After being thouroughly thrashed by the Baron last week, my thoughts returned to the time many years ago when the Baron first beat me. Unlike his latest Victory, I can confirm that on this occassion I did let the Noble Baron soil his blade upon my person without too much defence. I refer from my book ' Tales from the Piste.'

The Baron and I were invited to do a fencing demonstration at a local school as part of their healthy lifestyle week. After the demonstartion the pupils were then given a chance to have a go at fencing. As there was about 400 pupils to get through, the sessions went on all day with various groups.

Instead of just doing a boring talk to our captive audience, I came upon the idea to start an argument between ourselves that would lead to a duel, and of course the customary etiquuette at the end of the fight.

Standing at the front of a hall full of teachers and pupils, the Baron had cunningly left his bag exactly where I was to stand.

 None of the pupils knew whose bag it was, and I started to moan how stupid and dangerous it was to leave it there, and that whoever was responsible should move it.

Cue the Baron : It was his bag, and when I suggested he move it, the reply was to move it myself. This esculated into an argument and resulting duel.

Once the Baron had beat me with the Foil, I would exit stage right and return with an Epee, as did the Baron. After he beat me with the Epee, I would exit stage left and retrurn with the Sabre, as did the Baron.

On the final beating, the customary shaking of hands took place, and of course the removal of the Barons bag by the defeated coach, and then at last to the business in hand.

As the day wore on, and more and more groups passed through the hall, we both really started to get into the role of our little pantomime. In the end our argument was so convincing ( at least to teachers and assistants ) they were so worried what they had brought into their school, they were on the point of absolute panic until the truth dawned. Never for once fooled the kids though.

Still remains one of my greatest memories of fencing, I just wish the Baron didn't count these victories in his record book.

One of the most important members of our Club is George the Pin Cushion. Named after an old club member, has helped many a fencer and epeist with their point control.

He now has a rival in the name of Token that hails from the Welsh lands of Aberyswyth. Token is even armed. If any one has any more photos of Dummies, please pas them on.

Thought I would play about with technology and develop the foil cam, sabre cam and epee cam. As you can see from the results, apart from the epee cam, the technolgy needs a bit of refining. I supposed it works on the epee as nothing much happens, whereas the other weapons are a bit more active.

This experiment reminds me of an old fencing coaching joke.

 To train fencers to react you burst a ballon behind them. With a foilist, when the balloon bursts, the foilist does an imediate explosive lunge. The epeeist waits a few moments, considers the best option available then lunges, the sabreur turns round and belts you one.

It looks like the Blademaster will now be returning to fence with the Epee. No I am not turning to the dark side, I have just checked my fishing Licence and the season finishes Sunday. Won't have any more time to go fishing so might as well strip the line and reel off the epee and use it for fencing. Still think fishing is a better use of an epee.

I know the nick name Mad dog is not one of the most original names, and most clubs probably have one or have had one in the past. The most famous one I know that comes to mind at this time of writing is the England Rugby Union Flanker Lewis Mad Dog Moody.

However, how our mad dog got his name is probably more original than most and has absolutely nothing to do with his temprement. The name was actually given by members of the Kings Lynn fencing club where mad dog also trained.

I believe that it came about while refreshing their fluid levels after training. Martin the Mad Dog found himself in the company of Southern Softies that had found it a tad hard to get round his northern Hull accent.

Martin was trying to explain that a previous injury to his ankle had surprisingly not caused him any discomfort during the fights that night, or as Martin put it,' I was surprised that my dodgy ankle didnt bother me tonight'.

All that the fellow fencers could make out was something about Mad Dog Uncle, and not ma dodgy ankle said with a Northern accent.

After a few minutes asking who the mad dogs uncle was, slower louder talking and exchanging words like dodgy with injured, the sentence started to make sense. To everyones amusement it became clear ma dodgy ankle was reference to an injured limb and not a canine relative.

When the story was retold, time and time again at our own after fight committee meetings, it was agreed that the Kings Lynn boys had created the perfect nick name for our Northern Mad Dog.

Having spent the day sorting out the web page with a technical hitch, I thought about some of the comments from the unofficial Face book page of the Custodians fencing club. Here I found a comments discussion on the nicknames attributed to some of our members.

 This Blog is about how the Baron came to get his name. Or at least my version of events.  No doubt the Baron will correct me at some point.

During a committee meeting after a fencing session, ie Drinks in the Bar, I was telling Tony V. ( AKA the Baron ) about my interest in tracing My family tree, and how I had managed to get back to 1775, and found to be of good old peasant stock.

He said he had also traced one of his distant relatives  back to around 1700, Baron Charles Mohun.

Instead of being completely bemused by this relavation ( you forget I am an educated Man ) I replied ' not the Dog of Havoc 'that contributed to Fencing being outlawed in Britain.

As I remember from my studies, Baron or Lord Mohun was involved in a particularly unpleasant Duel around 1712 in Hyde Park with the Duke of Hamilton. More of a free for all rather than a chilverous affair from accounts from the period, to which I believe both parties died.

Having already named a member of the club 'Mad Dog' ( future Blog ), it was deemed one dog too many to be called the Dog of Havoc. So the Baron was Born. If He is a distant descendant of the Dog of Havoc, this could explain his style of fencing on the piste.

This Blog has proved more popular than I could have imagined. It gets bad when more than one person ( well 2 actually ) ask why I haven't written for over 2 weeks. Is it really that long. Surely I dont work that hard.

Anyway, having just finished a fine glass of Laphroaig, (Whisky). Another idea has enetred my head for another book. ( You must have read my others)

Working title is 101 Golden rules of Fencing. This is not about the rules of fencing. We all try and cheat on those. Its more on why we fence, equipment, thoughts, idealology, sportsmanship, etc.

Now the alcohol is kicking in the first problem is I only have about 50 golden rules. If my maths is correct thats over another 50 to go.

Here's how you can help. If you have any thoughts on a golden rule for fencing please let me know. Any rule published will of course be recognised and duly attributed to sender. Unless I already thought of it. ( Royalties remain with me).

So if you would like to be partly published, send your ideas on a post card to the usual address.

Some of these Golden rules may be given an airing in these Blogs or in the Newsletters sent to memebrs of the Custodians FencingClub.