davidcook

So, last weekend was the first state fencing tournament of the year, and my first since we came back to Australia. I came 6th (out of 20 entries) in the men's epee, rwrylsin came 3rd in the women's sabre. It's a bit of a change for us, fencing in such small competitions. For comparison, the Glasgow Open was also held last weekend :

Event	Melbourne	Glasgow Open
Men's Foil	21	84
Women's Foil	5	25
Men's Sabre	3	32
Women's Sabre	7	15
Men's Epee	20	59
Women's Epee	7	19

The Glasgow Open attracted fencers from as far afield as Manchester, Liverpool, London, as well as "locals" from all over Scotland (including Orkney and Shetland fencers) - so people travelled up to around 450km to get there). The Melbourne tournament attracted fencers from ... all over Melbourne (that includes the Peninsula Fencing Club (based in Frankston) and Chevalier (based in the Dandenongs)).
I wonder if there'd be increased participation around here if results could be counted towards national rankings, in the way they are in the UK ? Or maybe it's time to get into coaching and try to raise an army of epeeists ...