THE British team for the World Youth Fencing Championships leaves for Gdansk, Poland, home of the Solidarity Movement, from Gatwick Airport tomorrow.

Six sabre fencers from the region are in the team this year, two fencing for Ireland and four for Great Britain.

The British contingent comprises Louise Bond Williams, 18, from Ebrington, Peter Kirby, 16, from North Littleton, Evesham, Will Garrity, 17, from Chipping Campden and Mike Rayner, 16, from Moreton-in-Marsh.

Kirby is attending his second World Championships, after an excellent result last year when he came 46th, while taking the record for the youngest ever men's sabre fencer to compete in the worlds for Great Britain.

Bond-Williams is an old hand at this level, having represented her country at every level since the inception of the discipline in November 1998.

Kirby and Bond-Williams both train in Stratford-on-Avon in the centre of excellence run by King Edward VI School in the new Levi Fox Hall.

The school was unlucky not to be represented in the team, when Matthew Sorel-Cameron, 16, from Stratford, was pipped at the post for the last place by Rayner, who also started with Shake-speare's Swords in the school.

Rayner and Garrity now train in London.

The British team members are joined this year by two others who train at KES in Stratford.

Brothers Nick, 16 and Kit, 14, Vanston-Rumney, from Wyken in Coventry. The boys go to King Henry VIII School, but their parents and family are Dubliners and so the Stratford centre has ended up as the Irish national centre as well.

The youngsters have all been in hard training over the past few months, in addition to having to do their full quota of school and university work.

To qualify for the worlds they had to compete in many international events abroad, as far away as Cuba.

Their travel time eats into their work and they have to be really organised to make up for it all and still have time to live.

"It's quite hard," says Peter Kirby, "But it's well worth it."

"I've made friends all over the world," added Bond-Williams, after a training session with international Nicole Mustilli from the USA.

Will they bring back the medals? Who knows? It's tough at the top and fencing is one of the most complex sports.

They are well prepared, well motivated but lack the funding that goes with real world level success, as Steve Redgrave pointed out as he won his fifth gold medal at the Olympics.

Britain has four fencers ranked in the top ten in the world. One is Bond-Williams, who was World Cup 2001 runner up. They'll try for the moon!