Fencers rack up medals

SCARISBRICK Hall’s fencing club won an impressive haul of medals at this year’s Regional Youth Championships in Oldham.

Five children from the school attended the competition – Annabelle Montagu, James Hughes and Grace Michell in the U14s, Alexander Montagu in the U16s and Evie Day in the U18s.

James was the first to show good form, winning the mixed ranking poules and with it a bye to the boys’ U14 final. He had to settle for silver as his opponent’s greater experience won through in the longer eliminator.

Evie had a very challenging set of opponents and did well to take the silver.

Alex had by far the toughest draw, but nevertheless gave a good account of himself against some very talented opposition.

Annabelle and Grace had very different experiences. Annabelle from the start was fencing at full throttle and finished the poules ranked second to Stephanie Currie from Liverpool Fencing Club.

This performance earned her a bye to the semi-final, where she managed to prevail by a close 15-14 to secure her place in the final.

Grace, on the other hand, was struggling to find form and languished second to bottom after the poules.

Consequently, she had to battle her way to the semis, where she saw off Stephanie to make the final an all Scarisbrick Hall affair.

As clubmates, Grace and Annabelle know each other’s style very well and an incredibly tight match followed.

The scoreline never wavered more than a point apart.

At 14 all, championship point, Grace again managed to land the winning hit for a very hard won gold medal.

Further bronze and silver medals were won by Sophia (U14) and Michael (U10), who attend the school’s Thursday evening sessions for extra coaching.

Much credit for this success is due to coach David Stobbs, while Grace would also like to thank The Benjamin Gautrey Foundation.