The 2025 British Fencing Honours Awards for services to fencing winners were announced on the 25th of October 2025, and among the five receiving a silver medal was international referee Dr Luke Deamer. The honours are awarded to individuals who are believed to have made a significant contribution to fencing in the UK and continually display the British Fencing values of honesty, respect and excellence. Luke was nominated for ‘tireless work supporting the growth of fencing by developing and delivering high-quality entry-level referee training, mentoring and examiner for referees, paving the way for the transformation of the UK’s refereeing culture.’ I met him during one training session to discuss what this award means to him and his career as a referee.
During a Monday night training session in Crawley, we sit down in the sports hall ignoring the clash of swords around us to talk about Luke’s journey as a referee and how it’s led to him receiving this award. BF honours silver medals have historically been awarded to athletes for performances in fencing and so for Luke, “the award was genuinely a complete surprise,” and “it genuinely was an honour.” Luke decided to start refereeing in his late teens when bored while waiting around for his younger brother Euan at competitions. He continued to referee alongside competing until he reached the end of sixth form where, as he describes, he was faced with a choice: university or full-time fencing? “I chose university...and refereeing was my way to stay in contact with the sport,” he says with a smile, no regrets in his decision. After getting his international refereeing licences he then went on to become head of refereeing for Wales and then in 2020, head of refereeing for England. It was here that Luke’s desire to give back to the sport really started to take shape, changing and improving the system, earning this award, and so the choice he made, as he says, “was clearly worth it”.
The refereeing training systems in England and Wales had never really been nationally organised with different regions having their own systems, standards and resources. When Luke continued further in his refereeing career, he believed it was a natural progression for him to start running training courses, “I really enjoy teaching, I really enjoy talking,” he laughs. The opportunity came for Luke to implement more reforms and completely standardise the system, during the COVID –19 pandemic. All our daily lives came to a halt and so did fencing. Unable to train referees using the previous methods, Luke made it his mission to keep interest alive. “I made videos and PowerPoints, I made them engaging, I made quizzes that people could get involved in, games that people could play,” he says excitedly, his pride evident. Luke standardised the England refereeing system so all referees with each qualification had the same level of training and the same knowledge.
Luke's desire, in terms of the broader outcomes for his reforms, was to increase the number of qualified, confident referees to help fencers and to add a system of support for the referees themselves. Before, competition group stages would be refereed by the fencers competing so Luke wanted to increase the number so there was a referee for every round of the competition. The next focus, he says, was the standard, “once you've got the quantity, you want the quality”. The referee education reforms mean fencers everywhere will have a decent level referee in every round of the competition. The third element is the addition of a mentoring system. “it can be a really tough sport when you're having two fencers shouting at you...giving them some support, some mentoring, helping them show development is a way that you keep in it and ultimately let people enjoy refereeing,” he explains. The mentoring programme is to support referees, teaching them the “soft skills”, as Luke puts it, de-escalation, mental support, how to help a distressed fencer and controlling the situation.
This award is truly deserved and recognises the amazing work Luke has done and continues to do. He is part of the European Fencing Confederation and hopes to make similar changes through that, “I'm doing exactly the same thing, sharing the same materials around, making quizzes for them. I'm doing a really big push on safeguarding for referees,” he says with a smile.
Luke is incredibly grateful to have received this award and continues to dedicate his time and effort to improving refereeing and making the competition experience better for both referees and fencers.