KES Secure more wins - Journal, Thursday November 1, 2001
While Peter Kirby and Robin Allen were winning medals, KES had other successes with Alcester brothers, David & Thomas Brenda, both winning coveted quarter final medals for their actions.
The pair made history in the British Under-16 championships in the summer, when all three brothers made final places, and Thomas took the silver medal.
James Broad, also from Alcester took over KES's sixth seed position from Wellesbourne's Mike Stone, who surprisingly lost his third round match to Broad.
The Alcester lad had kept his head and capitalised on a couple of errors of judgement from Stone. He carried this thought to the last 16, where he fell to the greater experience of David Brenda.
Thomas Musgrave, from Clifford Chambers, and Ben Townend, from Broadway took all but one of their pool fights and made it through to the latter stages of the elimination.
Aaron Fox won three of his six pool fights, losing out to KES fourth seed, Allen, who duly dispatched him.
Future stars out for first blood included, Luke Foster, 14, from Pillerton Hersey, who took two wins in the pool. Year 10 pupil Simon Whitworth, 15, from Leamington, also took two victories. Younger still were, Chris Cox, Ben Winter, David Musgrave, Mike Turner and Max Crane.
Robbie Malloy (12) was the youngest Stratford fencer, yet still managed to win hits on most of his opponents.
In all there were 35 Stratford-trained fencers out of a total field of 92. KES boys took gold, silver and bronze medals and had 50 percent of the final tableau in the Cadet championships for 2001.
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Fencers make their mark! - Journal, Thursday 25 October 2001
CHIPPING CAMPDEN fencer, Will Garrity, made a good start to his new season when finishing runner-up at the Leicester Open Sabre competition.
The 18-year-old made a slow start due to the effects of a heavy cold but he managed to overcome many of his senior contemporaries to reach the semi-finals.
There he faced Chris Jamieson (Salle College) in what turned out to be an exhausting contest with Garrity eventually coming out on top 15-8.
The Cotswold teenager's final opponent was Tom Benney, ranked third and a fellow member of the London Thames club.
However, Garrity's efforts in overcoming his semi-final opponent had left little in reserve and Benney denied his clubmate the title after a 15-8 final scoreline.
Stratford's KES club provided seven of the 12 boys and two girls selected to fence for the British under-17 team in Gödöllo, Hungary.
Top slot went to ninth-placed Peter Kirby (Chipping Campden School) from North Littleton which should keep the 16-year-old in pole position in his bid to make the three-man team for the World Youth Championships in Turkey next Easter.
David Brenda (Alcester) and Robin Allen (Stratford) both made the cut to reach the last 64 stage. Alcester High School pupils, Riki and Thomas Brenda made the same level. David finished 36th, Robin 39th, Tom 45th and Riki 49th.
Ben Townend from Broadway achieved the same level after winning three of his pool fights.
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Age group winner Kirby sights place at Worlds - Journal, Thursday 20 September 2001
STRATFORD trained Peter Kirby, 16 from North Littleton (Chipping Campden School), turned in a good result in the Bristol Open Sabre tournament at the Whitchurch Sports Centre in Bristol.
His tenth place in the strongest open event ever was a solid start to his bid for a World Championship place, and marks KES again as a top sporting school.
Kirby won the top under-17 prize, a specially engraved Bristol glass trophy.
Matthew Sorel-Cameron, 17 from Stratford (KES) took the top place for the school and was joined by two other boys from KES in the top section of the results.
There were 116 entrants and almost all the top 50 British fencers were there, making it an even stronger even than the recent national championships.
Sorel-Cameron was placed 19th, with Robin Allen, 16, from Stratford, (20th) and Pip Nicolson, 17, from Pebworth, 22nd.
David Brenda, 16, from Alcester, was 36th and Mike Stone, 15 from Wellesbourne was 48th.
These excellent results give all the boys national ranking points, which go towards their selection for the national squads for the internationals coming up.
The first trip for the boys will be to Gödöllö in Hungary early next month. Alcester High School's Richard and Thomas Brenda, both 15, were 35th and 58th respectively, keeping Richard ahead of his elder brother, David, in the ranking lists.
Another success for the KES school came when 15-year-old Humu Choji, from Banbury, took the silver medal for his second place in the Bristol Sabre Plate.
Throughout the day, Choji had fought with increasing control and understanding, before succumbing to the greater skill of the Brentwood youngster, Anthony Crutchett.
