News

18 July - VSFA Schools Competition No.2

The second round of the VSFA Schools Competition took place at the State Fencing Centre today, with a number of our fencers representing their schools with distinction.  Competing in both the U13 and U15 foil events Matt Foster and Sam Esler had a very good day.  There were insufficient girls in the U15 to have a separate competition so the U15s Foil was run as mixed event in which our fencers achieved a clean sweep of medals.  Well done to all.

U13	Boys
	Gold - Matt Foster Bronze - Sam Esler
U15	Mixed
	Gold - Lucas Webber Silver - Matt Foster Bronze - Jenna Yelland 5. Sam Esler 7. Gabe Bartel

Competition Results from May to Early July

Competition result across this period have revealed that Blacklords fencing club has a significant presence in foil events at both state and national levels. Congratulation are extended to all the competing fencers from the club

July 3-7 - AFF U15 and Cadet National Championship

A contigent of five Blacklord's fencers (Ned Fitzgerald, Matt Forster, Gabe Spano, Lucas Webber and Jenna Yelland) spent 6 days in Sydney competing against Australia's best U15 and Cadet fencers along with fencers from New Zealand, Hong Kong and an 8 member Singapore National Girls Team.  For Matt and Gabe it was their first trip to the National Campionships, with Gabe the youngest fencer at the championships, and they both preformed extremely well.  A Naitional Championship can be a daunting challenge for fencers, their parents and the coach with 50+ fencers in each event which can take up 8 hours complete.  All fencers are to be congratulated for contribiting considerably to Victroria Team being the most successfull Team at the Championships.  The dominance of the Blacklords boys at state level over the past 18 months translated to the national level as the following results illustrate.

June 20 - U13 and U15 Schools Chapionships

This was of the first Championship Competions for 2010.  Blacklords fencers picked up 3 Gold, 2 Silver and 2 Bronze medals across 4 events, including the top 4 placings ins in the Boys U13 foil

May 30 - FV Open and Veterans

May 23 - SFA U13 and U15 Foil

May 16 - Novice, B-Grade and Veterans Foil

May 2 - John Feathers U13 and U15 Foil

Graded

Ungraded

Congratulations Rob!

Congulations to Rob on successfully completing the course and being awarded his Diploma in Fencing (Foil).  I have included Rob's report below.

To the Australian and Victorian fencing federations and Blacklords fencing Club. I am please to report that tonight I was awarded my Diploma in Fencing(foil) from Mr Ioan Pop.  Master Cookie and Leseur were Fantastic in all aspects of the course and everyone gained a lot.  I found the training physically as well as mentally challenging,After the first day where I basically couldn't move I was running between 5km and 9km every day before training started to improve my fitness for the course. The venue location was good in a way as it left little distractions. The facilites were also fantastic.  Through out the course we were made to work with different partners and this was quiet interesting because of the language and culture differences.  Sometimes students would stop to pray, other times sentences were spoken made of english and french at the same time.  On the exam day I was put with the man from Iraq for the coaching section and I was very happy with this because we worked very well together and Mr Ioan Pop said my lesson was very good.  The message given to all coaches from all coutries was to use the knowledge we have learned to stregthen the quality of both fencers and coaches.  I wish to thank the Australian Federation for excepting my Application for this course, This opportunity hardly ever happens and most people may never get the time and opportunity so I am extremely greatfull. I am also looking forward to taking on the development foil squad when I return.
See you then
Robert Di Pasquale XX

FV#1 and AFF#1 Open Competition results

11 April - FV#1 Open & Veteran's events. Since no competition for Fencing Victoria events are available on the web yet I am going from memory and am happy for anyone to correct my recollection. From memory, the "veterans" carried the day for Blacklords with Zoltan Vilagosh taking the Gold in the Veteran Foil event and Geoff Webber, despite an injured arm finished 4th in both the Veteran Foil and Sabre events.
16-18 April - DH McKenzie (AFF#1) Open & Veterans. Again, it was the "veterans" carrying the flag for the Club with Zoltan taking Silver in the Veteran Foil event and Geoff the Bronze in the Veteran Sabre.  Lucas Webber had his best perfomance in an AFF Open Foil event finishing 12th in a field of 71 fencers.  Well done to all.

First competition results for 2010

The competition year began well on March 14 with the U13 and U15 FV foil events with Gold medals in both events (U13 - Ned Fitzgerald; U15 - Lucas Webber) and a Silver in in the U15 (Ned Fitgerald).  Matt Foster (4th), Gabe Spano (8th) and Sam Esler (10th) represented the club well in the U13 event and Gabe and Matt backed this up with top 8 performances in the U15s (6th and 7th respectively).  Unfortunately for Gabe Bartel and Jenna Yelland were forced to withdraw from competition due to injury.

Rob in Doha

As you are all aware Rob Di Pasquale is currently in Doha in Qatar as the only Australian accepted for the 5 week 2010 FIE Foil Coach Training course conducted under the leadership of Maitre Hughes Leseur of France.  He is on one of 24 coaches on the course from a range of countries includingSyria, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Qatar, Kasistan, India, Idonesia, China, Japan,  Maylasia, New Zealand, and Russia.  

From a recent report, everything seems be going well.  In his words "so far it has been OK ... although I get the feeling the masters are just seeing were everyone is and I expect we will do more advanced stuff soon."

Coaching Qualifications

Congratulations to Rob Di Pasquale for gaining his Level 2 Foil coaching qualifications!  Early last Sunday morning at the State Fencing Centre Robert completed a gruelling two hour examination including a theory component and three half-hour structured lessons,.two of which were with Lucas Webber (pictures below).

Testing the new State Fencing Centre

Last Sunday three of our junior fences, Jenna Yelland, Matt Foster and Lucas Webber (with parents in tow) an opportunity to inspect and test out the new State Fencing Centre. They were impressed with the facilities, which are a vast improvement on the old fencing factory. Jenna, Matt and Lucas each had bouts on the new surface, before Matt and Jenna previewed a potential new event "chair fencing" (pictured below).

No Training on 30 January 2010

The traning session for Saturday 30 January has been CANCELLED.  The Club apologizes for any inconvenience that this might cause.  Training will resume as sceduled on Monday 1 February.

Training Begins

Blacklords training for 2010 resumes on Thursday 21 January at 7.00 pm.  We look forward to seeing you all there rested and raring to go.