Most after school clubs are for netball or football or computers and even chess.
But one tutor has brought the ancient art of fencing to the classroom so intrepid reporters Juliet Auty and Vicki Flowers accompanied Rachel Lancaster to see what it is all about.

Fencing, with 10 year olds? This was going to be a piece of cake.

Or perhaps not.

As Juliet, Vicki and I entered the sports hall at St Andrew's Junior School, Congresbury, to try out a spot of fencing, the year six pupils of the fencing club all seemed to know exactly what they were doing.

They put on their gear, and started to practice their moves as we stood in the corner looking a bit wary about what we were letting ourselves in for.

But after donning a strange pyjama style jacket, complete with a through the leg safety strap, madonnaesque breast protectors, some fairly mediaeval looking helmets and probably the sweatiest gloves in the world, we were ready to fence.

Now for those of you who thought fencing was about stabbing people in the chest with a flimsy bit of steel, well, you'd be right, except it takes a lot more skill than you might think, as we found out from professional fencing coach, Jim Perry.

Firstly, Jim got us all into the famous on guard position.

Now this I could cope with, just about.

But then things got slightly more complicated, as we learned the forward and backward steps, cross over, and of course, the lunge.

Jim told us that there are 84 different moves in fencing, including footwork, and that somehow we had managed to put together around 10 in our first session, which I was impressed to hear.

But it takes a lot of hard work to become really good, and Jim has been fencing since he was 20, after taking a three week residential course in York back in 1966.

His new pupils, at St Andrew's, have been learning since October, but are already getting the hang of things, with each young fencer working towards their proficiency award.

For our first go, we used foils, which are used when the target is the body, but fencing has two other weapons, the sabre, which is used when the target is the waist and upwards, and the epee which is used when there is no target, you can go for everything.

All the weapons are made from sprung steel, and wire runs through the centre of the sword, with the button on the end, for electronic play.

Fencing is an Olympic sport, and has been practised in this country for more than 700 years, and had a boost recently after the publicity it received in the new James Bond film.

But Jim says the portrayal of fencing in Die Another Day did not have many similarities with the real thing.

He said: "The fights are flamboyant and choreographed, you really want the sword to disappear, so your opponent doesn't see it."

Jim is keen to get youngsters involved in learning the art of fencing, and has clubs in both Congresbury and Churchill along with others all over the country.

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