The noble sport of fencing. Recalls Malta

When Antoine Bonello was a child, his heroes were Zorro and D’Artagnan – so when he found out that fencing, the sport of sword fighting, could be practiced in Malta, it was like a dream come true. Antoine was 22 years old when he began fencing, and went on to become Malta’s first male champion (winning the Maltese Fencing Championships five times). He also represented Malta abroad at the World Championships in Switzerland in 1998 and in Korea in 2000, as well as the European Championships in Bolzano also in 2000. Although he didn’t win, he put up a fight against foreign professional fencers.

Fencing had been practised in Malta long before Antoine picked up a sword. Like several other sportive disciplines, fencing was first introduced to Malta by the British Army stationed in Malta. It was then taken up by locals at Stella Maris College, under the keen guidance of Brother Oscar. Daniel Sammut was one of the brother’s students, having returned to Malta from Canada where he had already started practising the sport.

Daniel has been fencing for around 40 years, and is now one of three fencing Maestri (masters) on the island, together with Kenneth Spiteri and Antoine. When Daniel returned to Malta after a second stint in Canada, he opened the En Garde Fencing Club, which he now runs with the other two Maestri.  The fencing masters can teach the three fencing disciplines: foil, epee and saber, but they focus mostly on first two.

They teach anyone – male and female from the ages of 6 upwards – and even have a student over 60. There are around 40 students training with the En Garde Fencing Club at the moment. Like all other disciplines, there is a competitive element to fencing – including organised competitions – but the most important aspect of fencing is that the sport has a number benefits, both mental and physical. It is so effective that some airplane pilots use it as part of their training. Fencing requires a combination of reflexes, coordination, speed and tactics in order to hit your opponent and score a point.

Where & When
En Garde meets for training twice a week: at Chiswick School in Kappara on Thursdays from 6.30pm till 8.30pm and on Saturdays at St. Martin’s College in Swatar, from 10.30am till 1pm.

Anyone interested in taking up this fascinating and noble sport can contact Maestro Daniel Sammut on 99407388 or Maestro Antoine Bonello at abonello1@global.net.mt.

See also: National Fencing Association Malta

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Night flowering cactus, a fleeting treat of autumn

It’s amazing to experience, however many years you live here. Autumn is Malta’s second spring and real treat after several months of parched, dust-bowl landscape.

On my first visit to Malta 20 years back, I flew in at the beginning of September. Looking down as the plane came into land, I saw only gaping stony holes – the quarries near the airport, shimmering white in the heat. All seemed barren; only hardy trees like Aleppo pines and carob gave a hint of green. By the time I left two weeks later, Malta had had its first real storms to break the summer heat. Immediately, greenery had dusted itself down and sprung to life, and flowers were back in business after their summer dormancy.

The Maltese Islands are at their best right now. The searing heat has passed for good, the air is fresher and the sky is a deep cobalt. Summer’s warmth now tempered makes an ideal climate for outdoor activities – cycling, walking, tennis and golf are all back on the agenda big time. The sea is wonderfully warm still and you can enjoy the beaches now without the masses. Yachtsmen rejoice as the autumn brings some of the best, if at times unpredictable weather for racing and pleasure sailing. The upcoming Rolex Middle Sea Race has seen everything from mill-pond conditions to hail and ‘force goodness knows what’ in past years!

For most islanders autumn is a brief interlude to relish. The Mediterranean really has only two seasons – summer and winter – with a few fleeting weeks of spring and spring’s second coming in autumn. My humble patio garden suddenly leaps into life come autumn, providing some seasonal surprises – the huge flowers of the cactus above come out at night, only to die by sunrise the next day. Get out and about to catch the best of autumn while you can. It’ll be over all too soon.

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Valletta's harbours, a mix of history and safe haven for the novice sailor

I’ve lived in Malta 15 years and have had my bouts of ‘island fever‘. But it’s only in the past year and a bit that I’ve found a way to survive despite the islands’ restrictive space – and surprise myself by seeing Malta in a different light. All thanks to sailing.

