Trinity Win Intervarsity Championships 2012

The Winning Team

DUFC have retained the Frank Russell Intervarsity Cup for the 5^th consecutive year in a spectacular showcase of teamwork, strength and unity. This is Trinity’s 35^th win in the 58 years that the competition has been run.

As well as a fencing challenge the hosting of the Intervarsity Championships is also a logistical one. The competition was hosted by DUFC this year in the TCD sports centre from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Some of the logistical issues were the eleven pistes, two halls, 43 teams from 12 institutions, 143 matches, a maximum of 1287 bouts (963 fought), four rolls of piste tape, a D.T. a Tony Quinn and around 170 fencers, their equipment, coaches and supporters.

The competition began on Saturday morning following the previous night’s reception for the participating clubs. Men’s Foil, Men’s Épée and Women’s Sabre all competed on Saturday.

The DUFC’s Men’s Foil team came 2^nd overall only dropping one match against UCD coming out with six victories and one ahead of UCC who rounded out the top three. The match against UCD was tight and well fenced on both sides with DUFC eventually losing 5-3.

DUFC’s Men’s Épée team consisted mostly of beginners but despite this they fenced remarkably well and placed 7^th overall. Having not dropped a match until meeting UU Coleraine and losing 5-4 in a close match, DUFC made a comeback after an injury sustained to Alex Kelly beating UCC in his bout 5-4.

The Women’s Sabre team proved to be on top form only dropping one match to an impressive UCC side and overcoming DkIT and UCD with impressive scores. They came 2^nd overall only missing out on the top spot by 3 bouts

Following Saturdays performance everyone thought Trinity were out for the count having not won a single weapon despite strong fencing in each. Some in the club even began to doubt our resolve. This was all put on the shelf for the night while everyone enjoyed the glamorous reception with dinner and dancing thanks to our band ‘Created by Comets’ and the good omen of winning the Tony Quinn Cup for the first time in 16 years for the Boat Race.

Sunday morning came and all was put to bed after rousing and emotional speeches before the competition. DUFC took to the piste in Women’s Foil, Women’s Épée and Men’s Sabre and put on spectacular performances.

DUFC’s Women’s Foil team didn’t drop a match and came out on top after defeating NUIG 5-0, UU 5-1, Queen’s 5-2, UCD 5-4 and UCC 5-2. While the UCD team was undoubtedly our toughest opposition and closest match with an international fencer on the team we overcame them with our more evenly balance team to win Women’s Foil overall and take the top spot.

The Women’s Épée team headed by our very own Pentathlete Tal Coyle came 2^nd overall behind UCC by 3 bouts and ahead of NUIM by 6 bouts. They fenced admirably beating Griffith College 5-1 in their first match, UU 5-2 in their second, narrowly losing to UCD 5-3, and beating Maynooth 5-1. A heart stopping match against UCC ensued with delight and despair with each point scored for either us or them. The match was tied at 4-4 with DUFC ultimately losing 4-3 in the final bout during priority for a final result of 5-4 to UCC.

Men’s Sabre put on an extremely impressive display of quality Sabre action beating all opponents in their category and taking the title with a series of 5-0, 5-1 and 5-2 victories in the last matches of the day against UCD, DkIT, CIT, UCC, Queen’s and UU Coleraine.

This was the closest in terms of results in recent years with DUFC winning by one bout. DUFC, UCC and UCD were all tied on match victories at 28 apiece. In the end it came down to amount of individual bouts won. DUFC had 165 bout victories, UCD (2^nd)wereon 164 bout victories and UCC (3^rd) had 161 bout victories. Following some controversy the results were recalculated as above after a mistyped entry but DUFC came out on top retaining the Frank Russell Intervarsity Cup for the 5^th successive year.

We also won the new individual weapon trophies in Women’s Foil and Men’s Sabre being undefeated in each match in those weapons.

We are very proud of the whole squad and all of the supporters who showed up at the weekend. Once again we had the most vocal support and we always had a crowd at the end of the piste supporting those fencing, this display of squad unity undoubtedly contributed to our success.

We are proud to say that every member of the club contributed in some way to our success with everyone doing what they could either supporting or organising or just simply being there to help out in any way needed. We would also like to extend an enormous thank you to our DT, referees, DT’s assistants and to the clubs who travelled to Trinity for the weekend and took part. Well done everyone!

“I say Trinity, you say College.”

