The gymnasium at the Alfred Jenkins Field House was full of activity on Saturday and Sunday as Prince Albert played host to the 2025 Saskatchewan Provincial Fencing Tournament for the first time.
The event was organized by the Prince Albert Northern Knights Fencing Club, with competitors from Swift Current, Regina, Saskatoon, Asquith and Melfort in attendance.
Bob Spracklin is the head coach of the Northern Knights. He says it was great for the provincial tournament to take place in a smaller community.
“It’s a little bit of a feather in our cap kind of thing. There has been discussion about trying to host these things outside of Saskatoon and Regina. That hasn’t happened very often at all and I think the fact that it was successful here today may mean that we will see this again.
“I’m hoping they turn this into a bit more of a rotation so that different communities (get) to host it at different times. In the past it’s just gone back and forth between Regina and Saskatoon and pulling it up here was a really good thing for everybody.”
Spracklin says the Alfred Jenkins is a great facility to host the tournament. He said many fencers are familiar with it after competing here in non-provincial competitions.
“Everybody has come here before because we have hosted a local tournament and invited people from the rest of the province. This is the first time that the provincial association has said, ‘okay we’re going to let Prince Albert have the the provincials.’ I think the weather’s been very cooperative for the people that have to travel and we’ve had a really good turnout so it’s we’re quite happy with the success that we’ve had because we’re a small club.”
The event featured bouts in all three fencing disciplines with foil, sabre and epee in all age divisions ranging from U10 all the way through Masters and Open.
Spracklin has been involved with the Northern Knights for over 15 years and has been a fencer since 1971. He says the sport has a unique appeal to all age levels.
“It’s a fun group of people and it’s a sport that you can engage in as you have seen here today right from 10-year-olds and we actually have one fellow in the province who is not here today who’s still fencing at 80. You may not have noticed but there are actually families here that fence where you’ve got parents and their kids all fencing competitively. Not a lot of sports will you see that happen.”
The Northern Knights see plenty of new fencers each and every year. At the event, brochures were handed out explaining the terminology and rules of the sport.
Spracklin says it can be a challenge for the Northern Knights to retain members.
“One of the challenges that we have here is that fencers develop and a lot of them once they get to a certain age, head off to university. That’s a little bit of a drain that occurs with the natural demographics of it. It’s nice to see the younger ones come in. We had some girls today that started last September and this was their first exposure to a tournament. It’s nice that it was a pretty big one from their perspective. They had a really good experience so we are kind of in the role of being a developmental club. It is a little bit of a struggle to keep some of the older ones to stay.”
The provincial tournament marks the end of the fencing season with the season beginning again in September.
sports@paherald.sk.ca
