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York men’s 1sts Fencing team got Varsity off to a flying start with a commanding victory, taking a 135-98 win, largely thanks to a dominant performance in the sabre, which was supplemented with narrow victories in the épée and the foil rounds.
The match began with the foil round. Hull started well taking a 5-1 lead. This trend continued with Dan Cornwell easily defeated in the second match.
From then on in the round was a cat and mouse affair, with little separating the two teams and the lead oscillting between the two. Jack Warman was narrowly defeated before Hull opened up a 25-20 lead.
However the crucial turning point of the round and perhaps the match was a stunning performance from Cornwell, who went on the rampage, going through periods of absolute invincibility complete with guttural roaring, turning a five point deficit into a 30-29 lead.
From then on York started to steadily exert some control over the round. and they gradually started to move away from Hull, Dan Cornwell still needed to hold his nerve to seal the round which he did, York coming out 45-41 winners of the foil.
However the sabres quickly changed that. As predicted the team of Ed Gunnell, Bairong Huang and Tom Jones quickly dispatched the Hull trio in a display of superior power, skill and poise, they were simply on a different planet. York won the round 45-15 to effectively put the tie beyond any doubt. York won all of their games in this round, and all but one of them comfortably.
The épée round was simply a matter of managing the score for the York squad consisting of Cornwell, Bryan Herling and the heroic Gunnell in his third fixture. York needed to score only 10 points to win the tie and that they did with relative ease, Herling having the honour of scoring the winning point.
However the battle for the épée round was actually a very close and tense affair with both teams separated by virtually nothing for the duration of the round, although with victory assured York may have somewhat taken their foot of the gas.
It was Herling who, through very aggressive performance, turned a 38-40 deficit into a 45-42 victory for York, and under other circumstances would have been the hero of the hour.
Captain Bairong Huang was understandably “very pleased” with the performance. However, he admitted that the fixture went “pretty much as we expected as we were missing many of our top players, in the foil and epee rounds but our top players were available for the sabre round, so for us to win the fixture in the sabres was pretty much what we expected.”