AGM, County Championships, BFA Coaching Course, BAF Performance Day

On 22 March, 8PM it is our AGM at the Garibaldi. As always there's free food and a free drink to be had if you'll come along. This is your chance to have you say on fees and there is a proposal to change the constitution to create a new membership catagory for U18s. A copy of what is proposed is here. It would be helpful if you could have you say on the membership survey beforehand though.

County Championships time is nearly upon us again. Individual events are on 2nd April and we would thoroughly encourage anyone who'd like to go to do so. There is a novice foil category for those who have been fencing less than two years but you will need an electrified bib and current BFA membership. For those of you on BFA social membership you get a free local competition anyway so for the majority of you this would be it. There will be a team foil competition on June 11.


The BFA are running a coach education course in April - this is a two day course designed to get you to Level 1 in your chosen weapon. If you are going please let Jon know. The full details are on the BFA website.


Finally, Liam and his friends in the BAF have come up with a performance/training day in Staffordshire on 21/22 May. Those of you who have been with us a few years will remember Liam and Peter Wright running a gigantic fencing session for all three weapons as a pre-season warm up. Blurb from Liam below:

COURSE INFORMATION

Maestro Roberto Piranio (CV below) will be coming over from Italy to run the course with Prof. Philip Bruce. It is possible that we will also have other European and British Fencing Masters assiting.

Plans are to run the course from 10 am to 4pm on the Saturday and Sunday of the weekend, with a dinner on Saturday evening for those who wish to have a social element to the event. All three weapons will be covered and we are setting a minimum age of 13 for participants (we will be requesting that any participants under the age of 17 should have a few years of fencing and competitive experience under their belt)

Lunch will be included in the ticket price which will be as follows

£45 per head if you have booked by April 20th, £47.50 per head thereafter, £50 within 2 weeks and £55 on the day. A light lunch and refreshments will be included in the ticket price.

If you'd like further information ask Jon for an entry form.

Finally, the date for this year's open air event will be September 11th - mark your diaries.

Fencing Club Social, Thursday 24th February, Thai Rack

Hi All,

This is the final reminder that there is no fencing on Thursday 24th February, instead we're going for a meal at 7.30pm at the Thai Rack, followed by drinks at the Verulam Arms from around 9pm.

If you'd like to come for the meal and you haven't let me know, please email me asap - social(a)sa-fc-org.uk, replacing the (a) with an @.

AGM, Tuesday 22nd March

Also another quick reminder that the AGM is on Tuesday 22nd March at the Garibaldi pub, starting 8pm, with food at 9pm. Please come along and join in.

Hope to see you all Thursday!

Helen :)

Membership Survey

We want to know what you think. Sadly we are still years away in R&D from proper telepathy so in the meantime we are going to have to ask you to give us a piece of your mind.

Linky

If you've not done so already, please, please fill in the survey. Its your chance to have a say so we can try and put together a bit of a plan for the next year in time for the AGM.

Thank you!

Fencing social Thursday 24th February

Hello all,

There is no fencing on Thursday 24th February, so instead we will be going for a meal at 7.30pm at the Thai Rack on George St, which is excellent, followed by the pub.

Please can you email me if you would like to come for the meal, as I need to know numbers asap. Email address is social(a)sa-fc.org.uk - replacing the (a) with an @.

Alternatively you can let Jon know on Thursday and he'll pass your names on to me.

Hope to see you all there!

Helen

St Albans Fencing Club AGM - Tuesday 22nd March at the Garibaldi pub, 8pm, with food at 9pm

Please come and join in with the AGM and have a say in how your fencing club is run.
We'll be looking for two volunteers to join the committee and nominations are now open!
Secretary, whose duties include; responding to all the enquires received via the website, organising the beginners course and minuting the monthly committee meetings. This position also requires that you be CRM checked.
Web master, whose main duty is design, maintenance and updating of the website.
Many thanks to David R and Liam N, who have done a fabulous job over the past few years on the committee.

Introduction to referring course - 19th February, nr Ipswitch

The Eastern Region fencing association are running an introduction to referring course on Saturday 19th February near Ipswitch. The course lasts all day and costs £14.50 to attend, although they will refund this is you subsequently referee in a competition for them. Jon (Daley) is going up, so there is an opportunity for lift sharing. Please get in touch with him direct for more details.

Fencing Club Social - Thursday 24th February

There is no fencing on Thursday 24th February, as the school hall is unavailable. Instead we are planning to decamp to a nice local restaurant (possibly Thai Rack on George St) followed by the pub (somewhere that does proper beer). More details will be posted closer to the date, but please let Helen know if you would like to come. Email socail(a)sa-fc.org.uk replacing (a) with @.

Membership survey

The committee are planning a membership survey, to see what you all think of current nights, potential changes and what you'd like the focus of the club to be. This is advance notice that an email will be coming your way with the survey details on. Please take five minutes to respond, it will help to make the club what you'd like it to be!

Last, but not least we have two safety warnings for all club members and visitors to the site.
1. If you are fencing electric you must wear breeches; if you are not, you will be asked to stop.
2. If you find any defective kit please tell a member of the committee, or mark the item with some of the warning tape in the kit cupboard. We won't be mad if you break something, but we won't be able to fix it if you don't tell us it's broken!

Thanks for reading,
See you all for fencing on Thursday.

Helen :)

Three Counties League at home to Bedford.

In a nutshell, we won – but only by the depth of rust on our blades from the Christmas break. It could very easily have gone against us.

We won the Epee 6:3 with David W thankfully not dropping a bout. His last bout was, as it turned out, crucial and very close- 5:4. Philip and David R helped out, but could have done better as both lost one bout 4:5. At least Philip could blame it on the cakes (you had to be there!). Amazingly, 5 out of the 9 bouts were won/lost at 5:4.

As if that was not enough, foil was the real nailbiter contest. As is becoming the norm these days, we entered the final bout 4:4. It fell to Terry to carry the mantle to the final bout once the epee had finished. We had expected Dan to change to foil, but having just had the last epee bout with David, they decided that Emmanuel should take his place. Terry took the lead, then lost it, then regained it, then lost it. Well, you know the score. Oh you don’t yet, do you? It went to 4:4 (“as is becoming the norm”). The last point was won by Bedford. I think Terry tried to counter attack, with which he usually succeeds - but not this time. So Bedford won the foil 5:4.

Although our winning margin was only one fight across both weapons, it would have taken Bedford only two extra hits to turn the tables in their favour. Hence the second sentence above.

One doesn’t get much closer than that!

The next match is away to Milton Keynes on 20th January, ie NEXT WEEK! Philip has offered to drive, so if you are up to it please email him- treasurer(AT)sa-fc.org.uk

Snow news is good news - BUT PLEASE KEEP AN EYE ON THE SITE

In spite of the weather as of 17:45 we still intend to fence this evening (16 Dec) and afterwards get together for some food, drink and socialising. We also will hold a very brief EGM at 9 o'clock.

PLEASE DO KEEP LOOKING HERE. If the weather gets worse or if the school tell us they're closed, we'll update the site as quickly as we can.

If you are coming, please drive carefully