En Garde in Poland: A Fencing Adventure for one Cricklade Manor Prep Pupil

My sword-fencing adventure to Poland!

Challenge Wratislavia is an International Fencing competition in Wroclaw, Poland for children under U11 to U15 from all around the world. This year almost 3000 children took part, travelling from the USA, India, Egypt, Israel, Hungary and many more countries……..

This was my very first International competition and only my second time abroad so I couldn’t have been more excited!!

Our adventure started on Tuesday 19 March 2024, when we met Mr Bromley at Swindon station to catch our train to London and our flight on to Wroclaw at 18:05. The lovely Scandic hotel was very near the centre of Wroclaw so we were in the perfect place to look about.

We checked in, dropped off our bags and went to investigate our surroundings. The first thing I noticed was all the dwarfs – quirky little bronze statues everywhere! There are over 650 dwarf statues throughout Wroclaw and we managed to see about 32 on our first night!

Mr Bromley showed us the BEST doughnut shop on the way back to the hotel. I think Mum and I both agreed that the mango and passionfruit filling was the best, but the Nutella ones were also very cool. We spent our day off further investigating Worclaw town square, searching for dwarfs and taking pictures of all the gorgeous buildings.

Thursday was my first-day fencing. We made our way to the Hala Orbita Arena not quite knowing what to expect. We quickly met up with a couple of other Swindon Fencing Club girls who were competing in the U13 Epee group. It was great to see some familiar faces. We checked in and I got changed into my fencing kit ready to warm up with Mr Bromley.

Overall there were almost 100 girls in my age group, and I won two matches and scored 10 hits. I ended up coming 68th which I am very proud of. So far this is the biggest competition I have ever done, and it was amazing!

Sunday was my final day of fencing – U11 Girls Foil. This time there were 106 girls in my class. This one was much harder as the other players were really experienced, but I still managed to win a match which I’m really happy with.

I was very sad to be leaving as we all had such an amazing time and now can’t wait for next year! It was a fabulous feeling representing your team and country, and everyone got on so well and supported each other. Mr Bomley did a fantastic job looking after us all, helping us get the very best out of our trip. We couldn’t have done it without him and we can’t thank him enough. We met loads of really great fencers, from lots of different countries, it was all so very friendly.

An absolutely amazing experience and I can’t wait for next year’s competition…………

Written by a Year 6 pupil