Luke Foster, 13, from Pillerton Hersey, managed to put some recently learned skills into effect and fought his way to ninth place in the plate, with Aaron Fox, 14, from Solihull, 16th.
Fencing has been a tradition at the school for many years and is taken at all levels.
At the start of the new year the club opens up to the young entrants in Year seven at 11-years-old.
This term they were introduced to the sport by the school's captain, Pip Nicolson, 17, who has himself fenced for Britain in the 2001 Junior World Cup squad.
Nicolson has his work cut out this time as he and his team recruited 26 new fencers.
No doubt some of these youngsters will be representing their school in matches and competitions and the persistent few may get the chance of a British tracksuit. They have a fine example to follow.
The school has trips planned to America next year, which will involve many of the younger boys. The older ones are planning to go to Italy, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Cuba and Spain in addition as part of centrally organised trips.
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Kirby falls to sabre winner - Journal, Thursday 13 September 2001
STRATFORD'S KES Centre of Fencing Excellence had another outstanding success when Peter Kirby (16) from North Littleton took a bronze medal in the men's event at the strongest sabre competition held in this country.
This was a notable achievement for the Chipping Campden School pupil as he was seeded only 13th at the end of the preliminary pool round.
His first fight was against Portuguese, Christovao Neto, who took nine points off the local champion. This drew Kirby with Kit Rumney from Coventry, one of the Irish youth team.
Rumney succumbed quickly, never having that vital belief in victory before Kirby's best fight against Neil Hutchison from Bath. Hutchison went 12-10 up when Kirby raised the game to his own level and won it with a resounding parry and riposte 15-12.
In the semi-finals, Kirby was beaten by eventual winner Chris Buxton.
It was excellent to see Ben Townend, 15 (KES - Broadway) returning in form from his long absence in hospital .
The Stratford clubs are starting their annual cycles and new members, especially beginners, are welcome.
There are three fencing venues in Stratford, with others in Evesham, Warwick, Redditch and Coventry.
All the local fencers started in one of these, and anyone interested in beginning a new sport can contact David Kirby on 01386 830982.
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Nap hand in Sabre tilt - Journal, Wednesday 29 August 2001
PUPILS training at the King Edward VI School Fencing Centre of Excellence in Stratford-upon-Avon took five of the top eight places in the Under-16 British National Sabre Champion-ships held in Largs, near Glasgow last weekend.
Peter Kirby, who was unable to compete in the competition last year because he was in Germany representing Great Britain in an international event, succeeded in making his presence known this year when he fought his way through the best sabre fencers from each region to eventually claim the championship.
Kirby's international experience and speed served him well during the competition and he had few difficulties in any of his fights.
He beat Alcester's Thomas Brenda in the final. The loser had fought well to overcome difficult and experienced opponents on his way to the final but couldn't counter the greater agility of Littleton's Kirby who had earlier beaten Richard Brenda into seventh place in the quarter-finals.
David Brenda (fifth) and Robin Allen (sixth) were the other KES fencers to reach the final eight.
All these boys and some of the best adult men and women sabre fencers in the country will be competing at Stratford's Levi Fox Hall at KES on Saturday.
The action gets under way at 10.am in the first open of the new season. Spectators are welcome.
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Serve up Sabre spectacular - Journal, Wednesday 18 July 2001
KING Edward VI School, Stratford-on-Avon, took three top 16 places in the men's British Open Sabre Champion-ships.
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Peter Kirby (16) from North Littleton (Chipping Campden School) came 11th, Matthew Sorel-Cameron (17) from Stratford (KES) was one place behind in 12th and Richard Brenda (15) from Alcester (Alcester High) came 16th. Brother Thomas, also 15, came 26th.
KES had two other boys winning through to the elimination stage, with David Brenda in 42nd place and Robin Allen 55th.
The following day the KES School teams were in action again in the British Championships.
The first team saw off King Henry VIII School 45-30 and dealt efficiently with the Foyle and Londonderry Club 45-23 to win a coveted spot in the final tableau.
In the quarter-final, they were drawn against the strong Salle Jakab from Durham. As this comprised the national B team fencers, the Stratford boys did well to contain the Northerners with 26 good hits.
The three KES boys were joined by Kirby and led by Matthew Sorel-Cameron. Fighting against The Coventry team, KES won all their bouts. Against Northern Ireland, concentration slipped slightly allowing the Ulstermen to catch up by a point before the Stratford youngsters took their final two bouts 5-0.
