As always, the fencing is merged between men’s and women’s events, and again it has the full round of fencing events, with all of the Men’s and Women’s épée, the Men’s and Women’s Foil, and the Men’s and Women’s Sabre, being involved.
Best of all though is that the event is back in its usual and grandest spot- indeed my favourite venue of all of the Varsity sports this year, that being in the Great Hall at King’s. With admission not only being free but also getting two tickets for one with the men’s and women’s overlap, if you have a free afternoon, it’s certainly worth going down to cheer on the team.
As for the sport itself, the Women’s teams will be looking to avenge the pain of an excruciating 129-130 loss last year, and over the course of the year will have been sure to improve to come out on the right side of those fine margins. As for the Men, they’ll be looking to retain last year’s title, and improvements to their Foil team over the past year means that they’ll likely dominate that event again too.
There are plenty of reasons for optimism.
After a dramatic win on penalties in last year’s event, the women’s team will be looking for a more comfortable victory this time out. They have been in imperious form all season- in the last week they have beaten their arch-rivals GKT 1s, beaten Royal Vets 1s with only a bare XI and reached the LUSL Cup final in that time too. In the league, they’ve streamrolled their way to the top end of the table, with some thrashings along the way including a 9-1 win at the start of 2022. Their previous game against the UCL 1s this season resulted in a comfortable 3-1 win on an absolute bog of a pitch, so hopefully on the Harringay astro they’ll be able to comfortably control and win the game, and retain their title.
The 1s have had a mixed bag this season. After a disappointing finish to the 2020/21 season, which included not only a 4-2 defeat in the Varsity final (which did include one of the all-time Varsity worldies by the KCL Right Back) but also a damning defeat to GKT 5s in their very own Sellers Cup, they’ve started to end their season on the right track just before their biggest game of it. Despite being in the midst of a relegation battle in their Saturday league, they have performed well in their Wednesday league with ‘Campeones!’ being chanted around after last Wednesday’s game. They’ve added quality in key positions, notably ‘Colonel Sanders’ in goal after prizing him away from the GKT 3s, who was rumoured to be in line to play professional football in Singapore. With a UCL 1s side who are having a surprisingly poor year, the 1s have every chance of getting their first win in this event for a while. It’s one not to be missed on Monday night.
Images credited to KCLSU.
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