Blog

Hi All

Welcome back to the minis’

It was good to see all of you this morning for the 9am to 10am session. Your new term goes on for 7 weeks ending on the 10th of December.  This does mean your fees are now due.  Please make payment here https://www.lewesfencingclub.org.uk/purchase/.

All other groups, Steam with Della and Gordon (10am-11am), Group Classes with Lewis, and Open fencing (Sundays and Wednesdays) are payable by Standing Order, if you have not set this up or are unsure please speak to Gordon or Della.

Wednesday night Fencing

Don’t forget we are still fencing on Wednesdays 7pm to 9pm, its currently a small group and we would love to see more of you.  This can be a drop in PAYG session, but if you come regularly you can add it to your Standing Order.  And don’t forget if you miss a Sunday session you can fence on Wednesday for free!!  This is open to everyone fencing in Lewis’s group and above.  If you are fencing with Della in the 10am group please speak to suitability for you to come to this session as there is no coaching.

Competitions

We hope you have all looked at the Competition door in the kit room, it details all the local (ish) competitions for both Adults and under 18’s .  The next hyper local its the Sussex Youth Championship on the 17th December more details can be found here http://www.sussexfencing.org/index.php/competition-list/107-sussex-county-youth-championships.  Please note strict age brackets will be in place, meaning the correct blade size will be enforced.  If you have any questions/need loan equipment, please ask Lewis, Della or Gordon.

Christmas Social

Our Christmas social will be unwrapped on the 10th December after Club, we will again be at the Dorset Arms, there are not many places that can dedicate an inside area for all of us hence we keep returning.  As always this is open to all your Family, the cost per ticket is £12.95.  Please see Della to sign up and pay for your tickets.

November the 5th

Yes we will be fencing next week on the 5th, we know Lewes has a big night the night before and of course, if you are out until the early hours we understand if you can’t make it.  For those of you coming from outside of Lewes, although they know how to party in Lewes they also know how to clear up and I doubt you will notice anything happened!!

Early Warning for Holiday Fencing

Whilst the mini’s last day will be the 10th of December we will partly be fencing through the Holidays.  Currently, this means the 17th, 20th, 27th and 3rd.  Note we will not be fencing the Sundays of the 24th and 31st.  If you feel you will miss your Sunday fencing fix, you can join us on the Wednesday at no extra charge.

We look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Ashley, Claire, Della, Gordon, Lewis and Simon.

The LFC Committee

Hi All

Just over a week now until term starts again (10th September), we hope you are all excited to get back into the swing of things.

Don’t forget we have some rather large changes starting on the 10th, so please do read this email to confirm the details.

Wednesday Nights

Firstly, hopefully, you have all been reading your emails, we now are fencing throughout the year* on Wednesday nights between 7pm and 9pm in the School Gym at the leisure centre.  This is open to everyone who fences electric, including Della and Gordon’s steam group.  Please note, this is not a normal club session but a purely fencing session, there will be no tuition unless one of the club coaches is available.

Sundays

The mini group will continue to fence as is, based on school terms, however for everyone else we will now be fencing all year around*. During the holidays the Sunday sessions will become mostly pure fencing sessions like Wednesday nights.

The mini session will continue to be 9am – 10am, with the rest of the club coming in for the 10am – 12pm session.
* When the centre is open and available to us, we think that will be approximately 48 weeks.

Coaching Sessions
Coaching will continue as previously with mini’s between 9am and 10am having Della as a coach.
Steamers 10am-11am with Della and Gordon.
Lewis will also run his group from 10am to 11am, for those who would like group coaching. 1-2-1 will also be available from 11-12pm with Lewis.

Whilst all but 1-2-1 coaching will finish at 11am all members who start at 10am will be able to fence until 12pm.

We are also looking to progress our existing coaches and get new ones on board. If you are interested please speak to Lewis.

You continue to need to be a member (pay by SO) to have coaching sessions. nb There may be times when we have to substitute coaches or they are not available.

Fees (some of you have already set this up so please ignore if you have done this already)

As we are now fencing all year around we will be changing the way we charge, for most members. We are trying to make payment easier for all concerned.

Minis: This will continue to be paid termly at the equivalent of £5 per week. Most of our terms are 6 or 7 weeks, so a termly fee will be £30 or £35, this can be paid here https://www.lewesfencingclub.org.uk/purchase/

For the rest of the club we will be asking you to pay by Standing Orders every month, you have two options of either 1 or 2 club visits per week (Sundays and/or Wednesdays).

For Adults, the costs per month will be £24 for 1 visit per week or £ 40 for two

For students and other concessions, the costs per month will be £20 for 1 visit per week or £32 for both.

