Brixton Sabre Fencing Club

In Autumn 2022, we took the tough decision to close down Brixton Sabre. It's taken us a little time to dispose of all of our excess kit and to sort out our finances. When the dust finally settled this month, we had just over £4,000 left in our bank account. We didn't set the club up to make money for ourselves - the profit for us lay in having a club to fence at - so we decided to donate that leftover money to the Norwood and Brixton Foodbank. It's a fantastic cause that genuinely sets out to help the less fortunate in our community. You can find their donations page here: https://www.justgiving.com/norwoodbrixton-foodbank

Ceri, Marc, Omar and Paolo would like to say thank you to all the fencers who joined us at Brixton Rec, over Zoom during the pandemic and in the various venues we found for ourselves since. It's been an amazing pleasure to give so many experienced sabreurs somewhere to fence and to afford so many beginners the chance to take up the sport. All the best to each and every one of you for the future.

Enjoy the sunshine today, then come and fence with us this evening. Only 3 more sessions (including tonight) before we finish for the summer.

7.30pm at the Jubilee Halls SW2 2LY.

It may be half term but we're not taking a break yet. Fencing is still on tonight, from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. See you there! Toy Story aliens strictly optional...

Busy weekend for one of our fencers. got a late call up to replace an injured fencer in the Great Britain sabre team at the Veteran European Team Championships in Hamburg. He flew out on Friday and competed in 4 of the team's 7 matches on the Saturday. They didn't come back with a medal (losing to Spain, the eventual winners, in the quarter finals) but did finish a very creditable 5th, bearing Italy 45-44 in a nail-biting playoff for the minor places.

Dig out your kit. We're starting our summer term of fencing tonight in the Jubilee Halls. 7.30pm start.

Sorry everyone, but we're going to have to cancel fencing tonight. The tube strike means that Coach Paolo won't be able to make it and we're pretty sure that it's going to make getting to the session difficult/impossible for a lot of others too. Enjoy a night off and we'll see you next week!

Fencing is on this evening! Otto the Happy Octopus has a few Covid-related announcements to share if you're planning on attending...

1 - If possible, could people try and do a lateral flow test before coming.
2 -If you haven't been able to do a lateral flow test, but think that you're displaying symptoms, please stay away.
3 - We will be asking people to wear masks when they're not fencing or warming up.

This went fairly smoothly last week and hopefully will help keep everyone safe and well.

Fencing resumes tonight in the Jubilee Halls! Really looking forward to seeing you all! There are a couple of things to note from a Covid viewpoint:

1 - If possible, could people try and do a lateral flow test before coming.
2 - If you haven't been able to do a lateral flow test, but think that you're displaying symptoms, please stay away.
3 - We will be asking people to wear masks when they're not fencing or warming up.

Apologies for the faff but hopefully these added precautions will help keep everyone Covid-free!

Some advice for beginners looking to acquire kit of their own. There is a good guide on The Fencing Shop site to the basic kit requirements (https://www.thefencingshop.co.uk/equipment-what-to-buy/) that gives definitions of what all the bits are. Definitely look at it before buying anything. That said, we've tried to boil down the basics for you here. Any problems or bits you don't understand, feel free to post below or just collar a senior fencer at training and ask for advice. We'll be happy to provide it.

Always remember: you don't have to buy every single bit of kit at once. It's fine to buy in dribs and drabs, using the communal club kit to fill in the gaps. Think about starting with a jacket and breeches, perhaps. Maybe a plastron too. Then move on to things like gloves and masks. And a lame. When you get a sword is entirely up to you. It's a bit counter-intuitive, but a sabre is not necessarily the first thing that you want to buy.

There are basically two types of fencing clothing, that rated to 350 Newtons and that rated to 800 Newtons. 350 Newtons jackets and breeches are great for fencing in the club and for most UK domestic competitions – they will also be a bit cheaper. 800 Newtons kit is more expensive but it's required if you want to fence a major international competitions like the Olympics. If you can afford the 800 Newtons kit, then go for it. Otherwise, 350 Newtons is absolutely. You can always upgrade later if you want or need to. All the kit sold in the UK meets the same basic safety requirements.

In addition to the jacket and breeches, you'll also need a plastron (the fabric protector that you wear under your jacket over the shoulder of your sword arm). To fence using electric equipment, ones rated to 800 Newtons are mandatory.

For sabre gloves, if you intend to do pretty much any sort of senior competition (UK or abroad) 800 Newton gloves are now also mandatory. Of the suppliers below, only Leon Paul, Allstar and PBT seem to sell them. They usually go for about £50. Other gloves are acceptable for use in the club though. Non sabre gloves (without a silvery mesh cuff) can be used in the club for training and – with the use of a detachable lame cuff – for electric fencing.

Masks - make certain that you're buying a sabre mask (plain steel with a lame bib) instead of a general purpose foil/epee one (black plastic coating over the metal mesh of the bib). The cheapest sabre masks are about £60.

Sabres - the cheapest complete new electric sabre you can buy will be just under £40 (sword price fighters). Be aware that to use it with electric kit, you will also require a body wire to go with it. These cost between £10-£20.

Lames - the silvery metallic mesh garment worn over the top of the jacket. These are obviously essential for anyone wanting to fence in a competition. However, for sparring using the electric equipment at the club, we can lend you one of the club lames. That said, demand is limited and in the times of Covid, you may want to get one of your own. Sword price fighters have them for £75.

Right, on to the suppliers. They all operate primarily online and there are often some hidden delivery costs that you don't discover until you get to the checkout. Watch out for that. We've put the links for all of them below with a few bits of annotation if it felt necessary (or if we had anything interesting to say). …

www.leonpaul.com - the blue riband fencing brand. Their basic range of clothing is the Spartan range (jackets about £75, breeches £72). It's 350 Newtons and perfectly acceptable for club and most domestic UK competitions. If you actually want to visit them and try kit on, they're based in Hendon in North London, about ten minutes walk from the Thameslink station.

www.allstar-fencing.co.uk - a quality German brand (for some things they cost more than Leon Paul these days – this may be a Brexit thing). Their basic clothing range is the Classic Competition 350 range (jackets £94, breeches £60).

www.pbt-uk.com - another quality brand. They have a physical shop in Aldershot if you want to visit (jackets £94, breeches £64).

http://www.bladesbrand.com/ - Good, slightly cheaper kit than the first three. Has a physical shop in Slough. Club/competition Plus is their basic range (jackets £54, breeches £60)

www.excalibursports.co.uk - Another more affordable option. Camelot range is their basic (jacket £55, breeches £44).

www.thefencingshop.co.uk - Usually fairly cheap but slightly more expensive than swordpricefighters (jacket £55, breeches £45).

www.swordpricefighters.com - Normally the cheapest kit, but all perfectly legal and safe for club use and in British domestic competitions. Great for starter bits and pieces of kit, as well as things like replacement sabre blades, body wires and little items. (jacket £45, breeches £37)

Equipment - What to Buy - The Fencing Shop When you or your child start fencing choosing kit can be confusing, this guide and other information on the site is to help you get the most from the sport while staying safe.

Congratulations to our Autumn 2021 beginners class! Tonight they fenced using electric kit for the first time and received their graduation certificates marking the end of the course (though hopefully just the beginning of their time fencing with us). Then we took them all off to the pub...

Our next course starts in January. Details on our website.