On target

Wednesday afternoon saw the latest chapter in Imperial College Fencing Club’s stellar season unfold. The men’s first team kicked off proceedings in Ethos at 2pm, facing a Durham side who turned up with minutes to spare before the scheduled 2pm start. Confidence was high amongst the guys, having been freshly crowned Southern Premiership champions and only having suffered one defeat all season. Durham, on the other hand, sat at the bottom of the Northern premiership, having lost all their league matches this season.

The Imperial team had undergone a few changes from the team that won the league in late January; president Ed Collier and top sabreurs Maiyuran Ratneswaran and Henry Gann were unavailable. They were replaced by Camille van Hoffelen and Chris Lawrence. They completed the squad made up of Chris Gilliam, Indy Leclercq and Glen Ostacchini in foil; Jonathan Ashcroft, Tom Powell and Harry Gulliver in the epee and Dider Nohlmans, captain, in the sabre.

After a bit of a delayed start (due to some excessively long warming up by the opponents) the first bout of the day got underway in the foil. Ostacchini made a fine start, which was then continued somewhat shakily by Leclercq and then confirmed by Gilliam in the third relay. The foilists found their groove, and when the ninth and final bout came around, they were a massive 36 points ahead. Ostacchini dispatched the opposing anchor (an epeeist) in style, to finish the match with a score of 45-14 and a very encouraging lead for the sabreurs to build on.

Technically, the sabre team fielded against Durham would count as a ‘B’ team, although this was by no means evident in the cold, calculating demolition of the opposing team. The hits flowed thick and fast, and in a mere twenty minutes or so the match was done and dusted. One could almost pity the Durhamites, having traveled so far to lose so harshly. Final score: 45-9 for Imperial. Mind-boggling.

For those of you astute with numbers (I would say most of you, but I wouldn’t like to stereotype) you will have noticed that the match was already won by this point; even if Durham won the epee 45-0 Imperial would still prevail on points (and weapons). The mere suggestion of this was scoffed at by the epeeists, though, with the motivation to win all the more fired up by the victories of their squadmates. The match was a much tighter affair than the two previous weapons, with Durham leading for most of the way. This was not unexpected: the Northeners’ strong point was known to be the epee, which was why the team was relieved to have put the match away beforehand. IC were three or four hits down going into the final bout, and some valiant fencing by Gulliver saw the match go down to the wire, with Durham eventually taking it 45-43. It was smiles all around as the men fulfilled the expectations and qualified themselves for the semi-finals, to be held at Sheffield.

Not long after the guys vacated the piste, it was the Women’s turn to don their kit and make sure they were going to be joining the guys in Sheffield. The team of Hannah Bryars, Alice Mitchell, Emily Bottle, Jing Quek. Zoe Robinson and captain Charlotte Levin were ready for a Bristol team currently in a division below them, the Western 1A. Given that the girls were current southern premiership champions and undefeated all season, the match promised to be straightforward.

Starting with the epee, the girls fought valiantly although the Bristol team proved to be too strong for Mitchell, Bottle and Levin. They posted the respectable score of a 29-45 loss, leaving it to the sabreurs and the foilists to win the match. Up next, indeed, was the sabre – fenced by Jing Quek, Bryars and Robinson. This was an IC-dominated affair, with the girls posting a comfortable win: 45-19. Now 10 points ahead, they were perfectly poised for the win, finishing with their strongest weapon, foil. Led by Sports scholarship athlete Bryars, the foilists went one better on the sabreurs and posted a large victory of 45-13, leaving no chance to the Bristol girls. Tenth match, tenth victory of the season for the seemingly unstoppable Imperial College Fencing Women’s first team.

The serious stuff is now to come, in three weeks time. Both teams will be heading up the M1 to the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, where BUCS is holding a huge, multisport event for the finals of various cups and championships. The men are set to face Cambridge in the semi-finals, and the women are up against Durham. If everything goes well, the day continues with the final, and possibly being crowned BUCS champions for the second year running. En Garde!

Men’s 1st 133 Durham 1st 68

Women’s 1st 119 Bristol 1st 77