Celtic Sword’s inaugural Clash in the Castle was held in the ruins of the beautiful Coity Castle on Sunday 22nd June 2025. Whilst the black clouds above threatened rain, they definitely added some drama to the day, and thankfully it remained dry (if very windy…) for both the improvers match in the morning and the experienced match in the afternoon.
Proceedings kicked off with a match for fencers who are new and improving, with participants from both Celtic Sword and Whitchurch fencing clubs in a poule unique format - where the total hits, not victories, counted towards overall score.
The scores were tight through to the end. Carl from Whitchurch picked up the bronze medal and the winner was decided in a fence off between Ioan and Bogdan from Whitchurch, with Ioan claiming victory!
The afternoon match saw experienced fencers from Celtic Sword, Cardiff Academy of Fencing, and Whitchurch take to the pistes for another fast and furious poule unique. It was a matter of a couple of points between each fencer, with Marc from Whitchurch Fencing Club taking the gold, our very own Max from Celtic Sword claiming silver and Andrea from Whitchurch Fencing Club taking bronze.
On top of the prizes for competitors, Celtic Sword also presented the Simon Roe Award.
This award is named after a member of Celtic Sword who sadly passed away last year. He was a strong advocate of grace, good sportspersonship, camaraderie and the enjoyment of fencing as a sport, and we felt this was an appropriate way to honour his memory.
We intend this to be an annual award and it is given to the fencer in the improvers match who has shown the most sportsmanship throughout the day. The decision on who to present this award to was unanimous as everyone within Celtic Sword’s committee felt she went above and beyond in both her own fencing and how she helped others and conducted herself throughout the day, including remaining to help referee the afternoon matches!
We are all really proud that Genova-Rose from Celtic Sword is the first recipient of the Simon Roe award.
Special mention to Ruth Silverstone and family for creating the beautiful wooden trophies for the Improvers match and the Simon Roe award – both of which were made using Ash from their own land.
Celtic Sword are very grateful to Cadw for allowing us to use this astounding venue, and British Fencing for granting the licence.
And finally, we would like to thank Celtic Sword committee members for all of the hard work that has gone on in the background, and on the day for organising this unique event… We will return!
The following photos are supplied courtesy of Rupert Nute:
