OCs v Charterhouse
Date: 23 April 2017
Score: Drawn 2-2
Points: OCFC 161 to School 174
By Anthony Silver, OCFC President:
Football is an excellent sport and every footballer plays the same game, Fencing, like athletics, is more a collective noun as it is really three sports, and today, a world class foilist is never going to make the same grade as a sabreur and vice versa. Forty years ago it was still just about feasible for an olympiad fencer to be entered into more than one sword – today it would be laughed at. So as specialism has developed within the sport, the three swords have drifted apart and today sabre in the UK, arguably the most tele/photogenic of the sports, now plays second fiddle to foil and epee (and has done for the last 40 years if not longer). You may not be surprised to learn that with school sports and especially the minor sports the strengths and weaknesses of the team reflect not only the available pool of talent but also the bias of the professional coach.
I know that some people are inclined to scoff at the efforts of a few crinklies travelling from all points on the compass to be given a fair to good walloping by school members (who would rather be elsewhere on the weekend), on the basis of ‘Cui Bono’. At first glance it would seem that with the difficulties in raising a squad (see Toby’s excellent match report below) there may be little point.
In fact the evidence points to exactly the opposite conclusion. Back in 2012 when we had our first OC Fencing match, the School fielded a sabre team which was beaten 45-23 in favour of the OCs even after fielding a squad with the average age of 37, over twice that of the Carthusians. I note in Toby’s article below that 5 years later the school beat the OCs sabre 33-45. Credit goes to Mick Johnson, the School Coach, as I think he would be the first to acknowledge that sabre is not his favoured sword, and there is no doubt that the standard of sabre at the School has much improved during those 5 years, and maybe the catalyst has been the OC matches.
Which brings me to the point of this pre-amble. The fact that the OCFC was only able to field a 6 man squad is less important than the impact the OCFC has had on the School’s development of the sport. There is I think little doubt that while the hard work to improve school sabre has been done by Mick Johnson and of course the pupils, the catalyst was the 2012 and subsequent OC matches enforced by the School ethos which ensured that they were not going to take another thrashing lying down. OCs can have a meaningful and beneficial effect on the school with just a little effort and perseverance, and while I have not been able to make the last 2 OCFC matches, I salute those who have kept the flame alight.
Match Secretary’s report:
The April match was reinstated as an experiment after the great success of the Winter Challenge 2016. We had decided not to run the event anymore because the sign-up was so low as to be insufficient to make up teams. April is a very busy time for everyone. So, against my better judgement I was persuaded that this time it would be ok - and it was. Just. We did have a very high attrition rate from the team for a number of perfectly good reasons, and ended up with a bare minimum 4 OCs and two hon. OCs to make up four teams.
Foil A Won 45-43 Alex Beck (c), Tom McMahon, Charles Beck
Epee Lost 38-45 Toby Hindson (c) Ed Phillips, Tom McMahon
Foil B Won 45-41 Lesley Elphick, Ed Phillips, Beck C. and (sub) Beck A.
Sabre Lost 33-45 Tom McMahon (c) Charles Beck, Alex Beck
So pressing our loyal and thankfully willing physio Lesley Elphick into service on piste, and Alex’s father Charles Beck who is a stalwart of many matches both on piste and as a supporter, we took on a very strong Charterhouse team. We had thought that James Russell would be unable to fence in this match, as he was fencing Epee at the GB Championships on this particular weekend. However, having lost out on a place in the last 16 (8-15 to Chris Hay, the current GB number 7) we found that Charterhouse’s already strong squad was further strengthened by his unexpected attendance.
After discussion with Mick, the Charterhouse coach, it is considered unlikely that we will try for an April fixture again in the near future. This is also partly to prevent a nervous breakdown in your sometimes hard-pressed match secretary.
As always the welcome was warm, good food was generously laid on for the benefit of boys and visitors, and really great fencing took place. For the first time an all fencers photo was taken of both teams together, which was a really nice thought, and sums up the excellent atmosphere of every OCFC match to perfection. No writing can begin to do justice to the great pleasure of attending this event. Do attend if you can, the effort is always well repaid.
Colours
It is with great pleasure that I announce the award of OCFC colours to Alex Beck and Ed Phillips.
