Well it's a new year at UUCFC and with a new year comes a new committee....

President

James Sinclair l

Secretary

Oonagh Devlin

Treasurer

Peter

Armourer

James Sinclair and Colin Creighton

Social/Fundraising Secretary

Anne Mullholland

While not yet finished theirs degrees (and so not quiet gone forever) last years Captain Jo and Social Secretary Ruth, ar taking a little hiatus from the club. Ruth is living it up in Caen teaching the French the subtle art of the Coleraine Yeoooooooo, and how to dance to Gold'digger. While Jo is freaking out the American foilists with sabre-ness and slowly melting in the aweful heat!

Congratulations to Babs and Neil on the birth of their second daughter Cara. Pat and Raj have also had another baby- a son, Aiden. Arranged marriages and double weddings in twenty years time perhaps?

The annual Fencing Christmas dinner was held in the Montague on the 16^th. Following the success of the Gangsters and Molls theme of last year, this year it was Pirates and Parrots. We had a motley crew of 20 pirates and 1 parrot with numerous weapons and plenty of gold. Not only was this a chance to dress up, but also to meet up with past members. Photos will appear soon. Happy Christmas!!!

The Derry Open was held on the 18th/19th November in Foyle College. This is traditionally the first competition we attend as a club and to introduce our new fencers to competitive fencing but unfortunately due to work this wasn't the case.

Mark McEvoy fenced in both foil and epee, gaining 6th place in foil after losing the quater final to Kieran Debbadi, but was more sucessful in epee, where he won silver. He did really well considering that the last time he fenced was in this competition last year! Our other epeeists were Harrison and Alastair. This was Harrisons first competition and he fenced really well against a large number of experienced fencers and hopefully will keep it up. Our other fencer Al was coaxed away from the DT office but in his own words 'fenced like a donkey!!'

There is a pub quiz on in the Montague on Tuesday 7th November. Come along and excercise your brain. Fencing's not just for the legs....

The North West Open was held on the 17th-18th October in Foyle instead of the usual Coleraine venue. This didn't stop the UUC fencers being there on Friday to lay pistes and then fence at the weekend. There was a really good turnout of UUC Fencers, given that it is still really early in the year. James, Maureen, Judith and Colin fenced foil, Jo sabre (coming first) and Julie and Niamh fenced epee with Niamh coming third. Afterwards we went bowling and Julie was the dark horse scoring far above anyone else. Thanks to Julies mum for putting us up on Saturday night. After all that hard work it was off to the Montague for food and a pint. Full results on http://www.nifu.co.uk/images/North%20West%20Open%202006.pdf

Competition fixure lists for the new season are available on the NIFU and IAFF websites. Ones of interest are:

NW Open 21st-22nd October Londonderry

Derry Open 18th November Londonderry

Irish Senior Open 2nd-3rd December Dublin

NI Open 13th January Belfast

NI Championships 24th March Belfast.

As well as these, the infamous Intervarsities will be held in February, by my reckoning it's Corks turn but don't quote me.

Now you have the dates, write them down and keep these days free. Competitive fencing is a great experience, you fence different people with different styles, meet other Irish fencers and there's always the after parties.

The Commonwealth Fencing Championships were held in the King's Hall in Belfast 22-25th September. This involved 17 Commonwealth countries competing in both individual and team events. Andy Fenwick from Coleraine was on the NI team for mens epee. The NI team picked up a few medals- Kate Gardner got bronze in ladies foil, Maggie McWilliams, silver in ladies sabre and Jonathon Willis, bronze in mens epee. It was a pleasure to watch proper fencing at this level and there were some very close enteraining matches, especially in the ladies sabre. It makes you want to start back again!

The competition was the accumulation of a lot of hard work and effort over the past year by almost everyone in the NIFU and indeed nearly everyone in UUCFC helped in some way, so thanks to those who helped. Although NIFU organised the competition it was run by the DTs and referees from across the Commonwealth, who were all lovely to work with especially Denise and Marie-France, and Ian. Also thanks from Stephanie to all the runners who gave up a day at school to be worked even harder keeping score and running around. You did a great job and were really good to work with.

Photos are available from David McKimm at www.studio296.com Have a look- they are lovely. The official webasite is www.cfc2006.org if you want full results.

Over the summer training has died down and everyone's been away sunning themselves/working frantically so this is some of the stuff you might have missed....

Paintballing

The team went paintballing at the beginning of June down in Aughnacloy. Neill and Babs very kindly let us stay and their gorgeous baby Anna got lots of attention:) Thank you very much. Everyone had a really great time tackling each new challenge though some of the bruises took a while to go down (thanks Chris S!) In the afternoon some indulged their Robin Hood side and had a go at archery before retiring to Chris's BBQ. There's a team photo on http://www.awolpaintball.ie/0306curran.html

Donna Leaving

Donna has left the country and has started a new job working for the HPA in England, after completing her PhD. She was the President of the Club for 2 years before handing over to Chris Sheilds at Easter so she could write up. Good Luck in your job and let us know if you're coming back...

Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Fencing Tournament is on in the Kings Hall 22-25th September. Many of the Club members are helping out but anyone who wants to see what 'proper' fencing is all about is welcome to come along.