It’s your kids’ favorite new sport — and they don’t even know about it yet!
Every Saturday from 11AM to Noon!
Nomads are participating, hopefully in force, in the first official tournament to be held at Savage Fencing Club!
SFC is the newest member in the depleted ranks of USA Fencing’s Maryland Division. Founders Lauren and Bruce Milligan, formerly of BFC fame, just put the New Choco Therapy (epee only) up for preregistration on AskFred. The Choco Therapy tournament has its roots in the BFC event by the same name and looks back on a tradition of 20 years. Historically, Choco Therapy was one of the BFC’s and the division’s most popular events.
This open tournament is slated for Saturday, February 19, 2022. Participation is capped at 24 entries — so register as soon as possible.
Pools kick off at 10:00AM sharp, so be there a half hour early!
There will be prizes — provided by the local chocolatier, Leon Paul, SFC, and Baltimore-area Epee Nomads.
The location is the historic Savage Mill shopping center in Savage, MD — about a half hour’s drive from downtown Baltimore, 45 min. from Towson, probably less than 20 min. from College Park.
Historic Savage Mill
8600 Foundry Street
Savage, MD 20763
For more information on the location, click here.
For directions, click here!
We’re back online after two months or so of problems with this website. But what a time it’s been:
The Epee Nomads have joined forces with the newly re-constituted Homewood Fencing Club, and are now fencing twice a week at the Johns Hopkins University athletic center off San Martin Drive.
The club’s six metal strips accommodate our increased numbers nicely: We now regularly have 8 to 12 adult epee fencers bouting!
Times and days remain unchanged: Erry Tuesday and Friday @7:00PM.
If you plan joining us, give Coach Chris a call — while centrally located, the right entrance is somewhat non-intuitive to find!
First things first: Tuesday and Friday epee nights will continue throughout September at the established days and times:
Tuesdays at 6:00PM — Skills clinic
Tuesdays at 7:00 PM — Open bouting
Fridays at 7:00PM — Open bouting
Looking beyond September, we have some GREAT prospects we’re working on. Epee Nomads may be joining a brand-new fencing room with 6 grounded strips before you can say “Happy Halloween!”
Details to follow!
Summer is wrapping up and two of our youthful Nomads are heading off to college.
What better way to conclude our first year of nomad life than to stage an unlicensed, unsanctioned, uninvited flash mob tournament on the long-jump track of Towson High.
On August 14, 2021, 7 competitors battled it out for possession of three top-of-the-line medals: 90-degree heat and high humidity were no impediment. Youth and treachery won out over age and experience!
Remembering fencing in 90 degrees heat outdoors last year, with thunder clouds moving in, the setting sun in our face, and biting flies going to town on our ankles, we are still appreciating the relative cool of Salle Nomad at the Rotunda.
Due to the return to normalcy (including having to physically be at the office again for our professionals), we have compacted the schedule and moved up our open bouting to an hour later:
Monday: Novice class at 7:00PM
Tuesday: Improvement Society at 6:00PM
Tuesday: Open Bouting at 7:00PM
Friday: Open Bouting at 7:00PM
Walk-ons welcome! BYOE. (Epee, although we have plenty of those…)
When are we fencing? How many opponents can I reasonably expect?
Please sign up for the various Duels at Dawn events every week on teamsnap.com!
The Pandemic of 2020/21 has taken a toll on local fencing. Two clubs in the region have closed their doors permanently. Those clubs who depend on schools and colleges for their venue found themselves in front of locked doors. Doors that will remain closed until September of 2021…
On the other hand, our adult epee group has been growing by leaps and bounds.
After a 3-month hiatus following the lockdown in March 2020, Vince and Chris started fencing again outdoors, on the athletic fields of Towson High School, soon to be joined by Aidan and Ethan. Using wireless and our prudently sequestered mobile scoring units, we instantly were independent of the regular club set-up. All we needed was a flat surface to fence on!
When the biting flies got too much, we moved from the defunct pole vault track to the pavement under the high school auditorium’s overhang roof. We found another regular in Daniel in the fall, and an A-rated challenge in Sarah. Our friends from the old BFC days, Latif and Hannah, also joined back up.
As the days grew shorter and colder, it became apparent that we’d need an indoor space to continue our bi-weekly Duels at Dusk. Thanks to Vince, we found an unused commercial space at the Rotunda shopping mall in Baltimore City. It was sufficient for a single Leon Paul “Gryptonite” strip. And because we capped occupancy at 6 persons at any given time for the first couple of months, that was more than enough for us. We also invited Homewood Fencing Club — who was in the same predicament as we were — to use the space for foil classes during those days we weren’t fencing.
We fenced close to 1,000 epee bouts in this place. Our group now has around 20 members, including novices and experienced fencers, so each bouting night, you can expect to find between 6 and 12 fencers ready for action.
In October of 2021, the Nomads joined Homewood Fencing Club, located at the Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood Campus off University Parkway. We now have six metal strips at our disposal, enough for our continued weekly Tuesday and Friday night bouting.
Experienced fencers, just grab your gear and simply show up at or around 6:00PM every Tuesday and Friday. If you have never fenced before but always wanted to, give Coach Chris a call at 410-790-8033.
We’re now establishing friendly alliances with other local and regional clubs, aimed at keeping Baltimore-area epee fencing alive through what remains of the pandemic.
We’re meeting at 733 W. 40th Street, Baltimore MD 21211, Tue/Fr 6:00PM.
Fencing in Baltimore 