Brenda twins become the toast of Britain - Stratford Standard, Friday 5 April 2002
Two pupils from Alcester High School were part of the England sabre fencing team in a home international tournament in March.
Twins Thomas & Richard Brenda, aged 15, were part of the successful squad which won 11 of its 12 matches in sabre, foil and epee.
Against teams with less international experience, the twins, together with team-mate Alex O'Connell, were able to dominate the matches and reach the necessary 45 hits mark.
Scotland were beaten 45-25, Wales lost 45-18 and Ireland lost 45-12.
The pair ranked fourth and fifth in the under-17's in the country, are now aiming to burst into the top three and secure places in the Great Britain team competing at the World Championships hosted by Turkey.
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Kirby's crown as KES hit gold trail - Journal, Thursday 14 February 2002
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KES fencers were out in force at the British Youth Championships in Stoke-on-Trent.
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Kirby, though, produced his stunning change of pace and attacked with the score at 10-9 in his favour to force a two-point lead at a critical time.
Markle was not finished and even at 13-10 down, going to 15, he produced some excellent controlled fencing. Kirby showed champion's form and changed up a gear to clinch the title - his second national title this year.
The older age groups at Under-18 and Under-16 level were dominated by the KES competitors from the Stratford club.
Nine of the 16 quarter-final places fell to KES boys. The Shakespeare's Swords medal tally included a gold, silver and three bronze.
King Edward VI School's captain, 17-year-old Pip Nicolson from Pebworth produced an outstanding result to make third place, competing in a field containing two of this year's world championships team members and several other world ranked athletes.
Robin Allen (16) from Stratford (KES), the other worlds team member took the other bronze. He was dispatched by Kirby in the semi-finals, but showed why he was in the team while doing it.
Allen had the advantage over Kirby at the break by 8-4 - the first occasion all day that Kirby had been behind in any fight.
KES also had 16-year-old David Brenda from Alcester who came fifth and Mike Stone, also 16, from Wellesbourne, 12th in the Under-18 section.
Nick Rumney was eighth while Tim Perry won the épée bronze medal in a spirited justification of his place in the World Championships team.
Tom Brenda (15), a pupil at Alcester High School made the Under-16 boys' final but, in another exciting match worthy of the championships, he succumbed to the stronger onslaught from Scotland's Harry Montcrief.
Brenda had to beat his friend Mike Rogers in the semi-final. Rogers had defeated Brentwood School's favoured fencer, Thomas Gill in the previous round by keeping a cool head when Gill lost the fine edge of control.
Thomas's brother, Richard, also 15, and Kit Rumney won the other quarter-final places.
In the boys' Under-14 category, David Musgrave from Clifford Chambers and Mike Turner from Stratford (both 13 from KES) came 14th and 16th. Twelve-year-old Robbie Malloy from Stratford, another KES boy, came 26th.
Louise Creechan, also 12, of Stratford (Shottery) was yet another finalist this time in the girls' Under-14 Championships which brought KES's fencers' total finals places to ten.
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Magnificent seven ready for the world - Standard, Friday, 8 February 2002
Shakespeare's Swords fencing Club are in seventh heaven after seven team members were selected to represent Great Britain in the world youth championships in Turkey. The group, including first-timers Robin Allen, 16, of Stratford's King Edward VI School, and Tim Perry, fly out to Antalya on the south Turkish coast at the end of March for the championships between April 1-8. Perry is the odd man out in the KES-trained team fencing with the épée and his arrival at the centre of excellence marks the Stratford school's relaunch into multi-weapon fencing, having specialised in sabre for several years. |
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Coaching director, David Kirby of Evesham, said: "This is an exciting time for fencing sport in the Midlands".
"We are expanding our centre to offer the same high standard of instruction and coaching to all the fencing youngsters in the area. It will offer a great opportunity for our local coaches to be involved in the development, and give the fencers a squad structure to help them to world class performances."
Kirby's centre is no stranger to success having had championship and world level performances from all three weapons (foil, épée and sabre) as well as in modern pentathlon, biathlon and triathlon.
The British fencing team's selection was sealed at the world cup tournament in Logrono, Spain, where the Stratford centre's current star, 17-year-old Peter Kirby, won the coveted third place in the junior (under 20) team.
His achievement is all the more notable as he is still fighting at world cadet (under 17) level and will be one of only two to make this distinction out of the team of 36. He is also one of the youngest ever to fence in the men's sabre team.
The national cap will be awarded for his outstanding placing in the Spanish world cup event. Kirby produced the top British result being placed 30th in the strong field of 84 from ten countries, while Will Garrity, 18, of Stratford College, was 46th.
Allen was 63rd making the all-important cut into the elimination stage of the series to earn world ranking points which gives the fencers seeded positions in the world championships.
Garrity will be starting his run up to the event seeking to put himself into the quarter-finals having made an impressive 11th place last year in Gdansk, Poland. He is quite capable of doing this, and is now training under Polish sabre coaching specialist, Michael Matthews, in London.
Louise Bond-Williams, 19, produced the best result, making a quarter- final tableau and winning a large silver cup in the process. She is now training at Ohio State University, USA, on a fencing scholarship.
KES's fencing captain, Pip Nicolson, was also selected to compete with the national squad in Spain and was placed 71st. Other KES trained boys unavailable for the event included Matthew Sorel-Cameron and David Brenda, meaning the region had produced half of the eight places available to the team.
