This year has seen a combination of success and development for the school's fencers, in both team and individual events. The most notable were the 1st places for the U18 and U16 teams in the National School Team Event and a 2nd place for the U14 team in the same tournament, all at foil. There was also success against Eton with the final score of 3-2 team wins for Westminster. There was again a strong showing from the foilists but congratulations must focus on the U14s for whom it was their first school match and they pulled it off with a solid win 45-32. There were further individual successes at several tournaments, with Dominic O'Mahony getting through to the last 64 of the Slough Open, gaining many ranking points in the process. Robert Shaw, Andrew Holgate, and Dominic participated in the British Youth Championships, coming 9th, 6th, and 3rd respectively.
Matthias Williams and Dominic O'Mahony were also invited to be in the English squad for the Home Internationals, where they came second losing narrowly to Scotland. Things were therefore looking very good going into the Public School Championships, at the end of last term and we made a good showing at the epee, before going onto to dominate the foil event, in which we won the foil shield for the third year in a row. This left us on the last day needing to produce a good performance in sabre but unfortunately we were overwhelmed by weight of numbers from Whitgift, who went onto win, and we ended the tournament in second place. We did however win the 'Paddy Power' cup for our strong junior team.
The fencers in the Lower School are maturing well and this is reflected in the increasing confidence and ability they show in competitions and at station. These achievements leave the team ideally placed for the coming season.
Patrick Agar
It has been a year of mixed success for the Fives players. We have had some excellent wins, notably against Harrow, Emanuel, Aldenham and Charterhouse. These were balanced by losses to Eton and Highgate, and thrilling, but narrow losses to Mill Hill and St Olave's. In addition we now have a regular fixture against City of London, who use our courts on a Wednesday, and we have restarted the fixture against St John's School in Leatherhead. Next time we must visit their rather unusual courts! The upper school players have, as always, managed to combine hard work on their game with a healthy sense of fun. In particular there is a strong sense of competition whenever they are playing against staff members! We have a strong U15 team and once again a very good crop of U14 players who show great potential if they stick with the sport.
Matt Wiseman has again been our coach, providing a healthy mix of disciplined training and match practice. Alex Mackenzie (College) has been Captain of Fives, assisted by Imran Coomaraswamy (College) as secretary, and the pair played together in the Nationals. Next year Paddy Ell (Liddell's) will be Captain and James Japhet (Milne's) will be secretary. Sadly this is my last year of Fives ...at least of the Eton variety. Michael Milner will be taking over as Master in Charge, and I wish him the best of luck - he has a fine group of players and staff to work with.
Ken Zetie