Back. With a vengeance

Hello all. I know you've missed me, but you'll have to bear with me. In the next two days I have to teach two new texts, prepare seminars for other people to deliver, and mark a load of essays, as well as catch up with everything while I've been away and deliver lectures as normal. All while coping with severe exhaustion.

I've also been uploading several hundred of all-action England junior fencer photographs: I was the team manager for Challenge Wratislavia in beautiful Wroclaw, Poland. I've been before, but not as team manager, and it's a very different experience - even though the kids were lovely, there's no chance to relax, whether you're consoling somebody after losing a fight, trying to help winners keep their motivation, fixing kit, patrolling hotel corridors, wondering where the bus is, counting people who won't stand still, checking passports, explaining to the hotel why we need 30+ meals right now, using a Polish phrase book to explain to the organisers that a referee should be pushed down some stairs for being useless and on and on.

However, I did have time to take several hundred pictures, mostly of fencing action. So if you like fast-moving shots of children hitting each other, you'll love this set. Here are a few samples.