5 Nations Fencing Championship 2011
Last weekend, Wales held the 5 Nations in Cardiff and it was the first time in 3 years that all nations took part in men’s sabre. This year, the Irish team was made up of Concannon (c), McCabe, McHugh and Mills. The experience within the team was mixed as McCabe and Mills were called up to the first team for the first time, McHugh was called back after his impressive debut in Herfordshire last year while Concannon was called up again for his fifth time in a row.
There were high hopes among the team that they could snatch a couple of wins on the day which would have been a huge feat as the team has only won one match in the previous four years, a win that came against a weakened Welsh team in Belfast two years ago (I am unaware of any results before this but the MS team were certainly not known for winning many matches). That’s not to say there haven’t been some close matches, three years ago in Glasgow Ireland lost 45-43 to Wales and last year there was the agonising 45-44 defeat to Scotland which almost saw a 7 point deficit turned around in the final bout.
Northern Ireland were first up with a very different team to that first selected. Kitson, Nicholl and Nicholls were replaced by Jackson, Salter and Vondes. Dowse was the only fencer from the original selection to make it to the competition and the team was to change further still on the day as Jackson was called away to fence epee on the day to leave Northern Ireland without any subs for their men’s sabre team.
Concannon got the ball rolling with an unconvincing 5-4 over Dowse as Ireland started with a 123 (3 being anchor) of Mills, McHugh, Concannon. Mills then stepped up for his first senior international bout against Northern Ireland anchor Vondes who is preparing for the Junior Commonwealths next year. Mills didn’t have the strong start he might have hoped for, losing 6-1 but there was plenty of time left in the day to recover. McHugh stepped onto the piste and immediately put Ireland back in front, punishing Salter with a 9-3 bout to leave Ireland 15-13 to the good.
The match remained close but within a three bout period, all three Irish fencers dropped matches to let Northern Ireland sneak back into the lead, 35-34, towards the business end of the match. With the pressure on, there was no better man to step onto the piste than McHugh who fenced with great aggression to win the bout 6-4 take the lead back for Ireland, 40-39. Nerves were clearly high and while Concannon first extended the lead, Vondes settled and started to claw some points back. The crucial point came at 43-42 when Concannon forced Vondes to finish an attack early and landed his counter-attack. Despite dropping another hit, Concannon remained composed to land an “attack no, counter-attack touche” and take the match 45-43.
The British team could have lined out a stronger team but there was no need. Their team of Braine (just selected as a referee for England for the Olympics next year), Crutchett (Alex, not his older borther Anthony who was on the team last year), Fotherby and Ratneswaren were all inside the British top 20 and comfortably won men’s sabre on the day, the closest match a 45-31 victory over Scotland.
Against England the team lined up with the 123 of McCabe, Mills, McHugh. While McHugh started with a decent 5-3 defeat to Braine, England quickly accelerated into a big lead of 15-3 before Ireland were scored another point. Despite facing a new level of fencing, McCabe settled himself well after a first tough match to take 3 points from Crutchett.
The highlight for the Irish in this match came when Mills stepped up against anchor and experienced fencer Braine. Finding his distance, Mills caught Braine relaxed and took points from counter-attacks as Braine crept forward at much too slow a pace to threaten. The dream wasn’t to be though as Braine upped his tempo enough to prevent an embarrassing scoreline, Mills won the bout 6-5. Concannon subbed in for Mills seeking to put some more points on the board but was swiftly dealt a beating by Crutchett, 5-0.
The only thing Concannon could take away from the match was catching Crutchett’s visor on one occassion but he was far off the pace and should have let Mills finish out the match. In the end, England finished with a commanding 45-17 win, a result that the Irish would endeavour to leave behind them as the day went on.
The Scots were up next with another team of varied experience. Clarke won a point at the Copenhagen satellite two years ago, Ghosh has been on the satellite circuit for some time, Rocks has several satellites under his belt while Veitch is a raw talent and one to watch for the future after only turning 17 in September. It was a match that the Irish hoped they could challenge in and reverted to the 123 of Mills, McHugh, Concannon.
Concannon once again opened with a slow 5-4 win when Ireland threw the match into confusion. Despite Mills being called to the piste, McHugh stepped on to drop a match and Mills stepped on when McHugh was called to claw back some points to leave the score 15-13 to Scotland. It was at this point the error was noticed and Ireland learned just how lucky they were.
Up until recently, if a team went on in the incorrect order, they were given a black card. However, a recent rule change states that the match should go back to the point when the last correct match took place. This would have put Ireland back to a 5-4 win but as Ireland had made the mistake, they were willing to continue the match in the new order of McHugh, Mills, Concannon.
