Issue 155

Swansea nerves of steel

08th May 2007

Cardiff were made to feel distinctly humbled against a Swansea women's side in fine form. With the exception of the Sabre, Cardiff never really got close to Swansea and even in that discipline Swansea still came away with a seven point win.

Captain Rachel Rowles pre match optimism proved just as Swansea powered into an early lead. Foil was the first sword to be used and Swansea edged out a strong lead that continued to grow until the required 45 point mark was reached. At this point Cardiff were a full 20 points behind thanks in large part to Swansea fencer Lydia Johnson who took Cardiff apart. Her international experience was fundamental in all three disciplines throughout the match.

Sabre was altogether much closer and Cardiff had the best of the early exchanges but a solid team performance saw Swansea claw back the advantage from 20-16 down to lead 28- 30. From there they went from strength to strength eventually running out 38- 45 winners. The event was full of brutal hits which saw fencers wince in pain in what is the most brutal of disciplines in fencing.

The Epee was a cruel affair, which in one bout saw Rachel Rowles score four points off her opponents face. Swansea were clearly on a mission by this point and wrapped up the overall points win early on. This did not seem enough and Swansea were relentless in their pursuit of victory with captain Rowles only dropping one point. Mercy was not a term that was in much use.

Captain Rowles said afterwards "We were fabulous, I am very proud of all the girls and how well we have done this year, Lydia in particular was our star fencer today, she always is!" Cardiff were gracious in defeat saying "It was a good fight, we love fencing Swansea they are such nice girls."

However the success was not shared with the men's side as Swansea university men's fencing team slumped to defeat against a strong Cardiff side. Despite their best efforts Cardiff proved superior in an intense set of fights across the board, in particular the foil where Cardiff created an unassailable victory.

Things started promisingly for the men as they held their own in the Sabre. However the brutality of the fight quickly began to show and Swansea slipped behind and they never fully recovered.

This subsequently set the bar for the other disciplines as Cardiff powered past Swansea in the foil. Swansea had no answer to the variety and pace of Cardiff's attacks. The result was Cardiff pushed home the advantage to have all but won the fight at 45-23, although this cannot be seen as any slight in terms of effort on Swansea's performance.

However the size of Cardiff's advantage was looking like too much of a mountain to climb and this obviously had an effect on moral. It hurt the team and the result was universal determination.

By the time the epee came around there was little doubt as to who was going to win. This did not stop Swansea displaying some grit and aggression in trying to fight their corner. Their valiant attempts only managed to win them some pride though, despite the best efforts of Captain Adam Salvioni, as they were pushed aside 45-33, the best of their results. Despite the loss Salvioni was upbeat and pleased with the overall performance despite the team being a bit rusty after four weeks off.

He can be pleased with his personal performance as he led from the front scoring a large number of points in the fight against Cardiff. Not a brilliant end to the season but enough to build on for next year.

Stuart Phillips