Dingwall fielded its largest group of fencers in some years at the 2015 Highland Open with 4 (and a half) fencers taking part on Saturday 24 October.
Ben Kraft represented the club in his first competition in Men’s Sabre. Women’s Épée saw Shivonne Maclean in her first open while Men’s Épée saw Commonwealth medalist Tom Hoffmann aiming to regain the title and old hand David Ferguson returning to the circuit after a break of three years. Men’s Épée was also where the half came in as Dingwall Fencer Peter Hoffmann was entered under his other club, Culloden.
Although Ben went out in the first round of DE, he thoroughly enjoyed his first competition, and acquitted himself well taking his opponent to 15-10. He also won a box of chocolates in the raffle, so didn’t come home empty handed!
Shivonne gave a very good account of herself in the poules, going into the DE seeded 13. This made her the highest seeded player who actually had to fight to get through the incomplete L32. A 15-8 victory saw her comfortably through to the L16 where she was put out by the eventual bronze medalist resulting in a final, very credible, 13th place.
Both David and Peter went out in the L16 of the ME. David finishing a disappointing 25th, and Peter narrowly missing out on a place in the L16, going out 15-14 to end in 18th place. Tom entered the DE seeded 4th and a series of comfortable wins saw him in the final against Calum Johnston of Wallace Fencing. After fighting back to a draw, Tom managed to secure an 11-10 win in the dying seconds of extra time to regain the Men’s Épée title.
David And Peter went on to enter the secondary mixed épée competition. Coming through the poules in 5th and 1st place respectively both gained a bye through the incomplete L32 and both won their next fight to proceed to the L8. For David, that was as far as it went, narrowly missing out on the medals. For Peter, however, a place in the finals led to a silver medal, so a good result there.
All of our fencers enjoyed a great day of competition and craic. Massive thanks to all involved in the organising and running of the day.
Dingwall Fencing Club 