21 March 2018
Between March 13 and 15 Abingdon School competed in the Public Schools Fencing Championship which was initiated by the Army in 1890 and has been held at the Crystal Palace National Sports Arena since 1979. One of the most famous individual championship winners was Winston Churchill.
Abingdon has made a significant impact at this event in recent years and this year was our best yet. After a match that ran until the last second Harry Baston-Hall won the Junior Epee Championship, against an opponent from Stowe, and was presented with the Featherstone Cup. Rob MacLennan, the team Captain, came second in the Senior Epee Championship picking up a silver medal, after a nail-biting final, and Jacob Drew won bronze medals for both the Epee and Foil Championships for his age group. Ed Scott Payne was presented with the Mount Haes Champion at Arms Trophy for his points across the competition in all three weapons in his age group and earned a silver medal in the U15 Foil Championship. All members of our ten strong team made significant progress in the competition, with everybody competing beyond the initial poule rounds.
Additionally, the strength in depth of the Abingdon team resulted in four team trophies being presented to Abingdon School. The first was the Epee Cup, giving Abingdon recognition as the top epee school in the competition, across all three age categories. This is particularly satisfying as our club focuses on this weapon.
Our younger fencers demonstrated their strength in depth by winning the Whitgift Cup, awarded to the U15 boys team with the highest number of points across all three weapon categories. The team also won the Centenary Cup, which is awarded to the Boys’ School that has made the greatest increase in the number of points gained over the previous year’s Championships total.
Finally, Abingdon's team won the Pearson Cup which is awarded to the Boys’ School with the best results in all events in the Championships, with the exclusion of the three highest scoring schools overall. The winners in those categories all had teams that were significantly larger than Abingdon.
