• last year
The money will go towards specialist clothing is for their under 13's fencers, which can be expensive for families to fork out.

Transcript
00:00 Much like the equipment you need to wear for it, fencing can be hard to get into.
00:05 Unlike some sports needing just a field and a ball to get young people involved,
00:09 it can be tough to find the funds for swords, wires, plastrons, special shoes and breeches,
00:16 and even tougher for families to afford them.
00:19 Every year, England Fencing grants certain clubs across the country funding,
00:23 sometimes in the form of training, coaches or just money.
00:28 Well I'm here at the MX Fencing Club in Sevenoaks,
00:31 where the next generation of English talent are honing and sharpening their skills
00:34 ahead of international contest.
00:36 This year a substantial portion of the grant budget was given to MX Fencing Club in Sevenoaks.
00:43 This took the form of £7,000 worth of masks, swords and other equipment,
00:49 which was given a unique design.
00:51 So what it does for us is it removes one hurdle completely.
00:57 Right, so obviously we have got a lot of ambitions to expand the club
01:00 and bring in some more people and show the sport around to them.
01:03 One of the biggest hurdles for that is having the kit to actually keep them safe while they're doing it
01:07 and also just fencing kit in general is quite expensive.
01:10 So if we were trying to do this off our own back, we probably couldn't.
01:14 But so having this kit come, it just completely removes one of the hurdles from our equation.
01:21 We have all the stuff we need now, now we just need to make sure we get the bodies to actually put in it.
01:25 But what exactly would this do for the club?
01:27 The club has a strong group of fencers ranging from under 13s, under 17s and adult fencers.
01:33 But the new equipment is specifically for the youngest fencers, who need specially sized equipment.
01:39 And the club hopes this will encourage more youngsters to follow in the footsteps of their under 17s,
01:44 some of whom are representing England in the Cadet Commonwealth Championships in New Zealand.
01:49 Yeah, we're both going to Commonwealths in New Zealand in July.
01:52 We're totally looking forward to it.
01:53 We're going to brew it very much.
01:54 So it's going to be really exciting.
01:55 Any nerves?
01:56 Hopefully not yet, but they'll come.
01:59 Yeah, hopefully we'll.
02:01 It's going to be our biggest competition so far.
02:03 Yeah.
02:04 It's nice to be going together.
02:05 Yeah.
02:06 Their older fencers are also regularly selected in competitions across Europe
02:10 in countries like Hungary, Turkey, Germany, Spain and France.
02:13 The England Fencing Support Grant adds to the club's recent application for a £14,000 grant from Sport England,
02:20 which would fund additional coaches and training.
02:23 The club hopes that the success of their under 17s and the funding granted by Sport England
02:28 will increase recruitment among their 13 and under group to keep the traditional sport of fencing alive.
02:33 Finn McDermid for KMTV.
02:35 TV.

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