This article forms part of a series of reports which accompany the 2023-24 BF Annual Report.
As in 2022-23, the events portfolio continued to face challenges due to the impact of cost increases and inflation throughout 2023-24. Accommodation, travel, catering and venue costs continued to rise, as forecasted in early 2023.
BF Portfolio Events List (1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024)
The Eden and London Cups were removed from the portfolio due to unsustainable rising costs.
New for the 2023-24 portfolio the 2024 Wheelchair Fencing World Cup took place in Cardiff, Wales. Thanks to the support of UK Sport, the National Lottery, Sport Wales, Welsh Government along with Disability Sport Wales and Welsh Fencing, over 180 athletes from 30 countries came together in Cardiff for four days of intense competition at the very highest level. Click here for a full round up of the event.
Detailed Report
The British Senior Championships took place in April 2023 at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre in London. It included both Individual and Team events with a new look designed to create an international championship experience. Entry limits were imposed with priority entry for top 50 senior ranked fencers and a wildcard process.
On the second day of competition, the Team Championships took place, with the winning club in each weapon qualifying for the EFC European Club Championships.
With the introduction of entry limits, entry figures were reduced from 2022, with 298 individual entries and 41 team entries. The introduction of entry limits allowed for greater control of finances and planning, with fixed costs set and the focus to produce a high quality event experience.
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, following the Covid related break, with entry numbers rising to 1173 (from 1141 in 2022). This compares to the largest pre-Covid entry of 1100 in 2019.
The new British Open Championships took place in June as part of a pilot designed to encourage and grow participation. 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 2023 GB Cup, a national event 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.
Photos from 2023 British Open Championships and GB Cup can be on the BF Smugmug account, now used to share images from BF events.
A new opportunity arose to host the 2023 Para National Championships as part of the 2023 Para Sport Festival. Organised by Disability Sport Wales, the Para Sport Festival included a number of Para National Championships, including the World Triathlon Para Series and the Swansea Ironman 70.3. 14 athletes competed over the three weapons. In addition, this event also provided the opportunity for a number of referees interested in pursuing their World Abilitysport Refereeing Qualifications to progress on their refereeing journeys.
Running alongside the competitive element of the festival, Welsh Fencing delivered ‘have a go’ sessions to give people the opportunity to try wheelchair fencing and find out how they can get involved in the sport. This event was a fantastic opportunity to be part of a multi-sport event, and influential in preparations for the 2024 Wheelchair Fencing World Cup.
In September, the 2023-24 competition season began with the 2023 U17 and U20 Championships (the ‘Cadet and Junior’ Championships), 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. In addition to the U17 and U20 Championships, a pilot U14 event took place alongside the event. This pilot event led the way for the announcement of the U14 National Ranking Scheme, which begins in 2024-25.
In March, the British School Team Championships was hosted by Millfield School, Somerset, with 60 teams competing over two days of competition. BF extends its thanks to Millfield for stepping in to host the event at short notice. In 2025 the structure of this event will change with a qualifying Home Nation series, with a British School Team National Finals.
Summary Participation Statistics
During 2023-24, there were 2,463 individual entries and 111 team entries into all BF Portfolio events. Event by event comparisons are as follows:
| Event | Entrants 2022 | 2023-24 Entrants |
| British Youth Championships | 1141 | 1173 |
| British Senior Championships | 492 (Individual Entries)
61 (Team Entries) |
298 (Individual Entries)
41 (Team Entries) |
| British Open Championships | N/A | 384 |
| GB Cup | 73 | 58 |
| Cadet and Junior National Championships | 562 | 550 |
| British School Team Championships | 129 Teams | 60 |
Connecting with our Community
Throughout 2023-24, championship events continued to be live streamed for online audiences. During this season, BF moved from live streaming on the Recast platform, to uploading finals to YouTube. The 2023 Cadet and Junior Championships had 3743 views on Youtube within the period 2023-24. Looking ahead to 2024-25, YouTube will allow easier tracking of viewing figures.
Supported by an extensive communications plan, event information and messaging was spread over multiple platforms, including the BF website and social media. In 2023-24 BF included paid Meta advertising for events with a total reach of 23,400.
In December 2023, BF launched 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.
This platform is used by other NGBs including ArcheryGB and TriathlonGB, as well as a number of International Federations. Since the launch on 30th Dec 2023, the site has had an impressive 329,000 total photo views to the end of March 2024, peaking on the 1st March with over 80,000 total views. The site now contains over 3000 images from national and international events in 2023-24.
