Cover Photo Credit: Dhomas
On Saturday September 26, 2026, the UNB Fencing Club is hosting Residence vs Residence, a new edition of Duel of the Hill, the fencing tournament which debuted in 2010, at the Lady Beaverbrook Main Gym at 7 p.m. Residence vs Residence is not only an event that promises a fun and new tradition for future generations, but represents a long past for UNB Fencing.
The participants will be from the 11 residence buildings across UNB Fredericton campus. The event has a two-tier system: each challenger will face the others from their residence to determine the house-representative (their name posted and credited as such), before moving on to face the winners from the other houses in a double-elimination format. The twist: no participants can have any prior fencing experience, and get just an hour of training before the event.
Dhomas, the director of UNB Fencing, illustrated the position of the club heading into the event:
“It ran from 1947 until around 1957 when the president of the club was arrested … Then it stopped for a couple of years and then it restarted … We’re looking at the club being 80 years old next year, making it the longest running club in Atlantic Canada.”
Dhomas also discussed his personal experience fighting for the Fencing Club over its complicated history:
“A bunch of years ago when I joined the club was when the entire club quit … It was really about getting good executives to make sure the club was successful. It’s been problematic until this past year when the REDS Recreation supported the idea of regular non-students … We make sure things go smoothly and that students have executive positions no matter what … And so that’s what we’ve been doing for the past year now.”
Dhomas went on to explain how he got the idea for the residence vs residence duels for the newest iteration of the tournament:
“A long time ago, there was something known as Battle of the Hill … It was actually an idea, I think, a Daily Gleaner reporter came up with, and it was St. Thomas’ Men’s Hockey against UNB’s Men’s Hockey … That’s what gave me the initial idea.”
The event also mirrors the first Duel of the Hill event from 2010, where the editors and sports editors of the UNB and STU student newspapers, plus representatives from the Student Unions, Athletic Departments, and others, dueled.
However, Dhomas was at first turned down as prospective participation numbers seemed low, so he waited. Eventually, it got approved. Originally scheduled for next year, Dhomas moved the event to September 2026 to encourage students to participate in the club throughout the year. Now he hopes that it has a good turnover, as well as “already calling it the first annual event,” hoping Residence vs Residence will turn into a long-lasting tradition.
Dhomas explained how they landed on the final format for the event, and how the amount of people who applied had changed the formatting of the actual event itself:
“Originally we wanted to do a residence team, and we were going to have each resident choose a champion … It became a little complex … to organize and so we just opened it up for people to register if they were interested … Initially, I was actually able to get 11 residents from each building … so then we rethought not wanting to eliminate people … We wanted to have another level where within each residence, they would all compete against each other … and the winners then would face off.”
Finally, Dhomas encouraged students to not only show up to the tournament to cheer on their peers, but to join the club too, acknowledging that it looks great on resumes and is an overall good time.
Head out to the Lady Beaverbrook Main Gym on September 26th at 7 p.m. to support your peers and watch some high-octane amateur fencing!
Visit https://www.unbfencing.com/events/duel-of-the-hill for more information.
