Fencing: Men’s firsts discover the concept of a clean sweep while advancing to BUCS semi-final

Men’s first fencing team had a visit by University of Bath’s first team on Wednesday afternoon.

With the women’s advancement to the semi-finals of BUCS Championships just an hour earlier, the men wanted to keep their pride and join the ladies in Sheffield.

The match started a bit later than planned, a problem that was soon solved by the sabreuers Maiyuran Ratneswaran, Camille van Hoffelen, Henry Gann and Didier Nohlmans quickly and easily winning by 45-12.

Next on piste was the foil team, this time represented by Ed Collier, Chris Gilliam and Robert Shaw. With a previous record of finding it difficult to pull out a win, they had a mental block to fight.

This Wednesday was apparently a good day for it; they started off by building a small lead that then gradually increased. In the end the score was almost sabre standard: 45-18 and thanks to the two massive indicators, the match was now already won.

This presented a new situation to the epeeists Marcello Colombino, Ed Gilhead and Chris G. In previous matches, they always had a certain goal to reach before the victory was theirs, but this time the situation was more similar to the one the women’s team almost always had. They didn’t have to score a single hit. Though the idea of just standing there and not having to do anything was interesting, they couldn’t be worse than the girls. A full sweep was in reach. It was an even match, Bath not giving up despite the circumstances. It kept on swaying back and forth, Imperial’s men showing confidence and Bath’s still putting up a fight.

As the last bouts begin, with Marcello representing Imperial, the score is 38-40, Bath in the lead. In a thrilling last bout, the two fencers building it up to 44-44 with only 40 seconds left. The entire team is crossing their fingers, and with only two seconds remaining, Marcello gets the final hit. They got a clean sweep. They are in the semi-final. It was a happy team leaving Ethos.