Fencing at Buckswood

A group of Buckswood students attended the first session of the new Fencing Society this week, held in the Buckswood Sports Hall and lead by Mr Phillip Patterson, a senior fencing coach with over thirty years experience.
Kitted out in their masks, jackets, plastrons, breeches and gloves the eight students tried their hand at lunging, attacks, parries and ripostes armed with a foil. The group have started their training with a light weight foil, before progressing to the epee and then the sabre disciplines. Included in the group was Poppy Pittock, who is honing her skills as part of her Pentathlon training. Poppy is on the GB Talent programme, a fast track scheme to develop the country’s future Olympic hopefuls.
Next term, the Society will compete in local leagues and visit other fencing clubs. Toby Cuthbert, Buckswood’s Clubs and Enterprise Manager, said “It is always fantastic to see an absolute novice and discover a talent they never knew they had. At Buckswood, we pride ourselves on finding and nurturing talent. We often unearth talent that has previously lay undiscovered and have developed young ladies and gentlemen who have gone on to represent the UK in various fields including shooting and archery.”
The Clubs and Activities programme at the school offers a wide selection of things to try. The school is home to students from 48 different nations who can chose from activities such fishing, learning the bagpipes, kick boxing, computer gaming and all in all there are around 30 different disciplines for students to have a go at and find out if they are the next world number one!