This article forms part of a series of reports which accompany the 2024-25 BF Annual Report.
On this page:
BF Portfolio Events List (1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025)
*Contracted to be run by Leon Paul
The British Senior National Championships took place in April 2024 at the English Institute of Sport (EIS) in Sheffield. The Championships included both Individual and Team events, with priority entry given to those at the top of the senior ranking lists. The aim is to bring the British Championships experience as close as possible to the experience that our athletes get when competing abroad.
The first day of competition saw 293 athletes take part in the individual competition. Team Championships took place on day two, with the top two teams in each weapon qualifying for the EFC European Club Championships.
Alongside the British Senior Championships, a competition was held for D/E/U rated fencers, following the BF Rating Scheme Pilot being extended to all six weapons. The aim of the scheme is to provide incentives for fencers to compete more often, at more appropriate level competitions, and progress their rating over time. The opportunity to bring this event alongside an existing championship meant much of the logistical infrastructure was already in place, and the event gave the participating fencers a taste of the National Championship environment.
Find out more about the British Senior Championships 2024 in our round up report.
The British Youth Championships (BYCs) took place on its traditional first May Bank Holiday weekend. The three-day event remains the largest youth participation event in the UK competitions calendar.
BYC entry figures continue to increase steadily. Entry numbers rose to 1200 (compared to 1173 in 2023 and 1141 in 2022), making this the largest entry for British Youth Championships for many years, including pre-covid figures.
Speaking at the event, Georgina Usher said “A brilliant and supportive atmosphere has been created by all the volunteers, the staff, the parents and the coaches, giving the children a fantastic British Championships experience.”
“The set up of the venue was of international quality with international quality referees. It was really amazing to be able to present medals to young athletes from across the UK. Seeing so much young talent gives me a great deal of positivity about the future of fencing in Britain.”
Find out more about the British Youth Championships in our round up report.
In its second year the British Open Championships (Senior, Wheelchair, GB Cup and new for 2024 – U14) took place in July. The Open Championships was open to all Compete licensed BF members, including those not eligible to compete for GBR, plus international visitors. The Wheelchair Fencing disciplines were also open to athletes that were not internationally classified.
The 2024 GB Cup, a national competition for beginner and intermediate adult (16+) fencers also took place over the same weekend. Similarly to the BYCs, participants qualify through regional competitions, including regional senior championships, and specific beginner/intermediate events. There was a total of 93 entries over the weekend.
Finally, over the July weekend and new for 2024, The British U14 Open Championships offered U14 fencers the opportunity to compete in the first U14 British Open event, as part of the new U14 Ranking Competition and Structure, as announced in March 2024.
In September, the 2024 U17 and U20 Championships (the ‘Cadet and Junior’ Championships) was held at the University of Nottingham. The annual competition saw young fencers compete for ranking points, ahead of the international selection events commencing in late September. Alongside this, the first ‘A’ British Ranking Event (BRC) for U14s also took place. With an increase in entry numbers in the U14 A BRC event, and consistent entries into the Cadet and Junior Championships, the weekend saw an increase in overall entries – 687 compared to 623 in 2023.
In March 2025, 89 teams participated in the British School Team Championships Finals. This took place at the Leon Paul Centre, following changes to the competition structure to allow Home Nations to hold qualifying series events before the British School Team National Finals. Leon Paul were contracted to run this event on behalf of British Fencing.
During 2024-25, there were 2950 individual entries and 130 team entries into all BF Portfolio events, an increase on the previous year. Event-by-event comparisons are as follows:
| Event | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
| British Senior Championships (individual) | 298 | 293 |
| British Senior Championships (Team) | 41 | 41 |
| DEU (Senior Championships weekend) | N/A | 75 |
| British Youth Championships | 1173 | 1200 |
| British Open Championships (U14) | N/A | 154 |
| British Open Championships (Senior) | 384 | 473 |
| GB Cup | 58 | 61 |
| Cadet and Junior Championships | 550 | 554 |
| U14 A BRC (C&J weekend) | 73 (pilot) | 133 |
| British School Team Championships | 60 | 89 |
Entry numbers are being maintained, with a slight increase in certain competitions (see table above).
Overall participation is increasing as we increase the number/type of competitions (e.g. DEU ratings event, U14 Ranking events) over an event weekend. By maximising the venue capacity and space in this way we can increase participation across different areas of the community and limit the impact of increasing costs, especially in areas such as venue hire.
For the 2024-25 season, BF continued to record and upload finals of portfolio events to the BF YouTube channel, with over 20,000 views for the season.
Supported by an extensive communications plan, event information and messaging was spread over multiple platforms, including the BF website and social media. In 2024-25 BF continued to use paid Meta advertising for events with a total reach of 29,334 compared to 2023-24 23,400.