We have three rules for this way of working:

1. Please set up with Standing Order ASAP to start from the 9^th September, details are below. Please email to let us know you have done this and whether you opted for 1 or 2 visits.
2. If you wish to stop fencing please let us know, it will be down to you to stop payment, our suggestion is you stop payment four weeks before you want to stop.
3. If you pay for 1 visit a week, you can use it either on a Sunday or a Wednesday, but you cannot fence twice in one week*³.

*³ Our weeks will start on a Sunday. 1 visit a week would be Sunday, or Wednesday.  You could mix the your days as long as you visited only once during our week.  If you did want to fence again during the week you would be able to do on PAYG rates.

PAYG Fees remain the same at £10 for adults and £8 for students and concessions for either a Sunday or Wednesday session.

Bank details

Name Lewes Fencing Club, Sort Code:60-13-09, Account Number 41630378 please use the member’s first full name and last name initial for the Reference.

Kit Room

This is really exciting, we now have our own kit room. This room is easily accessible to both halls and will allow us to store more kit to allow the club to grow further.  It’s not a big room so we have had to be creative with the way we store things and ask that when putting the kit back you do so properly. Thanks to everyone who has helped make this possible, it’s a great resource for the club and will mean we can grow.

Equipment
We are an extremely popular club and we have a lot of people still looking to start, to do this we need to have access to our kit.  From September you will not have a dedicated kit in a bag, instead, all the equipment will be available and hung up in the new store room.  So you know which kit you need we will have a handy chart on the wall and all equipment will be visibly marked, We took details of your sizes when we washed the equipment so that should make things a little easier in September but we do realise you may have grown so bare with us.

Just so you know, our kit is arranged in the following sizes.

Jackets: 1 through to 7, left right, and ambidextrous.

Trousers: 26 through 38

Plastrons: Small, Medium and Large

Masks: Small (Yellow), Medium (Blue), Large (Red), X-Large (Black)

Competitions

The Sussex Fencing Union is just discussing when competitions in our area will be run, we will keep you up to date as they are announced.

Societies Fair

Lewes will be holding its successful Societies Fair again on the 2^nd of September at the Town Hall, we have a stall so please pop by and see us, there may be sweets!!!.

What’s next?

Mini’s fees are available on the website now, for Steamers and above please set up your Standing Order asap to start from the 9^th September and let us know you have done so by email, please include how many visits a week so we know.  Wednesday nights will continue on our special PAYG rate until the 13^th September.

If you are planning on giving fencing a rest please let us know so we can make your space available. 

See you soon
Ashley, Claire, Della, Gordon, Lewis and Simon.

LFC Commitee

Contact: enquiries@lewesfencingclub.org.uk

As always, please follow us:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lewesfencingclub

Twitter: @lewesfencing

Instagram: Lewesfencingclub

Welfare

If you feel something is not safe, please tell one of the committee members who will look to rectify it. You can talk to us during the
session, or after the session via email,  enquiries@lewesfencingclub.org.uk If the issue is specifically welfare, i.e. child-related or
you do not feel comfortable emailing the main email please us welfare@lewesfencingclub.org.uk this will go directly to our Welfare Officer (Claire Cox).

 

Hi All

We hope you had a good summer, it’s a shame the weather has not been better but to cheer you up we are back on September 10^th, and we have some important changes, so please continue reading as these changes affect how people will pay fees for the coming sessions.  If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Wednesday Nights

Firstly, hopefully, you have all been reading your emails, we now are fencing throughout the year* on Wednesday nights between 7pm and 9pm in the School Gym at the leisure centre.  This is open to everyone who fences electric, including Della and Gordon’s steam group.  Please note, this is not a normal club session but a purely fencing session, there will be no tuition unless one of the club coaches is available.

Sundays

The mini group will continue to fence as is, based around school terms, however for everyone else we will now be fencing all year around*. During the holidays the Sunday sessions will become mostly pure fencing sessions like Wednesday nights.

The mini session will continue to be 9am – 10am, with the rest of the club coming in for the 10am – 12pm session.

* When the center is open and available to us, we think that will be approximately 48 weeks.

Coaching Sessions
Coaching will continue as previously with mini’s between 9am and 10am having Della*² as a coach.
Steamers 10am-11am with Della*² and Gordon*².
Lewis*² will also run his group form 10am to 11am, for those who would like group coaching. 1-2-1 will also be available from 11-12pm with Lewis*².

Whilst all but 1-2-1 coaching will finish at 11am all members who start at 10am will be able to fence until 12pm.

We are also looking to progress our existing coaches and get new ones on board. If you are interested please speak to Lewis.

You continue to need to be a member (pay by SO) to have coaching sessions.

*² There may be times when we have to substitute coaches or they are not available.

