http://www.wwdfencing.org/LiveResults/Battle2014/FTEvent59375623.htm
[now on Ask Fred: http://askfred.net/Results/roundResults.php?seq=1&event_id=98441&highlight_competitor_id=91067]
Happy with my results in the Vet Mixed Epee event. Note, although called "mixed" it was all men, as there was a vet women's epee event at the same time. There were a lot of good fencers and I was feeling rather spacey, so I didn't expect to do very well. Perhaps I wouldn't win any bouts, like at the Leon Auriol Open. But I ended up winning 3 out of 5 pool bouts. So that made me happy.
My first pool bout was against Mark Blom. We've fenced several times at tournaments. I don't think I had beaten him before but at least I was somewhat familiar with his style. He seemed a little slow and I ended up winning 5-2. Nice way to start the pools.
Then I fenced Robert Lampson, another person I've fenced several times at tournaments and don't recall having beaten before. He was pretty active, with lots of blade movement and footwork. I watched him fence someone else just before and went in thinking he was mainly trying to draw attacks and try for hand/arm hits, perhaps with an angle to the inside. His long reach and very extended french grip style made that approach seem sensible. Reminds me a bit of Tobias now that I type it, and they both from the Tacoma club, hmm. Robert doesn't hold his hand back as much as Tobias, although I don't think that helped me much if any. I was able to draw attacks pretty well, using feints, half lunges, and such. Throughout the pools I tried to mix up my hand positions, sometimes holding my blade pretty far out, sometimes quite a bit back, trying to draw people to come just a little bit too close. I think I was able to that with Robert a few times—get him to come just that inch or three closer. From there it seemed possible to use feints or half lunges to get him to commit to an attack which, hopefully, I could then parry or beat and riposte from. Well that was the idea anyway. I think it worked more or less that way at least a couple times. Two of my hits involved hard beats on his blade as I attacked. His extended french style meant I could beat his blade way out of line. He got it back in line quickly, but not quite fast enough. My beat-fleche was not pretty, and my own blade went out of line. But twice I was able to close to infighting distance and get my point on his body before he could recover from the beat. Anyway, if I remember right he got up a point at first, 2-1 I think. Then I got a point up and we went to 4-3 and ended up with double touch, 5-4. It was close. I might have had some luck on a couple touches too.
At 2 wins and no loses in the pools I felt like I had already done better than I expected. And the remaining three fencers were all very good, so I thought that might be it. And sure enough, I lost the next two. I had not fenced Daniel Krogh or Frank Hewitt before. Russ gave me advice with Frank, but I couldn't make it work. I tried the same second intention stuff I had been using with both these guys, but they were good at not falling for feints and for counterattacking accurately. Both also got me a few times with disengages. I lost both 2-5.
My last bout was with Mike Perka, an A fencer. We've fenced before at least once, and he beat me easily. I didn't have much hope. While watching Mike fence Frank I chatted with Daniel Krogh, who was friendly. At one point I asked what I should do when I fence Mike. He pointed out the way Mike waves his blade around a lot, which I had noticed—that kind of constant wavering movement some people do. Dan said I should just ignore all that and just attack straight in, "up his arm"—that Mike tries to get people to take his blade, then he is good at disengaging. That advice shaped my approach. It seemed straight-forward to slightly change my second-intention feinting and half-lunging to also be "blade taking feints". When he wavered his blade down I would pretend I was about to try a downward take in 7 or 8. If he bit I would either withdraw my hand, retreat, and see what happened, or just change my line back to 6, "up his arm". It worked, although he got in attacks too. We went to 4-4 and, to my surprise, I got the last point and won, 5-4. Like Mark Blom, Perka also seemed a little slower than I expected. Maybe they were having off nights. Maybe I was actually fencing well, as Mark said at one point. Maybe both.
So I was happy with the pool results, especially having ended with that unexpected win against Mike Perka. Out of 36 fencers I seeded 15th in the DE round. There's a lot of chance in how the DEs pair up. I hoped it would be someone I could beat. It turned out to be the 18th seed, James Neale. I had never heard of him or even seen him fence. And my notes told me he is an A fencer, as of 2010. I wasn't sure who had been in his pool and went into the bout with no plan other than to "fence my game", as Joel suggested. In hindsight, maybe I should write down who is in which pool because I later saw that Tobias was in James Neale's pool and had beaten him 5-1. I probably could have asked him for advice.
I got a couple touches early on, then lost a whole bunch. After the first period Don gave me some advice, which helped me get a couple more points, but in the end I lost 4-10. Ah well. Other things from the evening I don't have time to write about just now: Dragonetti in Jim and Jeff's pool. Jim beating Carlo Malaguzzi in the DEs, then fencing Erich Carnor and losing 9-4, but with at least three very questionable hits—Erich's epees were going off in mid-air or when beating Jim's blade. This became obvious after a bit and the ref had him chance epees. Erich seemed concerned and they did a lot of testing by thwacking his epee on his foot and on Jim's blade and so on. But even so there was at least one very obvious mid-air point with the new epee that the ref apparently didn't see. I watched the end of Tobias and Bela Suveg fence. Tobias was down a point 7-8, then tied it up, then they doubled to 9-9. So close, but Bela got the last point. Afterward he said to Maria Copelan, who had been rooting him on, "french grips should be illegal". Jeff and I watched Dell get 3 points against Sean Ameli, which isn't shabby at all. Then John Varney fenced Sean and got just 5 points, losing 10-5. Then Sean and Bela Suveg fenced and Bela won, 15-5. Bela went on to tie for third, with Dragonetti. Erich Carnor came in second and Brentwood Reid first.
Today, soon, I will fence in the Senior Mixed Epee, which I have even lower expectations for. It should be interesting if nothing else. There will be over 110 fencers, many very good. An A4 event. The energy level will probably be a lot higher than the vet event.
No comments:
Post a Comment