FIRST FENCING TOURNAMENT

Southland Times, Issue 23650, 27 October 1938, Page 8

FIRST FENCING TOURNAMENT

Eight Clubs Contest Dominion Titles CANTERBURY TEAM’S SUCCESSES With eight dubs represented, the first tournament of the New Zealand Amateur Fencing Association was held in Christchurch last week. The president of the Christchurch Swords Club (Mr E. C. Lewey, S.M.) opened the tournament and said that the occasion was a milestone in the history of the sport in New Zealand. He praised the organizers of the tournament who had shown enterprise, as the association had only recently been formed.

The Mayor (Mr R. M. Macfarlane) congratulated the association on the flourishing state of the sport and said he hoped that it would continue to grow. „ Clubs competing at the tournament were the Auckland, Christchurch, Invercargill and Wellington Swords Clubs, the Canterbury University College Fencing Club, Jenkins’s Swords Academy,, and the Nelson and Wigram Air Force Fencing Clubs. The tournament opened with the men’s Dominion teams championship and the provincial teams championship. The two teams championships were held concurrently, and both were won by Canterbury. Results were:—Canterbury A beat Wellington, 11 to 5; Canterbury B beat Royal New Zealand Air Force, 11 to 5; Wellington beat Canterbury B, 10 to 6; Canterbury A beat Auckland, 10 to 6; Royal New Zealand Air Force beat Auckland, 9 to 7; Canterbury A beat Canterbury B, 9 to 7; Wellington beat Auckland, 13 to 3; Canterbury A beat Royal New Zealand Air Force, 12 to 4; Canterbury B beat Auckland, 11 to 5. The result gave Canterbury A the New Zealand teams championship (men), the winning team Ining:—B. Cato, T. H. Farley, C. E. Purchase and J. G. D. Ward (captain). Second place was gained by Wellington, third place by Canterbury B, fourth place by the Royal New Zealand Air Force and fifth place by Auckland. The provincial teams’ championship (men) was also won by Canterbury A, second place going to Wellington, third to Canterbury B, and fourth to Auckland.

The women’s provincial teams’ championship was closely contested between Canterbury and Nelson and resulted in a win for Canterbury, which had the least number of points scored against it. The Nelson competitors showed good style, but they lacked finish to their movements and were inclined, to be heavy-handed. The Canterbury competitors had the necessary finish but they were troubled by the aggressive tactics of the opponents. The competitors in the New Zealand foils champioship for men had lost the tension of the first day, when they were strange to each other, and on the Saturday, the second day, some excellent fencing resulted. Play was very fast and light in a sabre competition and some spectacular fighting was seen in the epee competition. - . Results were as 1 follows:—■ WOMEN’S PROVINCIAL TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP.—NeIson beat Canterbury B, 14 to 2; Canterbury A beat Canterbury B, 15 to 1; Canterbury A drew with Nelson, 8 to 8. Canterbury A won the championship, Nelson was second and Canterbury B third.

NEW ZEALAND FOILS CHAMPIONSHIP

POOL A.—Semi-finals: S. Elsom (Canterbury) 12 points, 1; J. G. D. Ward (Canterbury) 12 points, 2; R. Mitchell (Invercargill) 12 points, 3; T. Farley (Canterbury) 10 points, 4. POOL B.—Semi-finals: L. D. Natham (Auckland) 12 points, 1; D. L. Donovan (Canterbury) 10 points, 2; B. Cato (Canterbury) 10 points, 3; B. H. Harcourt (Wellington) 8 points, 4. SABRE COMPETITION.—B. H. Harcourt (Wellington Swords Club) 1; J. Rose (Jenkins’s Swords Club) 2; N. F. Turner (Auckland Swords Club) 3; G. S. Evatt (Wigram Air -Force Club) 4; S. Elsom (Christchurch Swords Club) 5. EPEE COMPETITION.—L. D. Nathan (Auckland) 12 points, 1; J. G. D. Ward (Canterbury) 10 points, 2; C. E. Purchase (Canterbury) 6 points, 3; G. S. Evatt (Wigram Air Force) 6 points, 4; B. H. Harcourt (Wellington) 4 points, 5; J. Rose (Wellington) 2 points, 6; N. F. Turner (Auckland) 2 points, 7. DOMINION TITLES L. D. Nathan (Auckland Swords Club) was the winner of the men’s Dominion title, and Miss Y. M. D. Levvey (Christchurch Swords Club) won the women’s title. Both are the first holders of the titles. The tournament ended with the deciding of the championships. Miss J. Logan (Nelson Fencing Club) was runner-up for the women’s title, being close to winning. She had a good style and an excellent lunge, but her bent arm attacks were taken advantage of by Miss Lewey, who used the stop hit very successfully and kept well out of reach of Miss Logan’s attacks. Miss P. Ross (Christchurch Swords Club), who was third and Miss M. Andrews (Christchurch Swords Club), fourth, had the best styles and were much better to watch from a purely academic point of view. NATHAN LEFT-HANDED Nathan won the men’s championship with good tactical work. He is lefthanded, and has probably had more experience than any of the other competitors. He seldom attacked and scored most of his points by riposting by opposition from the low lines. Nathan rarely failed to make his opponent lead to him, and his style and tactics had the other competitors puzzled. J. G. D. Ward (Christchurch Swords Club) was runner-up, and fought well,, though roughly at times. His best bout from a fencing point of view was with G. S. Harcourt (Wellington Swords Club). The bout went to the time limit of 10 minutes, and, as each had scored four points, they fought on, Harcourt winning the odd point and taking third place. His style was very pleasing and his fencing orthodox. He was without doubt one of the best fencers in the contest.

Another excellent bout was that between R. Mitchell (Invercargill) and T. H. Farley (Christchurch Swords Club). They were evenly matched, and the bout ended in a draw, four points each. When the bout was continued, Farley won the odd point. Later R. Mitchell retired from the contest because of a leg injury. His style was excellent and his riposting very fast and he fenced well in spite of his injured leg. If Mitchell had been able to continue he would have had an excellent opportunity of winning the Dominion

title. D. L. Donovan (Canterbury College Fencing Club) fought very well throughout the series, and was unfortunate not to win more fights. Following was the final position of competitors in the men’s championship: L. D. Nathan (Auckland) 1; J. G. D. Ward (Christchurch) 2; G. S. Harcourt (Wellington) 3; S. Elsom (Christchurch) 4; R. Mitchell (Invercargill) 5; D. L. Donovan (Christchurch) 6; T. H. Farley (Christchurch) 7; B. Cato (Christchurch) 8.