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Tournament Successes

At the Vanguard Centre, we have always placed our emphasis squarely on learning how to fence effectively and according to our historical source material. We don’t train specifically for tournaments, but every so often our members will enter a tournament to see how well our training is working – and we do have quite a history of Vanguard Centre members bringing home medals and recognition, not just from the UK, but from across Europe.
The following is a list of tournament successes and victories by Vanguard Centre members over the years since we opened in 2015.
HEMA tournament successes
2025
October – Stramash (Glasgow, Scotland)
- Adam Goodier – 2nd place in open steel broadsword/sabre
- Thierry Flekier-Wathen – 4th place in open steel broadsword/sabre
August – Ecky Thump Cup (York, England)
- Madeleine Thomson – 3rd place in the Medieval competition
July – Messer Fest (York, England)
- Christophe Busche – 2nd place in the messer fechtschule
June – Albion Cup (Marlow, England)
- John Colquhoun – 4th place for open rapier tier B
March – Hernes Cup (Newbury, England)
- Marcus McCormick – 4th place for sword and buckler intermediate open steel
February – Glasgow HEMA Open (Glasgow, Scotland)
- open longsword
- Chris Stewart – 3rd place
- open broadsword & sabre
- Jamie McPherson – 1st place
- Duncan McLaren – 3rd place
- open cutting
- Thierry Flekier-Wathen – 2nd place
- open messer
- Duncan McLaren – 3rd place
- women’s+ longsword
- Jay Li – 3rd place
- women’s+ broadsword and sabre
- Charlotte Crawshaw – 4th place
- other awards
- Jonathan Spouge – technical fencer award for sabre
- Marcus McCormick – sportsmanship award for sabre
2024
December – Liverpool December Fechtschule (Liverpool, England)
- Jonathan Spouge โ joint 2nd place for experienced fencers
November – Wessex League (Exeter, England)
- David Rybacki – 1st place for open steel longsword tier B
- Duncan McLaren – 2nd place for open steel longsword tier A across the whole league
October – Wessex League (Bristol, England)
- Duncan McLaren – 4th place for open steel longsword tier A
- Kieran Brimson – 4th place for beginners open sabre
September – Wessex League (Oxford, England)
- Duncan McLaren – 2nd place for open steel longsword tier A
- Connor Kemp-Cowell – 3rd place for open steel longsword tier A
- Finley Dickins – 4th place for women’s+ rapier and dagger
September – Edgebana (Dundee, Scotland)
- Marcus McCormick – 1st place for invitational fechtschule
- Duncan McLaren – 1st place for open steel longsword
- Connor Kemp-Cowell – 3rd place for open steel longsword
- Finley Dickins – 4th place for women’s+ steel longsword
June – Albion Cup (Marlow, England)
- Duncan McLaren – 3rd place for open steel longsword tier A, 4th place for open steel sabre
May – London HEMA Open (London, England)
- Finley Dickins – 3rd place for women’s+ rapier
March – Kings of the North (Keighley, England)
- Duncan McLaren – 2nd place for mixed weapons
February – Glasgow HEMA Open (Glasgow, Scotland)
- open longsword
- Duncan McLaren – 3rd place
- open broadsword & sabre
- Jamie McPherson – 1st place
- Thierry Flekier-Wathen – 4th place
- open cutting
- Jonathan Spouge – 1st place
- Anders Jensen – 3rd place
- women’s+ longsword
- Jay Li – 2nd place
- Rachael Hughes – 3rd place
- Madeleine Thomson – 4th place
- women’s+ broadsword & sabre
- Madeleine Thomson – 2nd place
- Tam Darlugdach – 3rd place
- Finley Dickins – 4th place
- other awards
- Jonathan Spouge – best sportsman award
- Duncan McLaren – technical fencer award
2023
December – Liverpool December Fechtschule (Liverpool, England)
- Duncan McLaren – 1st place for experienced fencers
- Jonathan Spouge – 2nd place for experienced fencers
November – Sword Breakers Broadsword Invitational (Glasgow, Scotland)
- David Muir – 3rd place for open steel broadsword
