Jack McHugh
Trinity’s reign at the top of Irish University fencing continues as DUFC retained the Frank Russell Intervarsity trophy for the fourth year in a row. Fencing in Galway at the NUIG hosted event, Trinity were to win a total of 37 duels out of 40, with UCD coming in 2nd with a meager 25 duels to their name.
The weekend started off with a scrappy loss in Men’s Epee against the eventual winners of that event, Queens, but things rapidly improved as that team made some amends with a dominant victory over UCD in their next match. Following the first match neither Club Captain, Alex Kelly, nor Colm Flynn dropped a bout all day. The efforts they put in were matched by a solid performance from Lochlainn Coyne on his Intervarsity début. The efforts of the team weren’t enough however as the Queens’ team finished unbeaten to prevent Trinity’s male epeeists from claiming a fifth title in a row.
Elsewhere on Saturday morning, Women’s Foil wasted no time in establishing a winning pattern and although midway through the day they were pushed by a strong UCD team in a match that ended in a 5-4 win for Trinity, they won every match they fenced. Propelled forward by the presence of Canadian international, Anna Smith, the other three members of the team, Viviane Brefort, Geraldine Davies and Jenny Jennings, all made significant contributions.
In Coleraine in 2009, when Trinity won five out of six weapons, it had been Men’s Sabre that proved too tough for our fencers. The investment the club put into the development of the weapon has paid off in spades since then and they laid waste to all before them on Saturday afternoon. Final year Law student Christopher Mills is to be singled for special mention, remaining undefeated on the day and bringing the Men’s Sabre trophy back to Trinity for the first time in a decade.
The strongest team performance of the weekend was perhaps that of Trinity’s Men’s Foilists. Fencing on the second day of competition, they managed to win every single bout 5-0! Led by former-captain, Louis Arron – who returned from London to make use of his ‘year of grace’ – the team benefited from consistent showings from Ned Mitchell and Declan Gibbons as well as an impressive Intervarsity’s début from novice Li Dong.
The Women’s Epeeists were without carded pentathlete Natalya Coyle but newcomer Jenni Myung, who was able to look to the experience of Kate Cunningham as well as that of the Irish Champion, Hannah Lowry-O’Reilly, ably filled her place. In the Women’s Sabre event, our Ladies Captain, Helen Naddy, led from the front with a strong, focused performance alongside the impressive Liz Fitzgerald and foilist-cum-sabreur Bairbre Holmes who excelled, particularly psychologically, in the most pressurised of events. Bothe teams were to emerge victorious, coming through on head-to-head scores after dropping one match apiece.
The overall victory represents Trinity’s thirty-fourth triumph in the 57-year history of the competition. Following a number of years of UCD dominance in the middle of the last decade, DUFC wrested the championship back from UCD in Cork in 2008 before defending the crown in Coleraine, DCU and now also Galway in the three subsequent years.
