The Aura of DoomTM

I did well in Galway. I came second in the foil (beaten by Darius again in the final,) I came third in the epee but the highlight of the weekend (for me anyway) was a win for yours truly in the sabre!

I'm delighted with the win, it's my first in years! I had a good close fight with fellow Irish squad member Owen MacNamee in the semi-final on Saturday afternoon, before coming up against another Irish squad fencer Jack Richie. The final was a very close affair but I eventually edged Jack out 15-13. That puts me at 1 for 1 in sabre competitions for this season, let's hope I can continue in this vein.

...

Jack and I came against one another again in the epee later that day and I think it was one of the best matches I have participated in ever. I'm going to have to go into a Marcos-esque description of the bout just so I have it recorded for perpetuity:

Jack went well ahead at the start. He went 6-1 up, and later was 12-8 up but that's when I started my climb back I got it to 12 all, but then 2 good hits from Jack brought victory to within his grasp. There were 14 seconds remaining so I knew I had to go all out. I got one hit back to leave me with 6 seconds to score the final hit. I chased him to the back line but then missed with my attack, I felt the counter sink in and thought it was all over but then a reprieve! The president (the afore-mentioned Owen MacMamee) wasn't sure whether Jack had hit before or after his front foot had gone over the rear limit of the piste. We were put back on guard at the end of the piste, I was 1 hit down and there remained 4 seconds in which to score the one hit, I went for it and got it!

At this stage there 2 seconds of the fight remained and we waited it out for extra time. I won the coin toss, but I was disappointed to do so. I had got to this stage in the fight by clawing my way from behind. For the first time in the fight I was ahead I just wasn't used fencing defensively. I made the decision then to take the lead and go for the hit like I had been doing up till then, unfortunately the gamble didn't pay off. I missed on an attack to the arm but the counter attack from Jack did not. The fight was over. Oh the agony of defeat!

There was a third place play off to be completed (this unusual in fencing, usually the two loosing semi-finalists share third place). I took a 2 minute break and then started into it immediately. I was knackered after the fight with Jack, but knew that I should get going again before the adrenaline wore off. I defeated Cheng handily enough; After a warm up fight like the previous one, I was never going to loose.

...

The was some strangeness at the weekend, my 1st round opponent in the sabre conceded! That's never happened to me before; I was really surprised and also a little disappointed. Still I should probably look on the bright side: My Darth Vader like Aura of Doom^TM must be working as intended. The Aura of Doom^TM is cultivated through constant scowling and the judicious use of muttering under ones breath while coming onto the piste, and that's not to mention my fearsome reputation as a dazzling competitor. Other less trustworthy fencers might maintain that the Aura of Doom^TM is generated by the aroma from my fencing kit...Don't believe them! It's definitely the reputation/muttering/scowling.

...

I have just read a post on the Fencing Forum by Barry Paul who is of course one of the Leon Paul Pauls

[In sabre] there is a period of time after the to blades have come together (between 5 and 25 ms i think) that a hit will not register. This is effectively treating the attack as "parried".

While I have heard of the so called "whipover time" this is the first time I've seen it explained by somebody who actually knows what they are talking about. This throws a lot of mysterious "why didn't that register" hits into a whole new light.