Showcasing the Very Best at Fieldays
With New Zealand being a country full of fencing competitors, the majority producing professional high-quality jobs, fencing competitions are the ultimate showcase for the NZ fencing industry and a valuable learning environment for knowledge sharing.
New Zealand Fencing Competitions organises and runs a series of fencing competitions throughout New Zealand, including National Championships at the Fieldays Fencing Competitions, an internationally acclaimed event held in June each year.
With qualifying heats held on the Monday for the finals, there was a good level of entrants this year, including nine first time entrants, the first female competitor since the 1980s in Tiffany Garrick, wife of previous Golden Pliers winner Tim Garrick, and in the double’s heats, three father and son teams, one South Island team, a team from the USA and one team with the combined age of 142 years.
Trevor Woolston and Greg Burton, both in their 70s and past winners of the Golden Pliers, put in a determined effort but failed to make the Fieldays Silver Spades finals which was won by the father and son team of Shane Bouskill and Tony Bouskill.
Second place went to Jeff Joines and Wilton Weeks.
The USA representatives from the East Coast Fencing Rivalry were Dylan Herndon from Georgia and Ed Struna from Ohio who made the most of their trip by travelling around the North Island and meeting up with fellow fencing contractors.
With the Tornado Fencing Competition at Malvern and busy workloads, second-placed Jeff Joines and Wilton Weeks won the chance to travel and compete in the UK thanks to sponsorship from Tornado, New Zealand’s Fieldays, Strainrite, Wiremark, Revolution Postdrivers and FCANZ.
The Wiremark Golden Pliers is the most sought-after fencing title in the land, indeed perhaps the world. Around six hours of precision handwork and a team of 14 judges use fencing judging devices, tapes and levels to judge strainers, stays, posts, battens, wires, gate, safety and tidiness.
Tony Bouskill won the Golden Pliers for the sixth time but was only ahead by 0.867 of a point over last year’s winner Tim Stafford.
The Nick Liefting First off the Line Trophy was won by Tim Garrick, with Tony Bouskill 8.50 minutes behind.
Tom Kerly, who works for Tim Garrick, was the youngest ever Golden Pliers finalist at 20 years of age. His achievement was all the more remarkable as he has only been fencing for two years!
The Bill Schuler competition is named after legendary fencer Bill Schuler and this year’s deserved winner was Kopu Lloyd who faced strong competition.
The East Coast of the North Island is becoming a hot spot for top competitors with many hailing from the Gisborne and Hawkes Bay Regions.
It will be interesting in the years to come to see who amongst these can meet or surpass Paul Van Beers’ incredible achievement of 14 Golden Pliers titles.
