The “Call to Arms” Answered
Avid readers of the Sword will recall two articles published in 2017 outlining not only how the Epée Club was formed and describing its present responsibilities towards advancing the disciplines of the épée de combat in the modern world, but also how it was prepared to support British Fencing to bring épée out of the financial desert following the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. The previous CEO of British Fencing, David Teasdale, had spoken in 2016 of the limited opportunities available to National Sporting Bodies to support disciplines that did not meet the performance criteria set by UK Sport and the hard decisions that the British Fencing Board had had to make when deciding which weapon disciplines they were to concentrate upon in the absence of major sponsors. Inevitably, épéeists found themselves with a difficult path to tread in order to deliver World Class performances in a weapon that was more popular than ever around the world and one in which more and more countries were participating.
The Epée Club had therefore issued its “Call to Arms” in 2017 for all épéeists and their supporters throughout the UK. It aimed to improve the opportunities open to our épéeists and their coaches in the clubs and training salles throughout the UK and provide a fighting fund to ensure that our épée teams could compete overseas, gain the necessary international experience, train together and allow coaches to be with the GB teams at all levels when competing.
Their first step was to establish The Epée Club Charitable Fund with money from the existing private members of The Epée Club, to register the fund as a Charitable Instrument so as to benefit from Gift Aid, and then pass out the word to all parties interested in the promotion of épée to see whether they would be prepared to help financially. This methodology had the advantage that The Epée Club Charitable Fund would be separate from British Fencing [which has its own Charitable Fund] and would allow its Trustees to concentrate solely upon épéeists.
The next step was the creation of a British Epée Development Committee to oversee how these funds were to be administered and what targets they should be aiming towards. The committee comprised of members of the Epée Club, the Charity Trustees, the BF Epée Coordinator and the BF Epée coach. Together, they developed a 5 year plan to place GB épéeists back on the international circuit. The plan was to provide fully funded training sessions for the Senior and Junior épée teams using ADP coaches, paying for World Cup team entries, ensuring the presence of a team coach at such competitions and encouraging entry to European competitions that were easily accessible from the UK (despite BREXIT!).
At the same time, a new Epée Club Charitable Fund website was launched to give full transparency over the funds being made available. Have a look at it on https://www.epeeclubcharity.org.uk/ .
We were delighted when British Fencing then recognised The Epée Club as an accredited Supporter of British Fencing under their Partner banner together with a dedicated page about the Epée Club on the BF website. Even better, was having Sophie DeVooght, the media and communications officer, heralding our positive results across the BF social media platforms as they happened.
All GB épéeists competing in World Cup Teams now also wear the Epée Club logo on their clothing and their team captains send back competition results and a review of what they have achieved. A good example was from Paul Sanchez Lethem after Heidenheim in January this year who only narrowly missed beating Japan 45/38 - they are currently 5th in the World rankings. Paul said “the support from the Epée Club in these difficult early days has made our resolve and commitment to the sport of fencing and the Men’s Epée Team stronger than ever!”
In line with the Epée Club Charitable Fund’s aims, the Trustees were delighted to announce in early December 2019 the provision of a budget of £15,000.00 for épéeists in the 2020 season. The announcement across the BF Website included the following;
“It is therefore with great pleasure that the Trustees can now announce the sum of £15,000.00 has been allocated for 2020 to support a range of initiatives including the provision of ADP coaches to travel with Cadet and Junior teams, team entries for Senior World Cups, squad training sessions with high quality épée coaches and an épée coach development course in the Spring of 2020.”
Those training sessions at both Brixton Fencing Club and the Lansdowne Club and ably organised by Marie-Pauline Mackinnon and Paul Sanchez Latham have already provided a much needed boost in confidence for our GB épéeists. Linking these with the knowledge that their World Cup entries are being covered and having coaches provided through this funding, has shown that our teams can now compete on a more level playing field (or piste!) with their international counterparts.
All of this would, of course, not be possible without the incredible generosity of our donors to the Epée Club Charitable Fund who have faith in the abilities of our young GB athletes to achieve podium success in this highly competitive field. These donors – many of whom remain anonymous – have answered this “Call to Arms” and allowed the Fund to look forward to a bright future for GB épée. Nevertheless, there will always be a need to maintain this financial support beyond the five year plan to the next Olympic round where our aim is to see one or more GB épéeists qualify in their own right. An aim that is both achievable and worth investment. They deserve the support of every épéeist in the country and their supporters.
You can be a part of all of the above! If you would like to donate to the Epée Club Charitable Fund please go to www.epeeclubcharity.org.uk under “How to support us”. All donations are used exclusively for the promotion of épée without any overhead administration and staff costs.
Lawrence Burr OBE
Vice President
The Epée Club