Gwent Sword at the UK School Games

26^th August 2007

Team picture: The winning Welsh men's foil team with their gold medals, left to right: Jason Scourfield, Rhys Melia, reserve James Thorneycroft and Tom Rowles. Inset pic: Gwent Sword Club's Abi Difford.

GWENT Sword Club fencers played a key part in Welsh successes at the 2007 UK School Games in Coventry. Seventeen-year-old Rhys Melia anchored the men's foil team to a gold medal in addition to taking individual bronze, while Abi Difford won bronze with the women's foil team and was tenth in the individual competition.

The men's foil team's victory in the final over England was a big upset, with England including both individual gold and silver medallists, and the Welsh win denied England a clean sweep of the team gold medals.

Melia and his teammates started strongly in the final and then held on in the face of a determined England fightback to take the match 45-40.

Melia said: "We weren't expecting to be so far in the lead at the beginning but we wanted to win so much and felt we could do it. We were disappointed not to keep the lead but it is amazing to triumph in an event like this one."

The multi-sport Games building up to the 2012 London Olympics are due to be held in Newport, Cardiff and Swansea in 2009.

---

Gwent Sword Club Foil Club Competition 2007 on the 24^th June

Results for the Club Competition are available here

Gwent Sword Club AGM

The Club AGM was held after the club competition. Colin Hyndman and Catherine Fisher were reelected as Chairman and Treasurer respectively, and Carl Difford was elected as Secretary.

---

Senior Winton Cup

3^rd June 2007

THREE Gwent Sword Club fencers were in the Wales team who came within a whisker of becoming the top fencing region in the UK last weekend (June 2^nd/3^rd) when they were just pipped for top spot in the Winton Cup in Stoke.

Wales finished level on points with the Southern region at the end two days of competition and, although Wales had beaten Southern in their head-to-head, it went to individual match victories, and with Southern having amassed 153 wins to Wales' 137, they were declared the winners.

It was, nevertheless, an excellent result for a Welsh team containing several relatively inexperienced teenage fencers, especially as two years ago Wales were competing in the second-division Slocombe Cup competition. Olivia Orchart was making her senior Winton Cup debut at epee, Jamie Melia was in the men's epee team while Rhys Melia competed at foil.

Two Gwent fencers have been picked for the Welsh team to compete in the School Games in Coventry in August. Rhys Melia and Abi Difford will fight at foil in Coventry, having already represented Wales in the inaugural School Games in Glasgow last year. Next year the hosts will be Bristol and Bath and in 2009 the competition comes to South Wales, with events in Cardiff, Newport and Swansea.

---

Welsh Team Epee Championships

20^th May 2007

GWENT Sword Club's Andrew McLeod enjoyed success at last weekend's Norfolk Cup Welsh intermediate sabre competition, collecting a bronze medal.

Intermediate Welsh fencing events are open to all Welsh-qualified fencers except national champions and recent full internationals.

Meanwhile, further afield at the weekend, Gwent Sword Club teenager James Wood-Fisher improved his senior British foil ranking by placing 28th of 61 entrants in the Sheffield Open.

---

Welsh Team Epee Championships

13^th May 2007

GWENT Sword Club finished in sixth place in the Welsh Team Epee Championship in Cardiff, where the home club retained their title. Disappointingly, entries were down on last year and the women's competition was again cancelled. Pictured are the Gwent team of, left to right, Carl Difford, Richard Thomas and Gareth Price.

---

Rhys Melia scoops Birmingham International Foil title

7^th April 2007

Gwent Sword Club's Rhys Melia, UK under 18 foil champion, became the youngest person ever to lift the Birmingham International Fencing Tournament title on Saturday, when, four days before his 17th birthday, he beat UK number 10 Michael Barnett in the men's Foil final 15-11. Currently ranked UK number 27, Rhys, defeated UK number 16 James Davis in the semi-finals to face Barnett.

Having first seen off two fellow cadets - Husayn Rosowsky in the quarter-finals 15-4, and James Davis 15-8 in the semi-finals - Rhys went on to face Barnett in an exciting gala fight in front of Birmingham's Lord Mayor, where Rhys remained poised and in control throughout.

The Birmingham International is one of the UK's four largest fencing competitions, with more than 600 fencers across men's and women's foil, epee and sabre events. It runs annually over the Saturday and Sunday of Easter weekend, and has been held for more than ten years at Birmingham University. It is the oldest competition outside London, now in its 73rd year.

Rhys said: "I'm thrilled that my first big win was on home ground".

