, William Briggs and James Fleming-Fido for all of their set-up and reffing excellence throughout the day. RTWFC salutes you all!

U10 Mixed

1.Lorenzo Rehman (RTWFC)
2.Odin Cheung (RTWFC) 3.Aimee Bruce (Brambletye) 3.George Stenhouse (Brambletye) 5.Gabriel Kempston (RTWFC) 6.Willa Raymond (RTWFC) 7.Toby Bull (RTWFC) 8.Freddy da Silva (Brambletye) 9.Timofey Yakovlev (RTWFC) 10.Leo Li (Brambletye) 11.Adam Horan (RTWFC) 12.Eoghan Horan (RTWFC)

’B’ Competition (for fencers knocked out in first round of U10 Mixed event): 1.Leo Li (Brambletye) 2.Timofey Yakovlev (RTWFC) 3.Adam Horan (RTWFC) 4.Eoghan Horan (RTWFC)

U10 Girls

1.Aimee Bruce (Brambletye) 2.Willa Raymond (RTWFC)

U12 Mixed

1.James Dunmall (RTWFC) 2.Elsa Brondbjerg (RTWFC) 3.Dean Gigg (RTWFC) 3.Leo Symons (Daventry) 5.Max Kitkat (RTWFC) 6.Daniel James (Daventry) 7.Alex Pelluet (Brighton College Prep) 8.Kacey Au (Brighton College Prep) 9.Rudi Madams (RTWFC) 10.Carter West (Brambletye) 11.Jacoby Womersley-Smith (Brambletye) 12.Thomas Moody (Brambletye) 13.Teo Bailey (St Andrew’s Prep) 14.Anjali Pal (St Andrew’s Prep) 15.Arthur Li (Brambletye) 16.Felix Biddle-Guerrier (Brambletye)

U14 Mixed

1.Zach Bench (RTWFC) 2.Nate Tilt (Daventry) 3.Joseph Wooldridge (Daventry) 3.Aubrey Castleton-Elliot (RTWFC) 5.Harry Gigg (RTWFC) 6.Alfred John (Brighton College Prep) 7.Alec Hargreaves (RTWFC) 8.Bella Hartshorn (Daventry) 9.Poppy Skinner (Brambletye)

U14/12 Girls

1.Bella Hartshorn (Daventry) 2.Elsa Brondbjerg (RTWFC) 3.Poppy Skinner (Brambletye) 3.Anjali Pal (St Andrew’s Prep)

U12 Team

1.RTWFC 1 (James Dunmall, Henry Dickens, Theo Nichols) 2.RTWFC A (Dean Gigg, Max Kitkat, Reuben Nichols) 3.Daventry+ (Leo Symons, Daniel James, Felix Biddle-Guerrier) 3.Brighton College Prep (Alfred John, Alex Pelluet, Kacey Au)

U14 Team

1.RTWFC (Zach Bench, Aubrey Castleton-Elliot, Harry Gigg, Alec Hargreaves) 2.Daventry (Nate Tilt, Joseph Wooldridge, Bella Hartshorn)

Three RTWFC cadets (U17) were selected to represent Britain at the fourth European cadet circuit event of the season in Grenoble on 12-13th November, but could they find their best form in a city surrounded by the Alps?

In perhaps the toughest field of the season, Eilidh Paterson scored one win and was just one hit away from the second win that would have guaranteed her progress into the knockout stages. Still, 159th bodes well for Eilidh, who still has three more seasons to hit her peak in this age group.

Miles Raymond fell to an almost identical fate, finishing 191st after his chances in a must-win match were mangled by a blade breaking just as he was scoring a hit. Them’s the breaks!

Benedict Graham fared better, thrashing a couple of French fencers and sneaking past a tricky Singaporean to comfortably make the knockout stages. There, he scored a 15-11 victory over Poon from Hong Kong, who made a nerve-jangling comeback with lunges to foot before ‘Bomber’ Graham found a way to defuse the threat. Unluckily for Benedict, World bronze medallist Maksym Perchuk awaited in the next round, and whilst he impressed his rival with a couple of great hits, Benedict couldn’t find a way past Perchuk’s arsenal of flicks. Still, 109th was the Tunbridge Wells fencer’s best placing in Europe this season and hints at more to come.

