Club History
2002
After the folding of Salle Jakab and the creation of Laszlo's Fencing. Chris Morton and Clive Madgin created Durham Phoenix Fencing Club. It rose from the ashes of Salle Jakab like the mythical bird of it's name, to focus on grass roots foil fencing. As well as the club night sessions, both Clive and Chris also ran introductory sessions around schools in the region. This helped feed a regular supply of new young fencers into the Phoenix fold. Our original home was the now demolished Gilesgate Sports College & Sixth Form Centre.
Gilesgate to Belmont & Beyond!
After more than a decade in Gilesgate the old Sports College and Sixth Form centre had become the ill fated Durham Free School and was then closed in 2015/16. So Phoenix spread its wings and flew off a few miles up the road to Belmont School where instead of green composite, we found ourselves on extremely shiny (and sometimes quite slippery) polished wooden boards. Our time at Belmont school ended when we effectively outgrew the space and made the move to Hetton Academy an a much bigger sports hall to play with! The Pictures below show all of our venues over the years and also some familiar faces transitioning from young fencers in training to more seasoned fencers who now form the backbone of our coaching team!
Clive's Retirement and Passing
A few years after our move to Hetton and once we finally got back into the salle after pandemic lockdowns put fencing on hold, Clive decided the time had come to hang up his coaching plastron and retire. His last club night saw presentations and speeches and involved some of his former fencing pupils returning, to join the club in a mass salute. A scene repeated in 2025 under sadder circumstances when following Clive's passing, his daughter Julie took the club salute to say farewell to one of the Phoenix founders and an irreplaceable part of the club's history.
