Fencing is an ancient sport that has been modified and improved over hundreds of years. Fencing is one of only five sports that has never been absent from the Summer Olympics and is regarded as a very prestigious sport. While traditionally fencing was until first blood was drawn, the sport has developed and along with it strict safety measures in the way of protective gear and rules have been set in place. Fencing has long been regarded as a safe sport for participants and spectators to enjoy.

In fencing there are three main weapons, or styles of fencing, these are Foil, Épée, and Sabre.

Foil is the most commonly fenced style in New Zealand and is used by most coaches here to teach the basics of fencing. Many students then branch out to try the other weapons, while they can appear quite similar to spectators, the rules vary significantly between each style.

In foil participants wear a metalic vest called a lamé which is the target for their opponent to hit with the tip of the blade. A foil is lightweight compared to the other weapons and has a smaller hand gard. Foils have a small button on the tip that must be pushed down on the oponents target in order for a point to be scored. If both oponents hit at the same time a referee is used to make a decision as to who had the right of way and over all who gets the point awarded to them.

Épée is slightly different in that the oponents whole body is your target so participants do not wear lamés like in the other styles. Épées have a larger hand guard than foils to protect the users hand better from the heaver much stiffer blade that is used. Just like with foil points are scored by pushing down the tip of the weapon on your target. In épée both opponents can score a hit at the same time if they hit within 40 milliseconds (1/25 of a second) as each other. While this sounds difficult it actually occurs quite frequently.

Sabré participants, like in foil, wear lamés however instead of just covering the chest and back the target for sabre extends down the arms and also includes the mask that participants wear as valid target. The key thing that separates sabré from the other styles is the way the weapon works, instead of a button on the tip, participants can score against their oponent using any part of the blade and any level of contact on target will mean they are awarded a point. Like in foil if oponents hit each other at the same time a referee decides who gets the point based on the rules.

On the 9th December we held our AGM for 2015 - we had a fantastic year with huge growth in fencer numbers and participation (+30%), and outstanding results across all levels of competition.

Looking towards 2016, we have populated our calendar with our events and you can check out the year view here. Next year we host three national competitions, National U15 & U17 Championships, North Island Championships, and National Secondary School Championships.

We are maintaining the same Fencing North affiliation fee structure - once Fencing NZ announce their fees we can work out what the total fees next year will be.

There is a shuffle within the Fencing North Executive with John Garelja and Eric Buisman swapping roles for 2016. Eric will be President, John will be Vice President, Linda Boyd remains as our Treasurer and Oliver Agnew remains as our Secretary. On behalf of the community we thank them for all their hard work this year and wish them the best for the 2016 fencing season!

Minutes from the AGM are available here: AGM Minutes 2015

Fencing North Annual General Meeting Minutes 2015

Meadowbank Community Centre, 7.30pm – 9th December 2015

Attendees:

Meeting starts 7.30pm

1. Apologies:

Apologies from Anya Kamynina, Matthew Hill, Jessica Gracie, Kende Nagy, Chantelle May

2. Confirmation of Minutes from Previous AGM

Nicola Buisman moves these are true and accurate. John Garelja seconds. All in favour

3. Matters Arising from Previous AGM

No matters arising

4. President's Report

John Garelja moves we accept his report. Jeremy Dyson seconds. All in favour.

5. Vice-President's Report

Eric Buisman moves we accept his report. Linda Boyd seconds. All in favour.

6. Treasurer's Report

Linda Boyd moves we accept this report. Laura Harvey seconds. All in favour.

7. Treasurer's Report

Oliver Agnew moves we accept this report. John Garelja seconds. All in favour.

8. Election of Executive Officers

President: Eric Buisman is duly elected as no one else is standing against him.

Vice President: John Garelja is duly elected as no one else is standing against him.

Secretary: Oliver Agnew is duly elected as no one else is standing against him.

Treasurer: Linda Boyd is duly elected as no one else is standing against her.

9. Setting of Fees for 2016

Oliver Agnew moves that in 2016 we maintain the sames fees that were set for the 2015 year - that we set the Fencing North affiliation fee to students at $0, and the affiliation fee for non-students to $30 for associates and $40 for full members. Seconded by Daniela Ravera. Majority in favour - two votes against.