It’s obvious really that if you don’t have space on land, you should take to the sea. A UK friend of mine living here said that one of the first things she wanted to do on arriving in Malta was to learn to sail. After all, water sports are what this place lends itself to; so play to its strengths, give up hoping that acres of peaceful countryside will materialise here, and start looking to the horizon instead.

Anyway, you can’t miss the sport in Malta, even in urban areas. You’re bound, at the very least, to drive past spanking new yachts, gleaming in the various marinas – Birgu, Msida and Portomaso. But for the most part of my landlubber life here in Malta, sailing seemed something of an elite sport requiring a good deal of cash to get in to; the super-yachts seemed a bit off-putting to a wannabe novice sailor.

But how wrong I was, and how I wished I’d made the effort earlier to learn to sail. Because sailing has given me a breath of air, time away from the frenetic, hectic madding crowd on land, and also shown me vistas of the islands I’d never have seen.

If like me, you’ve been here a while and not taken to the seas, here are the steps to find out if sailing is something that might grab you and give you a new perspective on life in Malta:

Sailing lessons
If you don’t conveniently have a friend with a boat and the patience to have a green crew member on board, then sign up for some sailing lessons. Perhaps do this anyway as it is a good way to get a grounding, both theoretical and practical, in the sport. I did a four-afternoons’ course last summer with Vikings Sailing Club, based at Haywharf, Marsamxetto Harbour, just below the Excelsior Hotel and the Public Library in Floriana. Vikings is a non-profit organisation developed to promote sailing to a wider public.

It usually runs two or three adults’ courses and a couple of junior courses (for kids generally aged 10 years +) each summer. Fees are very reasonable, and you get a lot of hands-on time on the water as well as some serious theory in the club house before each session out sailing. The club uses Lasers, and an instructor accompanies you (four people per boat). There are other clubs around, in St Paul’s Bay for instance, and most coastal five-star hotels offer dinghy hire and lessons, but usually just Easter-October.

Just note that kids’ courses vary in approach. Some offer courses for children aged 7+, and without an instructor really close at hand in the boat with them. This is fine for some kids, but not for others and can put the less confident children off the sport right at the outset.

Adults would be wise to ask around for their ideal course too. Always check out the credentials of instructors, and ask for detailed information on the course’s approach.

Sailing courses are mostly summer affairs, but sailing in Malta is pretty much an all-year-round sport, as winter weeks can be just as ideal for novice and fair-weather sailors. You’ll need minimal investment in some outer garb.

What a novice gets out of sailing
It can seem a tough sport to master, and to be a real pro, it is. But the beauty of joining a club is to enjoy sailing without a huge investment in gear; you can get what you want out of sailing when you want, and on your own terms.

You can learn to sail with the aim of pro status, or, like me, to just enjoy some ‘me-time’ away from chores, work, commitments, and have the chance to get some real fresh air and space around you. When you’re concentrating at the helm, you don’t have time to think about emails or clients!

Sure, it’s going to take me a bit more time to feel that sailing is second nature, like driving a car, but I also know that sailing is something that will never be routine. No two sessions out are the same – there are so many variables (wind, current, swell, my mindset and so on, even without a tide in the Med to think about).

The principles that apply to learning to sail a Laser, or Topper Topaz size boat, are the same as apply to larger craft, and there are thrills and adrenalin rushes to be had at every stage in the learning curve.

See Malta differently
One of the most startling side benefits of sailing is to see the islands differently. For the first time in 15 years, bar one catamaran trip to Sicily, I’ve seen Valletta’s bastions as they are meant to be seen – from the sea. There are inlets, nooks, crannies, forts and fortifications (WWII pill boxes as well) that you’d never know existed. For that alone, learning to sail has been worthwhile. From the sea, you can really appreciate what makes Malta special!

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Didn't we do well lads? Malta's national team in action.

