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Photos: Jack Western and Jack Bradshaw
York’s women’s 1sts fencing put in an impressive performance on the second day of BUCS matches which brings to end the Northern Premier season, but it was not enough to see them crowned as division champions.
They won all three contests in the épée, but had to settle for only two overall wins, with an agonising defeat in the other match in what was a closely fought and entertaining fencing tournament.
After a packed first day, which consisted of the foil and sabre events, York completed their contests with the three visiting sides, Durham, Birmingham and Edinburgh, with the épée event. York sat tied 75-75 with table-topping Edinburgh, unbeaten in league play this season, but had five-point deficits to overturn against both of their other opponents.
York’s épée team consisted of team captain Sophie Mason, a specialist of the foil and less experienced with this weapon, and épée specialists Lori Button and Louise Highton.
The first match was against Birmingham, poised at 69-74 after the first day’s play. The match began tightly, sitting tied at 11 after the first three pairings. Up next, Mason gave up a three point lead before regrouping and pulling it back to 1, allowing Highton to give York the lead 23-21 shortly afterwards.
Button was on the wrong end of a whitewash in her next pairing, but came back to crush the opponent in her final match-up with 12 points, and York led 38-35. This gave Birmingham a marginal overall lead with only Highton left to play. She stretched York’s lead to the five required, but her strong opponent fought back valiantly to make the épée score 42-41, a 111-115 overall score in Birmingham’s favour.
York knew that their chance of winning the division was gone with the overall defeat by Birmingham, but they still had pride and overall league position to play for, which could prove crucial come the end of season tournament.
They showed that the final score line against Birmingham had not demoralised them by overturning a 63-68 deficit to claim a victory on tiebreak against Durham. At one point York trailed 15-20, but Highton won five consecutive bouts to level the scores at 24 apiece.
Durham built another lead shortly after, but Mason fought valiantly to pull the scores level again at 33. Button and Highton then got on a roll and finished the job, a titanic final head-to-head involving Highton seeing the épée score finish 45-40, and the overall score 108-108. Having won the foil event the previous day, York were awarded overall victory by virtue of having won two weapons to Durham’s one (in the sabre).
The final contest with Edinburgh really showed what might have been for York. Coming into the épée tied at 75-75, York demolished their opponents from north of the border. Fencing is a game of fine margins, and after the close results earlier in the day, York were boosted with such a comfortable return.
The match was tight to begin with, Edinburgh holding a 15-16 lead at one point. But from here on in it was one way traffic, as all three of York’s fencers put their opponents to the sword. The épée score of 45-33 reflected York’s dominance in the final rounds, and gave them a much deserved win to round off the event.
York’s victory over Durham was put into perspective as the visitors recorded two convincing victories in their other fixtures, but so too was the disappointment of losing to Birmingham who lost their two other matches. This meant previously unbeaten Edinburgh escaped with only one win, but that was enough for them to confirm their status as BUCS Northern Premier division champions.
York’s women’s 1sts captain, Sophie Mason, told Vision: “We’re really happy with how things went this weekend, we’ve won six out of our nine matches which should put us second overall. Last year, we came second from bottom, so we’ve done really well this season. We can proud that we’ve only missed first place by a couple of points, which is a bit devastating, but we’ll get it next year!”