Trouble and Strife

Ulster went pretty well. I thought I was a little lackluster in the foil; not fencing bad as such but not fencing great either. I came 5th there.

In the Sabre I fenced well. I seeded 4th after the pooles and got a buy into the last 8 . I beat Marcos there, but in my semi-final I was dissected by Gareth Sykes (15-3!). Still I'm happy with the result looking at the competition 3rd was probably the best I could have hoped for.

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There has been a lot of strife stirred up in the I.A.F.F. by this article from the Belfast telegraph. Various people have read it and are screaming for explanations/resignations etc. The I.A.F.F committee have yet to comment officially on it, so I don't agree with all this knee jerk bufoonery. However in the absence of an official statement, you can understand the sentiment. Get a move on committee! Let the members know what is going on.

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This just in. Apparently Shirley has stated she wants to take a term that the Salle will not be opening till the new year! What does she expect the fencers to do in the mean time? I'm going to join Pembroke fencing club, while I'll making up my mind about what to do about my training now.

I started that last post on Monday but only posted it today. However it still has a posting date of Monday. Retroactive Blogging; Fantastic!

I was talking to Yevgenny on Tuesday. Last weekend he was fencing in Bristol where he had the dubious pleasure of fencing with the new foil timings. He said he hated them...In fact he said everyone there hated them, but it looks like the foil timings are here and here to stay. I'd say it'll be a while before we get them in Ireland though.

Off to Coleraine this weekend for the Ulster Open. I'm entering the foil and the sabre only. (The entry form says you can't enter both sabre and epee). I am driving up tomorrow morning so I'll probably have to be up at 05.00.

Till next time...

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Trepidation

I'm feeling a bit anxious.

The reason?

Today I'm starting a coaching job for UCD fencing club. A few months ago the captain of UCD fencing club Owen MacNamee approached Marcos and me asking if we were interested in coaching positions with the club. I accepted gratefully.

Why am I worried? Well for a selection of reasons really. I haven't done any real coaching since my time in Trinty, so it's been a while. I guess there is going to have to be some on-the-job training. Still it's not like I don't know how to fence, It should all come back to me...I guess...hopefully...

Heading to Galway this weekend for the inagurial West of Ireland Open. Foil and sabre on the Saturday and Epee on the sunday. Not sure what the entry in going to be like. Hopefully enough to make it worth the trip.

In other news apparently the 19th of this month is "International Talk like a Pirate Day"
that should make the epee competition on Sunday interesting...

Feelings of Inadequacy

Marcos recently posted the following note on the Irish Fencing forum:

For those who weren't there - I was awesome

I hadn't fenced Epee since December 1994, my knee was still sore from tendonitis, and I had given all my Epee equipment to my younger brother (a glove and a bodywire)...however, Joanne was working that Saturday morning so I thought, as I'm going to be coaching in UCD next season, I might as well have a bash, to kill time and remind myself how to hold the shagging thing...

Warming-up with Fabrice beforehand did nothing to dispel the illusion I was shite - he beat me easily 10-2...apparently I was doing pretty much everything wrong.

Drawn in a poule with Profit, Halloran, Daly, & Robert Murray, it was very conceivable, given that they are all Epee-ists (with Eric and Keith in particular no slouches) that I would scrape out the poule with just the 1 win.

However, destiny took hold as I picked up my borrowed blade (thanks Fabrice)...first up was Keith who, after a bruising and physical bout, was defeated 5-4.

Robert Murray was dispatched 5-2 before Eric Profit and I met on the field of battle.

I took imediate control of the bout, dictating the game to my own pace, taking his blade, beating it out the way then, as he tried to run, stabbing him through the heart with the gusto of a musketeer. At 3-1 up I jeered at him, beckoning him on to try his luck, but he was unequal to the challenge, 5-2 the end score.

Last was Dan "Duet" Daly - but there was little at this point that would indicate how he would take the Duet by storm later in the day. Another virtuoso performance and Daly lay at my feet, killed 5-3.

Which all put me as second seed.

Murray was dispatched to 5 in the first DE, then drawn against the Malaysian langer Sheng, who had beaten Dan Daly 1-0 in a tense (boring as fcuk) 10minute bout.

Sod that for a game of hide the ferret, I thought, and proceded to run at him, sometimes taking his blade, sometimes becoming impaled on his sword - live by the sword, die by it was the moto, and by the first break we'd scored 1400% more points in 3mins than Sheng and Dan had managed in 10mins.

Sheng was 8-6 ahead, but I had a secret weapon - the serene wisdom of Keith Halloran came like the sun through my fog of war. Once again I donned my mask, picked up my sword and attacked. Blades flashed through the air, and time and again my sword ran true - true enough to win 15-11 anyway.

With Nial Lindon, the 3rd seed, and a decent, skilled, and tall Epee-ist in the semi, I commented to my comrade in arms PBH that I though the adventure was over.

However, employing the same tactics used to defeat Profit I took no prisoners, going 6-4 up in as many seconds.

but then disaster....

a feint attack, a retreat, then an explosive fleshe that Lindon parried, but I had landed heavily on my injured knee. Uncertain now in my attack, indecisive in my retreat, Lindon got a series of soft hits...at 11-8 down my body was in pain, my heart had admitted defeat, and my sabre instincts frustrated as Lindon controlled the pace of the - aside from a brief rally, Lindon walked the rest.

and so I lay defeated, like the Sundance kid, a glorious adventure ended by an inglorious and swift death.

The last time, in 12/94, I had held an Epee was to win bronze in the Madrid version of the Dublin Epee...almost ten years later, the battlefield had changed, the language of the combatants had changed, but my tactics remained, and the final colour of the medal was the same...

Perhaps I should quit this Blog malarchy and hand the reigns over to Marcos...