Well done to the other GSC fencers who entered too:

Olivia Orchart
30th Women's Foil
11th Women's Epee

Abi Difford
64th Women's Foil

Kelly James
85th Women's Epee

George Orchart
41st Men's Foil
44th Men's Epee

James Wood-Fisher
89th Men's Foil

---

Gwent Sword at the 5 Nations

6^th March 2007

GWENT Sword Club will have four fencers in the Welsh team for the Five Nations tournament in Dublin later this month.

In addition to Jamie, Rhys and Lynne Melia, who all competed in last season's Five Nations, 16-year-old Abi Difford has earned a place in the senior team after recently climbing in the British rankings.

The Five Nations involves all home nations plus the Republic of Ireland and Abi and Lynne will team up in the women's foil competition, Rhys in the men's foil and Jamie in the men's epee.

---

Welsh Foil Championships

4^th March 2007

Gwent Sword Club's medallists, left to right: Ceri Richards, Abi Difford and Catherine Fisher.

GWENT Sword Club was the most successful South Wales club at the recent Welsh Foil Championships, held in Cardiff, emerging with three medals.

Abi Difford collected silver in the women's event, ahead of bronze for Catherine Fisher, with Ceri Richards also winning bronze in the men's competition.

Pembrokeshire's Jason Scourfield won the men's title and Wrexham's Lydia Johnson the women's.

Gwent Sword Club was responsible for organising the event this year and a big thank-you goes to Lynne Melia and Andrew McLeod, along with others who helped the competition run smoothly.

Gwent fencers' results:

Men: =3, Ceri Richards; 5, Andrew McLeod; 6, Peter Russell; 10, James Wood-Fisher.

Women: 2, Abi Difford; 3, Catherine Fisher.

---

Bad Kanstatt

25^th February 2007

To top off his British Championship win last month, Rhys Melia visited Bad Kanstatt in Germany this weekend for a Cadet (U17) event. He fenced through four rounds of poules, each with a savage 25% cut, to make the last 64 at the end of the first day.

The second day of the competition was Direct Elimination with repechage. Rhys won his first two fights, taking him through the 48 into the 32. In the 32 he lost to a very competent German fencer and wet into the repechage system. Two more victories, the second 15 - 5, saw him back into the main DE tableau, against the top French Cadet, Simon. Carrying a shoulder injury from his previous match, Rhys fought hard, but lost 15 - 11, leaving himself in 15th place. Only one British fencer got to the same round - James Davis who came 13th.

---

Youth Home International

24^th February 2007

GWENT trio Abi Difford, Olivia Orchart and George Orchart each played a key role in preventing Wales from collecting the wooden spoon in the youth home internationals in Cardiff.

Every hit was important as overall Wales tied for third place on wins with the Barbarians (who replaced Northern Ireland in this year's competition), Wales getting the nod by virtue of their superior hit ratio.

George, making his debut in the under-16 foil, fenced well and helped his team to a convincing victory over the Barbarians and restricted both England and Scotland to narrow wins.

Abi had a similar record in the girls' under-18 foil, but also came in as a substitute in the under-16 match against the Barbarians, turning the contest around with a 9-0 victory in her fight.

Olivia also played her part in the under-18 epee, despite foil being her preferred weapon, although her team was hit by an injury and had to rely on a substitute from the under-16s.

England were overall winners at both under-16 and under-18 levels and thus won the title, with Scotland in second place.

---

Welsh Youth Foil

4^th February 2007

Gwent Sword Club's successful fencers at the Welsh Youth Foil Championships: Olivia Orchart, Henry Orchart, Abi Difford, George Orchart, Shane Powell and Roseanne Thomas.

GWENT now has three Welsh fencing champions following last weekend's Welsh Youth Foil Championships in Cardiff.

Gold for Newport's Abi Difford (under-16 girls), and St Arvans siblings George Orchart (under-16 boys) and Olivia Orchart (under-18 girls) made Gwent Sword Club the most successful at the championships.

All three youngsters have now booked their places in the Welsh team to face England, Scotland and a Barbarians team (replacing Northern Ireland) in fencing's youth home internationals in Cardiff later this month.

Gwent's other competitors also performed extremely well in the foil championships, with Roseanne Thomas finishing second in the girls' under-16s, Shane Powell third in the boys' under-16s and Henry Orchart fifth in the boys' under-12s.

---

Plymouth Open

1^st February 2007

GWENT'S Olivia Orchart returned from a sword fight in the pirate capital of Plymouth with a haul of silver. The 17-year-old fencer from St Arvans was runner-up in last weekend's Plymouth Open women's foil competition. (Jan 27^th)

Olivia's 15-year-old brother was 19th in the men's foil competition, while their clubmate, 16-year-old Abi Difford, of Newport, finished ninth in the women's foil.

