To finish out a successful competition season full of firsts, UL Fencing sent two full teams to its first ever foil-only competition, the Crossbones Foil hosted by UCC. Both teams fenced well and had an amazing time, but the team of Joey Corbett, Cathal Kelly, and Kanvar Murray distinguished themselves further by placing third and bringing home an extremely hard-earned bronze medal! Many, many congratulations to them!

Three UL fencers made their way to Galway to compete in this year's West of Ireland Open, representing our club across both days of the competition and all three weapons. Marika Fox competed in Women's Sabre, Joey Corbett in Men's Épée, and Kevin Ryan in both Men's Foil and Men's Sabre. Everyone fenced well, and Kevin (in foil) and Marika both placed in the top 16 of their events!

One of our members, Marika Fox, joined a team to compete in the Trinity Cup competition in Dublin. She fenced for Women's Foil in this unique competition that requires six-person teams representing each possible gender/weapon combination. The collaborative effort between UL, UCC, and UCD fencers placed 7th overall!

Three members of UL Fencing travelled to Trinity College in Dublin for their Dublin Épée competition this year, with Joey Corbett competing in the Men's Épée event and Marika Fox and Rachel O'Malley entering the Women's Épée. A great time was had by all, and extra congrats goes to Joey for winning his first Direct Elimination match and climbing up the national Épée rankings! Awesome job!

UL Fencing made our first ever appearance this year at a senior open competition for sabre, travelling to Dublin for UCD's Belfield Sabre. Cathal Kelly and Nico Violot competed in the men's team and individual events, and Marika Fox did the same for the women's events. To add to the excitement of this accomplishment, Marika's team placed third and earned a bronze medal! Congrats to all!

The UL Wolves Fencing Club embarked on a thrilling adventure for their end-of-year social by visiting an escape room. Led by our dedicated member, Cathal, the club organized the outing, bringing together a large group of fencers. We divided into two teams, with my own team proudly adopting the name "Deep Fried Mars Bars." the best possible name. In a dungeon-themed room, our team swiftly solved the puzzles and escaped in record time. Meanwhile, the other team encountered a more challenging classroom-themed room that required extra effort and time. Regardless of the outcome, we all had a fantastic time, strengthening our bonds as a team through this exhilarating end-of-year activity.

In an exciting development for the UL Wolves Fencing Club, a new chapter unfolded as they ventured into the world of foil fencing. During a regular training session, the club's sabre coach, Marika Fox, generously offered to provide training in foil for anyone interested. To their delight, a significant number of members eagerly seized the opportunity. Under Marika's guidance, they learned the basics of foil fencing and dedicated an hour to practice. The session culminated in an incredibly enjoyable game of pirates, adding a thrilling twist to their newfound foil skills. This pivotal moment marked the club's transition into a full-fledged three-sword club, with many members, including myself, embracing the foil . The expanded repertoire promises exciting journeys and achievements for the UL Wolves Fencing Club in the realm of fencing.

At the beginning of the semester, the UL Wolves Fencing Club held its Annual General Meeting (AGM). Members gathered to discuss important matters and set the direction for the upcoming months. The AGM provided an opportunity to elect new club officials, review and approve the budget, and discuss plans for training, competitions, and social events. It was a productive and collaborative meeting, setting the stage for an exciting and successful semester ahead for the club.

Six members of UL Fencing travelled to Cork to compete in UCC's Schull Novice competition on November 5th-6th. This marked an exciting milestone for the club, having competitors in all three weapons at a single competition for the first time. This was also the first ever competition for three of our beginners, and extremely strong performances were given all around. An extra special congratulations goes to Lukas Bauer for winning the bronze medal in Men's Épée! Full results are as follows:

Men's Épée: 3rd Lukas Bauer, 22nd Brian Carroll

Men's Sabre: 8th Jack Nodwell, 10th Kanvar Murray

Women's Épée: 10th Áine Sweeney

Women's Sabre: 6th Marika Fox

Women's Foil: 8th Marika Fox

Well done to all!

The team of Cathal Kelly, Joey Corbett, Lukas Bauer, and Laurence Howard represented UL in the Men's Épée team event at the international Irish Open competition on October 23rd. Well done!

