Saluting the First Fencing Competition

31st January 2012

Drapers' Academy pupils entered their first fencing competition since taking up the sport in September, against Billericay School this evening. The pupils performed in all three categories; foil, sabre and epee, which use similar fencing techniques but different weapons. They are also scored differently, with foil points are gained by making contact with a limited area of the torso, sabre has a larger target area of torso including the head but uses a similar weapon to foil; whilst epee uses a slightly heavier weapon and has the entire body as a target area.

All paricipants wear protective clothing and follow the very diginified protocol of the sport with a sword salute and handshake with their opponents. An historic sport with its history in the UK traced back to the 16th century, the literal meaning of fencing is "the action or art of the sword". 

The pupils own performance against some of the finest East England fencers was inspiring with Drapers' Academy winning 2 of the 4 matches, so a draw was declared (although on points Billericay School just edged ahead of us!). It was a tremendous performance by all pupils but notable for being unbeaten were Pauline Siasat with the epee, Precious Adewale with the foil, and Kye Fullbrook with the sabre.