All three will be representing Wales later this month (Feb 24^th) in the youth home internationals, which this year are being held in Cardiff.

Also fighting in Plymouth were fellow Gwent Sword Club members Andrew McLeod (16th in men's sabre; 17th in men's foil) and John Canty (38th in men's foil).

---

British Youth Foil Championships

1^st February 2007

The Welsh region's girls' foil medallists with national foil coach Jayne Hanlon, from left: Abi Difford (Gwent, U16 bronze), Carolyn Benson (Wrexham, U18 gold), Stephanie Collister (Wrexham, U12 silver)

NEWPORT fencer Abi Difford came home from the British Youth Championships foil finals in Stoke on Trent with a bronze medal from the under-16 girls' competition.

The Gwent Sword Club teenager - the Welsh under-16 champion - fenced to her highest position in the national age-group championships just a day before her 16th birthday.

And it was a double celebration for Gwent Sword Club as Rhys Melia won the boys' under-18 title to follow on from the under-16 crown he lifted two years ago. Melia lives in Birmingham and represented the West Midlands region in the finals but is also a member of Gwent Sword Club.

Three other Gwent fencers were among the Welsh qualifiers for the finals. George Orchart, from Sr Arvans, was 30th in the boys' under-16 finals and his brother Henry was 21st in the boys' under-12 event. James Wood-Fisher, who lives in Bristol but fences in Gwent, was 42nd in the boys' under-16s.

---

Funding from the Millenium Stadium Charitable Trust

15^th September 2006

GWENT Sword Club won't miss a hit in future after receiving a grant of £2,810.56 from the Millennium Stadium Charitable Trust to upgrade and expand scoring equipment at the club.

The new equipment will help the club run more competitions, particularly as some of the new scoring equipment has built-in timers to help both the referees and the fencers during fights, and is in addition to the scoring unit bought by the club using money provided by Western Power Distribution and Sportsmatch Cymru.

This equipment will be used in conjunction with competition swords and clothing - bought earlier this year with the aid of a Sportslot Community Chest Grant - to encourage club members who have graduated from the club's beginners' course to step up to competitive fencing.

This season Gwent Sword Club is running the Welsh Individual Foil Championships, and having ready access to competition equipment will also help prepare for that, ensuring the event runs as smoothly as possible.

---

UK School Games

20^th July 2006

THREE Gwent Sword Club members - Rhys Melia, Olivia Orchart and Abi Difford - were members of the Welsh under-17 fencing team at the recent School Games in Glasgow.

The competition comprised both individual and team events at all six weapons against England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The individual competition was first and Rhys had a comfortable passage through to the last eight but then had a tough fight for a medal against England's Daniel Robinson and went out 15-13 to take sixth place.

Abi and Olivia were in different pools in the women's foil but emerged next to each other, with Olivia ranked 11th and Abi 12th.

Abi lost her last-16 fight to top-ranked Scot Lisa McKenzie to finish 12th, but Olivia defeated Northern Ireland's Helen Currie 15-10 before going out to top-ranked English girl Catriona Sibert.

The team foil competition was always going to be tough, with England taking all the individual foil medals and Scotland having three fencers in the last eight of both men's and women's competitions.

However, Olivia and Abi teamed up with Cardiff's Susan Dodd and Pembrokeshire's Lucy Scourfield to make a fight of it.

They led the Scots for much of their semi-final before the home-based team made a tactical substitution and pulled through 45-35, then in the match for third place, Wales defeated Northern Ireland 45-21.

Rhys was the star of the men's foil competition, anchoring his team to a 45-44 victory over Scotland after coming into the last fight several points down.

In the final, he was 13 points down going into the last leg against England, but in an amazing comeback against individual gold medallist Tom Potterton, Rhys pulled back to 42-41 down, including a run of eight unanswered points as he hunted down his retreating opponent. In the end, though, time ran out on him and he was forced to take more risks in the last few seconds and lost 44-41 to take the silver medal.

Rhys however, became perhaps the first losing finalist to be hoisted shoulder-high by his teammates following his efforts.

---

Senior Nationals, Commonwealth Selection, World Medigames & Norfolk Open

21^th July 2006

Rhys and Jamie Melia are both in the Welsh team for fencing's Commonwealth Championships.

AN IMPRESSIVE 11th place in the British Senior National Championships earned Gwent Sword Club's Rhys Melia a call-up for the Welsh team in September's Commonwealth Championships in Belfast.

