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redfiona99Spent all of last weekend fencing. No exaggeration, I was up at 6.30 on Saturday, back home at 4, and then 7.30 to 7 on Sunday. All in all, I fenced 18 matches to 5, and 4 DEs (to 15). Apparently, every 3 minute bout of fencing is the equivalent of a mile run, so as you can imagine, I was a bit tired this morning. Not as much as I expected, mind. Actually, I feel remarkably good all over, including the legs. Hopefully that's because they're okay, not because they're waiting till tomorrow to seize up.
Did quite well too.
Saturday was the Warwickshire County foil. Since there were only 3 women, we got chucked in with the men for the poule round. I didn't come bottom of my group, and may have confounded a teenage boy. He looked most distressed when I beat him. I did feel like going up to him and pointing out that I've probably been fencing longer than his little brother has been alive, and not to worry.
The ladies campaigned to then have a poule unique as well as DEs and because the organiser was wonderful, he let us. The DEs were then fenced off, I won the semi and faced my new team mate A in the final. She annihilated me 15 - 3, but she's good enough that I'm happy with the three.
Sunday was the Much Wenlock foil, part of this - http://www.wenlock-olympian-society.org.uk/ It was lots of fun, even if the organiser had to tell us to just fence around the cameras. Actually, for once, the non-fencing related people had the sense to stay a sword's length away from the mad people with swords so no one got stabbed in the lens.
Because there were 18 ladies we actually got ladies poules to start with. Won 3 lost 2 in the first poule, and then won 1 lost 4 in the second poule. I finish 12th after the poules so I get the 5th ranked fencer. And it turns out to be a Louth fencer. Not good times. Thankfully, A had fenced her in the poules and explained to me, using little words, what she was doing, and how to deal with it.
Therefore, in a thrilling 13-12 at time victory, I finally beat one of the Louth lot in a DE. The trick is to esquive and keep your feet moving. So yeah, I broke into the top 8.
I went out in the next round to H, which wasn't a surprise, but the 4 hits I got on her were good, so I'm happy.
H also features in the silly story of the day. Basically some twit rolled up to the competition claiming to be a referee. I'm assuming he is actually a ref, but that's not saying much. Now most of the time, female foilist are a bide-able bunch. We know no-one likes reffing, and we'll put up with a few wrong decisions. But this twit tried to card H for violent conduct/brutality. Now H fences aggressively, and has left bruises on me (a lovely blue one on my thumb on this occasion) but she's not violent. Actually, that wasn't the worst of it. What he did was card her, refuse to explain why, when pushed explained why and then carried on giving some of the more wrong decisions I've ever seen given in fencing. Normally you can at least see why a referee has give things but this was so wrong you couldn't. I've known H since she was ~ 15 and it's the only time I've ever seen her angry on piste. Anyway, there were general mutterings of discontent and he was barred from reffing any more women's matches for the day. I've never seen anything like it.
Anyway, long story short, team mate A won the competition, which was awesome.
I had a fantastic time at both competitions and must now plot next year's tournament schedule.
Did quite well too.
Saturday was the Warwickshire County foil. Since there were only 3 women, we got chucked in with the men for the poule round. I didn't come bottom of my group, and may have confounded a teenage boy. He looked most distressed when I beat him. I did feel like going up to him and pointing out that I've probably been fencing longer than his little brother has been alive, and not to worry.
The ladies campaigned to then have a poule unique as well as DEs and because the organiser was wonderful, he let us. The DEs were then fenced off, I won the semi and faced my new team mate A in the final. She annihilated me 15 - 3, but she's good enough that I'm happy with the three.
Sunday was the Much Wenlock foil, part of this - http://www.wenlock-olympian-society.org.uk/ It was lots of fun, even if the organiser had to tell us to just fence around the cameras. Actually, for once, the non-fencing related people had the sense to stay a sword's length away from the mad people with swords so no one got stabbed in the lens.
Because there were 18 ladies we actually got ladies poules to start with. Won 3 lost 2 in the first poule, and then won 1 lost 4 in the second poule. I finish 12th after the poules so I get the 5th ranked fencer. And it turns out to be a Louth fencer. Not good times. Thankfully, A had fenced her in the poules and explained to me, using little words, what she was doing, and how to deal with it.
Therefore, in a thrilling 13-12 at time victory, I finally beat one of the Louth lot in a DE. The trick is to esquive and keep your feet moving. So yeah, I broke into the top 8.
I went out in the next round to H, which wasn't a surprise, but the 4 hits I got on her were good, so I'm happy.
H also features in the silly story of the day. Basically some twit rolled up to the competition claiming to be a referee. I'm assuming he is actually a ref, but that's not saying much. Now most of the time, female foilist are a bide-able bunch. We know no-one likes reffing, and we'll put up with a few wrong decisions. But this twit tried to card H for violent conduct/brutality. Now H fences aggressively, and has left bruises on me (a lovely blue one on my thumb on this occasion) but she's not violent. Actually, that wasn't the worst of it. What he did was card her, refuse to explain why, when pushed explained why and then carried on giving some of the more wrong decisions I've ever seen given in fencing. Normally you can at least see why a referee has give things but this was so wrong you couldn't. I've known H since she was ~ 15 and it's the only time I've ever seen her angry on piste. Anyway, there were general mutterings of discontent and he was barred from reffing any more women's matches for the day. I've never seen anything like it.
Anyway, long story short, team mate A won the competition, which was awesome.
I had a fantastic time at both competitions and must now plot next year's tournament schedule.