BF continues to use a photo-sharing site to display the best images from BF events. This is available here: britishfencing.smugmug.com. This was set up specifically to provide a watermarked high-resolution service for major events and is intended for both public interest and external media use, rather than as a general platform for images, which in most cases is best served by social media. In 2024-25, the site has had an impressive 420,492 total photo views (2023-24 – 329,000 total photo views) to the end of March 2025.
When analysing Customer feedback scores for the BF portfolio events, the scores for overall satisfaction were (with 10 being ‘extremely satisfied’ and 0 ‘extremely dissatisfied’):
Score 9-10: 39% of respondents
Score 7-8: 36% of respondents
Score 0-6: 25% of respondents
The team continues to welcome feedback on events so that we can work with key partners, such as venue teams to implement improvements for future events.
“BF staff and volunteers were all excellent – thank you all for your hard work in running this event. The friendly advice and guidance from the armourers was also appreciated.”
(Feedback from 2024 British Cadet and Junior Championships)
Designed to address the barrier of increased costs of participating in BF portfolio events, the Entry Fee Support Scheme provided 31 free entries, (the same number as last year) to fencers from lower socio-economic groups (LSEG). The scheme continues to be available for all BF portfolio events.
To be covered by the BF insurance policy, all competitions and events must hold a BF Event Licence, whether competitive (ranking, open, closed) or recreational.
For the third consecutive financial year, there was a rise in the number of competitive events taking place, with an increase of over 20 events (251 in 2024-25, compared to 233 in 2023-24).
There has also been a significant rise in the number of recreational events taking place within the community, with 42 registered events, compared to 25 in the previous year. The recreational event licence covers a wide range of events, from have-a-go sessions, to recreational series events or charity events.
The event organiser zone continues to be updated with resources available to organisers to help plan their event, such as the addition of Creating Inclusive Environments, and Setting up an Event on Sport80 section of the website.
Following the trend for the previous financial year, the events portfolio continued to face challenges due to the continuing impact of cost increases and inflation on areas such as accommodation, travel, catering and venue costs.
The financial aim is to break-even with events, excluding all BF staffing costs.
The final 2024-25 figure was a surplus of £1k before attributable staff salary and overhead costs and subsidies.
Increasing participation (through increased entry limits, where there is demand, and adding additional competitions within the event weekends) are important in our goal of sustainable, financially viable events.
Club referee provision is also an important factor. We would like to thank clubs and club organisers for their support in embedding this method of referee provision which is common practice in other European fencing nations.
The ranking event levy continues to support the ranking automation work as well as allowing BF to provide free/subsidised additional event workforce training and education.
In March 2025, the first Competition Planning and Running DT course took place for event organisers, delivered by Jon Willis (BF Competitions and EFC Competitions Commission). This course was subsidised by the Ranking Event Levy, and covered areas such as Competition Finances, Venue and Field of Plat, How to Run DT and Planning an Event. Moving into 2025-26, the longer term intention is to make elements of the course available as online training modules.
BF Events are managed by the BF Event Manager, supported by BF Competition Manager Jon Willis. Whilst the individual events are supported by many BF staff members, we continue to rely on volunteers who provide invaluable support, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience in running events.
The Cardiff 2024 Wheelchair Fencing World Cup, (held in the previous year) has been a catalyst to welcoming new volunteers, alongside strengthening existing relationships with volunteers, it has been great to see this good work continue into 2024-25.
BF would like to thank to our key volunteers, who enable competition weekends to take place:
We would also like to thank all the volunteer event organisers for their constant feedback and input, including attending online community discussion events, the running of local competitions and their involvement in the BRC circuit of events.
Looking ahead to 2025-26, the focus for BF is to continue to run high-quality national level competitions, whilst continuing to manage the impact of increasing costs.
National competitions will continue to see multiple age groups within one championship, including a piloting a veterans event at the British Open Championships in July.
Alongside the existing scheme for U17 and U20 events, we expect to see an increase in British Ranking Competitions for the U14 age group as it enters its second season, enabling the Ranking Scheme and Competition Structure to continue in its growth.
A review of the GB Cup during this time led to the launch of a new-look GB Cup for 2025-26, meaning the delivery of a National Championships event for DEU (Intermediate) fencers. This will increase the numbers of fencers who are eligible to enter and compete during a BF competition weekend, exposing more members to high quality fencing competition experience.
We will continue to support fencers from lower socio-economic groups (LSEG) to participate in BF portfolio events through the Entry Fee Support Scheme, with free places available at all BF Portfolio events.
Recruitment for a new Events Manager took place towards the end of 2024-25. Evie Millar, who held the position of BF Events Manager for five years, navigating the return of BF events post Covid, as well as successfully delivering the Cardiff Wheelchair Fencing World Cup, leaves BF at the end of 2024-25. Abigail Dicks will join BF at the start of 2025-26.
Click here for the full 2024-25 Annual Report.
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