On the weekend of the 18th -19th of September, NSW Fencing and the
Sydney University Fencing Club will be hosting a series of events for
regional fencers, coaches, and referees in Sydney. Participants from
all clubs are encouraged to attend.

We had a good roll-up for the introduction to fencing on Monday night, Joe had the new recruits getting right into some training and even an introduction to blade work. There are still a few spots left if anyone would like to jump into the course. Just email or give the club a ring.

We are placing an order this week for a VSM setup (the computer scoring system and reels) and additional foils and jackets. These should be here in a couple of weeks and in use by the end on the month. With two scoring set-ups we can now run effective competitions in the Blue Mountains.

Be sure to read up on hand judging a bout in  “referee Terms” under “Scoring a Fencing Bout”. We want everyone in the club to get their chops up in bout scoring.

Well everyone it’s that time again, the new training year starts this Monday night (1st Feb) @7.30 at our new home in the Mid Mountains Community Centre Lawson. It’s a great venue with lots of parking and it’s close to the railway station. Remember to get your membership paid up asap, you have until the end of Feb to get paid up so you are covered by insurance and stuff.
We are now hiring out the club gear to club members. We have had to come up with a way of covering for wear and tear on the equipment without too much of a financial burden on our club members, the hiring rate is $.50 per item per week, payable at the beginning of each quarter. We hope that some of you will start to get your own kit together, and we can help you with advice on buying items from the different suppliers

Our beginner’s course starts on the 15th of February. So make sure you get in before it starts on those first couple of training nights to get your kit organised. If you didn’t make it to many sessions last year, or did a beginners and didn’t continue due to time clashes or difficulty getting to our old training venue, remember you are welcome back any time to train with the club. So don’t be a stranger!

Following an incident in which a foil punctured the FIE transparent visor mask, the FIE has removed their required use at FIE competitions.

The International Fencing Federation (FIE) announced that the use of the transparent visor masks would no longer be required at foil events pending an investigation into the causes of an accident where a foil broke through the Lexan protective plate during a foil bout at the European Junior Championships.
On November 1st, the Swedish Fencing Federation (www.fencing.se) reported that
the Lexan visor of a fencing mask was penetrated during the men’s foil competition at the European Junior Championships in Odense. The fencer was not fatally injured but the incident is considered very serious.

According the the Swedish site and the FIE, the accident occurred in the round of 64 and the foil blade did not break in the action.  The accident resulted in a cut to Latvian fencer Davids Gasilovskis.  Gasilovskis was able to continue the bout after an injury time out.

The FIE has stated that the mask was given to the President of the SEMI Commission, Eduardo Dos Santos so that a full technical investigation on the mask failure can be completed.

The FIE also ruled that:

Until the findings of this investigation are known, it has been
decided to temporarily suspend the mandatory use of the
transparent mask in foil in all FIE competitions.

The FIE and Swedish federations both point out that the masks have been in use for a large number of training bouts with only one other reported incident.  The other incident involved an epee, but there is no report of the results of inspection of that mask.

Article courtesy of www.fencing.net

New Selectors Appointed
NSWFA has made two new appointments to the Selection Commission. Jeff  Gray and Richard Emmerick will join the Commission to replace Sian Hicks and Anna Slowiazcek who have stepped down. Jeff and Richard will join David Hoffman and Antonio Signorello to make up the Selection Commission. Their first task is to select the strongest NSW teams for the Open Nationals Championships which they will do on the basis of their best judgement of performance and merit.