Congratulations to both Lottie J (epee) and Ben T (foil) for winning Wiltshire County Gold, having both fenced up an age category last weekend. Both fencers were undefeated with Lottie fencing against a mixed U14 group and Ben fencing at U16 and U18 – another great achievement!

Gold medals were also achieved for Olivia K (U10 girls sabre) and Arthur GR (U10 boys foil and sabre). Arthur went on to win the Boy-at-Arms for the best results in all weapons and Georgia L achieved the same honour for the girls, getting to the finals in all three weapons and coming away with Silver each time.

Full results are:

Ben T – U16 boys foil gold
Lottie J – U12 girls epee gold
Olivia K – U10 girls sabre gold, epee bronze, foil bronze
Eva S– U10 girls foil 7th
Georgia L – U10 girls sabre silver, epee silver, foil silver & Girl-at-Arms
Brett N – U12 boys epee bronze
Angus B – U12 boys epee bronze
Arthur GR – U10 boys sabre gold, epee 5th, foil gold & Boy-at-Arms
George W-C – U10 boys epee silver
Joao Filipe R – U10 boys epee bronze, foil 6th
Hugo F – U10 boys foil 5th

Well done to you all!

Well done to the Pinewood fencers, who took part in the Hatherop Fencing Challenge at the weekend, with the following results:

Year 3 & 4 Girls Foil: Olivia K – Silver

Year 3 & 4 Girls Epee: Olivia K – Gold (undefeated throughout this event)

Year 3 & 4 Girls Epee: Eva S – Silver

Year 3 & 4 Girls Sabre: Olivia Kalen – Gold

Year 5 & 6 Boys Epee: Harry A – Bronze

Year 5 & 6 Boys Foil: Hugo F – Bronze

Girl-at-arms for the best results in three weapons – Olivia K

A great day’s fencing!

Congratulations to both Lottie J (epee) and Ben T (foil) for reaching the last 8 in this year’s England Youth Championships held at the University of Hertfordshire near London.  It is always challenging playing sport against the very best in the country and even more so when playing at the younger end of an older age group.  This was the case for both our Year 7 fencers who only lost one bout all day – their quarter final! Lottie’s opponent would go on to finish second, having had the fight of her day against Lottie, only pulling away by three hits at the very end.  Lottie finished 7^th . Ben had an equally successful day finishing 5^th overall with his opponent winning bronze in the end.

Last weekend Lottie participated in the Dunstan Epee Challenge in the U14 age group (making her even younger in the age range) and came away with bronze having won 9 victories in a grueling pool competition where she had 16 fights over the course of the day.

In the U10 Regional Championships, our younger fencers acquitted themselves very well, winning 8 medals between the five of them as the best fencers from Wiltshire, Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire gathered to see who was best with the blade:

Joao Filipe R – Epee Gold and Foil Bronze

Arthur GR – Sabre Gold and Foil Silver

Hugo F – Epee Bronze

Georgia L – Epee Bronze

Olivia K – Sabre Gold and Epee Bronze

Congratulations to you all.

Matches came late this term as we hosted St Francis and travelled to Hatherop.  New fencer and Squad Captain Elizabeth B did an excellent job, gathering her fencers and putting everything into her bouts.

Well done to you all on a great year and the best of luck to our fencers competing in the Hatherop Challenge this Sunday.

Well done to our archery team of Emily O (Captain), Amelia E, Toby P, Freddie S, Ollie S and Bella O, who competed at the annual Wild Edge Archery Tournament at Dauntsey’s over Half Term and came first overall! Well done also to Freddie, who came 2nd individually and Toby, who came 3rd. Special mention to Emily, who was our captain for the day and to Ollie, who stepped in at the last minute to ensure the team could compete.

For more photos, please go to the Photo Gallery.

Well done to all the Pinewood Equestrian team who competed at the Rectory Farm Grass Roots Competition last weekend.

We had lots of younger members riding for the school this time and they presented Pinewood with lovely riding style and fantastic manners and some gutsy riding!

Lola F did a fabulous clear round in the 50cm class and won most stylish rider.

We had 2 teams in the 60cm, Bertie (speedy clear) and Angus S and Mirabel W – sadly they didn’t get placed, but rode well; but Maddie S (a new member to the Pinewood riding team), Alexandra H, Willow A and Lola all did fabulous clear rounds to come 4th as a team.

In the 70cm class, we again had 2 teams: Bertie S (clear), Mirabel and Alexandra, who all did great rounds as the competition was hotting up with some fast, speedy rounds. To take 4th team place was Mimi M, Willow A and Angus S, who all did 3 cracking clear rounds.