Well done to the four fencers that travelled to Cork to represent UL at the South of Ireland Open competition! Joey Corbett, Cathal Kelly, and Dillon Kotze competed in the Men's Epee event, and Marika Fox competed in Women's Foil. Special congratulations goes to Dillon for advancing to the second round of Direct Eliminations!

UL Fencing club will be hosting our first national competition since 2012, called Wolves Novice Épée!

It takes place in the UL Arena on April 2nd. Novice fencers from around Ireland can compete. This competition only has one of the three fencing weapons, the épée (epp-ay). 

Men's Épée starts at 10.00

Women's Épée starts at 11.00

Congratulations to our members who won medals at this year's Schull Novice Cup! 

Shalom Nazir - Bronze Women's Épée

Marianne Blin - Bronze Women's Épée

Katie Gurnee - Gold Women's Foil. She also took home the Schull Women's Cup!

Well done to everyone that competed! It was a great competition!

Congratulations to our members who won medals at this year's Schull Novice Cup! 

Shalom Nazir - Bronze Women's Épée

Marianne Blin - Bronze Women's Épée

Katie Gurnee - Gold Women's Foil. She also took home the Schull Women's Cup!

Well done to everyone that competed! It was a great competition!

Congratulations to our members who won medals at this year's Schull Novice Cup! 

Shalom Nazir - Bronze Women's Épée

Marianne Blin - Bronze Women's Épée

Katie Gurnee - Gold Women's Foil. She also took home the Schull Women's Cup!

Well done to everyone that competed! It was a great competition!

As you may be aware, the current Covid-19 wave in India is at crisis level. We are proposing a fundraiser challenge to raise funds and awareness. We are urging all clubs and societies to take part and donate what you can. The cases in India are increasing rapidly on a daily basis. Unfortunately, hospitals are not equipped to deal with the high number of patients. The development of variants of Covid-19 may have a serious effect, both in India and globally. We have decided to run a ‘Tag and Donate’ fundraiser on Instagram in aid of Oxfam via our GoFundMe, 'Irish University Clubs Covid-19 Relief.' Oxfam is providing PPE to frontline health workers and supplying oxygen to those who need it most.

To take part:

• 1. Share a picture of a funny/happy memory with your club or society on your Instagram story or page
• 2. Donate to Oxfam via the GoFundMe link
• 3. Use the Hashtag #IrishClubsCovidRelief and challenge three friends by tagging them.
  

Introducing our brand new weekly fitness and footwork classes!

Time: Tuesdays at 7pm

Meeting link: https://meet.skynet.ie/fencing

Everyone can join, no fencing experience required. Learn all kind of stretches, exercises, and routines for keeping fit and healthy at home! We will also be going through some fencing footwork, and bladework if any members have their swords at home!  

Last Thursday the 27th of February we had our EGM to fill vacant committee positions, discuss the future of the club and to plan some fun events!

We elected 3 new committee members, we now have a full core committee  again! A few members on the committee had to give up their positions over the past year for various reasons so there were openings for Treasurer, PRO, and an Ordinary Committee position!

It was great to see members (and especially first years) applying for positions, this showed that members are interested in keeping to club running and progressing. 

Thanks to everyone who applied, you make sure we have a strong, productive committee for the year! 

Hey everyone,

Unfortunately, this week was the last official training we have this semester, due to the PESS building being used for exams. We had a great time fencing this year. I hope to see everyone next semester, but of course we'll be sad to see some of our international students go!

We'll try to arrange some small training sessions over the holiday, if anyone is still in Limerick and interested!

Best of luck,

Joey,

Secretary, UL Fencing

UL Fencing sent 3 of our members to the Schull Novice tournament in UCC, Cork on the 2/11/19.

We are delighted to announce that one of our members, Katie Gurnee, came second in the women's épeé tournament. After such a nailing biting final with both fencers at equal points, we are so proud of Katie!

Cian Rowan and Joey Corbett also did very well for their first tournament, coming 16th and 15th respectively. Both won their first round of matches!

Overall, we did very well at Schull Novice this year, especially since UL Fencing has not gone to a competition in over 3 years! We hope this is the first of many!