NZFC has been working over the past three to four years on the development of an international Doubles Fencing Championship Competition, which is proposed to be held within the Fieldays® Fencing Competitions.
The concept behind the incentive is to keep a focus on the New Zealand fencing industry and help promote the strong emphasis on industry best practice that the New Zealand fencing competition scene has embraced over the past 50 years.
With the advent of social media, we have seen an increase in the sharing online of fencing workmanship, and fencers connecting with each other from the other side of the world. We are noticing standards are lifting overseas, and there is strong interest in information sharing and improving systems.
As part of our planning, NZFC has built up relationships with several overseas competitions, who are working towards their competition winners competing in our World Championship, alongside the development of a winner’s exchange program whereby our Fieldays® Silver Spades™ Doubles Championship winners receive a prize of competing, on a rotational basis each year, in one of the overseas competitions.
While work is being undertaken to accommodate this World Championship, relationships have been, or are being, developed with several overseas fencing competitions, including those in England, the USA, Scotland, and Ireland. We aim to discover other competitions in Australia and European countries. In the meantime, we are using the Fieldays® Silver Spades™ Doubles Championship to host these overseas winning teams in our competitions.
England competitors
The winners of the 2022 UK Tornado Fencing competition at Malvern, Mark Evans and Nic Quan, competed in the Fieldays® Silver Spades™ Doubles Championship in 2023. They were very well received by the New Zealand fencing competitor’s community.
This is a biennial arrangement and this year’s Tornado Fencing competition winners, as part of their first-place prize package, will receive a trip to New Zealand to compete in the Fieldays® Silver Spades™ Doubles Championship in 2025.
USA competitors
The winners of the 2023 U.S Platinum Strainer Doubles Championship at the East Coast Fencing Rivalry, Alex Masser and Jason Day will be coming to New Zealand and competing in the Fieldays® Silver Spades™ Doubles Championship this year, as part of their sponsored prize package.
Reciprocal arrangements
In July 2024, the winners of the 2023 Fieldays® Silver Spades doubles championship – Jeff Joines and Mark Lambert, will travel to the UK and compete in the Tornado Fencing competition on 30th July in Malvern.
The following day, they will attend an AFI (Association of Fencing Industries) Fencing Field Day and carry out demonstrations on New Zealand techniques and workmanship. Along the way, they will be meeting UK fencing contractors.
It’s proposed that the 2025 winners of the Fieldays® Silver Spades™ Doubles Championship, or the top New Zealand team, will compete at the East Coast Fencing Rivalry in Virginia in August of that year.
NZFC, as organisers of the Fieldays® Fencing Competitions, welcomes the positivity we’ve received from the global fencing community around the introduction and development of the World Championship Doubles Competition. We are very grateful to our competition sponsors for supporting this opportunity.
Written by Debbie White from NZFC
Published in WIRED issue 73/JUNE 2024 by Fencing Contractors Association NZ
