Fencing club / fencers in Waterford?

pawsitiveleads

Hi!

I've just moved to Waterford, and was wondering if there happened to be any fencing clubs around?
I haven't fenced for years, but I've taken the notion again, so even if there was someone else that fences / used to, that was up for a meet, I'd love to know!

Cheers,

Alan

helibelly

Bad news Alan, moved to area some five years ago, there's no fencing clubs within an hour of Waterford, the nearest is Cork Uni, the rest are in Dublin, check out http://www.irishfencing.net for more info, I go to the opens when work allows (Epee) but regular fencing just doesn't happen. More than happy to do a bit of steam epee if you can find a venue!

pawsitiveleads

Cheers for the reply Helibelly. I had a feeling that was the case. I'm surprised by how little interest there is in the sport down here. I'm originally from the North, and it's getting more and more popular up there. I used to help run a club, but unfortunately all of the equipment was donated to another club when we closed it. If I had the money (and possibly a little more will), I would love to start a club down here. I might take you up on your offer at some point. Just give me a while to stretch out my hams!! It's been a long time since I last fenced, but I still have an epee in my bag I think
I'm crazily busy at the mo, but if you're up for it we can try and organise something soon.
Cheers!

helibelly

Cheers Paws, just pm sometime (but be aware I don't check it that often so don't be insulted if I don't reply straight away!).

mugs1

Hey just wondering if you are still thinking of setting something up?

Myself and a mate study a Japanese sword style at the moment and were looking for a way to study european style fencing.

We would deffinitely be interested in joining any club or study group that might be starting up.

Cheers,
Kieran

pawsitiveleads

Hi mugs,

At the moment I'm up to my eyes, and haven't had a chance to do anything, although there wasn't a great response to my original post
It'd be great to start a club, but there's quite a lot of equipment involved, so unless there was a group of experienced fencers willing to kinda share equipment for training new guys, I can't really see it happening. My own gear barely fits me because it's been so long since I fenced, and I'm left handed, so it's unlikely it'll be of use to anyone else.

I'm still up for trying to get something going, but it is a bigger task than it sounds.

helibelly

keep me in the loop if something kicks off.

pawsitiveleads

For sure Helibelly!
It would be incredible to get something going, but how would we get it started? I just don't know where to start unless I had thousands of euro and a venue
I was really hoping that there would just happen to be other fencers on the forum and willing to get something started.
We'll see what happens!

helibelly

Interestingly I've looked over the Irish Fencing Website and it doesn't really have anything. But from my experience in the UK the most important thing is insurance against accidents and the like, which is usually covered by membership to the national body. As for somewhere to meet up just for a bit of steam epee, the Waterford Crystal leisure centre has a suitable hall for hire at a very reasonable cost of 30 Euros an hour, plus they have a few slots in their evening available. If there was enough interest then you'd be looking at going down the club route with all that entails, however when I first came to Waterford I heard a rumour that WIT had at one time had a fencing club and had some kit hidden in the back of a locker somewhere. Plus a WIT based club would have a greater pool of possible recruits. Lastly, my dark secret of having a coaching qualification in foil (only the very basic club leaders qual) so technically I can teach!

pawsitiveleads

Where abouts in the UK are you from? I might have met you at an open before, but it would have been a long time ago.

Let me know if you find out anything more.

It's been so long since I fenced, I was looking at equipment and I was shocked to see that a foil mask now has a half lame bib!! When did that happen? Seemingly you can now get masks with interchangeable bibs too, so that makes alot more sense for multi-weapon fencers.

Just thinking, you don't happen to know Alex Meikle do you? She was my coach for a long time, and she was on the GB team.

helibelly

No doubt met on one of the opens, although it's been a good five years since I last fought in the UK (Lets think now, in no particular order trying to go from south to north, Essex open, Norfolk, Shropshire, Merseyside, Cardiff, Inverclyde and a few I'm sure I've missed!). I've fought over here in the Irish Open, the South Of Ireland and the Prof Duffy Memorial. All my kit is still in order, although it's all epee kit, but I'm biased when it come to the two other training weapons!:)

mugs1

Hey Lads,

Sorry first time back on the boards since my last post,

Myself and a friend were planning on buying our own gear anyway and maybe traveling to Cork for tuition.

So if you wanted to get something started we could maybe share the cost of the hall and Insurence and each person is responsible for buying their own gear,that way no one needs to take on to much responsibility early on!

but just some like minded people meeting up once or twice a week to train

obviosly both of you would need to take the lead with the teaching part, but my friend and I are quick studies and won't mess about

Cheers

Stickjesus

Sorry for bumping an old post but I was wondering if anyone has any news on fencing clubs in waterford