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University of York Men’s 2nds team 101 - 135 University of Leeds Men’s 2nds team
After a not particularly successful season the men’s seconds team knew that the match against Leeds men’s seconds who were joint third in the league was going to be tough, but that didn’t mean that they were going to let them get away without a tough fight.
First up was Sabre and the York team soon took the lead with Tom Cronin and Will Paterson taking a convincing lead. Paterson fought particularly well against Leeds anchor maintaining York’s lead. The rest of the fights were very close with Leeds managing to nudge ahead of York during the last few fights, however Anthony Higgins fenced extremely well to keep their lead to a minimum. The final fight fought between Cronin and the Leeds’ anchor was very close but unfortunately, despite some fantastic fencing from Cronin, it wasn’t quite enough for York and Leeds won sabre with a final score of 45 - 41.
Foil was the second weapon to be fenced and began with York struggling to gain points against Leeds. Captain Keith Boniface however came to the rescue in the 3rd fight and closed the gap so Leeds was only 1 ahead with a score of 14-13 after the fight timed out. Cronin fenced nicely in the next fight as did Pete Wilson but Leeds unfortunately took a rather convincing lead. Anthony Higgins was subbed on for Cronin in the 7th fight closing the gap slightly in a very close fight, but Leeds maintained the lead and took the victory with a score of 45-33.
The best team won
This left York 15 points behind, making the possibility of victory a slim but still possible chance, as long as the team managed to stay 15 points ahead of Leeds with the remaining weapon.
Epee came last and the first 2 fights were very close with Keith Boniface and Tom Cronin fencing particularly well, however still giving Leeds a lead of 2. It was at this point however that York began to struggle and Leeds again managed to take a convincing lead. The 5th fight fought by Boniface for York was very close as the gap between Leeds and York narrowed a little but unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough, despite a fierce final fight again fought by Boniface, and Leeds took the victory in epee and in the match with a final epee score of 45-26.
The overall score was 135-101 which was rather disappointing but the whole team fought very well, leaving the York 2nds team at the bottom of the league, and leaving the Leeds team in a joint 1st position with York’s 1st team. With Captain Boniface summing up with the cliché ‘we did our best, but in the end the best team won.’
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