Well done to all of you as it was a long day and prize giving wasn’t until 8.30pm. Everyone represented the school with impeccable manners and huge smiles… we are very proud of you.

At Hartbury on 8th June Oscar F rode individually for Pinewood in 3 classes, he came just out of the placing, but had treble clear rounds – an amazing ride.

This coming weekend we have many riders at Oxtalls SEG ODE, good luck to them all!

Well done to Ben T, who won Gold in the U13 Bristol Leon Paul Fencing Junior Series over Half Term. He is still only U12, so this is a very impressive achievement.

Well done also to Lottie J, who, despite also being a year young, came 7th in the England Youth Fencing Championships this weekend, being beaten by the competitor who went on to win Silver (narrowly missing Gold).

Well done to the 4 Pinewood children who represented us at the IAPS Fencing Championships at Millfield last weekend. All our fencers were fencing in age groups where they were young for the category, in some cases fencing opponents up to 15 months older, so they did very well and we are very proud of them all! Particular congratulations go to our Year 7 pupils Lottie J, who competed in all 3 disciplines at U13 level and won Bronze in epee and foil, and Ben T, who won Bronze in U13 foil.

What a fantastic weekend for all the Pinewood riders at the Stonar NSEA One Day Event!

Fun was had by all, some rosettes, some speed, some hiccups, but a lot of happy children and parents at the end of the weekend, after an early start for some.  Stonar put on such a fantastic event; it is very welcoming for newcomers at the lower levels, and caters for all abilities, with a more challenging course on the Sunday. We welcomed two new riders: Mimi M and Mirabel W, who both had a great debut outing.

The 70cm team (Oscar F, Mimi, Mirabel & Annabel K) came 2nd, with Oscar coming 3rd individually, and Mimi and Annabel taking 6th place. In the 80cm Tabitha M came 2nd individually, and Bert & Arthur S and Harry (although slightly too fast) had great double clears for the team. On Sunday our 90cm team had great fun in the sun: Rex K had a fabulous double clear, Poppy A also had a great double clear only to realise that she’d jumped the bigger cross-country fence and was eliminated!!! Tara L had an awesome dressage.

Thank you to all those who competed. You all rode so bravely and determinedly, Pinewood is very proud of all your riding efforts. It takes an enormous amount of hard work to even get to these one day events, let alone compete in them!

It was a great day for Pinewood at our own Fencing Challenge on Sunday.  We led the way with a 12 medal haul against almost 60 other children coming from Bath, Stroud, Stonehouse, Bristol, Newbury and Gloucester, as well as schools more local to Swindon.

The Pinewood results were as follows, well done to you all:

Year 4 & below Girls Foil:

Gold: Georgia L

Silver: Lola F

Bronze: Olivia K

Year 5 & 6 Boys Foil:

5th: Hugo F (& winner of Best Improved Fencer medal)

7th: Joao Filipe R

Year 7 & 8 Boys Foil:

7th: Theo A

Year 3 & 4 Girls Epee:

Gold: Lola F

Silver: Olivia K

Joint Bronze: Georgia L & Eva S

Year 5 & 6 Boys Epee:

Silver: Arthur G R

5th: Harry A

6th: George W-C

7th: Joao Filipe R

8th: Hugo F

Year 7 & 8 Boys Epee

Bronze: Angus B

Year 7 & 8 Boys Sabre

Bronze: Arthur G R (even though he is still in Year 5!)

Year 5 & 6 Boys Sabre:

Gold: Arthur G R

Year 3 & 4 Girls Sabre:

Gold: Olivia K (& winner of Girl at Arms)

Refereeing on the day was provided from the school by Angus B, Zac F and Ben T – thank you very much, boys, for your help.

A big thank you to Neil Bromley for organising the Pinewood Fencing Challenge!

Lottie J and Ben T qualified for the British National Youth Championships held at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield over the Bank Holiday weekend.  With over 1500 children fencing over the three days competition was stiff.  Lottie is the first ever Pinewood pupil to qualify for all three weapons and her best result came in the Girls Epee where she won her pool well and finished 8^th overall. She receives an automatic qualification next year in the U14 age group.  As an epee specialist,  qualifying for sabre and foil was an achievement in itself as she hardly fences in these disciplines, so to finish 34^th in foil and 25^th in sabre are also great results – well done, Lottie!

Sadly Ben Turner came down with a chest infection and was unable to compete.  With our Year 5 fencers eligible to compete next year, Year 6s going into Year 7 and Year 7s into Year 8, we could have the largest number of qualifiers from the school yet!