Fees

As we are now fencing all year around we will be changing the way we charge, for most members. We are trying to make payment easier for all concerned.

Minis: This will continue to be paid termly at the equivalent of £5 per week. Most of our terms are 6 or 7 weeks, so a termly fee will be £30 or £35, this can be paid here https://www.lewesfencingclub.org.uk/purchase/

For the rest of the club we will be asking you to pay by Standing Orders every month, you have two options of either 1 or 2 club visits per week (Sundays and/or Wednesdays).

For Adults, the costs per month will be £24 for 1 visit per week or £ 40 for two

For students and other concessions, the costs per month will be £20 for 1 visit per week or £32 for both.

We have three rules for this way of working.

1. Please set up with Standing Order asap to start from the 9^th September, details are below. Please email to let us know you have done this and whether you opted for 1 or 2 visits.
2. If you wish to stop fencing please let us know, it will be down to you to stop payment, our suggestion is you stop payment four weeks before you want to stop.
3. If you pay for 1 visit a week, you can use it either on a Sunday or a Wednesday, but you cannot fence twice in one week*³.

*³ Our weeks will start on a Sunday. 1 visit a week would be Sunday, or Wednesday.  You could mix your days as long as you visited only once during our week.  If you did want to fence again during the week you would be able to do on PAYG rates.

PAYG Fees remain the same at £10 for adults and £8 for students and concessions.

Bank details

Name Lewes Fencing Club, Sort Code:60-13-09, Account Number 41630378 please use the member’s first full name and last name initial for the Reference.

Beginners Courses and Taster Sessions

We will be going back to a full course for Adults but on a Wednesday.  Tasters for Minis and Steamers will continue on Sundays.  All will need pre-registering, but tell your friends.

Kit Room

This is really exciting, we now have out own kit room. This room is easily accessible to both halls and will allow us to store more kit to allow the club to grow further.  It’s not a big room so we have had to be creative with the way we store things and ask that when putting kit back you do so properly. Thanks to everyone who has helped make this possible, it’s a great resource for the club and will mean we can grow.

Equipment
We are an extremely popular club and we have a lot of people still looking to start, to do this we need to have access to our kit.  From September you will not have dedicated kit in a bag, instead all the equipment will be available hung up in the new store room.  So you know which kit you need we will have a handy chart on the wall and all equipment will be visibly marked, We took details of your sizes when we washed the equipment so that should make things a little easier in September but we do realise you may have grown so bare with us.

Just so you know, our kit is arranged in the following sizes.

Jackets: 1 through to 7, left right, and ambidextrous.

Trousers: 26 through 38

Plastrons: Small, Medium, and Large

Masks: Small (Yellow), Medium (Blue), Large (Red), X-Large (Black)

Website

Out website is getting dated, the images need updating and it just generally needs a refresh, is there anybody out there that has the skills to take this on?  The website is currently built using WordPress.  If you would like to do this please contact Gordon or Della so we can discuss it with you.

Competitions

We sent a team to the County Competition this year, what seemed like a low entry of 3 teams turned into 7 teams competing.  We did extremely well securing 3rd place. Well done to Will, Will, and Gordon.

September means a new season for competitions, whilst the county has not put the list together yet, when they do (probably before the 9^th) we will update you and will be here to support you should you wish to compete.  Support can come in many ways from helping with any additional kit needs/loans through to specific coaching.

Societies Fair

Lewes will be holding its successful Societies Fair again on the 2^nd September, we have a stall so please pop by and see us, there may be sweets!!!.

What’s next?

Mini’s fees are available on the website now, for Steamers and above please set up your Standing Order asap to start from the 10^th September and let us know you have done so by email, please include how many visits a week so we know.  Wednesday nights will continue on our special PAYG rate until the 13^th September.

If you are planning on giving fencing a rest please let us know so we can make your space available.

Ashley, Claire, Della, Gordon, Lewis and Simon.

The LFC Committee

Hi All

Well, that is us done for the year, sort of.  I would just like to say thanks to everyone who came fencing this year.  It is great to see so many fencers, we had 45 through the door today, with an average of 41 attending every week for the last 6 weeks. Thanks to everyone who came to the summer social this year, the most we have had, the BBQ was good and it seemed everybody had plenty to eat.

Wednesday Night Fencing (ALL YEAR).

Years ago when the club was smaller
there was a small trusty band of fencers who used to fence on a Wednesday Night, we have been listening and can now announce that we are bringing this back, starting this week on Wednesday 19th July from 7pm until 9pm in the
School Gym at the Leisure centre, this session is due to run all year round subject to any centre closures. 

This will be purely a sparring night with no coaching and no classes. For the first few weeks, it will only be open to those with all their own kit.  Gordon has taken the kit home and will be getting it cleaned by a local cleaning company, once this is back we will be looking at opening up to anyone who fences on piste regularly (i.e  Lewis’s group and adults, not Della’s classes). 

