Hard work pays off as fencers make the grade

Horsham fencers from l to r Jamie Briggs, Euan Deamer, Ben Huckle

Leading the way is Horsham’s Ben Huckle who, competing in the under-nine Foil gained brilliant maximum points to top the rankings in his first full competitive year of fencing.

Having topped the previous year’s national tables in the under-nines, Jamie Briggs, also from Horsham, moved up an age group in 2013 (and consequently had to get used to a longer and heavier weapon) to the under-11 Foil. Still Jamie blew away older and bigger competitors (with longer reaches) to gain a third place ranking.

At only age ten Jamie also became the U12 Sussex County Champion in November.

As the most experienced of the four, Euan Deamer, under-15 Foil, pulled off a third place finish as well, to better his results from 2012. Euan also received a call up for the GB Cadet squad that travels to France this month.

Not to be outdone, Eleanor Harvie, a pupil at Farlington School, fought in the under-15 Epee section and also gained a third place national ranking.

This was a huge achievement as she changed weapons from the foil to the epee during the year.

Eleanor and Euan were also picked to represent the South East Region in the under-17 National Team Competition which took place in December. The South East won against 11 other regional teams in all three weapons (foil, epee and sabre).

All four are junior members of Crawley Sword Club and train hard twice a week at the K2, and the club’s coaches are delighted that their training has paid off.