York’s fencing 1sts had the luxury of strolling out onto the píste knowing that they had already got one over on rivals Lancaster this year, beating them to second place in the league even though Lancaster had been awarded points. League meetings between the sides, however, had gone one-each-way. Lancaster won their home game, and York won theirs.
Pavel Guzanov helped York get off to a winning side in the sabres, defeating all of his opponents with his frantic, aggressive style. He finished with an indicator of +6. Harry Whitwell did well also, scoring an indicator of +5, and Tom Jones lost two of his games, but still finished with a +2.
Lancaster turned the game on its head in the foils; Phil Sellars 0-8 defeat got things off to a bad start, and with Tom Skingle’s 0-5 defeat in the following game, York began to fear that the game would be all but over before they got to the épées. Harry Whitwell’s courageous 12-3 win was a brief reprieve before York’s punishment continued. York blamed the absence of star foilist Ewan Chipping.
At 80-77, York still had it all to do in the épées. As with the foils, Whitwell was first out and won comfortably again, as did captain Tom Skingle. Phil Sellars was on the end of a 7-3 beating in his first épée bout and steadied for a 5-5 in his second, but was replaced by Steven Bainbridge as the game got uncomfortably tight in the latter stages.
In the final bout Harry Whitwell faced Lancaster’s captain Seb Wysk, who had already laid waste to Skingle and Sellars, and boasting an indicator of +6 from the two bouts. Whitwell lost the bout, but kept Wysk down to 6 points, giving York a 45-35 win in the épées, and a 125-112 win overall.