For the last few years now a large group of our juniors have been participating in the NSW junior championships, a competition that has grown into the de facto National Championship for U9, U11 and U13 age groups. The Victorian team is known as the VicBandits.
The event has grown so much is the past few years that is now an Oceania competition with competitors from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Singapore.
Last year the Victorian team counted 21 including U9, U11 and U13 fencers. It is a great trip both socially and developmentally, one which the kids look forward to with a surprising level of enthusiasm. For competitive fencers, this is the peak event of the year and a very exciting time. 2 days of individual and teams comps, with participation in all events out stripping anything local (with the exception of Schools League epee!).
As a team, the VicBandits have had remarkable results each year. Fencing Victoria is recognising the growing importance of the VicBandits and this year they will be sending an official team manager, Kayt Spano. Brook Dunstan will continue to serve as the team coach for 2014.
NSW Championships and ‘Friendship Cup’, 2014
Weekend of the 29th & 30th November, 2014
Please see attached invitation for weekend timetable
Events include U9, U11 & U13 foil, epee and sabre. Team events in all categories.
Entry is $15 for each extra event you enter*. Entry into Team Events is free. Epee Hire and Body Wire Hire, can also be paid for via the Transaction Portal.
Team Management Fee: $48.00 per fencer.
Vic Bandits T-Shirts: $22.00
Team’s events are free entry.
*From experience, if you plan to try and do, or think you might do a second weapon or age group, it is cheaper to register on spec before you go. Entry on the day attracts the NSWFA late entry fee of $40.00, an expensive last minute decision.
Due to the continuing growth of the event NSWFA has altered the timetable for 2014. Please see below for details. It is essential that all returning VicBandits look at the new times and not make plans on the way things have run in the past.
In essence, this is a full weekend. Plan to arrive at latest by Friday night (28th) and DO NOT book departing flights before 8pm on Sunday unless you are absolutely certain you will be finished. We do not want to have to see another competition leader forced to abandon or miss their flight, sometimes the competitions can go on much later than expected! So, if you are fencing only on Sunday morning, you can book a flight home after 3pm, but if you have an afternoon event, please do not book flights before 8pm.
Team competition is an important part of the trip, so when making your plans please take the teams events into consideration, and when contacting me about taking part, please indicate if you will take part in teams and if so, in which event you will be fencing.
Travel and Accommodation
It is important that we begin to build team lists and organise travel and accommodation.
Kayt has organised the same travel agent that worked with Fencing Victoria in June on the U15/U17 national championships, to organise and handle a group hotel bookings and travel.
Part of the team experience is for the kids to share the same hotel. This year we are looking to use the Adina Apartments Hotel.
We need an indication of group number for the travel agent to use to acquire a group discount. So please consider this arrangement and let us know your intentions as soon as possible. With group discount the little extra on accommodation for a comfortable and good night sleep pre-comp, should easily make this worthwhile!
Attached is a booking form. You are not obliged to use this arrangement, or the hotel. It has been organised for your convenience. However, for team organisation and management purposes we, Kayt and I, will need to know what your travel arrangement are: Arrival and departure, method of travel while in Sydney, and hotel. We also need everyone’s contact details, for communications on the ground while we are there.
We will also organise team T-shirts, which you will have seen around the club, so we need a list of team members and their T-shirt orders at latest by 20th October.
If you are interested and would like to know more, and then please let me know, brookmd@optusnet.com.au, or contact Kayt Spano, kspano@ozemail.com.au. We will be working with Fencing Victoria to get the Transaction items for the trip available on their website shortly, so then you’ll be able to officially register for the comp.
Here are the event times:
Saturday 29th November
9.30am Men’s and Women’s U13 Individual Foil
10.30am U9 Sabre Teams
10.30am U11 Sabre Teams
10.30am U13 sabre Teams
11.30am U9 Individual Foil (men’s and women’s if number permit)
1.30pm Men’s and Women’s U11 Individual Foil
1.30pm U9 Epee Teams
1.30pm U11 Epee Teams
1.30pm U13 Epee Teams
Sunday 30th November
9.00am Men’s and Women’s U9 Individual Sabre
9.00am U9 Foil Teams
9.00am U13 Foil Teams
9.15am U9 Individual Epee (men’s and women’s if number permit)
11.30am Men’s and Women’s U11 Individual Epee
11.30am Men’s and Women’s U11 Individual Sabre
12.00pm U11 Foil Teams
2.30pm Men’s and Women’s U13 Individual Epee
2.30pm Men’s and Women’s U13 Individual Sabre
This is according to the comp timetable on the NSWFA website, 6/8/2014. Please double check at your convenience. www.nswfencing.org.au
This dramatically departs from previous years, and means foil team selection will be based on individual results on the weekend according to the standard team selection policy. Epee teams will be formed on state comp results for 2014 and rankings from there, as the team event precedes the individual competition. All fencers will have a team to fence with, provided we have numbers to run the teams. After a total of 6 fencers in one weapon and age group we can always fit you in a team – 5 is the trouble number, in which case we can probably find an older age group team in the same weapon if need be. Rough team compositions will be worked out in advance according to rankings so that we can predict any team forming issues in advance, they will not however, influence final team selection. Essentially though, we will do everything humanly possible to get you in a team if that is what you want!
Kind regards,
Brook Dunstan
Last Modified on 03/11/2014 10:59