5th place.

I came 5th. Not stunning, but not too bad either.
I lost just one fight in the poole to Darius Veseghi (5-4) that was enough to seed me 5th and Darius 4th. So we were destined to meet met again in the last 8; First I had to see off Ruari MacUnfraidh.

Ruari and I started fencing together in Salle Duffy at about the same time (hundreds of years ago); Now that we are both fencing back in the Salle we fence together every week again. I knew I should beat him, however I had no intention of taking him for granted. At the start of the fight he confirmed that my trepidation was well founded by quickly going 2-0 up. I forced myself to settle down and shifted my mind up into "fencing" gear. I went on to win the fight 15-3. I was very happy with that result; I had put myself into the zone and didn't allow myself to relax till the fight was over.

It was Darius next. Some months previously he had knocked me out of the Nationals so I knew I would have to be at my best to beat him. This day it was not to be however, and he comprehensively beat me 15-7. Darius is a good fencer currently ranked first in foil in Ireland, so I can't get too disappointed loosing to him.

He'll probably laugh at this; I think our styles are quite similar. We both let our feet do the talking on the foil piste and get our hits through distance and timing. The reason I lost is because his footwork and distance are much better then mine, so when I try to match him on those criteria I'm probably always going to loose. Next time I'll have to try something new.

Overall winner of the competition was Conor Nagle, fencing for UCD.
Second was Philip Lee and joint third were Darius and Evgenyie Kazantchev all of whom fence for Pembroke FC.