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.

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.