McHugh then dragged Ireland back into the match again using his raw speed against Ghosh, the slowest of the Scots, winning the bout 7-3 to give Ireland a 20-18 lead. Concannon continued his poor form and found himself flatfooted against Veitch who pulled the points back 7-4 to put Scotland 25-24 ahead and they never looked back. Ireland didn’t get more than 3 points in any of the remaining matches. Scotland even managed to sub Ghosh off for Rocks who continued their winning ways and Clarke disposed of Concannon 5-2 in the last bout with several parry ripostes, one of them a spectacular parry seconde-riposte to give Scotland a 45-33 win.
The Irish left the Scottish match disappointed but the attitude from Mills and McCabe was highly commendable as they lifted Concannon in particular to turn the focus to the Welsh match coming up. It was just as well as Wales were the next closest country to Ireland and if a second win was ever coming, it would be against Wales. The Irish team continued unchanged but this time stuck to the order they were supposed to…
Wales lined up with a team of Perry, Nickel and Jupp with Crawford on the bench. While Crawford has dropped out of the British rankings, Nickel and Perry sit at 26th and 30th respectively. Jupp has dropped to 51st in the last year as he has eased off his training but is never a fencer to be taken lightly.
Concannon started strongly with a 5-2 against Perry. Jupp however, turned it around immediately with an 8-3 over Mills that would almost suggest he never took a break from training. Nickel and Perry kept the score ticking over for Wales until Concannon went up against former club mate Nickel. Concannon took a few points back against Nickel to close the gap to 25-22 but Jupp put Wales straight back on course with a victory over McHugh. Concannon provided a brief rally in the last match with a 7-5 against Jupp but it wasn’t to be as Wales ran out 45-36 winners.
Elsewhere, England ran out comfortable winners against each of the other nations. While England swept Scotland aside, Scotland were still clear runner-ups as the most points they conceded was 34 to Northern Ireland. Wales finished third after beating both Irish teams while the Republic of Ireland avoided the wooden spoon with their victory over Northern Ireland.
It was a shame that Ireland couldn’t come closer to another win but the fencers didn’t all hit their peaks together and that was exactly what was needed to cause any upsets. Still, beggers can’t be chosers and Ireland should be happy to take their win over Northern Ireland even if they will hope that they challenge a bit stronger next year.
Canco
For all results, see below*
*Substitutes were not recorded in the results below, I have filled in anything that I saw from the Irish matches.
Round #1 – Pools
| Pool #1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | V | TS | TR | Ind | Pl | ||
| England | 1 | V45 | V45 | V45 | V45 | 4 | 180 | 105 | +75 | 1 | ||
| Ireland | 2 | D17 | V45 | D33 | D36 | 1 | 131 | 178 | -47 | 4 | ||
| Northern Ireland | 3 | D27 | D43 | D34 | D39 | 0 | 143 | 180 | -37 | 5 | ||
| Scotland | 4 | D31 | V45 | V45 | V45 | 3 | 166 | 138 | +28 | 2 | ||
| Wales | 5 | D30 | V45 | V45 | D26 | 2 | 146 | 165 | -19 | 3 |
| # | Ireland | TS | Score | Score | TS | England | # |
| 3 | MCHUGH, Jack | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 6 |
| 1 | MCCABE, John | 0 | 3 | 10 | 5 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 |
| 2 | MILLS, Chris | 0 | 3 | 15 | 5 | FOTHERBY, Will | 4 |
| 1 | MCCABE, John | 3 | 6 | 20 | 5 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 6 |
| 3 | MCHUGH, Jack | 2 | 8 | 25 | 5 | FOTHERBY, Will | 4 |
| 2 | MILLS, Chris | 6 | 14 | 30 | 5 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 |
| 1 | MCCABE, John | 0 | 14 | 35 | 5 | FOTHERBY, Will | 4 |
| 2 | Concannon, Stephen | 0 | 14 | 40 | 5 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 6 |
| 3 | MCHUGH, Jack | 3 | 17 | 45 | 5 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 |
| D17 | V45 |
| # | Scotland | TS | Score | Score | TS | Northern Ireland | # |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | DOWSE, Niall | 6 |
| 1 | VEITCH, Robert | 3 | 8 | 10 | 7 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 7 | 15 | 14 | 4 | SALTER, Mike | 4 |
| 1 | VEITCH, Robert | 5 | 20 | 16 | 2 | DOWSE, Niall | 6 |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 | 25 | 18 | 2 | SALTER, Mike | 4 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 5 | 30 | 22 | 4 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 1 | VEITCH, Robert | 5 | 35 | 25 | 3 | SALTER, Mike | 4 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 5 | 40 | 30 | 5 | DOWSE, Niall | 6 |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 | 45 | 34 | 4 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| V45 | D34 |
| # | England | TS | Score | Score | TS | Wales | # |
| 3 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 1 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 | 10 | 8 | 6 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| 2 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 | 15 | 9 | 1 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 1 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 | 20 | 12 | 3 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 3 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 5 | 25 | 16 | 4 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 2 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 | 30 | 18 | 2 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| 1 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 | 35 | 20 | 2 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 2 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 | 40 | 24 | 4 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 3 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 5 | 45 | 30 | 6 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| V45 | D30 |
