Fernwood Sword Club
Ed and James were fencing in the Yorkshire Team Foil for their other club, Sheffield Buccaneers. James' team was the same as for the recent Northern Team Foil, with Matt Fitton and Nathan Doherty, former GB juniors. Ed's was slightly different, with Italian Aureliano Finch and with GB and Scotland veteran Mike McKay replacing Petr Krasnov.
There were 7 teams in the competition and the format was a poule unique, with each team fencing every other team to 45 hits.Ed's and James' teams were the top 2 seeds so they would fence each other last in what turned out, in effect, to be the final. Both teams dominated each of their matches :
Ed's team beat Bradford 45-3, Leeds 45-9, Barnsley 45-5 and the third Buccaneers team 45-3, with only Louth putting up some resistance, taking 33 points.
James's team beat Bradford 45-4, Leeds 45-12, Barnsley 45-3, the third Buccaneers team 45-16 and Louth 45-25.
The final was a rerun of the Northern Team Foil final, but this time James's team came out the winners. They took an 8 point early lead from the first two matches, which meant that Ed's team were always chasing. Ed and James fenced midway through and drew 7-7. Aure Finch brought the gap down to 4 points at the end of the 7th period, but Nathan Doherty had a blistering 8th match to take the score to 31-40. Ed had 3 minutes to catch up without Matt Fitton scoring 5 hits. It was an almost impossible task and Matt scored the 5 hits to Ed's 3 to put the gold medal safely in the bag. Meanwhile, Louth squeaked past the third Buccaneers team 45-43 to take the bronze medal.