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In an industrial plaza next to a crumbling military base in Toronto on a gloomy Saturday, 14 single men and women gather for an unlikely double pursuit: Meet a mate while enjoying fencing lessons from Igor Tikhomirov, who once won Olympic bronze for the Soviets.

Both sexes appear too cowed by Mr. Tikhomirov's rigorous instruction to engage in much flirting.

Such is the plight of the urban single.

The fencing lesson is just one offering from Meet Market Adventures, a singles event company that hosts a wide variety of (apparently) loin-stirring activities such as skeet shooting, back-country snowshoeing, trapeze and mosaic making, as well as the mother of all erotic pursuits: pottery sculpting.

Meet Market is one of several companies catering to the multitasking single who wants to learn new hobbies and find new love.

AdventurousSingles.ca hosts treacherous outings such as ice climbing and speed skating, as well as the more urban pursuits of dog walking, barbecuing and pool. FastLife.ca offers brunch and supper clubs, wine tastings and ultra-tailored speed dating for athletic types, single parents and tall men - and their female admirers.

Still, to meet a mate while fencing seems eccentric, considering it involves stabbing a stranger at arm's length. And, paradoxically, the dating aspect is carefully played down by everyone involved.

"One of the things we're trying to say is this is not a dating service." says Brian Dermody, a "professional fun maker" who leads the fencing singles.

"If they come expecting that, they may leave disappointed. ...You can't force those things to happen."

Mr. Dermody, who studied to be an environmental engineer, adds: "The idea is to be fearless. ... That's how you meet people. You do things."

The mandate of Meet Market, which has 12 chapters in Canada and the United States, is simple: Encourage urbanites to get a social life. Toronto events typically consist of 20 people and regularly sell out. Tonight, about 500 singles will cram a downtown Toronto nightclub for the company's Anti-Valentine's Day After Work Party.

Inside the cavernous building of the Sword Players Fencing Academy, the singles appear to range in age from mid-20s to mid-50s. Mr. Dermody leads the "icebreaker" exercise: The singles form a circle, link hands and entangle themselves.

It feels like a high-school dance, without the raging hormones.

After some head-spinning instruction from Mr. Tikhomirov, swords clang and laughter fills the room. As in the jousts of old, two men battle each other ferociously as women look on.

"Usually, males are more aggressive. They need to prove themselves," Mr. Tikhomirov says.

Women outnumber men nine to five. Scott R., a participant who did not want his full name used, surmises that's because "guys don't want to spend the money to meet women. They want to go somewhere free." (The fencing lesson costs $49.99.)

Scott is a Meet Market diehard. The 28-year-old entrepreneur has attended 18 events over five months. His persistence paid off: He met Ro H. while go-karting. He and the 26-year-old nurse, who also did not want her full name used, fence each other fiercely, smiling through their masks.

Aside from meeting a woman, Scott has become something of a renaissance man: He's learned how to craft sushi and dance salsa. Ro, meanwhile, has gone hard core with skeet shooting, wakeboarding and dog sledding; she's doing zip lining and rappelling next. Despite having found each other, Scott and Ro keep attending the events - they like to learn.

And despite the black masks and body suits, fencing appears to be more transparent than Internet dating. Divorced for four years, Sarah Finney tried eHarmony only to find many of the profiles have no photo.

"Hitting that dating game again is not fun. It's hard to meet people," said Ms. Finney, a Richmond Hill, Ont.-based marketing representative for Microsoft. She says she would never otherwise have trekked out to an industrial area alone to take up fencing. Two weeks ago, she took an Indian cooking class.

But Ms. Finney adds that this scene requires patience: "It will take time. You might talk to a couple people but you're not saying, 'Oh, do you want to go for drinks later?' It doesn't seem to be the environment for that."

To facilitate mingling, the organizers schedule pub crawls after each event. About three-quarters take up the invite.

As for the suggestion that single professionals are now so time-crunched that they must fuse their search for love with an endless pursuit of increasingly ludicrous extracurricular activities, Ms. Robinson thinks that's a bit harsh.

"You can meet anybody anywhere, so why not here?"