The University of Exeter Fencing Club (UoEFC) is one of the university’s oldest sports clubs, with a history spanning over a century, predating Exeter’s full university status in 1955 when it was known as the University College of the South West. Over the decades, the club has developed into a highly competitive and inclusive programme, combining strong BUCS performances with a welcoming environment for beginners and experienced fencers alike.

​​​

The Club's home in the Sports Park is Studio 3 (previously known as Studio 1), a salle built in 1967 as some of the university's first sports facilities. Cupboard space stores all the club kit, although recent expansion in membership and kit has forced us to annex the nearby cleaning cupboard to keep up.

​

The salle is well equipped with lunging pads and marked pistes, as well as a unique metal piste that rolls out from the floor, thought to be original to the salle and an early example of a conductive piste. We have been able to complement this with two more prototype roll-out pistes from Leon Paul, funded by the Alumni fund.

​

Since 2015, we have also had the use of Studio 2 as an additional hall, which has significantly helped with running our beginner sessions. Over the years, the club has also made good use of many university spaces such as the Sports Hall, the Cricket Centre, the Lemmy and the outside MUGA pitch.

​

BUCS (as well as previous inter-university competitions, BUSA and UAU) have been an important part of the club. Both the Men's and Women's 1st teams have been mainstays competing in Western leagues, with the Women's team most recently being promoted to compete in Premier South for the 2025–26 season.

​

Both teams have enjoyed league success over the years, with the Women's team winning the 09/10, 14/15 and 24/25 seasons, and the Men's team winning the 19/20, 21/22 and 22/23 seasons, alongside a further 13 combined second-place finishes since 2005. In more recent years, this competitive standard has been maintained, with both squads continuing to challenge for league titles and promotion.

​

In the Trophy, the women's team have proved the most successful, reaching the final in 2006, 2007, 2015, 2017 and 2025, winning in both 2006 and 2017. Whilst never winning, the Men's team have consistently performed strongly, reaching the semi-finals in 2019, 2020 and 2022, and going on to reach the final in both the 2022–23 and 2024–25 seasons.

​

The growth of the club allowed for the addition of a Men's 2nd team for the 2019/20 season for the first time, which was unfortunately subsequently cut by the AU following Covid. However, not for long, as the club has since re-established a Men's 2nd team which now competes regularly in BUCS leagues. The 2022–23 season saw the Men's 2nd team finish 3rd in Western Tier 2 and win the Western Conference Cup, before gaining promotion to Western Tier 1 in 2023–24 and securing back-to-back Western Conference Cup victories.

​

The 2022–23 season marked one of the most significant and successful periods in the club’s modern history. The Men’s 1st team produced an exceptional undefeated campaign to win Western Tier 1, securing promotion to Premier South through the playoff, and further reached the BUCS National Trophy Final. The Men’s 2nd team demonstrated the club’s growing depth, finishing third in Western Tier 2 and winning the Western Conference Cup. The Women’s 1st team also achieved a league title in Western Tier 1, narrowly missing out on promotion in the playoffs. Beyond BUCS competition, the club established the Exeter Open, a national competition featuring ranking points awarded by British Fencing, organised entirely by led by Arlen Veysey, Alexander Varley and other student committee members. In recognition of these achievements, the club was awarded “University Club of the Year” by British Fencing.

​

In the following seasons, both teams continued to compete strongly, with the Men's 1st team finishing 2nd in Western Tier 1 in both 2024–25 and 2025–26, and the Women's 1st team securing promotion to Premier South in 2024–25.

We have also seen individual success, with the annual trip to Sheffield for BUCS Individuals becoming an established tradition. Our women's sabreurs have brought home two medals for EUFC: a bronze for Izabela Sosnowska in 2013 and a silver for Laura Gladdish in 2018.

​

Many of our members first learn to fence when they come to university and join the club, and currently make up around half the club membership. We are very lucky to have Edgar Kursiss as our head coach, having been with the club since 2013.

 

A wizard with a foil and a Latvian National Foil Champion, he gives new members a solid training in foil from which they may choose to stick with or pick a new weapon. Edgar also runs warm-up and footwork sessions for experienced fencers, as well as providing one-on-one lessons for foilists. Other visiting coaches have helped with other weapons such as Jason Ball (Sabre) and Chris Hay (Epee).