Four out of six CI titles won by Sarnian swords

GUERNSEY fencers dominated the Channel Islands Championships at Beau Sejour. They took four of the six honours available.

Rupert Sewards was crowned master-at-arms and with his success in the sabre was one of three Guernsey fencers who helped the host island's men to sweep the board. He was runner-up in the other two disciplines.

The men's sabre was a tempestuous affair, befitting the style of weapon. Fourteen fencers competed for eight quarter-final places and six Guernseymen qualified.

Sewards' technically neater and tidier style coped well with Eoin Rizutto's long, probing attacks and he claimed the title 15-11.

Sewards had overcome Ross Martel in the semi, while young Rizutto had beaten Jamie Ellington.

After the men's epee seeding round, the top two, Sam Parish and Sewards, received a bye into the quarter-finals. Twelve fencers fought for the remaining six places.

In the quarters, Sewards defeated former UK under-20 epee fencer Toby Lewis in a tense, close-fought match.

Experienced Kevin Lees, from Jersey, surprisingly found young Alex Harlow too strong to handle.

Young Jamie Ellington had no answer to Adam Bonner's height and reach and Parish claimed the final place against Martel.

In the semi-finals, Sewards and Bonner defeated their younger opponents, Harlow and Parish respectively.

And in a well-fought final bout, which went right to the wire, Bonner used his reach to full effect to win his first Channel Island title, 15-14.

Travel problems saw just one Jersey fencer competing in the foil. Sewards coped well with Marcel de Garis's unorthodox style in the semi-finals and Meyrick Simmonds edged out Parish by one hit.

Simmonds' strong defence and crisp accurate ripostes overcame Sewards' powerful attacks to allow him to claim his first CI title, 15-11.

Jersey's Marcia Lee was top woman over the weekend, claiming two titles.

Both semi-finals in the women's novice foil competition produced long fights with a good standard of fencing.

Mercedes Domingo-Cassells defeated Bahar Bidik, a fencer fighting in her first competition, while Sarah Collenette overcame Abigail Ball.

In the final match, Domingo-Cassells fenced well to win the title against Collenette.

All events over the weekend were fought using a direct-elimination system with fencers first competing in a seeding round in pools of up to seven.

Thereafter, progress was decided by individual bouts over 15 hits, with the loser being eliminated from the competition immediately.

Lee dominated the women's foil, overcoming Domingo-Cassells

15-9 in the final.

In the semis, Lee defeated old adversary Julie Dyer, while Domingo-Cassells showed maturity beyond her years in the sport to win a thriller against Elaine Ellington.

Jenny Harding sprang something of a shock in defeating Lee in the sabre event to claim her first CI title. Harding, who beat Gemma Bushby in the semi-final, edged through 15-13. Lee had beaten Carol Wood in her semi.

Other quarter-finalists were Helen Dack, Rosie Milner, Linda Jones and Wendy Batiste.

Nine women from Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney competed in the weekend's final event, the epee.

All except Eve Tetley, from Alderney, survived into the quarter-final stage.

Harding beat Sue Martel, Lee beat Bushby, Hollie Redhead defeated Wendy Batiste, and Domingo-Cassells overcame Jean Jorgensen.

In the semis, Lee proved too strong for Harding while Domingo-Cassells claimed the other place in the final by beating Redhead.

In the final, Domingo-Cassells did well to keep up with Lee's attacks, but the latter won her second title of the weekend 15-13.