30th anniversary midwinter feast

2024 is MFC’s 30th anniversary, and on 27 July we celebrated with a Medieval Mashup Midwinter Feast! 

We got together and transformed the club into a feasting hall, complete with banners, bunting, candelabra, fairy lights, portcullis, tankards, a glorious array of weaponry, VR gaming station, and a Dungeon of Demise! We had a great dinner, best dressed awards, speeches by founder Richard Emmerick and president Alessandra Wollaston, many toasts, and some special presentations to mark the occasion. 

We were honoured to have two founding members of the club attend – Tim Emmerick, Richard's son and a senior competitive epee fencer, and Alex Donaldson. Alex has extensive experience organising fencing tournaments, including introducing computerised competition control to Australia, and running the Sydney Olympics, Commonwealth Fencing competitions, and FIE competitions in Australia. His three children were members of MFC and one captained the NSW Under 15 foil team and later coached for MFC. Alex brought some special fencing memorabilia – refereeing cards from the Commonwealth Games, and the State Championships – which he presented to Oliver Taylor and Steph Tsai in recognition of their contributions to the Club. 

The night ended with pool noodle jousting, broken apothecary vials, and the hewing of a new club shield from a tree stump!

Massive thanks to everyone for making the night such a perfect celebration, and for making MFC such a wonderful place!

Images © WIN•GUS Photography