| # | Ireland | TS | Score | Score | TS | Northern Ireland | # |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | DOWSE, Niall | 6 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 1 | 6 | 10 | 6 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 9 | 15 | 13 | 3 | SALTER, Mike | 4 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 5 | 20 | 17 | 4 | DOWSE, Niall | 6 |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 5 | 25 | 23 | 6 | SALTER, Mike | 4 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 5 | 30 | 29 | 6 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 4 | 34 | 35 | 6 | SALTER, Mike | 4 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 6 | 40 | 39 | 4 | DOWSE, Niall | 6 |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 5 | 45 | 43 | 4 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| V45 | D43 |
| # | Scotland | TS | Score | Score | TS | Wales | # |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 1 | GHOSH, Julian | 5 | 10 | 8 | 6 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 5 | 15 | 10 | 2 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 1 | GHOSH, Julian | 5 | 20 | 17 | 7 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 | 25 | 17 | 0 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 5 | 30 | 23 | 6 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| 1 | GHOSH, Julian | 5 | 35 | 23 | 0 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 5 | 40 | 25 | 2 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 | 45 | 26 | 1 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| V45 | D26 |
| # | England | TS | Score | Score | TS | Northern Ireland | # |
| 3 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | SALTER, Mike | 6 |
| 1 | FOTHERBY, Will | 5 | 10 | 3 | 2 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 2 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 | 15 | 6 | 3 | DOWSE, Niall | 4 |
| 1 | FOTHERBY, Will | 5 | 20 | 9 | 3 | SALTER, Mike | 6 |
| 3 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 | 25 | 11 | 2 | DOWSE, Niall | 4 |
| 2 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 | 30 | 17 | 6 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 1 | FOTHERBY, Will | 5 | 35 | 19 | 2 | DOWSE, Niall | 4 |
| 2 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 | 40 | 24 | 5 | SALTER, Mike | 6 |
| 3 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 | 45 | 27 | 3 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| V45 | D27 |
| # | Ireland | TS | Score | Score | TS | Wales | # |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 3 | 8 | 10 | 8 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 4 | 12 | 15 | 5 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 2 | 14 | 20 | 5 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 8 | 22 | 25 | 5 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 2 | 24 | 30 | 5 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 3 | 27 | 35 | 5 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 2 | 29 | 40 | 5 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 7 | 36 | 45 | 5 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| D36 | V45 |
| # | Scotland | TS | Score | Score | TS | England | # |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 6 |
| 1 | VEITCH, Robert | 0 | 1 | 10 | 5 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 2 | 3 | 15 | 5 | FOTHERBY, Will | 4 |
| 1 | VEITCH, Robert | 1 | 4 | 20 | 5 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 6 |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 10 | 14 | 25 | 5 | FOTHERBY, Will | 4 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 4 | 18 | 30 | 5 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 |
| 1 | VEITCH, Robert | 1 | 19 | 35 | 5 | FOTHERBY, Will | 4 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 5 | 24 | 40 | 5 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 6 |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 7 | 31 | 45 | 5 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 |
| D31 | V45 |
| # | Wales | TS | Score | Score | TS | Northern Ireland | # |
| 3 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | SALTER, Mike | 6 |
| 1 | CRAWFURD, Jim | 5 | 10 | 4 | 3 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 2 | PERRY, Dan | 5 | 15 | 11 | 7 | DOWSE, Niall | 4 |
| 1 | CRAWFURD, Jim | 4 | 19 | 20 | 9 | SALTER, Mike | 6 |
| 3 | JUPP, Alastair | 4 | 23 | 25 | 5 | DOWSE, Niall | 4 |
| 2 | PERRY, Dan | 4 | 27 | 30 | 5 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 1 | CRAWFURD, Jim | 8 | 35 | 34 | 4 | DOWSE, Niall | 4 |
| 2 | PERRY, Dan | 5 | 40 | 38 | 4 | SALTER, Mike | 6 |
| 3 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 | 45 | 39 | 1 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| V45 | D39 |
| # | Ireland | TS | Score | Score | TS | Scotland | # |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | GHOSH, Julian | 6 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 2 | 7 | 10 | 6 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 6 | 13 | 15 | 5 | VEITCH, Robert | 4 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 7 | 20 | 18 | 3 | GHOSH, Julian | 6 |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 4 | 24 | 25 | 7 | VEITCH, Robert | 4 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 2 | 26 | 30 | 5 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 3 | 29 | 35 | 5 | VEITCH, Robert | 4 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 2 | 31 | 40 | 5 | Rocks, Stephen | 6 |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 2 | 33 | 45 | 5 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 |
| D33 | V45 |
