Nick Wright previews this weekend's clash between York City Knights and Hull FC
Alex Reid looks at whether the once ever-present appearance of English clubs in the later stages of the Champions League is set to become a thing of the past
Craig Dobson looks at QPR's decision to sack Neil Warnock and replace him with Mark Hughes
James Tompkinson reviews an excellent pre-season victory for the York City Knights against Yorkshire rivals Leeds Rhinos
University of Leeds Men’s 2nd Team 108 – 131 University of York Men’s 1st Team
After winning all but one of their matches this season, York’s men’s 1st team needed a win to secure the top spot of their league and to secure promotion. To their credit, the team did not let this pressure put them off and fenced very well in a relatively tough match. The Leeds team proved to put up much more of a fight than the lacklustre Newcastle 2nd team who York had beaten 135-73 a fortnight ago.
After the traditional haggling over the order that the weapons would be fenced in, Harry Whitwell, captaining the York team for the last time in a league match, won the toss and the foil was the first weapon to be fenced. Leeds quickly took the lead in the first bout in what proved to be their strongest weapon. Harry Whitwell in the second bout managed to reduce this lead to 10-9. Unfortunately for York, the Leeds fencers managed to extend their lead further against Phil Sellars and Tom Skingle, both of whom had very tough fights. Faced by a large deficit in points, Whitwell was able to keep York in the game, taking them into the lead at the end of the sixth bout. Leeds was able to recover this lead against Skingle, bringing the score in a closely fought match to 35-33. The Leeds second foilist fought off a determined effort by Sellars so that although the last fight was very close between Whitwell and the top Leeds foilist, Leeds won the foil 45-41.
This initial setback did not dampen York’s spirits. In the next weapon, York’s fencers took an early lead in the Sabre of 10-3. Although Leeds were able to claw back some points in the third bout against Joe Horgan, York still remained dominant. After this Horgan, Jones and Whitwell completely outplayed their opponents, and won all of their subsequent fights for York convincingly, giving York a good win in sabre of 45-27.
Going into the epee, York only needed to score 31 hits to win the match and clinch promotion, so the mood was tense on both teams. Leeds gained an initial lead against Sellars. Mike Denniss fought very well in the second fight however, soundly beating his opponent to narrow the gap to 10-9 to Leeds. Nick Cramp managed to bring the scores level for York at 11 all, after his fight timed out at three minutes. Leeds once again took the lead in the next bout against Sellars, and continued this trend up to 25 points. Some brilliant fencing by Mike Denniss in the sixth bout completely turned around York’s fortunes and clinched the lead at 30-28. At this point the pressure proved too much for the Leeds epeeist who after being beaten, shouted, and threw his mask and epee across the room. Due to his unsporting behaviour he was given a red card, which resulted in a point being awarded to York, winning York the match. In the next two bouts, Cramp and Sellars fenced very well to give York a strong lead, allowing Denniss to hold off the Leeds top epeeist to win the epee 45-36.
With their cup final against Keele on Wednesday, this success winning the league and with the possibility of promotion, will encourage the team to go fight with confidence.
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