BOTH MEN and women’s teams did both their club and the University of York proud in their matches on Sunday.
The men’s match was the first event of Roses Sunday and, unfortunately, began with some shocking refereeing from a Lancastrian who was unable to correctly judge even the simplest of actions. The ref later went on to be kicked off by his own team in a subsequent match for equally outrageous decisions.
Despite this, the men enjoyed a comfortable overall victory with an impressive score of 135-108, boasting success in all three weapons.
The sabre category proved to be an outstanding victory thanks to flawless performances from Tom Jones, Paul Goddard and team captain Bairong Huang.
Foil too was easily secured, with some flashy fencing from Bartek Koryga and Tom Skingle, helping York increase their lead.
Finally, the Epee, despite the diminishing pressure as York’s imminent win became increasingly apparent was a close match, but thanks to George Watkins, Tom Skingle and Phil Sellars, whom the club was sad to see in his final match for the club, won with 45-44.
Watkins added his trademark ‘prime’ attack to the mix, leading to some supremely stylish points. Overall, Captain Bairong Huang’s initial warcry of ‘I want to see blood’ was, though not literally, figuratively satisfied.
The women’s team, unfortunately, had a far tougher time. With Louise Highton, Lizzie Smith and Sophie Mason fencing all three weapons, the size of the team was less than half the size of that of Lancaster. Despite losses in all three weapons, the team gave them a good run for their money with a final score of 135-122.
Finally a special mention goes to the men’s second team. Sadly, their win across all three weapons did not count toward Roses points, but performances from team captain Rob Phillips, Shaun Trill, Max Cheng, Ali McCormack, Dag Corbett and first time competitor Jack Warman made the match a wonder to watch.
All three teams are looking in good stead for the upcoming season of BUCS matches starting in October.
