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Strong showing at British University Championships

With three teams having qualified for the British Universities Championships, Edinburgh nourished high hopes of collecting at least one title in the Fencing Championships.

The Men’s first team were drawn against a strong (and loud) Northumbria opposition and, as a consequence of three narrow defeats in all three weapons, suffered their first defeat of the year and were halted in their conquest of the BUSA title in the Semi Finals.

The Men’s second team had already qualified for the final of the Shield against Sussex University prior to BUCs. Having lost the first weapon 45-43 and won the second one 45-53, the tie was tied at 88-88 before the final weapon. No calculations were needed and the victor of this weapon would be the winner overall. Sadly for Edinburgh, only two of our three fencers were experienced Sabrers and, with a relatively comfortable margin, Sussex University won the Men’s Shield 2007-08.

The Women’s First Team drew Bristol in the Semi-finals. Comfortable and commanding would be two suitable adjectives to describe Edinburgh’s performance and, despite losing out on a by then ‘pointless’ third weapon, Edinburgh kept their 100% wins for 2007-08 and qualified for the final against Oxford.

The nerves were visible in this match as Edinburgh, rather unusually, slumped and lost the first weapon 45-34. However, Edinburgh got back to their usual winning habits in the second weapon and comfortably won 45-25. This meant that, entering the last weapon, a win or a loss by no less than 8 points would guarantee them the title. Unfortunately, despite never trailing by more than 6 points until the last bout, a late surge of activity from Oxford allowed them to win the weapon 45-35 and, consequently, the Women’s BUSA Fencing title 2007-08. The heart-breaking final score was 116-115 to Oxford. Nevertheless, with the vast majority of the squad still around next season, there are high hopes that lessons can be learned from this shattering defeat and that we won’t let the title slip through our fingers two season in a row! A final hurrah came as Edinburgh Fencer, Lisa McKenzie was named 'Most Valued Player' of the BUSA Women's Fencing Championships, well done Lisa.