Fencing men's 2nd team start off season with a win

The fencing season opened this year at Ethos, with the men’s second team fencing against Surrey University’s first team. After a delayed start, the foilists got things going. Matthew Carney drew first blood with a neat parry-riposte, and continued on to win the bout against the opposition’s left-handed foilist. Jamie Fairclough, team captain for Imperial, followed suit, reminding the opposition that epeeists can indeed counterattack. Joey, a new acquisition from Sussex, rounded out the team using accuracy and an impressively long lunge to score points.

The Imperial fencers didn’t relinquish their lead for the remainder of the foil, finishing with an impressive lead of 45-15.

Sabre started with a bang and a cool 5-0 victory courtesy of new team member Chris Lawrence. Thomas Martino then faced off against the opposition’s best fencer, who managed to restore parity between the two teams. It then fell to Matt to re-establish the lead, which he managed to do – Thomas and Chris then worked to extend that lead even further. Faii Ong turned up to replace Matt for the next bout against the anchor, doing well to maintain the lead. The sabreurs then managed to consolidate and extend this over the next few bouts to finish with a 45-40 victory.

Team captain Jamie then started the epee off on the right foot, taking an early lead. Neal Wannell, returning to the club after a year of fencing for an American university, maintained that lead against stiff opposition in the form of a “lefty” – even scoring the hit that mathematically put the match out of Surrey’s reach. James Loryman, also in his debut for the club, put on a good display, making some incredibly light hits somehow connect.

Jamie was given the honour of closing the fencing out for the day, winning the epee 45-35, with the match ending on an ICFC victory of 135-90.

The hard-fought match was followed by some well-deserved socalizing over a few drinks at Eastside.