- Thierry Flekier-Wathen – 4th place for open steel broadsword
October – Wessex League (Taunton, England)
- Madeleine Thomson – 4th place in women’s longsword
September – Stramash (Glasgow, Scotland)
- Jamie MacPherson – 2nd place in broadsword
- Gabriel Uri Brito Davansso – 3rd place in beginners’ broadsword
June – Albion Cup (London, England)
- Duncan McLaren – 2nd place in open steel longsword tier B
- Madeleine Thomson – 4th place in women’s rapier, 4th place in women’s sabre
February – Glasgow HEMA Open (Glasgow, Scotland)
- Jonathan Spouge – 1st place in longsword cutting, 3rd place in longsword, technical prize for longsword, 3rd place for broadsword cutting, 2nd place for open broadsword, sportsperson award for broadsword
- Duncan McLaren – 2nd place in longsword cutting
- David Muir – 4th place for open longsword
January – Steel Ring Academy Fechtival (Bradenton, FL, USA)
- Duncan McLaren – 1st place in open steel multi-weapon fechtschule
2022
December – Wessex League (London, England)
- Duncan McLaren – 2nd place in sabre, technical fencer award
November – Glasgow Sword Breakers Broadsword Invitational (Glasgow, Scotland)
- Jonathan Spouge – 3rd place in steel broadsword
November – Fechtschule Edinburgh (Edinburgh, Scotland)
- Duncan McLaren – 1st place in longsword, 1st place in sabre, 1st place in dagger
October – The Wee Stramash (Glasgow, Scotland)
- David Muir – 1st place in broadsword
- Conor McKeag – technical prize for broadsword
- Wojciech Wlodarczyk – technical prize for broadsword
2021
Covid-19 meant that not much happened this year.
2020
Covid-19 meant that not much happened this year.
2019
December – Glasgow HEMA Open (Glasgow, Scotland)
- Jonathan Spouge – 1st place in dussack, 2nd place in open longsword
June – European Games Invitational Gala Tournament (Minsk, Belarus)
- Jonathan Spouge – invited to represent the UK
2018
December 2018 – Glasgow HEMA Open (Glasgow, Scotland)
- Ben Hamilton – 3rd place in singlestick
September – Edgebana (Dundee, Scotland)
- Ben Hamilton – 1st place for singlestick
- Jonathan Spouge – technical prize for singlestick
2017
October – Edgebana (Dundee, Scotland)
- Ben Hamilton – 1st place in singlestick, and a technical prize
July – Feile na Gaiscigh (Dublin, Ireland)
- Anezka Havlikova – 3rd place in novice longsword
June – Red Dragon Tourney (Conwy, Wales)
- Ben Hamilton – 1st place in singlestick
April – Blademasters Cup (Cork, Ireland)
- Ken Kot – 2nd place in open longsword, and a technical prize
February – Ringeck Triathlon (Glasgow, Scotland)
- Ben Hamilton – 2nd place in the triathlon
- Ken Kot – 3rd place in the triathlon
2016
December – GUHAS Christmas Tournament (Glasgow, Scotland)
- Ben Hamilton – 1st place in open steel longsword, 2nd place in open steel single-handed
- Alex Bourdas – 2nd place in open steel longsword
- Anezka Havlikova – 2nd place in beginner’s broadsword
September – AHA Glasgow Broadsword Tournament (Glasgow, Scotland)
- Ben Hamilton – 1st place in singlestick
- Keith Farrell – 3rd place in singlestick
July – Edgebana (Dundee, Scotland)
- Keith Farrell – 1st place in open steel longsword, 1st place in open synthetic longsword
July – Feile na Gaiscigh (Dublin, Ireland)
- Keith Farrell – 2nd place in open steel longsword
April – Fechtschule Brugge (Brugge, Belgium)
- Keith Farrell – joint-2nd in the fechtschule competition
2015
December – GUHAS Christmas Tournament
- Alex Bourdas – 2nd place in open steel longsword
October – TaurHEMAchia (Turin, Italy)
- Keith Farrell – 4th place in open steel longsword
August – FightCamp (Coventry, England)
- Jonathan Spouge – part of the 2nd place team in the team melee competition
July – Edgebana (Dundee, Scotland)
- Jonathan Spouge – 1st place in open steel longsword
- Keith Farrell – 2nd place in the cutting competition, 3rd place in open steel longsword
Archery tournament successes
2025
2024
2023
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