The Hunter River Times

The Singleton PCYC is set to host a fencing competition on Sunday, November 19, that will give local fencers a chance to showcase their skills.

The PCYC has had fencing lessons for the past two years, running a holiday promo in July 2021 before regular lessons began in October the same year.

Coach Eddie Bridge is an accredited level 1 fencing coach and is excited for the competition and the expansion of fencing in the area.

“I got into fencing because I had a niece that lived in Brisbane at the time, she got into fencing through high school and went on to become Australia’s number one woman foilist for a short period of time,” Eddie told The Hunter River Times.

“My children became interested and started fencing in Newcastle, but then they left and the bug bit me, so I continued on and when we had a change of coach, myself and a few other friends started coaching at Newcastle PCYC and things progressed and now I’m an accredited level 1 fencing coach.

“It’s been my ambition for the past four or five years to try and expand fencing in Regional NSW and living in the Hunter, it’s the obvious place to start.”

The competition will have U14s, U17s and novice events  and will bring together the Singleton, Newcastle, Maitland and potentially even Greater Sydney clubs together.

“The fencing competition is an age and experience-based competition, where the novice competition is essentially for adults and there’s a few novice adults in the Hunter Region, but if a teenager that’s new to fencing wants to join the adult novice and not fence against the more experienced U17s then they’re welcome to join the novice category,” Eddie said.

“More than anything though, it’ll be a chance for the fencers, particularly in Singleton, to get to know and meet fencers from some of the other clubs and see that fencing is bigger than just this little club here.”

On the day, the first foil events will start around 10am, while Épée events will start around 2pm.

“We hope to have at least two, maybe three, fencing strips going and fencing is obviously an intense, aerobic sport with noise, sights and sounds, so people are welcome to come and watch.”

So to see some fencers in action, head to the Singleton PCYC this Sunday November 19.

-Meredith Blair