Scarisbrick Swords has enjoyed a significant year of competitive success, culminating this month in James Hughes’ selection for the Welsh U15 team for Poland 2020 and the continued selection of Sophia Neophytou and Grace Michell for the Northwest ladies U17 team for the Cadet Winton Cup, the annual inter-regional tournament.
This year, James has regularly medalled in regional tournaments and started competing in the British Ranking Circuit, earning sufficient points to achieve his milestone selection. Sophia has also enjoyed her best year yet, winning the Northwest U14 Youth Championship and being the runner up in the Northwest Youth Series with a clutch of silver medals. Grace, unfortunately, has had most of this year’s season disrupted by serious illness. However, she did manage to catch the selector’s attention by achieving her first adult ranking points at the Lancaster Open back in February and this has proved sufficient to keep her in contention for the Northwest ladies team.
In addition to the club’s top three, strong results have also been posted by the club’s up and coming competitors as well. Most notably, Katy Hawthorne’s victory at the U12 Cocks Moors Woods Championship and the excellent performances by Michael and Edward Neophytou of fifth and third in the Elite Épée and Leon Paul Junior Series respectively. Nayan Biswas and William Devers have also won medals in the Northwest Youth Series in what was just their first season as competitive fencers.
For coaches, David Stobbs and Paul Michell, these results are the fruits of several years of patient development with both the club and the individual athletes who train there. They are both delighted with this progress, but also have their sights firmly set on extending this success and establishing the club’s reputation in the fencing world and beyond.
Scarisbrick Swords is a not-for-profit community sports club governed by constitution. It promotes the sport of fencing, particularly for young people, in Southport and the surrounding area and aims to improve the health and well-being of all its members through fencing. Although the club has grown out of Scarisbrick Hall’s after school sports provision, it now has several children and adults who regularly take part from outside the school and it’s membership ranges from raw beginners to experienced national competitors.
The club meets on Thursday evenings at 6pm at Scarisbrick Hall. If you would like to try fencing for yourself, a taster session can be arranged by contacting them through email info@scarisbrickswords.co.uk, Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ScarisbrickSwords, or Twitter @ScaSwords.
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