Last night’s victory by the Maltese national football team against Georgia was special. But not because of the huge crowd – which is always difficult to attract for a mid-summer friendly at the Ta’ Qali National Stadium. This time though, the few who were there made their presence felt, with banners dedicated to the former Malta manager Dusan Fitzel who resigned last month to battle against a serious illness.

The game was special because Malta won. That’s news. The Maltese lads fought like lions, superstar Michael Mifsud slammed home two wonderful goals to give us a famous victory in a game which was friendly only in name. When heading to the stadium, I had decided to focus on taking photos … but I got so immersed in the atmosphere of the game itself that I failed to shoot Michael’s stunning first goal – I was too busy jumping up and down and screaming!

Football competes with waterpolo as Malta’s most popular sport, and I’m one of those who’d happily watch a game anytime. Needless to say, I’ve been following the Maltese national football team – who played their first official game in 1957 at the old (now dilapidated) stadium in Gzira – ever since I was old enough to catch the bus to Ta’ Qali on my own (and before that, I’d drag my dad or mum – whoever was available at the time – despite the fact that they don’t quite love the game). When living abroad for extended periods of time, my regular outings to Ta’ Qali to see the boys in red is one of the things I miss most.

Following Malta invariably has more downs than ups. Yet, from time to time, there are moments of sublime joy – not necessarily for a victory as much as for a moment where the Maltese team shows a fighting spirit which makes you feel so proud to be Maltese. I still remember almost crying with joy when Malta scored a goal against Italy back in 1992. We lost that game 2-1 but there’s no doubt as to who were the moral winners of that game.

Some highlights of my years following the National team are a famous 2-1 victory against Hungary in 2006 and the 1-0 victory in 1994 against a World Cup bound Belgian side, with my childhood hero Carmel Busuttil scoring the winning goal against the country where he played professional football (with K.R.C. Genk). That year, also thanks to a 5-0 thrashing of Azerbaijan, Malta was actually ranked number 66 in the world! Another win I’ll never forget is a victory under the rain against Latvia back in the 1990s. What made that so memorable for me, despite the fact that it was a friendly game, is that we were only literally a handful of people battling the terrible weather and I was still barely more than a child who had gone to the stadium all on his own. I hadn’t seen Malta win a game in ages and it was so rewarding to finally get that victory. I felt that I had earned it too!

Being a Malta football supporter means that you have plenty of nightmare moments to contend with. I remember a loss against Luxembourg which hurt badly. Or those times when we are so outclassed by our opponents that we suffered humiliating defeats (too many to mention!). Sometimes, in those defeats, at least I got to admire some of the best players of our time – such as Marco Van Basten – who scored 5 goals in the same match, Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Frenchman Thierry Henry.

One defeat which continues to haunt me and many other Maltese (though I was too young to remember it – and it occurred away from our shores) is the 12-1 loss against Spain in December 1983. You can watch the nightmare here. Every Spanish person I meet loves to mention it. Many commentators suspect foul play in that game anyway so I wouldn’t be so proud of it if I were Spanish (or Maltese, for the matter!) But then for every few batterings, there are games where the Maltese fight like lions and make up for the suffering – such as the 2-2 2007 draw with Turkey which Malta deserved to win.

Maltese support has been on the rise recently, mainly thanks to the inception of the South End Core: a group of Maltese supporters who are ever present singing along, often bringing drums and other instruments to the stadium creating a unique atmosphere. Nevertheless, the stadium only tends to full up when a famous opponent comes to town. Many people would generally be attracted by the big name players of our opponents rather than to cheer on our own players. It’s a pity that many Maltese football lovers seem to have more passion for their adopted teams (generally England or Italy – though there are also supporters of Germany, Brazil, etc.) than their own team. Admittedly, as most other Maltese, once Malta gets eliminated from a competition (which always happens at the qualifying stage, I too support another team – in this case Italy since my mother’s family is of Italian origin). But until Malta is out, chances are that whenever they play at the Ta’ Qali National Stadium I am either there cheering them on or following them from abroad, whatever the case may be.

For more information on football in Malta visit the website of the Malta Football Association.

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