I hope your holidays are going well thus far. I imagine a lot of people are starting back at work this week and there is only another 3 weeks give or take with the school holidays so I hope you have all made the most of it.

We are still waiting to confirm what dates we will be resuming fencing this year at St Bernards and Moera hall, but we expect that it will be either the last week of January or the first week of February at this stage. At this point in time, it looks like we have also been able to secure our normal training schedule of Monday evenings, Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings at St Bernards. Due to Robert being in the UK for the next while, we are unsure when we will be able to resume our Wednesday sessions in Moera. 

In the meantime, there is an upcoming training camp for commonwealth championship selections that a number of our club’s fencers and fencers in the Fencing Central region are attending in Auckland. We have been very fortunate that Wellington Swords Club have offered to host a Strength and conditioning session on Tuesday and a foil training session Wednesday this week and next week. This class would be ideal for the students who would regularly attend our Monday and Wednesday classes. I have included the days and times at the bottom of this notices.

A new registration form should be available next week. Please note that on this form there is a new section in regards to the status of members’ vaccine passports. Due to the government and our venue’s host’s requirements, we require that our club members that are eligible for their vaccines need to get them or need to be in the process of getting their vaccine to attend training.

The team at Hutt Valley Fencing Club look forward to seeing you all in a few weeks time.

Training at Wellington Swords Club this week and next week

These sessions will be at the Brooklyn Club Rooms

Tuesday – 7pm – 8.30pm
Strength and Conditioning training for seniors and anyone who is attending this months training camp in Auckland

Wednesday – 7pm – 8.30pm
Foil Training, free bouting for foilists

Thursday – 7pm – 8.30pm
Epee Training, free bouting for epeeists

All are welcome to attend these trainings, just note that the Tuesday training is high intensity for more experienced fencers.

Saturday will be as normal this weekend from 1.30pm but unlikely to be on next weekend. This is a free fencing session targeted towards those who have their own gear.

If you are wishing to attend the foil or epee sessions, please note that you will need a set of personal equipment. Please let us know as SOON as possible if you require any gear.

Thank you for your attendance through this difficult year. It has been so good to see our club continue to grow at the rate of which it is.

This is a reminder that our last Saturday Training session is this Saturday the 11th of December and will finish at 12.30pm instead of 1.00pm. This is due to the Fencing Central Awards Lunch which is taking place at the Butcher and Brewer in Petone. It starts at 1pm. If you would like to attend this event, please RSVP here as soon as possible.

Our last session of the year is the Thursday class on the 16th of December. The session times for this class will remain the same.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the last sessions of fencing for the term or the Fencing Central Awards Lunch, please do not hesitate to contacting us by email at huttvalleyfencing@gmail.com.

We have received word from St Bernard’s that we must have as many of our eligible fencers vaccinated as possible due to the Ministry of Education’s requirements. What this means for you is that all of our fencers, parents visiting classes, volunteers and coordinators that are over theage of 16 must have their first COVID 19 vaccine before the 15th of November.

This is stipulated by the government under the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccination) Amendment order (No 3) 2021. If you have not received your first dose of the COVID 19 vaccine, it is URGENT that you get yourself booked in for as soon as possible if you wish to continue to participate in our classes from November 15th onwards. Unfortunately, you HAVE to be vaccinated to attend sessions at St Bernards.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please feel free to reach out to us by emailing huttvalleyfencing@gmail.com.

Please note that fencing will be continuing over the holidays. Our senior classes that operate on Mondays and Thursdays will be running from 6.30pm till 8.30pm. The junior class will be running from 6.30pm – 7.30pm on Thursdays. Saturday classes will continue to have the same time slot of 11am – 1.00pm.

The dates of the sessions are as follows; Mondays the 4th and 11th, Thursdays the 7th and 14th and Saturday the 9th and 16th. 

I am pleased to announce that our training can resume almost as normal from Thursday the 16th of September onwards. There are a number of things that we require from each of our club members.

Contact Registering

We require that everyone who can has to scan in using the COVID tracing app. Not only that, but we also have a requirement from the school for contact tracing forms to be filled out.

Arrival and Departure

Nobody can enter the school’s gym before 6.50pm at the absolute earliest. This is to allow a smooth transition between each group using the gym and to minimise unnecessary contact between other groups. If there are any students or other members of groups using the gym facility when we arrive, we are required to wait until they leave the gym and can not enter the building at all until they have gone.

ALL CLASS MEMBERS MUST BE VACATED FROM THE PREMISE AT THE END OF THEIR SESSION.

This means that the seniors must be outside of the gym by 9pm on Mondays and Thursdays and the Saturday session participants must be out by 1pm.

Dropping off and picking up students must occur outside of the gymnasium and masks must be worn for all throughout this change over.

Occupant Restrictions

There is a hard max on 50 people using any indoor space in Level 2 which is a guideline that we must also observe. I don’t believe that we would reach this cap but it is something to keep in mind. 

SPECTATORS ARE UNFORTUNATELY NOT WELCOME TO ATTEND IN LEVEL 2.

I apologies for any inconvenience that this may cause but we look forward to being able to get back into training again.