It took British foil champion Richard Kruse - who recently won a silver medal in the European Championships - to knock out the 16-year-old in the last 16, and even then Melia went down fighting, losing 15-9, the same score as Kruse dereated Welsh champion David Mansour in the final.

Having finished above two of the men's foilists pre-selected for Wales at the Commonwealths, Melia was added to the squad, joining his older brother, Jamie, who is in the epee team.

The teenagers' mother, Lynne, also of Gwent Sword Club, finished 38th at women's foil in the National Championships, with 15-year-old clubmate Abi Difford 60th.

Mike Kocan went further afield in his search for glory, entering the World Medigames - for health professionals - in Florence, Italy, and returning with silver from the age 45-55 epee competition and bronze from the foil for the same age group. He also won a bronze medal for judo!

Meanwhile, Gwent Sword Club has yet another fencer making the senior British rankings, with Ceri Richards earning his first points with 39th place in the Norfolk Open men's foil, the last open of the season. Clubmates Andrew McLeod and Peter Russell boosted their rankings by finishing 15th and 19th, respectively.

---

Commonwealth Selection

29^th May 2006

CONGRATULATIONS to Gwent Sword Club member Jamie Melia, who has been named in the Welsh squad for this year's Commonwealth Fencing Championships. Jamie will compete in the men's epee competition in Belfast in September.

Fencing's Commonwealth Championships have been held separately from the Commonwealth Games since the 1970s but they maintain a four-year cycle and Commonwealth medals are still awarded.

---

Welsh Team Epee

14^th May 2006

GWENT Sword Club took the bronze medal in last weekend's (May 14^th) Welsh Team Epee competition, through their A team of Jamie Melia, Rhys Melia and John Washbourne. They won their first group and so were seeded in the top section for the final part of the competition which meant they would fight off for the medals.

They were then defeated by the Cardiff A team, who then went on to win gold by beating Aberystwyth A. However, the Gwent record was sufficient for them to take third place.

Gwent's other two teams did less well in the initial round so were excluded from the medals before the knock-out stages. However they both remained unbeaten for the remainder of the competition, with Gwent B (Andrew McLeod, George Orchart and Peter Russell) finishing ninth and Gwent C (Carl Difford, Gareth Price and Richard Thomas) 13th.

---

LPJS Wrexham

13^th May 2006

GWENT Sword Club's young fencers emerged with a 100 percent success rate from last weekend's (May 13^th) Leon Paul Junior Series foil tournament in Wrexham, with three gold medals.

Brothers George and Henry Orchart, both Monmouth schoolboys from St Arvans, won the boys' under-15 and under-11 competitions respectively, with Gwent team-mate Abi Difford of Newport winning the girls' under-15s.

---

Northern Welsh Regional

25^th April 2006

GWENT Sword Club mounted a successful raid on the Welsh Northern Regional Foil fencing competition.

Having dominated the Welsh Western Regional Foil earlier in the season, they came away from Welshpool with two medals from three entries.

The early rounds of the competition saw the men and women's sections grouped together, and Gwent's trio of Peter Russell, Andrew McLeod and Abi Difford ended up respectively ranked fourth, fifth and seventh of the 25 seniors. Andy came up against Cardiff teenager Philip Horne in his last-16 fight and was disappointed to be edged out.

Pete took his revenge on Horne on behalf of the club in the quarter-finals and went on to beat improving Wrexham youngster Ben Roberts in a tight semi-final.

In his final, he faced Pembrokeshire's Jason Scourfield, a double Junior Commonwealth Championship medallist, and, despite the fight being neck-and-neck until the final few hits, the West Wales fencer won 15-12.

Abi was easily the highest-ranked of the women, having beaten most of her male opponents in the pools, and she confirmed this superiority with convincing 15-1 and 15-4 victories to take gold in the women's competition - her first senior title.

The medals were presented by local MP Lembit Opik.

---

Champions at the Leon Paul Junior Series

23^rd March 2006

We now have two gold medallists at Leon Paul Junior Series competitions. Henry Orchart won the U11 Ashton Boys Foil, remaining unbeaten all day, and winning the final 10-3. A few weeks later, Abi Difford won the Eton U15 Girls Foil. Both of these are excellent results and we wish them good luck in future competitions.

---

Grant from the Monmouthshire Building Society Charitable Foundation

GWENT Sword Club have been awarded £954 towards equipment for the beginners' courses and novice fencers' equipment by the Monmouthshire Building Society Charitable Foundation.

