Brothers-in-law Bernard Condon (left) and Tony Bouskill won big at the Fieldays Fencing Championships this year. Photo / Barker Photography
Brothers-in-law Bernard Condon (left) and Tony Bouskill won big at the Fieldays Fencing Championships this year. Photo / Barker Photography
Reigning fencing champion Tony Bouskill, of Hawke’s Bay, has done it again and cleaned out the annual New Zealand Fencing Competition (NZFC) at Fieldays on the weekend.
Tony won the coveted Golden Pliers by Wiremark Singles Championship trophy for the fifth time running and also took home the Best Quality trophy and the Nick Liefting First Off The Line trophy.
He is a fencing contractor by trade and credits his ability to keep a cool head for his repeated success.
“Anyone on the day has the ability to take out the title if they can trust in the process because they know what they are doing, and they know what is required, so if they can keep calm, they can win.”
Tony also competed in the Fieldays Silver Spades Doubles Championship together with his father Shane, hoping to defend their title. However, the father-son duo had to be content with second place after being beaten by Mark Lambert of Bulls and Jeff Joines of Kapiti.
The judges say Lambert and Joines displayed “excellent teamwork” and dedication to the highly skilled task at hand to take the title from the Bouskills.
Jeff Joines and Mark Lambert won the Silver Spades Doubles Competition 2023. Photo / Barker Photography
For the first time, the Doubles Championship received overseas interest too, as Mark Evans and Nic Quan came all the way from the UK to participate. They placed seventh against their Kiwi counterparts.
Meanwhile, Bernard Condon, of Napier, took out the top spot in the Bill Schuler Competition, named after Waikato-born fencer Bill Schuler. In that competition, Cameron Hamerton was named best first-year participant and Sander Visser was named best second-year participant.
The NZFC Fieldays Silver Staples competition was won by Quinn Steel and Renee Garrett, of Pukemiro near Dannevirke.
The competition organisers say each heat delivered high-quality performances, with fencers demonstrating their exceptional skills, techniques and attention to detail.
The fencing competitions, organised and run with the support of NZFC, are a crowd favourite at Fieldays, especially for those wanting to get in on a piece of the action. Each year, the standard of competition increases as does the number of spectators lining the fences riverside at Mystery Creek.
