![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redfiona99Did the Leeds Open yesterday. Great fun even if I did have to get up at 6.30.
I finished ninth, which is one better than last year and, even with the smaller entry, the NIF* has gone up so I should get more points. I'm relatively happy with how I fenced, especially the two 5-4s that I won. I think that's been the main difference recently, the matches I was losing 4-5, I'm winning 5-4.
One case was a beginner (I think) with a giant whirly bird, but it was so big that you couldn't even get close so the timing had to be accurate.
The other was a Welsh stripe that I made stomp off the piste when I beat her. Making stripes stomp off is one of my favourite things :) That being said, if you're still wearing international stripes you won at (I'm guessing) 14 when you're over 20 (and she'd have to be because she wasn't a cadet, and she wasn't at the junior selection event that the Leeds accidentally clashed with through no fault of their own, which was where all the good between 17 and 20 year olds were), you need to look at your life choices. Because it's not half funny seeing a stompy stripe being beaten by two beginners. The second best bit was hearing the very nice GB stripe who was reffing going up to her saying "don't worry, she [me] got lucky with that last hit" to try to cheer her up when I'd got her with the same hit three times in a row.
Oh yeah, did I mention that both my 5-4 wins were from behind? :D
I finished 9th after the pools and got a left hander in my DE. Left-handers as a whole were over-represented there being 6 of them out of 20 competitors. This is a leftie I used to be able to beat, and then she changed her style and since then it's been her winning. I did better this time, I lost 9-15. Not bad given that I was 1-7 down at one point. I had a quick think and went, "what would Jim say?" The answer being, of course, bend your back leg. And it worked.
Plus I got a free coaching sessions off one of the Russians so I'm really not going to complain.
Other highlights of the day - the look on J's face when she won the semi. Absolute shock has nothing on this.
- discovering a situation where an FIE ref is not going to card you for an audible obscenity - when you snap two foils in 3 points and are already 7-1 down in a final.
- the showers at the Leeds Uni gym are lovely.
So yes, I'm quite happy, all in all.
*number of points the competition is worth. Do not try to understand the NIF system. It has a similar effect on people as the Necronomicon. Possibly that's what the N stands for.
I finished ninth, which is one better than last year and, even with the smaller entry, the NIF* has gone up so I should get more points. I'm relatively happy with how I fenced, especially the two 5-4s that I won. I think that's been the main difference recently, the matches I was losing 4-5, I'm winning 5-4.
One case was a beginner (I think) with a giant whirly bird, but it was so big that you couldn't even get close so the timing had to be accurate.
The other was a Welsh stripe that I made stomp off the piste when I beat her. Making stripes stomp off is one of my favourite things :) That being said, if you're still wearing international stripes you won at (I'm guessing) 14 when you're over 20 (and she'd have to be because she wasn't a cadet, and she wasn't at the junior selection event that the Leeds accidentally clashed with through no fault of their own, which was where all the good between 17 and 20 year olds were), you need to look at your life choices. Because it's not half funny seeing a stompy stripe being beaten by two beginners. The second best bit was hearing the very nice GB stripe who was reffing going up to her saying "don't worry, she [me] got lucky with that last hit" to try to cheer her up when I'd got her with the same hit three times in a row.
Oh yeah, did I mention that both my 5-4 wins were from behind? :D
I finished 9th after the pools and got a left hander in my DE. Left-handers as a whole were over-represented there being 6 of them out of 20 competitors. This is a leftie I used to be able to beat, and then she changed her style and since then it's been her winning. I did better this time, I lost 9-15. Not bad given that I was 1-7 down at one point. I had a quick think and went, "what would Jim say?" The answer being, of course, bend your back leg. And it worked.
Plus I got a free coaching sessions off one of the Russians so I'm really not going to complain.
Other highlights of the day - the look on J's face when she won the semi. Absolute shock has nothing on this.
- discovering a situation where an FIE ref is not going to card you for an audible obscenity - when you snap two foils in 3 points and are already 7-1 down in a final.
- the showers at the Leeds Uni gym are lovely.
So yes, I'm quite happy, all in all.
*number of points the competition is worth. Do not try to understand the NIF system. It has a similar effect on people as the Necronomicon. Possibly that's what the N stands for.
