Aldershot Open success for RFC fencers

A total of 8 fencers from RFC (Alain Barbasiewicz, Lewie Jackson, David Hillier, Steven Bateman, Philippe Barbasiewicz, Ashlee Grainger, Niall Maynard, Dan White and William Hoodless) travelled to the Aldershot Open – hosted at the Army’s School of Physical Training – for the first major competition of the new year.

Ashlee Grainger was eliminated in the L32 of the Women’s Epee, losing by just one hit, 15-14, in a closely fought match.

In a field of 77 fencers in the Men’s Epee event, after the first round of pools the RFC fencers were mostly drawn in the same half of the direct elimination draws and so it was inevitable clubmates would need to fence each other.

In the incomplete L128 bouts, Dan White beat his opponent to progress to the L64 where he was then knocked out, whereas Niall Maynard and William Hoodless lost their L128 matches. Lewie Jackson also fell at the L64 stage to clubmate Alain Barbasiewicz.

David Hillier managed to progress as far as the L32, also losing to Alain Barbasiewicz, who then lost a close match in the L16. Alain’s victor then went on to knock out both Philippe Barbasiewicz in the quarter finals and Steven Bateman in the semis respectively, both in extra time by one hit.