“Trinity”…”College”

“Trinity”…”College”

DUFC Teams and Final Results Below:

Intervarsity Championships

Come along on Saturday and Sunday to suppoort DUFC in its quest for five in a row.

Check in opens at 9 am on Saturday morning and the competition begins with Men’s Foil and Épée at half past. Women’s Sabre begins at 11:30 am.

On Sunday check in opens at 9:30 am and the competition continues with Women’s Foil and Épée at 10 am. Men’s Sabre begins at 12:00 pm.

All are welcome to drop in and lend their support to all competitiors and we will be live tweeting throughout the weekend on @trinityfencing.

Lets keep the Russell Cup in Trinity again this year.

Come on Trinity!

We say Trinity, you say … College!

Go on DUFC!

Trinity Team Foil & Dublin Epee 2012

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In the space of a week DUFC hosted three competitions, with over 150 fencers competing in total, the Duffy Épée, Trinity Team Foil and the Dublin Épée were all great triumphs, each in their own right.

On the weekend of 4^th / 5^th February the Trinity Team Foil took place followed by the equally successful Dublin Épée on the Sunday.

A total of eleven mixed teams entered the Team Foil this year. The mixed element added an extra dimension of competiveness between the teams. With some great fencing from all teams involved and some interesting names a good day was had by all who participated.

Pembroke one was eventually victorious over UCD NMGBRF in a drawn out finale. DUFC’s experienced fencers took joint third. While DUFC’s beginners had a strong presence taking 6^th and 7^th places showing that there is upcoming potential in DUFC.

As always during the course of the day we all got some bumps and bruises and had a few knocks and falls (you know who you are) hoping to improve our skills for the big competition.

The Dublin Épée followed on the Sunday with a turnout of twenty male athletes but unfortunately for the women’s event only four. As the men’s event kicked off it was clear there was some very strong opposition in the field. The eventual winner was Arthur Lanigan O’Keefe of Pentathlon Ireland who overcame Shane Whelan of Salle Duffy in a dramatic and well fought duel to take the Dublin Épée Cup.

For many DUFC Épéeists this was their first chance of competing in a ranked competition, they have done themselves and their club proud.

Despite the low turnout for the women’s event and the guaranteed medal the competition was no less challenging. Clodagh McCarthy Luddy fought well through two rounds of poules and a D.E. to take second place behind Anne Caroline Le Coultre of Switzerland, losing 15-5. Well done Clodagh.

This was also our first event that was live Tweeted. Stay up to date with all the latest DUFC news follow us @trinityfencing. Until we do it all again next year the full results from this year’s competitions are below:

Prof. Duffy Memorial Team Epee 2012

Men's Event Winners - Marburg and Theo a friend of Professor Duffy

Trinity Fencing hosted the Prof. Duffy Memorial Team Epee this past weekend which proved to be a huge success.  The event, in memory of Olympic fencer and DUFC’s first “Maître d’Armes” Professor Patrick Duffy, has been Ireland’s premier team epee event since 1988 and draws teams from around Europe.

DUFC entered four teams in the competition:  three men’s teams and one woman’s team.  Despite hard work and some very close matches, Trinity’s seconds team (Gabriel Beecham, Etienne Richard, Vincent Roch) just missed the cut and finished in 17th place, while the firsts team and alumni team made it through.  DUFC 2 (Alex Kelly, Niall O’Brien, Riccardo Savona) lost a heartbreaker to Connaught to finish 9th, while the Alumni team (Colm Flynn, Rory Greenan, Ned Mitchell) narrowly lost their grudge mask against the Irish Pentathlon team to finish 5th, one spot off the podium.

The final of the men’s event went right down to the wire. After forty minutes of competition the leading German team, Marburg Fencing beating strong Irish team Duffy Fencing Club 45-44 on a double touch with less than ten seconds on the clock.

Sunday’s women’s event was the strongest in many years, with teams from Leipzig and Marburg, Germany, and Colchester, UK.  The women’s team (Liz Fitzgerald, Ciara Greene, Clodagh McCarthy Luddy), despite having less than a year’s epee experience between them, defeated DCU and posted extremely respectable scores in their other matches.   Leipzig eventually took the trophy with Colchester close behind, followed by the University of Limerick, Marburg Fencing, DUFC and DCU.A big congratulations to all our athletes, referees and organizers on another successful year’s competition!

Thanks to Scott Anthony Kelly for the photo.

Men and Women’s results below: