White Rose of Surrender as Yorkshire falls to Newcastle

James Docherty reports on another fantastic set of victories for Newcastle’s fencing teams, who once again left their rivals well and truly foiled.

Fencing

Newcastle 1sts 135 – 57 Sheffield

Newcastle 2nds 135-80 Leeds Met

On a cold Wednesday in the middle of exam season, in a hectic Sports Hall, both Men’s Fencing Teams enjoyed success in one-sided encounters.

After a late start, the Firsts got underway with Foil and quickly opened up a lead due to some fantastic timing on hits and an almost psychic ability to read their opponents. The match was full of energy and the adrenalin occasionally spilt over – leading to several cards for both sides.

The weapon was eventually decided on one of these cards when Sheffield’s final fencer, already penalised earlier in the bout collided with Andrew “Dixy Chick” Dixon, earning a red card and penalty hit, meaning Newcastle took the weapon 45-31.

Sabre rattled through after this, with Newcastle perhaps wanting to get things done with and head to Tiger. Rob Walker and Tom Patterson were both in fine form, using their speed and guile to catch out the Sheffield Fencers repeatedly and blitz through the weapon with a destructive score of 45-19.

With Epee all but a dead rubber and Newcastle only needing five points to take the match, Sheffield’s heads dropped and their minds possibly turned to getting home before an ungodly hour. Consequently they never found their form and were completely outshone by the bright lights of Captain Dan Grant, Rob and Dixy Chick, who tore into their opponents and took the weapon 45-7.

Across the hall, the Seconds hoped their match against bottom of the table Leeds Met would lead to safe league points and keep third place in the league a definite possibility.

Sabre, Newcastle’s preferred weapon all season, started the match and Leeds Met found themselves without an answer to the speed of the home team. The rate of the matches clearly bamboozled Leeds and lead to minor problems when they accidently placed fencers on piste in the wrong order. Thankfully this confusion was short-lived and allowed Newcastle to take the weapon 45-29.

Newcastle has a wealth of experience in the second weapon, Foil, and used this to their advantage to leave Leeds looking like Yorkshire Puddings on the Piste. Debutant and Man of the Match Alex Aird particularly took the opportunity to progress through his matches, leading to a decisive victory 45-21 and leave Epee again as an academic exercise to give Newcastle victory. This was achieved in short order and with a comfortable margin of 45-30.