New year catch up!

Lots to report!

Spotlight! The year began with MFC's 'NSWFA Regional Club Champion Grand Pris Award' certificate arriving in the mail, a feature on the club in the NSWFA newsletter, and a profile on three MFC committee members as part of a NSWFA socials series celebrating International Women's Day. NSWFA followed up with a visit by Jing Shang, president, and Duncan Fairweather, vice president, to meet our members, see how we do things, give us useful information about competitions, and begin a conversation with the MFC committee about collaborating to support regional participation.

Training! We've implemented a year-long syllabus to help fencers learn and practice skills in all aspects of club membership and fencing, including safety, conduct, rules, technique, tactics, refereeing and armoury. Each week a different topic is covered, with a recap accessed via QR code at the end of the week. As part of MFC's collective ethos, we've also scheduled a few club chip in sessions. The first one was for armoury, with fencers checking all gear in the club (including whites, weapons, and electronics) and doing maintenance and repairs using Sukhdeep, our new armoury trolley.

Comps! MFC fencers have enjoyed competing in several events already this year – Newcastle Fencing Club's Northern Regional Open Comp #1, NSWFA's Season Opener State comp, and AFF's AFC#1 D.H McKenzie national tournament. A few of these fencers are old hands at competing, and for others it was their first experience of an external comp. All fenced well in challenging fields facing experienced and high level competitors, had a great time (look at those grins!!), and even won two bronze medals – one for men's foil and one for women's sabre! Many more comps are coming up this year, including the NSWFA Schools circuit, which should be heaps of fun!

Images, used with permission (L–R): (top row) © Eddie Bridge, © NSWFA, © S. Brazier; (second row) © S. Brazier, © NSWFA, © A. Wollaston; (third row) © NSWFA, © A. Wollaston; (fourth row) © A. Wollaston