Lewes

Alan Ault Obituary

 

We are sad to report the death of Alan Ault. He was a great advocate for local fencing and a truly genuine, good person, who remained calm in all circumstances and with all people.He was larger than life, both in stature and character, and very welcoming and encouraging. Of particular note was his kindness and support to many young fencers, fencing them with vigour and enthusiasm but without bashing them and making them look silly, and giving the benefit of his skill and experience.He was also active in the running of fencing, both in Chairing Sussex County Fencing and being on the committee for over 40 years, as well as contributing a great deal to South East Fencing and the Vets. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. 

Sussex County Colours

The Sussex ‘County Colours’ Award Scheme

This note explains the ‘County Colours’ award scheme of Sussex County
Fencing Union. This includes details of how to apply and the process by which
nominations will be assessed.
 
The purpose behind the ‘County Colours’ award scheme is to represent a
mark of achievement, and act as an encouragement to others. As such,
County Colours are not an automatic award, but will be awarded to individuals
who have represented Sussex Fencing in a significant way.
 
Nominations for the award should be made to the Sussex County Fencing
Union Committee, who will determine if an award is to be made. There is no
prescribed format for such nominations, but they should include details of the
name of the candidate, club affiliation in the County, and the reason for their
nomination.
 
A rigid set of awarding criteria has been avoided. Instead, a set of guideline
examples of the type of achievement that would merit consideration has been
listed below. The list is not exhaustive but should indicate the type of standard
that the Sussex County Fencing Union Committee will be using to judge the
awarding of County Colours.
 
  • County Colours may be awarded to individuals who have:
  • Won an Open competition;
  • Been in the Top 3 of two or more Opens in one season;
  • Won a major non-Open competition;
  • Been in the Top 3 of a Junior or Cadet competition;
  • Formally represented the County at three events (e.g. Excalibur);
  • Been selected to represent GB or Home Nation; or
  • Provided significant support to the running of County competitions or
  • similar activities.
 
Submissions can be made via email (sussexfencing@gmail.com) or in
writing. This can be to either of the following officers of the Sussex County
Fencing Union Committee:
 
Chair: Dominic Farrar -dom_faz@hotmail.co.uk
Hon Sec: Will Miller –lazybumclubs@yahoo.co.uk
Proposed Candidates 2020
Jamie Briggs
Harry Gray
Ingrid Heskett
Isaac Jolley
Chiara McDermott
Rosie Whittaker
Brian Causton

Intermediate Fencer Definition

A Fencing Intermediate is defined as someone who:

  • Has not been in the top 50 Senior Fencing Rankings for WE, WF, WS and MS or top 80 Senior Fencing Rankings for MF and ME;

  • Has never represented their Nation at any level (including GB, home nations or other equivalents);

  • Has never won a Senior Open Fencing Competition; and

  • Is over 13 years of age. 

Eileen Pitman Passes Away

Sadly, Eileen Pitman has passed away after a lifetime of energetic support for fencing. The following are words from Jo Maynard, a champion British fencer:

"Eileen was my first fencing coach and so is responsible for my earliest memories of fencing. She taught me to love technique and footwork, and more importantly, how to focus... Any time I'd lift my mask to wipe my face or fiddle with my hair she'd say 'stop fussing', encouraging me to ignore the distraction. This served me very well in later years when trying to fence with sweat in my eyes or the pressure of an important competition. Her no-nonsense but encouraging coaching style was perfect! 

Eileen inspired me to not only choose fencing for my athletic career of 17 years 1990-2007 but also to make coaching my profession, starting my own club in 2002. My goal is now to inspire others the way she did me. 
Eileen had endless enthusiasm and energy for fencing, making her a true advocate for the sport. 
My heart goes out to her family, especially Justin and Dominic, both of whom I had the privilege of fencing 'back in the day'."

Harvey's Epee Series Scoring

Harvey’s South East Epee Series

Summary of Scoring Process

This is the inaugural year of the Harvey’s South East Epee Series, which is intended to help encourage fencing in the South East. That has informed the development of the scoring system for the series, which aims to balance participation levels with an equitable weighting process. The overall process is outlined below.

The overall score for a fencer is calculated on the back of their results across the series excluding their worst score. (The score is simply your rank in each competition. This means that the total of your best four places fencing in the South East Open competitions in the season are added together to form the overall score. As there are five Open competitions, the least best will not count to your total).

As an example:

Fencer A’s rank in competitions: 2, (3), 1, 1, 1 = 5 (The 3rd place is the worst score, and so removed from the overall calculation).

The series calculation will be the sum of a fencers positions and the fencer with the lowest combined points score after discard will be the winner.

If a fencer does not take part in a competition, then they would receive a score based upon the total number of fencers at the missed completion, plus an additional point. So, if 40 were fencing in the competition that the fencer did not compete in, then the score attached to the fencer for that competition would be 41.

As an example:

Fencer B competes in 4 competitions and their rank is: 1, 1, 2, 2, (missed competition with 40 fencers, so score of 41. As this is the worst score it is excluded from the overall calculation) = 6