Meeting closes at 8.33pm

Have you ever wondered about taking up fencing as a hobby? Well, now you have more than one reason to pursue your interest, since this fast moving sport is a wonderful brain exercise.

Check out this article by Neurobic on how Fencing sharpens your brain:

http://www.neurobic.com/blog/brain-exercise/fencing-may-help-cognitive-health/

Congratulations to Chantelle May from North Harbour Fencing Club on placing 3rd in Under 13 Girls Foil at the Y-Sparks International Fencing Cup in Singapore. The event was held at the famous Marina Bay Sands. Awesome work!

 Fencing North Annual General Meeting - 2015

Wednesday 9th December 2015, 7.30pm

Meadowbank Community Centre

Notice is given that Fencing North's AGM for the year shall be held on the 9th December 2015 at 7.30pm in the Meadowbank Community Centre, 29 St Johns Rd.

The AGM is where we elect our Executive Officers and set affiliation fees for the following year. All Fencing North members are encouraged to attend this meeting and to exercise their rights to vote. If you cannot attend the meeting you can give your vote to another member to cast by proxy - if you want to do this you need to email Oliver Agnew (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) to inform who holds your vote.

Nominees for Executive Positions:

We are looking for nominations for the Executive Officer Positions in 2016. Nominations are open to any member of Fencing North, if you would like to nominate someone to a position please send your nomination to Oliver Agnew (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) before the 27th November. See below the agenda for the descriptions of the roles.

The current Executive Officers are:

• President: John Garelja
• Vice President: Eric Buisman
• Treasurer: Linda Boyd
• Secretary: Oliver Agnew 

Agenda:

1. Present / Apologies
2. Confirmation of minutes of the previous AGM
3. Matters arising from previous AGM
4. President's report
5. Vice-President's report
6. Treasurer's report
7. Secretary's report
8. Election of the Executive Officers
9. Setting of Affiliation Fees for 2016

Description of Executive Officer Roles:

President:

The President presides at all Fencing North meetings. The President also represent's Fencing North at the Fencing New Zealand Board. The President shall ensure that all proper records of Fencing North's business are kept by the Secretary and that proper financial records are kept by the Treasurer. In situations where voting at Fencing North meetings is tied, the President will have the casting vote.

Vice-President:

The Vice-President acts on behalf of the President in meetings where the President cannot be present.

Treasurer:

The Treasurer is responsible for the financial affairs of Fencing North.

At the Annual General Meeting the Treasurer is to present the Financial Report and Balance Sheet to the meeting and be prepared to answer any questions arising.

Secretary:

The Secretary shall keep a record of all Fencing North meetings. The Secretary shall also be responsible for proper keeping of all correspondence, and the records relating to the business and affairs of Fencing North.

Please arrive 15mins before your event starts to complete registration.

You need to be affiliated to compete at this event. This year's affiliation form can be found here: Affiliation Form 2015

We are really excited to announce that we have bought 4 new sets of competition fencing gear! The first part of it arrived last week (see the image below).

So far we have 4x new sets of electric scoring machines and spools, and 2x new professional testing machines (one kindly donated by Daniel Chan from Mainland Fencing). We are also in the process of ordering 4x new lightweight pistes.

Part 1 of our order has arrived - 4x new boxes, 8x new spools & ground wires, 2x new pro testing boxes

So why did we get all this new gear and what are we going to do with it? It's simple - we want to provide fencers with the best competition experiences, and to do this we need to buy more gear! Over the past two years we have seen huge growth in fencer numbers, and as they grow we need to grow with them - it was obvious that we needed more gear for all the new fencers we have (and the fencers yet to come!). Lots of our competitions needed more gear to run than what we had - we would have to borrow scoring machines from other clubs and fence on the gym floors. 

All the new gear we have ordered is the best quality - this means it is highly durable, you get a great grip on the pistes so chances of being injured are much lower than fencing on gym floors, and it is fully compliant with international fencing equipment standards. Now we will be using exactly the same high standard equipment at all our regional events as the gear used for national and international events!

As we are sure you all know - fencing equipment is pretty expensive - especially the gear used for competitions! We want to say thank you to all the fencers, parents, and volunteers  who support us and our events - it makes it possible for us to provide the best competitions we can.