He started to fence at the age of 11 and has fenced almost continuously since then. He was alternate for the British Epee team at the World Youth Championships in 1969 and was a member of the British Universities team in 70 and 71. He was first selected to fence for Scotland in 1971 while still an undergraduate, and fenced almost continuously for Scotland at both foil and epee for the next 13 years. He was Scottish National Champion at foil and epee on more than one occasion, and was even the Scottish Junior Saber Champion once. He was also British Junior foil champion sometime in the early seventies. In 1978, he was a member of the Scottish Epee team which took the silver medal in the British Empire and Commonwealth Games (held every four years out of sync with the Olympics) and, in the same competition four years later, won the epee individual silver medal. In 1982, he was invited to join the British Training Squad, and for two years he traveled around Europe trying to qualify for the British team going to the LA Olympics. Unfortunately he failed to do this, and in 1984 retired from serious training and competitive fencing, though he still took part in local competitions. In the year he relocated to the US, he won the East Midlands foil championship.

At first, on relocation to the US, he limited his competitions to a few local events. By a careful selection of these he was able to win the first 13 competitions he entered. These included the CT Division Championship at both foil and epee, the Pomme de Terre unclassified foil and epee (and the following day the open epee), the Bay State Games open and Masters epee, and the Hang-Over epee at the Boston Fencing Club. He was a member of the ill-fated Professional Fencing League and was a finalist is several of the PFL epee events that were held in the first 8 months of 1998. Over the last 10 years, he has gradually increased his involvement in veterans fencing. He estimates that he has fenced in about dozen veteran competitions (mostly epee) in and around the New England area and has placed first in all of them. On turning 50, he has been investigating how he stands in relation to the rest of the nation as a veteran fencer and has taken part in two NAC events and the 2000 Summer National Championships. He won the Veterans Combined Epee and the Veterans 50-59 epee National Championships, which together with his NAC results puts him #1 on the national veteran epee ranking list. He is ranked 12th in veterans foil (4th in the Veteran 50-59 age group). His USFA standings are foil C00, and epee B00.