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Photos: Emilien Tortel
York’s women’s fencing 1sts were consigned to defeat this afternoon after a sluggish start in their bout with Manchester 1sts gave them too much work to do in the later contests.
The match-up was affected by persistent delays throughout, mainly due to the fiddly nature of the equipment, but York couldn’t blame these problems for their disappointing start in the sabre.
The trio of Vicki Somers, Sophie Mason and Jessie Yeung could not match their opponents in the early duels. Eight of the nine individual contests went in Manchester’s favour, with the other ending a draw, and York trailed 45-20 at the break.
The foil event saw York’s fortunes take a turn for the better. It was a to-and-fro encounter as York jumped out into an early lead thanks to Sofia Henneburg, Wang Wang and Mason, which was subsequently pegged back by Manchester.
At one point York trailed 30-29 in the event, but then three impressive bouts by Yeung, Mason and Henneburg saw York stroll to a 45-34 win. Going into the final event trailing 79-65, York had cause for optimism, albeit slim.
As it was, the epee was a close-fought contest, which meant York were unable to close the gap in the overall match score. Once again the contest went back and forth between the two teams, leaving epee specialist Lori Button the opportunity to win the event, if not the match, in the anchor role.
As it was, a tense final bout saw Button come up just short. At 44-44, Button and her Manchester opponent recorded back-to-back simultaneous hits, before the Manchester fencer recorded the winning touch at the third attempt.
That made the final score 124-109. In reality, York more than matched their opponents in foil and epee. It was the one-sided sabre which cost them on the day, leaving them disappointed in defeat, but with encouragement for the future.