CORNISH fencing star Matt Billing insists his University College London teammates can hold their heads high, despite falling at the last hurdle in the BUCS Big Wednesday Championship final in Sheffield.

This year’s BUCS Big Wednesday saw 104 student teams descend on the steel city to compete for 50 gold medals across 14 sports with Sheffield Hallam University playing host.

A difficult tie saw UCL drawn against unbeaten league leaders Cambridge, who made no mistake in putting the final to bed with a 135-103 victory.

And despite the heartbreaking result, England captain Matt Billing, from Truro and a former student at Truro College, admits credit must be given to their stellar opposition.

“We’re a bit disappointed but they’re a very solid side and we would have had to have fenced out of our skins to beat them,” said the 26-year-old.

“There were some very close moments but fencing is a cumulative sport, if you’re behind on one very single weapon you’re going to lose and unfortunately we didn’t get the lead in the weapons that we wanted."

Billing is hoping to qualify for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, and while the Chemistry PhD student is used to fencing on the big stage, he insists competing for his university is special in its own way.

“I love BUCS, it’s a huge opportunity to just get out there and fence some of the best people in the country,” Billing added.

British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) is the national governing body for Higher Education (HE) sport in the UK, organising leagues and competitions for more than 150 institutions across 52 different sports. Partnered by Deloitte, BUCS supports athletes from a grass roots level through to Commonwealth and Olympic Games hopefuls www.bucs.org.uk