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
Yesterday saw the Men’s 1st fencing team take their second victory of the season against Sheffield 1sts. Having only won 1 match of the season they knew it was an important match in order to keep themselves above the relegation zone of their Northern League.
The first weapon of the match was Foil and last year’s captain Harry Whitwell made a very promising start, winning his fight 5-0 and giving York a head-start. Unfortunately the second bout wasn’t quite as favoured to York as Phil Sellars struggled against the anchor foil fencer from Sheffield, allowing them to take the lead. The next few fights were tough as first York gained the lead but were then overtaken by Sheffield. The 5th fight of the weapon saw Whitwell back fencing and gaining 7 points conceding no hits, putting York right back in control. For the final few fights of the foil York remained in control, finishing off the fight with a final score of 45-38.
Sabre was up next and the team were confident they could win this to as they were able to field a good strong team. Vice captain Tom Jones made a promising start, conceding no points, and put York once again in control. The next few fights appeared to be tough for Adrian Speakman, a new addition to this year’s team, and Whitwell but York remained firmly in control and gained point after point. By the 8th fight of the sabre it was clear York had proved they deserved to win the Sabre and Tom Jones finished it off in the 9th fight to end on a score of 45-30 to York.
This just left epee to go and York only needed to get 23 points in order to win the match overall. York again got off to a flying start conceding very few points so that after 4 fights the score stood at 20-8 in York’s favour. Some excellent fencing from captain Tom Skingle and fellow epeeists Steven Bainbridge and Harry Whitwell kept York’s lead so that in the 5th fight Whitwell gained the crucial 23rd point to see York win the match overall, even if Sheffield managed to win the epee. However the strong fencing of the York first team was too much for the Sheffield team and epee was ended on a final score of 45-24 to York.
This left the final score to York 135-92 which they should be very proud of and gives them the crucial 3 league points for winning a match to put them 3rd in the league at half way through the season. Next week the team will face Lancaster at home and are hoping to do better than they did at their away match.
For the girls premiership team yesterday was not quite such a successful day as they lost their third match of the season to Durham 135-75. However this is still a result the team should be proud of considering the side that went to fence in Durham was severely weakened as neither their captain Louise Highton or other top fencers were able to attend the match. The girls’ team are hoping for a better day on Saturday when they will play their rearranged fixture at home against Edinburgh and hope to stay out of the crucial relegation playoff zone.
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