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!

2009/10 Season Summary

The DUFC Intervarsity team after dinner in the Shelbourne Hotel, February 2010.

2009/10 was yet another successful year for DUFC as we won our third Intervarsity title in a row, our thirty-third overall. The year also saw Trinity secure a third Colours triumph in as many years as well as continuing our run of winning every Sabre Colours tie against DKIT. These team accolades reflect the strength in depth that our club has built up over the year but that depth is accompanied by several stand out fencers who too brought home many individual titles and podium finishes to Trinity throughout the year. In the course of the year, Trinity fencers competed in many countries including Germany, Croatia, Mexico, Denmark, the Netherlands, Russia, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and, of course, Ireland. Thirteen of our members represented Ireland at Student and Senior team level including nine who made up part of the student team that achieved an impressive second place finish in the 2010 Student 5 Nations hosted in Trinity.

Well done to all who contributed in anyway, small or large, to our success this year, particularly our hard-working committee. Bring on 2010/11!

Intervarsities, DCU, 27-28 February 2010

Trinity's winning Intervarsity Squad, 2010. Full size version available on the club history page.

At the end of February DUFC won our third Intervarsity Championships in a row! Triumphing in four of the six events, Trinity finished 8 victories ahead of our nearest rivals, UCD. The event was hosted with great efficiency by DCU. In both epee and foil, Trinity went unbeaten all weekend. Our dominance in those four weapons was unquestionable and was exemplified by the men’s epee team losing only two bouts all day winning seven matches 5-0 and two 5-1. It was in the sabre that the closest contests occurred. Any of DUFC, DKIT or UCD could have picked up the Men’s trophy that eventually went to UCD by the smallest of margins – with Trinity beating DKIT, Dkit beating UCD and UCD beating Trinity the result came down to indicators and UCD won ahead of our hard working team who took second place. Every single member of our talented squad in women’s sabre were competing in their first intervarsities and will take much experience and confidence from their strong performance that earned them a third place finish behind DKIT and Queens.