Lancaster 104 – 123 York
With York trailing league leaders, Keele, in the Northern 1A Fencing league and Lancaster lying in forth place, the red rose was looking to avenge the defeat it suffered to York at the Roses tournament back in early May. The match was, as ever, fought over three rounds and three different weapons: the sabre, the foil and the epée respectively.
Beginning with the quickfire sabre round, Lancaster struggled early on as York’s Bai, Thomas J. and Paul, comfortably secured the opening three bouts making it 15-8. In contrast, Lancaster’s Bowey-Strange (Captain) and Tsang failed to make ground on York’s lead which by the end of the second bowt, had extended to 30-17.
That said, Lancaster’s captain and Boyan Vanchev did make some ground in the third and final bouts with some crucial lunges and counter-attacks to win 8-5 and 7-5 respectively. However, these victories were not enough as York took the sabre weapon by 45 points to 34.
York continued their dominance and secured the foil weapon even more comfortably than the sabre, as Lancaster’s fencers Bradford, Wong and Huang were battered by the white roses.
York’s foil fencers were on exemplary form throughout the three bouts, and in particular Bartek and Tom J. who swept Lancaster aside with deft footwork and excellent lunging. York’s captain, Tom S. also lead by example as he thumped Lancaster’s Bradford 5-2 within thirty seconds. Despite, Wong’s valiant 8-5 victory over York’s Tom J. in the third bowt, York steamrolled their way to a 45-25 victory for the foil weapon.
In contrast to the bouts in the first two rounds, Lancaster made a scintillating start in their hunt to take the épee. Lancaster’s Delard and Bowey-Strange made short work of Bartek and Tom J with two 5-0 victories to help them win the first bouts 15-7 . Delard in particular, induced new confidence in a Lancaster side that desperately needed it.
Despite this brief upsurge of conviction though, York managed to hold their nerve with close fought contests including the bout between Lancaster’s Wilkin and Bartek which could have gone either way until it ended 1-1 having had the maximum three minutes.
Lancaster had drastically improved by this stage, and did indeed take the epée 45-33, however, it was not enough to outdo York’s unassailable lead. As York triumph with a score of 123 points to 104, Lancaster will, again, be lying and waiting for this year’s Roses for sweet revenge.
