Salle Poisson d’Or was formed in September 1996 by fencing instructor Alan Wolsoncroft and a small group of keen amateur fencers whom he had taught for many years at a local evening class which the council then axed. The name of the club – literally “the room of the golden fish” was chosen because, much to Alan’s exasperation, we appeared to have the short memory of a goldfish when it came to learning fencing!

 

In 1999, the club amalgamated with the Ranmore fencing club, where Alan was also the instructor. The Ranmore club had been in existence for over thirty years, having been formed by two Olympic fencers, Julia Berkley and Shirley Parker. The amalgamated club retained the name “Salle Poisson d’Or”.

 

The club was officially disbanded in March 2020, owing to unsustainably low membership numbers. The few remaining members now meet in holiday periods, usually in Fetcham on a Wednesday evening, and are joined by members of the Epsom fencing club. All weapons are practised, and there is also some interest in the smallsword. Anyone is welcome to join us provided they can bring their own kit. The charge for an evening is usually £10. Please get in touch if you would like to register an interest.

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View club photos taken over the years.

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The Demise of the Art of Fencing

 

Although sports fencing has its origins in sword fighting, it has gradually been deviating from it and has now become a rather artificial game that is barely recognisable as the real thing. There are a number if differences:

 

• In sports fencing the objective is to score a hit on your opponent before you get hit yourself, whereas in a sword fight the main objective is not to get hit at all.

• In the sport, the separation between near simultaneous hits has been reduced to a mere fraction of a second so that only the first hit to arrive scores a point, whereas in a sword fight both hits would be equally devastating.

• Modern electronic scoring equipment is so sensitive that it registers hits that would not be of much consequence in a sword fight. Before the use of this equipment, hits had to appear as if they would have penetrated three inches had the weapons been sharp.

• The weapons used in sports fencing are not much like real swords. In particular, no sword was ever made with a pistol grip, which has become increasingly popular over the last few decades. No sword was ever made with a large offset guard like that found on the modern épée. No sword blade was  ever flexible enough to enable ‘flick hits’ to be delivered. The sabre, being a cutting weapon has to be much lighter than a real sabre in view of the lack of padded clothing used. Real sabres have a sharp edge all along the front of the blade and along the third of the back of the blade nearest the point, but the electric scoring equipment registers a hit with the merest contact of any part of the blade.

 

British Fencing, being a sporting body, is not a good custodian of the art of fencing. Their main concern is achieving good competition results and, because of the differences outlined above, this can now be done without the need for good swordsmanship. There has been a noticeable shift in competition away from good swordplay, towards faster footwork and fast simple attacks and, in the case of foil and sabre, often both opponents attacking at the same time, each hoping that their hit will be judged to have priority. In effect, the sport has encouraged ways of scoring hits without having the bother of doing any fencing: successive parries and compound attacks and ripostes are now very rarely seen.

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With the emphasis shifting from blade work to fast foot work, the fencing style has changed from fighting with engaged blades to no blade contact or ‘absence of blade’. Right from the earliest manuals on fencing up to books of the 1950s, the exercises described all start from a position of engagement. This adds feeling to the fencer’s visual perception, and increases variety by enabling cut-overs, pressures and colués, which have now largely become obsolete. Fencers now try to score hits through speed instead of sophisticated blade work: very little actual fencing involved in a bout and the sport has become more athletic.

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The demise of good fencing style has been compounded by the way it is taught. Whereas at one time beginners learned the art of fencing first and then started fighting after perhaps a year of learning and perfecting the strokes, they are now allowed to try fighting at a very early stage. When they fight before they have learned anything, they just stick to instinctive movements, and usually execute them very badly, which then becomes a habit. Hence we see many wide, violent simple parries, very few counter parries and many badly formed low line parries. Fencers are more interested in scoring points than in learning the art of fencing.

 

 

The Smallsword to the Rescue

 

For those who are interested in more authentic fencing as it would have been practised with real swords, Historical European Martial Arts clubs (HEMA), will be of more interest than sports fencing clubs, but these are hard to find, and their main interest is in heavier weapons that demand much more thickly padded clothing than is used in sports fencing. There is, however, some interest in the smallsword, which is lighter and can safely be practised using normal sports fencing clothing.

Historically, the smallsword was popular in the 18th century. It evolved from the longer, heaver rapiers of former times and it was much less cumbersome to carry about on one’s person. Gentlemen would wear a smallsword, mainly as a fashion accessory and status symbol but, with no police force operating, it was necessary to have some protection when out on the streets.

Smallsword blades were a couple of inches shorter than modern épée blades, but similar in shape. For a modern fencing smallsword, a No. 2 épée blade can be used, ideally fitted to an ambidextrous grip. A French grip is acceptable, but a pistol grip is not allowed. Hilts with a knuckle-bow, quillon, ricasso and small pas d’ane rings are not easy to source and are rather expensive but they are are ideal; alternatively a foil guard can be used as it is similar in size to a smallsword guard. Leon Paul sell a suitable smallsword training weapon. The smallsword is for thrusting only. In practice, some smallswords had sharp edges near the point, but in the main they only had sharp points. The whole body is valid target.

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The rules of engagement with a smallsword are more like those of a real sword fight than those used in sports fencing. Fencers are not constrained to fighting on a piste, so they are free to move about in any direction. The non-sword hand can be used for parrying or grabbing the opponent’s blade, so a glove is needed for this hand. The definition and treatment of double hits is not the same as in épée. If both fencers land a hit during an exchange then it counts as a double hit, irrespective of whether one lands before the other. Double hits are the result of bad fencing and are not rewarded. In one set of rules used for smallsword competitions, the winner is the first one to score two successive hits. Having scored one hit, if the opponent then scores the next hit the score reverts to zero. Similarly if a double hit occurs then the score reverts to zero again. While the trailing fencer won’t object to a double hit to clear the score, the leading fencer will do everything possible to avoid it, and better fencing results. In preliminary rounds both fencers are eliminated if three double hits occur in the bout.

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“The School of Fencing” by Domenico Angelo, 1787, is a standard work on the smallsword, and contains numerous engravings to illustrate the thrusts and parries. Angelo ran one of the first fencing clubs in London, where both men and women were accepted. Reprints and pdf downloads of the book are readily available today, and it is recommended for learning a good fencing style. The fencing itself is more like foil than épée fencing but the guard positions are higher with a straighter sword arm.