Feedback from Events
For BF Portfolio Events, customer feedback scores remained steady, with the focus remaining on the implementation of the field of play, and standard of refereeing. Feedback on events is always welcome, providing opportunities for us to implement improvements for future events. BF would like to thank all those who take the time to complete the feedback surveys post events.
“Great standard of sporting behaviour , which the on the field system greatly helped.”
“Great event, well run. All in all by far the best run BYCs I have attended in 40 odd years of attending BYCs”
(Feedback from 2023 British Youth Championships)
In response to feedback we continue to look to improve and adapt our environments to be more inclusive – for example allowing the wearing of tracksuit trousers over breeches for religious observance, providing prayer rooms, and making fidget spinners and noise cancelling headphones available to help people with ASD.
The largest area of dissatisfaction remains around entry fees and costs of competitions. This is affecting all aspects of sport participation and whilst we keep a tight control of costs, BF is limited in how we can address this without cancelling events or significantly reducing the championships experience. The BF Entry Fee Support Scheme supports fencers from lower socio economic groups (LSEG) with free entry to BF run events.
Entry Fee Support Scheme
Recognising that the increased entry fees can create an insurmountable barrier for some members of our community, BF established the Entry Fee Support Scheme, which aims to provide fencers from lower socio economic groups (LSEG) with free entry to BF run events. The scheme, running in its current format since 2021, can be applied for by fencers for all British Fencing National Events via the event webpage. This scheme will continue throughout 2024-25.
Athletes are able to apply to the scheme through an online form available on the relevant event webpage.
Event Licences (events not directly run by BF)
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.
There was a rise in the number of competitive event licences taken out in 2023-24, with 233 Compete level events taking place in the year (compared to 221 in 2022-23). The level of Recreational level events remained steady at 25 (26 in 2022-23).
The event organiser zone has been enhanced with additional content and help guides available to organisers to help plan their event.
Financial Reporting
In previous financial years, a number of updates on the challenges being faced in organising events have provided members with details on the costs involved in running events and the likelihood of these increasing.
The cancellation of the Eden Cup/London Cup reduced the overall deficit by about £25k with the final 2023-24 figure ending on £-4,280 before staff costs. This was largely due to increased costs in goods and services in many areas, including venue hire, transport and accommodation costs.
The introduction of referee provision for some events prevented additional entry fee increases (Referee Provision for the British Open Championships 2023).
The ranking event levy continues to support the automation work on the ranking systems as well as allowing BF to invest in additional event workforce training and education.
Our Volunteers & Officials
BF Events continue to be run by Evie Millar with help from the BF team, supported by BF Competition Manager Jon Willis. We continue to rely on volunteers who provide invaluable support, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience in running events.
Engagement with our event volunteers and officials has continued through the year with Community Discussions and pre-event drop-ins via Zoom before each event. These sessions have enabled further collaboration and helped in establishing best practice in running events.
Event organisers and community volunteers are encouraged to get in touch with BF to discuss issues facing them. Community Discussion Events will continue to take place throughout 2024-25 with topics chosen following community feedback.
Through the 2024 Cardiff Wheelchair World Cup, there has been an increase in interest and variety of volunteers attending BF events. We look forward to engaging new volunteers throughout 2024-25.
BF would like to express gratitude to:
Looking ahead to 2024-25
Looking ahead to 2024-25, the focus for BF is to continue to run high-quality national competitions, whilst continuing to deal with significant budgetary challenges.
Venue costs continue to rise therefore it is vital that we maximise the use of space. This involves planning of events to involve multiple competitions that maximise the space for the event day. This includes running multiple age group competitions in one event (such as the British Open Championships).
The introduction of the U14 Ranking Scheme and Competition Structure from 2024-25 provides an opportunity to run additional U14 competitions alongside Senior events, and we will also be considering providing events for the veteran community (eg 50+) as this age group continues to increase.
With the the D,E,U rating competition circuit growing there is the growing requirement to consider the provision of a Championships offer and consider how that relates to the GB Cup and the ‘B’ Nationals.
Financial assistance to fencers from lower socio-economic groups (LSEG) to participate in fencing activities will continue through initiatives such as the Entry Fee Support Scheme.
Click here for the full 2023-24 Annual Report.
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