The other KES trained boys for the worlds are the Vanston-Rumsey brothers -Kit, 15, and Nick, 18, from Coventry. They will represent the Republic of Ireland.
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KES's Kirby bags bronze - Journal, Thursday, 31 January 2002
PETER Kirby from North Littleton (Chipping Campden School), won the bronze medal in the cadet (U-17) international tournament in Pisa, Italy in one of his best performances to date.
The 16-year-old now has the national cadet ranking title in his sights for 2002. Tim Perry, also 16, from Coventry (Blue Coat School) fought well enough in the same event for the épée to secure the second rank position for the World Championships.
In the sabre, the second Briton was KES's Robin Allen (16) from Stratford-on-Avon, who came 11th, confirming himself as one of the best young fencers in the country. This result increases his lead over the other boys competing for the coveted third place in the World Championships team.
Other local boys in Pisa were Tom Musgrave, 15, from Clifford Chambers, and Mike Stone, 16, from Wellesbourne, (both KES). Musgrave produced an excellent, controlled performance to win two victories in the preliminary round and make the cut to the all important elimination stage of the event. Stone and Rumney were both eliminated.
With one more qualifying event in Logroño, Spain this weekend, King Edward VI School's Shakespeare's Swords hopes to have six fencers taking up to 14 of the places in the various teams and disciplines.
Will Garrity (18) from Chipping Campden, who now trains with his Polish coach in London, makes a sixth local fencer trained by the Stratford club. Garrity will lead the junior (U-20) men's sabre team, and Ebrington's Louise Bond-Williams will lead the women in the same events.
The top ranked Republic of Ireland boys are the Vanston Rumney brothers, Kit (15) and 17-year-old Nick from Coventry (King Henry VIII School).
The Irishmen make the compliment of youngsters from the Stratford centre. They all will be going into full time training in their run up to the great challenge of the worlds in Antalya, Turkey, from 1 to 8 April 2002.
The finals selections will be made on Monday after the last qualifying events.
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Swords' sense of pride and scent of success - Journal, Thursday 24 January 2002
STRATFORD is not only famed for Shakespeare plays, but also for Shakespeare's Swords - the fencing club based at King Edward VI School.
The school produced one of the annual British youth circuit events for sabre cadets (under 17) last weekend and hosted more than 70 young fencers from all over the country as well as visitors from Germany and the Republic of Ireland.
Many of the local competitors proudly wore their national colours on their kit as they battled for the prizes on offer. As one of the annual national series the results also went towards the ranking lists for international call-ups in the future.
Richard Brenda (15) from Alcester (Alcester High School) won the boys' event from Robin Allen (16) from Stratford (KES) by 15-10. The whole of the last 16 had given some marvellous displays of fencing and the final was no exception.
The two semi-finals between Brenda and Peter Kirby (16) from North Littleton (Chipping Campden School) and Allen with 15-year-old Kit Rumney from Coventry both went to the very last hit.
In the Allen against Rumney match, the former was the more assertive and controlled, but a very determined Rumney was not to be cast aside lightly.
In the other, it was Brenda who was truly on fire, and left the more experienced Kirby to fight a rearguard action always under pressure.
The four Stratford fencers had taken out the visiting opposition in the quarter-finals with none of the highly-ranked Brentwood and Bristol boys making more than 11 hits.
Rumney had destroyed the tough 13 year-old Anthony Crutchett from Brentwood 15-4, which was a notable achievement for the young Irishman.
In the girls' event, top local place went to Coventry's Lauren Sewell. Fourth seed Sewell took out an on-form fifth seed Catherine Ashworth from Bath, in an impressive show of controlled technique.
Sewell had forced Ashworth to revert to sheer power and speed, which she calmly dealt with by superior tactics and skills. The rôles were reversed in the semi-final, where she met the overbearingly powerful Robynne Stenner and found the task too daunting.
Clara Ross from Coventry had fought through to the quarter-finals and was fencing well. In the last eight she met the eventual winner, Jo Hutchison. Ross simply went down to the greater experience and skill of one of the top British cadets. Hutc-hison has already fenced in the World Youth championships and is one of the top tips for the team in April.
Louise Creechan (12) (Strat-ford Girls' GS) had a really good day, discovering the rewards from her training. She had arrived in the last 16 seeded in sixth place and, although her fencing didn't deteriorate, she lost the aggressive, confident assertion she had had up to that point and went out to Bath 14-year-old Emma Croker 15-7.
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Brenda Helps Lift Cup - The Stratford Standard, Friday January 18, 2002
Alcester High School pupil Richard Brenda was the youngest member of a triumphant Warwickshire fencing team which won the Inter-Counties 2002 Cup in Nottingham at the weekend.
The Northern Counties Championship pits the best fencers from six counties against each other in foil, epee and sabre.
Brenda who trains with Shakespeare's Swords based at King Edward School in Stratford, was the youngest fencer in the championship and the youngest anyone could remember being selected.
He fenced with the three-man sabre team in a Warwickshire squad of 15. The sabre team won all of their matches, Brenda winning 11 of his 15 individual fights, and his team-mate and coach Peter Rome won the individual sabre title.
The sabre team easily beat Lancashire 9-0, but had closer competition against Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire who were both beaten 5-4.
Warwickshire men's epee team and the women's foil team also won their sections to clinch the cup.
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