NZ National Fencing Championships at Fieldays

Legendary fencers past and present feature in the NZ National Fencing Championships at Fieldays

The 2015 Wiremark Golden Pliers at Mystery Creek is likely to bring the most thrills in recent years with organisers promising competitions celebrities and much much more.

On June 11th and 12th New Zealand's top fencers will try to take home the coveted Wiremark Golden Pliers singles championship competition and the Fieldays Silver Spades Doubles competition at the National Fieldays in Hamilton. Added to that are the Bill Schuler competition on June 10th and the Fieldays Silver Staples training institutes on June 13th.

Organiser expect a star-studded line-up to take part with two-time Wiremark Golden Pliers winner Shane Bouskill, fourteen time Wiremark Golden Pliers winner Paul van Beers and two-time Wiremark Golden Pliers winner Nick Liefting as well as up and coming fencers including Shane's son Tony Bouskill, who came in fourth place last year despite it being only the second time he reached the finals. All need to get through the qualifying heats to line up at the finals.

Iconic fencer and former Wiremark Golden Pliers winner Trevor Woolston is also expected to take part in the singles heats competition this year, Trevor last competed in 1994.

Two-time champion Shane Bouskill is hoping to for a trifecta but says it could be challenging given the calibre of both young and old competitors. "There are a couple of young competitors who are showing a bit of speed and quality- the combination is a threat as time penalty points don’t make the gruelling task any easier".

Organisers say a veritable who's who of fencing have accepted a “fencing icons” invitation to come and watch the competitions and catch up with Nick Lieftings 40th year of competing.
Five time Wiremark Golden Pliers winner Bill Schuler, considered by many as one of the fathers of the modern fencing competitions and industry best practice, will attend as will three time Wiremark Golden Pliers winner Ernie Shicker, and Stan Woolston, the inventor of a wire tension gauge still used by judges.

Bill Dawson, Leonard Walling, Felix Davy, Dennis Gray, Joe Colette are all past iconic competitors or fencers have contributed greatly to the industry will also attend the event.
More current fencing icons attending include 14 times Wiremark Golden Pliers winner Paul Van Beers, two times Wiremark Golden Pliers winner Wayne Newdick, Shane Bouskill, Owen Petersen, Colin Browne and Ken Channings.

People are welcome to come and meet up with these fencers.

George Schuler, Bills son and five-time Wiremark Golden Pliers champion will give a bit of history on the Bill Schuler fencing competition on Wednesday.

Organisers says there will be an astounding level of talent commentating on the event marshalled by seasoned fencing comentator Craig Graham, rodeo announcer Craig Wiggins, past fencing competitor and former comentator Bill Dawson, and Joe Colette.

New Zealand Fencing Competitions (NZFC) competition Coordinator, Debbie White, says event sponsors Wiremark, FCANZ, Cyclone, Steel & Tube/Hurricane, Stihl, Stockade, Goldpine and Strainrite have gone out of their way to ensure a strong level of support for these national championship competitions and are offering prizes to members of the public who can answer fencing related questions.

“We want people to understand about the materials and tools being used in the competitions and with the sponsors sharing their product knowledge and a bit of interaction with our great line up of commentators it should provide fun and involvement for the spectators.”

Competition heats will be held on the Monday June 8th.

The Bill Schuler Novice Round final being held on the Wednesday, Wiremark Golden Pliers Championship finals being held on the Thursday and Fieldays Silver Spades Championship finals being held on the Friday. Prize giving takes place at 4 pm.
On Saturday the Fieldays Silver Staples will be run, whose competitors need to be 21 years and under and enrolled in a training institute.

ENDS

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