« Previous|Main|Next »

Breakfast Olympians: Nick Duncalf

Post categories: , 

Nick DuncalfNick Duncalf|09:40 UK time, Wednesday, 20 July 2011

In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.

I'll be honest: I didn't expect at any stage in my career to be arriving at the British Ballet Organisation in south west London for a training session.

Thankfully I don't have to pull on a tutu or points, but I am struggling to pull on some white breeches for my first ever fencing lesson with former British team captain Marc Bengry.

Marc puts me through my paces, teaches me to lunge and to parry, and by the end of the lesson, I'm worn out. The fencing outfit is tight and unforgiving, the mask is heavy and unbelievably hot (I keep calling it a sieve: they don't find it funny), and now I'm about to take on a man 14 years younger than me, and several stone lighter to boot.



That man is Tom Bennett, Olympic hopeful and five-time World Championship contender. Repeatedly calling him Tony Bennett hasn't exactly endeared me to my fellow combatant, but he must be feeling generous, as I get the first hit. I'm pretty certain I got him on the foot, but they all count.

After only a couple of minutes of me lumbering towards Tom like a six foot teddy bear holding a barbecue skewer, he decides to show his true class and repeatedly sticks his epee into my chest and arms until the buzzer sounds and it's all over.

Final score: Bennett 10, Duncalf 1.

Nick Duncalf is 5 live Breakfast's travel reporter

Related links

British Fencing



Comments

More from this blog...

Categories

These are some of the popular topics this blog covers.