Yesterday was the day after the big match of the year, and not many of Harvard's fencers wanted to trek up to Hanover, N.H., to meet a weak Dartmouth squad. Consequently, only three varsity "starters" faced the Big Green, but it didn't matter much as the Crimson turned back its rural adversaries, 15-12.

Sabre man Gordon Rutledge and foil-fencer Howie Weiss, two of the three varsity fencers to make the trip, led the Crimson effort, snatching three wins apiece. The third "starter," freshman Eric Read, was close behind taking two out of three, as did Tom Sharp.

No Coach

Dartmouth fencing is similar to club sports at Harvard and no one really expected the Big Green to mount much of a challenge to Harvard superiority. Dartmouth does not even have a coach, and though the squad was a fair opponent, it was certainly no threat.

"Dartmouth is a pretty good New England team," Crimson coach Edo Marion said last night. "They were very happy that we came up."

Marion, never really concerned that Harvard would lose, used the match to experiment a little with his younger fencers, hoping to find some talent to plug holes in next year's team.

Russ Ellis was one such experiment. Marion put him in sabre competition because the coach, above all, needs to find sabre men for next year. "Ellis has good mobility on the strip," Marion said. "I think he could be a good sabre fencer, and I wanted to see what he could do." Ellis, however, lost three straight in his first sabre action ever.

The match was close right down to the end, with Dartmouth still within striking distance at 12-11 with four bouts to go. At that point Mark Fuller picked up his only win of the afternoon to boost Harvard into a two-point lead, 13-11. Read then won his second bout in epee to ice the team triumph.