Club News - January 2024

2023 has been another great year for HFC. Our junior and adult membership has continued to blossom, with busy sessions on both Tuesdays and Thursdays. Our adult epee section has also doubled in size. We look forward to what our fencers will achieve in 2024, and wish you all a happy and healthy new year. As always it has been a great pleasure to see our members achieve results, and below are some highlights from the last term.

Winners of the 3 Counties League 2023

HFC once again smashes the 3 Counties League, with an even stronger result than that previous season, winning both Foil and Epee outright, as well as the County title. Well done to all who took part: Ben, Muhil, Will K, Will D, Tom, Weiming, Ali, Andy, Richard, Jack & Harriet. They fought hard in the away and home matches against Luton, Bedford, Watford, St Albans, Dacorum and Milton Keynes. Can we make it a hat trick, and win again in 2024?

2023 Junior Rankings - our first results!

Several of our junior club members competed on the junior circuit last year and now have their first ever England ranking - how exciting! This is just the start, and I'm sure 2024 will see them all grow in confidence. Well done everyone. Hopefully their successes will encourage other club members to get competing too - it would be nice to see some of the girls entering tournaments this year.

U10

Trystan Pettorelli-George 39/59

U12

Xander Curran - 24/136

Jasper Hunter - 118/136

U14

Fred Smith - 47/136

Nikodem Dyk - 50/144

Newham Swords Success

A particular mention should go to Xander Curran for winning a bronze medal at Newham Swords Junior Series - the first Newham medal for HFC - well done! He also achieved the best result in the England Rankings this year out of all the juniors - although those in the U14 have a more difficult challenge, having just moved up from U12. With committed practice and more experience, I'm sure we'll see more from Xander in the future - keep up the good work!

Lisa at Veteran World Championships

And finally, congratulations to Lisa Drage for finishing 34th at the Vets World Championships in Florida. She competed in both the individual and team events in October 2023. A great achievement and what an experience! Well done.