Foil A
By Alex Beck (c):
Foil, was as always, very hard fought and being the first weapon set the mood for the day. The first fight is often the closest, and James Russell won 5-4 against Tom; Tom was in fact set to compete in all weapons that day. Alex, foil captain, was able to quickly to turn the scores with a swift 6-0 fight against Daniel Lee. Charles then widened the lead with a 5-1 fight against Zayd Abedi making the score 15-6. Things looked promising for the OC team! After Daniel Lee’s previous zero hit loss, he came out more determined against Tom who fought hard to maintain the lead. Tom won his 5 hits but Daniel did get 6. Charles likewise narrowly lost 5-6 to James. Alex then struggled against Zayd who was doing excellent absence of blade, winning only 5-4. In the last few bouts Charles won 5-2 against Daniel by using a series of 1-2 attacks and parry reposts and Tom had an interesting fight against Zayd where his epee reactions caused him to revert to stop hits, nevertheless he only lost by a single point. In the last fight Alex confidently faced James, and after several high-pressured exchanges Alex did edge out winning the fight 5-4, meaning a win of 45-43.
Epee
By Toby Hindson (c):
Toby opened against James Russell, for the second time in two matches. This is relevant because there was a price to pay for the cheeky foot hit he scored against Russell in the previous Winter Challenge; a vengeful Russell applied full competition force and took back two foot hits in belated retaliation, and after the first bout the score stood at an alarming 5-0 to the School. Ed Phillips followed, facing Rupert, who proved a strong fencer with a good reach, but Ed got the OC epeeists off the mark leaving us at 10-3. Tom McMahon then pulled the us back with a strong showing against Tina, and the OCs were in contention again with the score at 15-13. Toby then lost 4-5 to Rupert followed by Tom who took two points from James before being closed out. Strong performances from Tom and Ed brought the score to 35-40 to the school, with Ed left to close against James Russell. In a nail biting finish Ed began to narrow the gap before James found yet another gear and closed the match at 45-38.
Foil B
By Alex Beck (c):
The School wishing us to field a Foil B, the OCs gathered a scratch team. Ed Phillips opened against Rupert Peacock, a tall lefty, who took a solid lead against Ed leaving the score 5-2. This score was rather admirable though as Ed was an epeeist who had not touched a foil since he left the School; nevertheless he welcomed the challenge! The scores were then switched by Charles Beck who scored a formidable 8-3 against Tina. The scores were now switched back by Joey scoring 7-2 against Lesley in what was a well fought and well-paced match. Having the scores switch was apparently not enough as the OC Foil B team managed to gain the lead again through Ed’s 8-3 win against Tina. This was probably the most volatile and uncertain match one could watch as the scores were switched again with Rupert taking a strong 7-0 win over Lesley. After such a strong fight for the School, the OCs managed to counter it with Charles being victorious over Joey winning 8-0, whilst both were being excessively apologetic due to the huge number of close quarter encounters. In retaliation to this, Tina in her last fight of the day, came out with a strong 10-3 over Lesley who struggled to maintain the lead. Ed however made short work of the School lead with a surprising and patient strategy that lead to a stall out with the scores of 7-3 over Joey. The OCs at this point had a trick up their sleeves and substituted Charles (Beck Senior) with Alex (Beck Junior) in the hopes of securing a quick win whilst catching the School off guard. Alex wrapped up the final match 7-3 against Rupert bringing the end score to 45-41 to the OC Foil B.
Sabre
By Tom McMahon (c):
The final battle of the day was the sabre, and the fatigue was showing on the game OCs who took up the mantle. It started well with Alex’s defeat of Zayd and Tom’s defeat of Jamie in the first two fights. Leaving the scores at 10-6 in the OC’s favour. Charles, having not fenced sabre in at least 35 years, then stepped onto the piste and found that, unfortunately, the rules had changed rather a lot in that time. There followed a few quick fights (it was observed that it took longer to wire up than to actually fence them) which the Carthusians resoundingly dominated meaning that before you could blink the score was 19-35 against the OCs. The was a glimmer of hope in the penultimate bout, however, as Alex went on against Daniel and was valiantly able to claw back 8 points, putting the score at 32-40. Tom went on for the final bout against James, having already fought against him in the foil and epee, but unfortunately wasn’t able to find a chink in his armour meaning in the end the score was left at 33-45 to the Carthusians.
