Bloody Marvellous! And so begins the planning conversation with Nick Terry (Custom Fencing) for the inaugural FCANZ NZ Secondary Schools Fencing Competition. It takes a village to enter a fencing competition, and we feel it takes a city to actually run one.
The eyelashes get a workout as Team Leader (Sarah Foley-Smith, of Geraldine High School’s (GHS) Primary Industry Academy (PIA)) begins the quest for materials. It’s a stroke of luck that on visiting Andy Gillespie at Point Lumber to show him a copy of the last WIRED edition, he offers all the posts for this competition; and an unsuspecting contractor, who was fortunate enough to be at Point Lumber at the time of our visit, found himself at Geraldine excavating our competition lines for us the next day! High five Jamie Wratt Fencing!
Where it all began
Back in the day, watching the 2023 Golden Pliers™ competition at Mystery Creek and the Bouskill Royalty in action, Team Leader had a light bulb moment: “Let’s do a school kids competition!” Now, PIA is universally known for being very, very good at making *&#@ happen, and 2023 started a storm. We found another gear, forcefully made a few friends and hit the ground running.
The end result was a bit of a stitch up, with Team Leader promoting the competition to her class as a great way to get experience, to trial our competition in front of all the posh contractors and industry representatives, to troubleshoot and change as needed. Kind of a final run through before launch, no stress. Students clambered for a spot and seven teams were duly entered. A bright spark noticed that our competition was called the ‘NZ Secondary Schools Competition’ on the FCANZ page. Hmmm… a bit more posh than we anticipated. We all enjoyed some team bonding in a kind of ‘caught in the headlights’ moment.
A fortnight of fencing fundamentals
“We’ve got this,” Team Leader declares. She has worked long and hard to instil an appropriate amount of fear in her students and no one is brave enough to speak up! Five of the seven teams now have ten days to learn how to competition fence. We have a joyous fortnight of lunchtime, class time and after school fencing. Fortunately it is no longer dark at 5pm. The mighty Ranger gets a workout dropping students home, and it has rained, so last year’s class G.O.A.T (in the form of Quinn Foley-Smith) is able to help with valuable coaching.
We have 14 teams from GHS, MacKenzie College, Rangiora High School and Akaroa Area School entered. Specifications have been checked by our posh people at FCANZ, and materials sorted. A massive thank you to Point Lumber, Strainrite, Bayonet, Gallagher, Stockade, Farmlands, and Terrain Northland.
Nick Terry enjoys being on standby for a raft of questions from Team Leader (which could be interpreted as casting doubt on a male’s organisational ability!) He upgrades his mobile plan.
And now for logistics…
How to fit gear for seven teams on the trailer? Including seven wheelbarrows, ten Jennys, the intermediate posts and extra sets of everything for the other schools. Every strop in Geraldine has been used, and the end result produces the feeling that if fencing doesn’t work out, we could venture into transport. It’s good to have options.
There is a lot of pressure for this competition to run smoothly and for the GHS students to see how they go up against their peers. We have been entering the Adult U31 Young Farmer and Silver Staples U21 cadet competitions for a wee while, and this is a defining moment. Is what we’ve been teaching any good?
It’s a cracking day at the Rangiora Showgrounds, and we finalise the materials on each line and set up. Team PIA spots Tim Garrick & Phil Cornelius in the distance and skips over to re-acquaint themselves – nothing quite like being on first name basis with the FCANZ President and the current Golden Pliers champion!
Our teams have two hours to erect a three-wire electric fence with two Y posts either side of a 1/4 round, plus figure eight, crimp, inline tensioners attached three different ways and parallel electrics. The ‘have a go’ category is the same, excluding digging in the intermediate post. Our First Off The Line team comes in at 1h:35m, with Akaroa one minute behind and most teams finishing within the allotted time. Phil and Tim work up a sweat judging, although they have to be reminded to “crack on” and that they have “one job”!
All of our competitors have done themselves proud, putting themselves far outside their comfort zone and in front of industry experts. In particular, our first time schools have been super awesome and we are so appreciative of their support in entering and helping to make the day a success.
We are so pumped that FCANZ trusted us to get this competition off the ground, and are so grateful for their support and expertise – particularly Nick Terry for all his technical expertise and in setting up the day; Jeanette Miller, Donna Upton and Jaime Bigwood for keeping us on track and providing fantastic support. To our Judges Tim Garrick & Phil Cornelius: a job well done. Thank you to John Noakes (Noksee) and Struan Moore, for all your mentoring over the years; and Wiggy, for taking every chance to promote us.
To my students: bloody well done! I am super proud of what we have achieved. While the results were nice, it is the fact that we have made something big happen and the sense of achievement in a job well done. “We’ve got this” has become “we did this”.
NZ Secondary Schools Fencing Competition Results
1st Tom Batty & Lachie O’Connell
2nd Cayden Howell & Cullen Bolt
3rd Lachaidh Shannon & Mason
4th Jackson Marriott & Cullen Gordon-Wilson
Best Quality:
Tom Batty & Lachie O’Connell
First Off The Line:
Tom Batty & Lachie O’Connell
Have a go category
Best Quality:
Althea Smith & Isabelle Atkinson
Best Termination Knot:
Althea Smith & Isabelle Atkinson
Best Posting:
Althea Smith & Isabelle Atkinson
Best Breast Block:
Innes McKay & Alex Holmes
Highlights
- Tim Garrick is fencing royalty – he knows us!
- We can fit nine strainer posts inside a minivan. Our posts at school have certainly seen better days, and despite requests, Team Leader was too tight to buy any. All our dreams came true as we watched the Point Lumber truck exit the showgrounds leaving all their posts behind. Luckily, we knew someone who wanted them. It was one of those “no post shall be left behind” moments.
- Team Leader is not a hugger – ever!
- Team Batty & O’Connell breathe a sigh of disappointment on discovering the above.
- A brilliant response to being asked to explain the driving force behind wanting to enter this competition: “Sarah made me.”
- “It was good” does not a speech make! Our winning team has some points to work on.
- “The sense of achievement in doing a good job, and being proud of what I have accomplished makes it all worthwhile”.
Finally, from the lads: “We would like to thank FCANZ and all the contractors in general who are all so generous in giving time and resources to a bunch of school kids. When we started school, we never would have dreamed of achieving what we have. We have been lucky to get some amazing opportunities and our advice to other students is to never give up, and ask for help – there is heaps of it out there. Learn how to bat your eyelashes and smile nicely!”
Written by Sarah Foley-Smith
Published in WIRED issue 74/September 2024 by Fencing Contractors Association NZ
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