Apre-Open

So the Open is all done, and might I just say what an enjoyable competition it was. Loads of fencers entered including a very impressive 44 fencers in the men's epee. Certainly the biggest individual competition I've ever seen in Ireland.

My results were reasonable. 3rd in Sabre, beaten by the eventual winner David Downey in the semi-final. A disappointing epee result and a credible 5th place in the foil. I had a very nervy and intense match with Philip in the quarters which he won 15-13.

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The new timings were in use at the foil and sabre competitions. They definitely seem to shift the balance back towards the defensive end of the spectrum for both sabre and foil. They are not to everyone's taste however. Poor old David Alexander had a awful time getting his light to come up in the final. Dunno whether that was the new timings or some type of fault with his weapon.

For foil the timings suited me down to a tee. For sabre they are not so good for me however. I'm going to have to be very careful with my "slow" riposte in the future. Owen got me with a beauty of a remise after I parried an attack and started with the riposte. The riposte landed but no light came up. He was delighted with his hit though.

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A funny thing happened at the weekend. On Sunday a Turkish gentleman arrived at the venue, walked up to Nuala's pulpit and said "I am an FIE accredited foil referee. Here are my credentials, I would like to preside." So the guy preceded to preside and he seemed to be a good president. Mad.

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I got this mail from Susan Murray yesterday.

Greeting fair sir! You will be pleased to know that I have joined Oxford Fencing Club! and absolutely adore it. Well, to tell you the truth, I have only fenced a few times as I am really a member of the Pentathlon club which involves fencing - Epee to be exact. If you are free around Xmas I would love to fence with you. I am home for 2 weeks and plan to train quite hard for the pentathlon sports as we are invited to a 3 day camp with the British army in January before we compete against Cambridge in March. Hope all hunky dorey with chez Bouchers. Ciao Susan

Good old Susan. All the way through college she kept telling me. "I'm going to join the fencing club I'm going to join the fencing club" and now that she's gone to Oxford, she's done it. I'll have to organize some hall space if she does decide to get some fencing in while she's over here.