The club bought ten sets of basic equipment at the start of the 2005-06 season in order to kit out beginners' classes to the new safety standards required by British Fencing. This grant covers much of that cost, thus avoiding the need to increase subscription charges or course fees to fund our normal outlays.

Chairman Colin Hyndman said, "This is a major contribution to our efforts to recruit and encourage beginners, who are the lifeblood of the club. It will also free up funds to subsidise and encourage the extension of our coaching activities."

The Foundation, a registered charity independent of the building society, has supported more than 50 organisations within a 25-mile radius of Newport since its foundation in 2000.

---

5 Nations

4^th April 2006

Three Gwent Gword Club members made their debut for the senior Wales team at the Five Nations competition, this year held in Cardiff.

Rhys Melia fenced at foil, his team defeating Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, losing narrowly to England and more comprehensively to Scotland.

Jamie Melia was in the men's epee quartet who also finished third at their weapon, defeating Scotland and Eire, losing to England and being one point adrift as time ran out against Northern Ireland.

Lynne Melia was in the foil quartet and was reserve for the epee team. She wasn't called on to fence foil, but contributed to the epee effort, where again Wales finished third, with wins over Northern Ireland and the Republic, but defeats at the hands of England and Scotland.

Overall, Wales finished third overall, behind England and Scotland.At the post-tournament dinner at Cardiff's Angel Hotel, the seven new caps were initiated into the Welsh team by the traditional eating of raw leeks, where Rhys proved the perfect gentleman, as always, by devouring half of sabreur Katherine Kempe's leek as she struggled. Lynne, as the senior stateswoman among the new caps, completed the initiation wearing a pair of ceremonial 'granny' knickers.

---

Junior Home International

28^th February 2006

GWENT Sword Club members Olivia Orchart, Abi Difford and Rhys Melia recently represented Wales in the Junior Home Internationals competition in Edinburgh.

Olivia competed at under-18 foil, Abi at under-16 foil and Rhys at both under-16 and under-18 foil.

The Welsh under-16 team finished second behind England, while the under-18s were third behind England and Scotland but ahead of Northern Ireland.

Olivia's team suffered defeats against England and Northern Ireland but came back with a vengeance against Northern Ireland to win 45-18, Olivia leading the way with 10 unanswered points in her first fight to swing the balance Wales' way after their opponents had started well. Abi's team restricted the English team's scoring but were nevertheless defeated, but then edged an extra-time victory over Scotland.

Scotland beating England gave Wales a sniff of the weapon title if they won their last fight well and they rose to the challenge, defeating Northern Ireland 45-6, although the English tally proved out of reach.

Rhys and his under-16 foil team had their hopes of retaining their weapon title dashed by an early defeat by England, but they dug in and posted good wins over both Scotland and Northern Ireland. The under-18 team included a couple of less experienced fencers but they battled well and were unlucky not to snatch a win over Northern Ireland.

While the youngsters were away, Catherine Fisher kept the home flag flying with a silver medal in the Kingston Cup Welsh intermediate epee competition in Cardiff.

---

Welsh Team Foil 2006

12^th February 2006

Gwent Sword Club had a double silver lining in both men's and women's competitions in the Welsh Team Foil competition. Both men's and women's A teams came away with silver medals.

The men's A team were just two hits short of gold in their showdown match with eventual winners Pembroke, while the women also had a near miss for gold in their match with Cardiff.

In the men's competition, in addition to Gwent A finishing second, the B team were sixth, the C team seventh and the D team tenth, while in the women's competition, supporting the second-placed A team, the B team finished fourth.

---

Newport Sports Awards 2005

11^th February 2006

GWENT Sword Club head coach Colin Hyndman is Newport's coach of the year. He was presented with his award at Newport Sports Council's 2005 Sports Personality of the Year event, held at Newport Centre.

The award recognises Colin's contribution to the club, and particularly in 2005 his overseeing the doubling in size of Gwent Sword Club, the development of younger coaches and his personal coaching which saw every competitive fencer at the club improve their British ranking during the year.

Abi Difford was shortlisted in the the Most Promising Young Sportswoman category at the awards for a third consecutive year.

---

Results Roundup

7^th February 2006

GWENT Sword Club has a new Welsh champion after Abi Difford took the girls' under-16 foil title in Cardiff recently, taking over the mantle from last year's winner Olivia Orchart.

Welsh Fencing chairman Bob Turner thanked Peter Russell for his help throughout the Welsh Youth Foil Championships and praised his refereeing skills.

Gwent Sword Club members were also evident at the Slough Open, where Rhys Melia was 11th in the men's foil.

In the women's foil, Lynne Melia was 33rd and Kelly James 59th in a very strong field.