|
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY FENCING CLUB
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
Action
|
BACK TO HOME PAGE
OLD MATCH REPORTS (pre 2005/2006 year)
Castle Challenge 2004 Results
Here are the tables (2 of them, click your way through)!http://assets.cardiffstudents.com/oncampus/170/file/castle_challenge(1).xls
Cardiff Fencers are Champions of Wales!
The first Universities of Wales Fencing Championship, held at Aberystwyth University over the weekend of the 20th March and including fencers from Bangor and Lampeter, was a tremendous success for Cardiff, with our team storming to victory and bringing home the championship shield, claiming four individual medals in the process.Fencing opened on Saturday morning with the foil competitions. The Cardiff men began well, with all eight of our entrants seeded in the top half of the rankings after the poule rounds and seven of them making it through to the second round of the Direct Elimination competition. Chris Powell beat team-mate Tom Martin 15:11 to reach the quarter-finals, but lost closely to Aberystwyth's Danny Sharpe, in a characteristically entertaining fight. Cardiff's Marijn Kampf lost narrowly in the quarter-finals to Aber's swift Oli Barker, the eventual silver medallist, who also managed to beat our long-standing member Max Weedon in an exciting semi-final match. The third-place playoff between Max and Danny grew tense as it came down to the final point, with Max only just missing out on the bronze medal, reaching fourth place, the highest position among the Cardiff men. 5th and 6th places were claimed for Cardiff by Chris and Marijn, with Ben Rosie only slightly behind in 9th. First-year member Ged Kennedy also scored a respectable 13th place in a field of 25.
The two Cardiff women started their foil competition in even better form, seeded first and third after the poule rounds. Louise Webster beat Aber's top lady Jenny Smith in an exhausting full-time fight, to meet fellow Cardiff player Rhian Chapman in the nail-bitingly close final. Although Rhian had cruised to the final undefeated, it was Louise who claimed victory by two points, gaining Cardiff's first gold medal of the competition.
Sunday's fencing got the ep¨¦e competitions underway, and the men quickly came up against some unlucky draws in the first round of DE. Aberystwyth's eventual champion knocked out Jason Murdoch, and Ben Geerlings faced the same treatment from Aber's Matt Nunns. Max Weedon made it through to the quarter-finals, where he was also beaten by Nunns, and Chris Powell reached the semi-finals before he lost narrowly to Oli Barker, Aber's Number 2. Chris put up a great fight in the third-place playoff, but the bronze medal was just beyond his grasp, and he had to settle for 4th place in the final rankings. Max came close behind in 6th.
The women's ep¨¦e was another success for Cardiff, and although Rhian was knocked out of the quarter-finals by Aber's eventual bronze medallist Michelle Muller, Louise charged through Michelle's defences and then stormed to a 15:10 victory over Jenny Smith, scooping herself another gold medal.
The men's sabre competition saw Cardiff making up half of the 16 entrants, but Aber were up for the fight. The first round of DE saw several Cardiff men facing each other, with David Corkish falling to Marijn, and Tom Martin knocked out by Max. Aber's second and third seeds took care of Chris Powell and Sam Thomas, and by the quarter-finals only two Cardiff men remained. Marijn's match was interrupted by intermittent equipment failure and he eventually lost by two points, while Oli Barker foiled Max's hopes of a place in the semi-finals. Marijn gained the highest Cardiff placing, coming 5th in the final ranking, while 8th-11th place were held by Max, Tom, Ben Rosie and Ben Geerlings.
The Cardiff women did better than they had expected to in sabre, as both scraped through to the semi-finals on 15:14 victories. As Louise then beat Michelle Muller for a place in the final, Rhian lost to Aber's Emily Stubbs, and missed out on the bronze medal in the playoff. The tension in the audience watching the final match was incredible, as Louise and Emily kept within a point of each other up to the final hit, but it was Louise who once more pulled it off, and came through for her third gold medal of the weekend.
At close of play all the individual competition results were tallied, and a great cheer echoed across Aber's sports hall as Cardiff were declared victorious. Triumphantly carrying the shield home, our fencers were ecstatic with their achievement, all feeling that the championship was a resounding success, and all determined to keep hold of the title next year.
