9:30 in the morning on the 2nd Sunday in September, it can only be check in for Sabre at the annual St. Albans fencing club open air.
Once again club members and their significant others enjoyed a full day’s fencing in the fresh air, by the end of the day we were glad to get to the barbeque and beer, though it must be said one of our number started on the beer rather earlier than most and had worked out that he could down a beef burger during the 1min break in the Epee semi final – Next year we’ll have to try him on spinach.
Four souls were keen enough to check in at 9:30 for the Sabre, some spirited bouts saw the winner decided in a single pool, before many of us had finished the bacon butties.
Fifteen of us checked in for the Foil, and we were soon running through two rounds of pools to determine the direct elimination (DE) positions. Tactics now played a part as lunch was available – eat now between pools, or wait until the Epee starts? How much quiche can a fencer consume and still fight a bout?
Jon D was all the time working away in the background trying to decipher the scribbles on the pool sheets as we each handed in the results on the way to the refreshments, and then prepared the next round as we stuffed ourselves.
Now it’s the turn of the Epeeists. Much confusion as people try and work out which of the body wires they’re wearing they need to plug in – and a new problem, the sun’s come out and we cant see the scoring box lights clearly – what a great problem to have!
Not as many people signed up for Epee, so we’re put into two pools of 6 and off we go, getting much bigger bruises than in Foil.
Never seems to take a long as the Foil, and even with the bigger pools all to soon most of us are wishing we’d tried that bit harder, reached that bit further, been that bit quicker so we cold have finished that much further up the results table.
Jon says back to the Foil – more tangled body wires, searches for missing lames, then back to the piste for the first (and for some of us last) round of the DE – now we’re starting to get tired we’re also fighting to 15 points, but the breeze through the mask makes it that bit more bearable.
Through the DE up to the final, than back to the Epee to run through the DE, and finally we’re ready for the finals – Foil first, and you can tell it’s a well run competition as the best two fencers give us the best match of the day. The match goes to it’s 3rd 3min period, but the two fencers
seemed as fresh, fast and determined as we’d been at the beginning of the day.
To finish off the fencing for the day we all sit down to watch the Epee final – two very different styles, Philip with a classical style and very neat covering action – Andy, laid back and open almost to the point of horizontalness. A fantastic match, with the lead changing many times, neither player giving up, and neither allowed to get to far ahead, but in the end Andy just managed to get a couple of points ahead and clinch the trophy once more.
A great days fencing, fantastic food and good company, what more could we have wanted? Next year it’ll be even better.
RESULTS
Sabre
1st Paul
2nd Philip
Joint 3rd Terry, Tim
Foil
1st Paul
2nd Ben
Joint 3rd Philip, Terry
Ladies Foil
1st Susie
2nd Lindsey
3rd Susan
Epee
1st Andy
2nd Paul
3rd Philip, Jason
A big thank you to Jon for organising the event and running the day. To John and Phillip for purchasing the food and drink. To Katrina for setting out the lunch and to Helen for running the barbeque. Finally thanks to everyone who helped on the day - moving, setting up etc.
