York triumphed 125-112 in a closely fought battle that came down to the final bowt of the match. The match was fought over three weapons, Sabre, Foil and Epee respectively. All weapons are fought as a first to 45 should time not run out, with a three minute limit per bowt.
York began with what appeared to be one of their stronger weapons in the Sabre, with a Fencer that represents Latvia rumoured to have a world ranking in their midst. Richard Moxon cut a frustrated figure after the initial bowt, as he received little luck as a few tight decisions seemed to go against him. Josh Livesey helped to pull Lancaster back in with a chance of winning the weapon; however ultimately York’s superiority shone through. Tom Bowey Strange, Josh Livesey and Rich Moxon could do little to prevent York taking the first weapon with relative ease in spite of their best efforts. York triumphed 45-32 as they won the final few bowts with relative ease.
Lancaster knew they needed to get right back into the match courtesy of the Foil, probably their strongest weapon, to stand any chance in the match. However they did not get off to the best of starts as they trailed 5-2 after Ben Leavitt’s initial bowt. Seb Wysk had other plans, he ruthlessly picked gaps in his opponents defence and won the following bowt 8-0 to see Lancaster take a 10-5 lead. On Chan followed up Wysk’s fine work with a 5-0 win to take the score to 15-5 Lancaster as they won 13 straight points. Ben Leavitt responded well after a slow start to help Lancaster towards foil victory. However it was Wysk’s flamboyance and Chan’s aggression that saw Lancaster pull away to record a much needed 45-35 win.
This meant that Lancaster were only three points behind going into the final weapon, with every chance of completing a fantastic comeback. However York stepped up a gear for the final weapon, there was little Wysk, Captain Sean Macur, who had only the day earlier had eye surgery, and Matt Amlot could do to prevent the inevitable. In spite of Wysk managing a win in the final bowt of the match against his Great Britain opponent, York cruised to a 45-35 win to secure a 125-112 win overall.
Captain Macur had this to say “York are a very good team and were the better team on the day. However I am proud of our performance, we have given a very good account of ourselves.”