Please note those under 18 will be kept an eye on but will not be supervised in classes, they will be able to come and go as they would like.  Cost until September will be £6 (Adults) and £5 (Students and concessions) per week and will be collected on the night by cash or card. 

Location, This session will be in the school gym at the leisure centre, to find it go in the main centre doors as
usual and go up the long corridor on the right, after going through the double doors at the end turn right, go to the end of the corridor and turn left going up the ramp, follow this round and you will end up in the School Gym. As it is PAYG you do not need to tell us you are coming, you can just turn up.

For those of you who can make it on Wednesday we look forward to seeing you, if not then we wish you a great
summer, we will send another newsletter just before the new term, but so you can mark this in your Calendar terms starts on the 10th September.

See you all soon.

Ashley, Claire, Della, Gordon, Lewis and Simon.

The LFC Committee   Contact : enquiries@lewesfencingclub.org.uk

As always, please follow us:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lewesfencingclub

Twitter: @lewesfencing

Instagram: Lewesfencingclub

Welfare

If you feel something is not safe, please tell one of the committee members who will look to rectify it. You can talk to us during the
session, or after the session via email,  enquiries@lewesfencingclub.org.uk If the issue is specifically welfare, i.e. child-related or
you do not feel comfortable emailing the main email please us welfare@lewesfencingclub.org.uk this will go directly to our Welfare Officer (Claire Cox).

Welcome back to our new term, we hope you have had a great break and have not overindulged in chocolate eggs!

Our new term starts this Sunday 16th April.

Welcome to the committee

A big thank you to Ashley who has stepped up to be the parent representative on the committee, being there every week with two fencers he will bring a different view to the club and build on our current strengths.  There is still room for more and if you have any special skills you think would benefit the club (these include but not limited to, fixing hard and soft kit, marketing etc) and would like to get involved please do let us know.

Term Details

Dates: From 16th Apr to 21st May Apr (6 wks)

Session Layout

9-10: Mini Fencers group course with Della

9-9.30: 1-2-1 lessons with Lewis and or sparring*

9.30-10: Adults beginners courses, and if not 1-2-1 lessons with Lewis and or sparring*

10-11: Non electric/Steam group lesson with Della and Gordon

10-11: Teens electric group lesson with Lewis

10-11: Sparring

11-12: Sparring and 1-2-1 lessons with Lewis

1-2-1s and sparring is limited to just one court in the 9-10 session and will be offered on a first come basis.

Fees

Costs for this term are £30/£36.  Please make payment for the term asap, this can be done online here https://www.lewesfencingclub.org.uk/purchase/. PAYG is still available to people with their own kit who do not want any tuition and will just be sparring, the cost for this is £8/£10 per week.

Since the start of the fencing year (Sept 2022) we have had 881 visits to the club, an average of just over 35 people every week, keeping this up we will break the 1000 this term.  This makes us one of the most active clubs in the south east.  Well done to you all.

Competitions

Senior South East Epee: 28th May @ Longhill Sport Club BN2 7FR, you need to be 13 or older on the 1st January 2023 to compete.  Its our break for half term so no excuses!!!

Results

Tunbridge Wells SPITFIRE: The annual tournament for the seniors was held on the 11th March in Tunbridge Wells, as always the calibre of fencers was high with 12 teams entered.

The All Lewes Team of William K, Daniel and Gordon placed 7th. Finlay L was in an All Star team that placed 4th.  Well done to everyone who took part.

May Half Term Indigo Course

Maggie Maynard will be running another one of her successful Epee Training Courses in Worthing from 29th – 31st May (10am to 5pm).  A number of our fencers have done these courses before and come highly recommended.  If you are interested Della and Gordon have further details.

Dates for your diary

Summer Term: June 4th – July 16th

Summer Social: July 16th venue TBC

Grade 3 & 4 Assessments: July 8th

How to referee and check your weapon with a poule unique (practice for the 28th): 21st May, this will be instead of a group class, you can attend or just spar its up to you.

See you all on Sunday!!

Ashley, Claire, Della, Gordon, Lewis and Simon.

The LFC Committee

As always, please follow us:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lewesfencingclub

Twitter: @lewesfencing

Instagram: Lewesfencingclub

Welfare

If you feel something is not safe, please tell one of the committee members who will look to rectify it. You can talk to us during the session, or after the session via email,  enquiries@lewesfencingclub.org.uk If the issue is specifically welfare, i.e. child-related or you do not feel comfortable emailing the main email please us welfare@lewesfencingclub.org.uk  this will go directly to our Welfare Officer (Claire Cox).