Rhian Chapman
Men's first home match ends in disappointment. (29/10/2003)
Wednesday 29th brought the men's first match of the season, at home toBristol, which didn't go quite as well as our men might have hoped.
Opening the match with the foil round, the Cardiff side started well but
couldn't keep up the momentum. The Bristol team began to pull away despite
steady performances from Tom Martin and Max Weedon, and although Chris
Powell pulled off some impressive and entertaining hits in the final bout
(one ducking, one jumping), he couldn't close the distance, and Cardiff
ended behind, 28:45.
Bristol began the sabre round quickly¡and continued in the same vein.
Scoring well in every bout, and with the 12th-ranked sabreur in Britain on
their team, Bristol gave little quarter to the Cardiff men. Max, Ben
Geerling, and captain Jon Brooke-Smith put in a good effort, and the final
score of 20:45 in Bristol's favour doesn't reflect the enthusiasm of our
team.
The start of the epee round again went in the visiting team's favour, but
Cardiff weren't prepared to go down without a fight. Captain Jon led the
retaliation and Boon Chan and Chris McKeown (both on the team at short
notice) held their ground well against the Bristol attacks, closing the
points gap. The final bout gripped the audience's attention as Jon scored 9
points to his opponent's 5, but the return to form came just too late for
our team, and they finished 32:45 down.
With Bristol victorious overall at 135:80, our men were left somewhat
dispirited, but some promising individual performances offer hope for
victories later in the year.
Rhian Chapman
Cardiff Men falter in fight against Swansea (12/11/03)
The men's home match to Swansea began promisingly, as Chris Powell opened upthe foil round with a victory, and the following three bouts went solidly in
Cardiff's favour. However, Swansea began to fight back, and entering the
final three bouts our men had slipped behind by 5 points. Max Weedon brought
off an astonishing retaliation, scoring 10 points to his opponent's 3, and
reclaiming the lead for our team. Sam Eden narrowly lost the next bout,
forcing a nail-bitingly close final fight. Unfortunately, luck was on the
visitors' side, and the foil round finished at an agonising 43:45 to
Swansea.
The first bout of the epee went in Swansea's favour, but Cardiff gained
ground with Boon Chan's victory in the second bout. The scores remained
tight, but despite some good fighting mid-round from Ben Geerling, Swansea
pulled ahead, and even captain Jon Brooke-Smith couldn't quite put a halt to
their steady scoring. The final score was 33:45 to Swansea.
The Cardiff men were feeling the pressure now, and a stumbling start in the
sabre round can't have helped. But they all regained their feet in their
second bouts, and began to build up the momentum they needed. By the middle
of the round we were still behind, but the margin was a slim one. Ben and
Sam both solidly held their ground, and another good fight from Max kept
Swansea from celebrating too early, but in the end our men were narrowly
beaten 36:45.
The overall score was 112:135 to Swansea, a much better result than the last
match, and an indication that the Cardiff men are getting into their stride.
With four more matches this season, they may be temporarily down, but they
are far from out.
Ladies team narrowly miss victory at Aberystwyth (22/10/2003)
The Ladies first match of the year on 15th October ended in defeat away atAberystwyth, but by a fairly narrow margin overall.
The match began, unusually, with the sabre round, in which Aberystwyth drew
quickly ahead due to the speed of the one sabreur on their team. Our ladies,
all novices at sabre, put up a good fight but were beaten 24:45.
The epee round began promisingly, as Cardiff gained the lead from the first
bout, and steadily increased the margin with each bout. After several
successful fights, including good fighting from Claire Bedford, who has had
little epee experience, Cardiff finished ahead 45:36.
Entering the foil round, our ladies needed to win by 12 points to secure
overall victory. The bouts started fairly evenly, but a new addition to the
Aberystwyth team began to open up a lead, and as the final three bouts
approached Cardiff were behind by almost 20 points. The fight back began
with an extremely impressive performance by Louise Webster, who scored 13
points to her opponent's 5, and victory in the foil suddenly seemed almost
within reach. Unfortunately it was not to be: even though captain Rhian
Chapman scored 9 points in the final bout it proved not to be enough, and
Cardiff lost narrowly, 42:45.
The overall score was 111:126 to Aberystwyth, but due to the close
score-line in foil our ladies are confident of victory in the return home
match later this term.
Rhian Chapman
