Fencing update
Oct. 11th, 2025 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redfiona99Or why there's been relatively little posting.
So three weeks ago I had my first two day competition since the leg break.
Due to advanced age (40), I now qualify as a veteran - you may all laugh - and because I am alive and female I immediately got called up by the Midlands for their veterans women's foil team.
It was nice, I got to see people I hadn't seen for a while (and get updates on a few other people). There's nothing quite like losing to a 70 year old (or several of them).
Lilleshall Sports Centre, very nice. I also learnt new tricks for straightening out foils!!
Since I knew how much two dayers tend to wipe me out so I'd took the day off on the Monday. Just as well because I came down with a hell cold. Overall, not too bad, but I was non-functional from about 10 am - 4 pm on the Monday.
The week after, I was at the RAF Open, which is great fun as usual.
But I went from being the youngest person at a competition to being the oldest. Like, not even close. At the Shropshire, A (who you would all like and is the union rep at his uni) did ask whether women's foil was like Logan's Run.
I laughed. And then had one of the younger foilists (who I know really well) jokingly suggest that at 19 she ought to start thinking of switching to epee.
Any which way, I finished 5th. I am phrasing it as top adult because the oldest of the top 4 was 16 and the sum total of their age is 60!
Other than stuffing up the quarterfinal I was very happy with how I fenced, especially that I managed to hit someone with a flick hit to shoulder. First time I've ever managed to do that deliberately to a right hander.
The "glorious" lowlight was one of the baby epeeists asking if I was M's mother. In the middle of my usual, "M is a delight and I would be proud to be his mother, I am not," I realised that as he's 21 (max) and I am 40, yes, I am old enough that I could be M's mother.
So three weeks ago I had my first two day competition since the leg break.
Due to advanced age (40), I now qualify as a veteran - you may all laugh - and because I am alive and female I immediately got called up by the Midlands for their veterans women's foil team.
It was nice, I got to see people I hadn't seen for a while (and get updates on a few other people). There's nothing quite like losing to a 70 year old (or several of them).
Lilleshall Sports Centre, very nice. I also learnt new tricks for straightening out foils!!
Since I knew how much two dayers tend to wipe me out so I'd took the day off on the Monday. Just as well because I came down with a hell cold. Overall, not too bad, but I was non-functional from about 10 am - 4 pm on the Monday.
The week after, I was at the RAF Open, which is great fun as usual.
But I went from being the youngest person at a competition to being the oldest. Like, not even close. At the Shropshire, A (who you would all like and is the union rep at his uni) did ask whether women's foil was like Logan's Run.
I laughed. And then had one of the younger foilists (who I know really well) jokingly suggest that at 19 she ought to start thinking of switching to epee.
Any which way, I finished 5th. I am phrasing it as top adult because the oldest of the top 4 was 16 and the sum total of their age is 60!
Other than stuffing up the quarterfinal I was very happy with how I fenced, especially that I managed to hit someone with a flick hit to shoulder. First time I've ever managed to do that deliberately to a right hander.
The "glorious" lowlight was one of the baby epeeists asking if I was M's mother. In the middle of my usual, "M is a delight and I would be proud to be his mother, I am not," I realised that as he's 21 (max) and I am 40, yes, I am old enough that I could be M's mother.
