With a flourishing membership base, Reading boasts a wide variety of ages and abilities....

  Philippe Barbasiewicz

Phil started fencing back in 1991 and within three years was competing at County, National and International level at épée.  He represented Great Britain in no less than four Cadet and Junior World Championships, achieving 7th place in 1996 (under 17s) and 29th in 1997 (under 20s). One of RFC's leading fencers, he has been runner-up twice in the Senior British National Championships. As well as being crowned County and Regional Epee Champion on many an occasion, he has either won or medalled at virtually all of the UK's domestic competitions.  Phil won our inaugural RFC Open Trophy (since re-named the last season, and for years has been a regular feature on Reading 'A' at team competitions. Last but not least, Phil is a qualified coach up to Club level foil & County level épée.

  Alain Barbasiewicz

Following in his brother Phil's footsteps with equal prowess, Al has been fencing since he was 9 years old and - despite being about the same height now - that's quite a long time!  Along with his brother he holds his place alongside fellow Club members on both the BB&O and Southern Section Men's Épée teams - is both County and Regional Captain - and has represented Great Britain at Cadet, Junior, and Senior International level.  Alain's held both the County and Regional Master at Arms (best of all 3 weapons) since he was a teenager, is an Open winner, and regularly features for RFC 'A' at competitions.  In 2006, ranked 6th in the UK, he won silver as part of Team England at the Commonwealth Games in Belfast.  Not only does he run his own fencing equipment company, he also has coaching qualifications up to Club level in foil and County level in épée. Along with Robin, he teaches our popular Beginner Courses.

Rob Gore

Rob has been fencing since school days when he qualified for the England Schools Team and also made the British Under 20 Team, representing Great Britain at international tournaments. Whilst at university Rob was British Universities Individual Épée Champion, and since then he's won many of the Open competitions on the circuit during his stellar career. Rob represented Great Britain at World Championships and was England Captain winning the Home International Championships on several occasions and although he actually retired from fencing after making the 1993 Essen World Championships, he took it up again about 5 years ago and has been in sparkling form - going from unclassed to as high as 6th in the British rankings, joining Team England at the Five Nation Championships, and making three finals in a row at the British National Championships. Rob has slipped in the rankings due to work pressures and an injury to his left knee, but is now back and rearing to go in the coming season. Rob is also a qualified County level épée coach.  [TOP]

Rebecca Mayle

Rebecca is one of the countries finest U13 girls epeeists regularly making the finals of age group championships. She has been fencing at Reading for the past 3 years and in that time has shot up the rankings.   [TOP]

  Verity Howell

Verity started fencing at university in Edinburgh, mainly fencing foil. When she moved to Reading in 2006 she switched to full-time épée and started competing on the Open circuit.  Verity's results have improved steadily since joining RFC, with her regularly featuring on our womens team and also representing the county.  [TOP]

  Ben White

Ben started fencing foil at the age of 8, winning a silver medal at the British Youth Championships for Boys under 14. He started epee at the age of 12 and has won many county and regional titles at both foil and epee. He won the Leon Paul Junior Series for under 15 boys and has won medals at open events. He has been British Champion at under 16 and cadet categories. He won individual gold and team silver at the inaugural UK School Games in 2006 and individual silver and team gold in 2007. He has fenced for England at under 16, cadet and under 18 levels. He has been a member of the GB cadet epee squad since he was 13 and is about to fence at his third cadet World Championships (apparently unprecedented for a male epeeist), competing at his first one whilst still only 14. He has medalled at cadet competitions around Europe and came 9th at the 2008 European Cadet Championships. He has been a member of the GB Junior squad since he was 15. His achievements have also been acknowledged by Sportsaid and the Youth Sports Trust. [TOP]

  Gav Lyon

Gav is a relative latecomer to the sport, first picking up an épée in 2004 at the age of 27.  Having been introduced to the sport at his smaller, local club - and after been regularly knocked out of competitions by both Philippe and Alain for the best part of a season - he joined Reading in January '06 with aspirations towards competing on the Open circuit.  Under the tutoring of Alain and other senior club members, Gav has come on in leaps and bionically-aided bounds, achieving 17th place at the British Nationals in 2007 (knocked out by Al), and recently peaking inside the Top 30 of the UK rankings. Gav has competed for the club on a number of occasions and represented the BB&O in the Southern Region Triangular.  Easily recognisable on the piste as the only fencer held together by carbon fibre.   [TOP]

June Mayle

June, as well as being Rebecca's chauffeur, has become a keen social fencer since completing our beginners course last year. June is also the juniors' representative on the committee and is responsible for managing our youngsters.   [TOP]

  Steve Bateman

Steven was a late starter to fencing, not trying his hand until his University years aged 20. Since then he has been a slow student, and only realising that fencing can be a competitive sport and not just a jolly 7 years ago. He has since applied himself with equal slow learned-ness. Despite a long germination period, Steven is starting to string some good results together. For the last 2 years, Steven has been fortunate enough to have been selected for County and Regional level representation, a previous Hampshire county champion, and frequent second best to a Barbasiewicz at Regional championships! Domestically, Steven's highest UK Ranking as so far been 27th, winning Open Championships at Sussex and Aldershot. Steven's fledgling international career is starting to bear fruit, with last 16 placements at FIE Satellite A grades in Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Dublin and most recently Stockholm. These have helped earn him a place on the 5 Nations squad for Wales in 2008. e.  [TOP]

  Harry Guliver

Harry, currently 15, started fencing foil at the age of 11 and began to fence sabre as well after about two years. It wasn't long after that that he saw sense and started épée, though he didn't convert fully until about a year ago. In his first competitive season (just ended) he came 3rd in the English Youth Championships, 9th in the Cadet Championships and represented Britain as part of the under-17 international squad in Germany, where he came 64th out of 194, and Sweden, where he finished 59th out of 74.  [TOP]

  Daniel Cripps

Struggling to maintain his motivation at the gym, Danny decided to take up fencing, enrolled on what was our very first beginners course, and never looked back.  Having got the fencing bug, he joined as a full member shortly afterwards, and has been a regular sight at the club ever since, taking on anyone from our real pro's to helping out with some of our newer recruits.  He also competes, representing the club locally and nationally.  [TOP]

Mike Bradbury

Mike started fencing at school aged 13 and continued at Bristol University where he was Men's Captain 1964-67. He won the Warwickshire Épée Championship in 1968 and has won the Wiltshire Foil & Épée many times through the years 1970 to 2002 . At the age of 45 years he was old enough to join the National Veterans Fencing Association and coached by John Llewellyn , he won the UK NVA Épée Championship in 1993 . Mike later added to this the all-age category Southern Section Épée Championship, in the 1995/6 season. He still fences in Veterans Competitions and came 8th both in the European & World Veterans Épée Championships ( Age category 50 to 59 ) in 1999. As Mike says "you can be a fencer from the cradle to the grave!".

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