Day two of the event raised the noise levels with both boys’ and girls’ team events taking place at the same time.

Whilst both Benedict’s GB3 and Eilidh’s GB4 teams (pictured) both succumbed to tough teams in the last 32, they both had the best indicators on their team and can be proud of their efforts – particularly a 5-1 win for the former and an 8-5 tally for the latter.

With the club’s cadets having travelled to Budapest, Belgrade and Grenoble in the last five weeks, they can now catch up with schoolwork as they await news of the GB squad selections for Bratislava in January and Krakow in February – but they can also reflect with satisfaction on positive performances in their first international competitions.

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.

A big weekend of competition resulted in three medals for the girls and a solid haul of GBR Cadet ranking points for the boys.

At the Leon Paul Junior Series in Canterbury on 26th June 2022, Izzy D’Abbraccio struck gold in the under 13 girl’s event, beating English Youth Champ Lea Panyandee-Cappelli 10-9 in the final. Izzy then went up a gear in the afternoon, storming to gold in the under 15 event with a 15-10 win over Emma Mitzova.

Team-mate Andrea Ross took a fanastic bronze in the same event in only her second-ever external competition (and after starting fencing just one year ago).

RTWFC’s competition debutants Elsa Bronbjerg and James Dunmall also fenced at the LPJS and did well to win two bouts each. Unfortunately, in the quarter-finals Elsa lost to team-mate Izzy and James got squeezed out 10-8 by eventual silver-medallist Damian Tovar; they finished 6th and 7th respectively.

Meanwhile, at the Cadet BRC in London, the considerably more experienced trio of Miles Raymond (22nd), Benedict Graham (23rd) and Lloyd Osborne (27th) all put in points-scoring performances in pursuit of a top 20 British ranking in the Cadet (under 17) category. Their exploits keep Lloyd in 14th, Benedict moves up to 23rd and Miles to 46th.

In the girls’ event the day before, Hannah Taylor and Andrea Ross both scored some great hits in finishing in 28th and 31st position and now sit in joint 67th in the national rankings, ready to deploy the invaluable experience they’ve gained next time round.

A trio of talented RTWFC fencers made the trip to Hatfield for the England Youth Championships (EYC) on Saturday 11th June, and Lloyd Osborne headed south with some hard-won hardware.

First up was the indefatiguable Izzy D’Abbraccio, who competed in Poland on Thursday, in the under-13 girls’ epee. Izzy won all six of her poule bouts to get a bye through to the last 16, but then slipped on the banana skin that was Matilde Samuel-Lajeunesse in an agonising 10-9 loss. A finishing position of ninth in the national champs isn’t what izzy wanted, but it isn’t half bad.

Next up, team-mates Zach Bench and Lloyd Osbourne set to work in the boys’ under 15 epee, the former struggling at first against older, more experienced fencers before bouncing back, and the latter doing his back line ‘rope-a-dope’ routine to great effect.

Heading into the last 64, Zach was seeded 38th and took out 27th seed Leo Cook 15-13 before going down to 6th seed Robin Silk 15-7. Zach finished a creditable 31st out of 56 in his first competition at this level.

Lloyd sat in 9th after the poules, and twice squandered comfortable leads against bottom-ranked but fantastically named Osbert Weston before finally fighting his way back from the precipice to turn 12-14 into 15-14. Phew! Lloyd then took out Cowper 15-6, Hinkley 15-7 and Chiappini 15-12 to book a semi-final slot against Tristan Lumineau. Whilst rangy southpaw Lumineau, who already has bags of international experience, ran away with a 15-5 win, Lloyd learnt plenty and can now rest his aching legs and reflect on another fabulous day of fencing.

Well done, team – you make us proud every time you step on the piste.