Salle Angelo

Salle Angelo celebrates the birth of Domenico Angelo on 6 February (1716) as close to that date as possible. This year it was Saturday the 7th and was held at Scotia (Old Railway Station) Restaurant.

The Guest of Honour was Russell Towns who has had a long association with fencing in Otago. Many will remember Russell’s efficient organisation of Commonwealth and National Tournaments and many other activities in local clubs over the years. For his service to the sport he was awarded the MNZM in 2005.

Mike Geary was the Master of Cerermonies and guided us through the dinner, speeches and toasts very ably. Ted Nye presented an award (in absentia) to Fiona McMillan acknowledging her work with young fencers and those beginning the sport. The Royal Toast was proposed by Brian Ellis and the toast to Salle Angelo by Tony Williams. Gio gave the traditional Angelo address which took the line of thanks to two people – to Malcolm Fare who provided notes from and helped in an (unsuccessful) purchase of documents at a auction at Sotheby’s, and to Bruce McGechan who gifted prints from “Ecole d’Armes”  and an early edition of Henry Angelo’s Pocket Fencing Manual to the family.

An excellent evening.

The opening day for 2009 was postponed for a week due to some people still being on holiday but on the 24th Feb. we gathered at Heyward Point (Gio and Ruth’s crib) to start fencing for the year.

It was hot! But the fencing was at a good standard considering the temperature and we had had a few weeks off.. I’m not sure who won the tournament – either Brian of Tony I think.

The fencing was by a followed a walk to the heads, followed by a few films in the Cannon Picture Theatre and all this flowed into a dinner, a few drinks, good conversation and generally righting the world.