Tied for third out of ten. With just ten fencers we decided to go with one big pool, which took most of the time of the tournament but was fun. There were four Ds (Charlie, Craig, Luke, and Steven), one E (me), and five Us (Jeff, Dell, Art, Isaac, and David). I was mainly worried about the Ds, although I knew I could in theory beat any of them. The question was whether I would. I wasn't as worried about the Us, except Isaac, who I didn't really know. I figured, even assumed I could and would beat them, but I was proved wrong twice.
I can't remember the exact order I fenced in, but it was something like:
Art Deal (U): I won 5-2. He got the two points fairly early, which worried me, but I adjusted and was able to basically use distance and absence of blade to coax him in.
Dell Wolfensparger (U): I lost 5-4, which surprised me a little. Perhaps I was foolish to go in assuming I would win. Dell was fencing with as much energy as he could muster, and I was being a little too relaxed. I also forgot that my absence of blade distance game doesn't seem to work quite as well with Dell. He managed to hit with several fleches, or fleche-like things. I think he got to 4-2. I concentrated on single lights and patience. I got one single light, 4-3, then my next attempt ended in a double, so he won 5-4. Way to go, Dell!
Jeff Wilkson (U): I think I mainly stuck with the absence of blade distance game and it worked well, 5-2. I said to him after it felt like my fencing brain finally turned on. It can take a couple bouts to get into the headspace.
Luke LaRocque (D): We've fenced a few times before and he's mostly beaten me. But the last time we fenced in a pool I beat him. If nothing else I have a decent idea about his style and able to go in with something of a plan. Still, I thought he would be tough. As it turned out I won 5-2. We both played an absence of blade game, more or less. He's taller than me so I had to be extra careful of distance. When he did fleche I was mostly able to parry, and sometimes score. I fleched him a couple times, at least one of which ended in misses, jabbing, and corp-a-corps. Another time I had pushed him down the strip a bit, we had some blade exchanges and a score beep sounded. Not sure I retreated and glanced at the box—no lights. The beep was from another strip. Luke took my glancing up as an opportunity and advanced quickly. I reatreated a bit more and prepared. He apparently still thought he had me off guard and fleched. I ducked and countered to his body. We crashed into each other rather spectacularly, but harmlessly. I can't recall now if neither scored or if it was a double touch. Either way it seemed kind of funny. Don was the ref and I guess the corp-a-corps looked worse than it was. He advised us (me really) to not look at the box. In hindsight it was almost to my advantage—I had retreated before glancing at the box, so I had plenty of time to prepare for Luke's attack. And apparently by glancing at the box I gave Luke the impression I was off guard and he ought to attack aggressively, but by the time he reached me I was more than ready. Perhaps this kind of thing could be a tactic against some fencers. Shortly after that I managed a nice lunge to Luke's forearm. That one felt good. Also, I seemed to have decent success with second intentions, feints and the like. Luke likes to attack and it didn't seem that hard to draw attacks, which then could be countered. His height and reach give him an advantage, but if he falls for feints and makes deep lunges or fleches he gets into trouble.
Isaac Dugaw (U): A fairly small kid from WFA. His stance is odd—he puts his weight on his front foot a lot, which can't be good. It seemed like I should have been able to beat him, but he won 5-3. In fact, looking at his pool results is interesting. He beat me, Charlie, and Steven, some of the toughest fencers today, but lost to Jeff, Dell, and David. Weird.
Charlie Muñoz (D): Charlie was fencing very well, as he has been recently. I did okay and it was fairly close. It got to 4-3 and Charlie went for and got a double, winning 5-4.
David Robert (U): I was able to do most of my usual tricks I've learned work with David, mostly beats and binds combined with fleches. I won 5-3.
Craig Haworth (D): I was ready for his constant circle sixes, and was able to make some doubles by circle-attacking the opposite way. But the fast, accurate flick he does at the end of a circle-six action I had trouble with. I tried coaxing him in with absence of blade, but his attack is a bit longer and faster than I expected. I needed to have kept a bit more distance. I did managed a nice thigh hit. In the end I lost 5-3.
Steven Benack (D): I was worried about Steven. He's fairly tall and fences extended French. He tends to use absence of blade (arm back) and counterattacks, with an occasional fleche if the distance is right. Having watched other people try to beat or take his blade despite being mostly out of reach I decided not to go that way and use absence of blade myself. Since he tends to hold his arm back in a kind of cocked, outside position, his counterattacks and fleches tend to come from an outside angulated direction. I had some success in drawing these attacks and either attacking into them or parrying into 8 or 6. Still, I misjudged distance and his speed and a couple times he nailed me with a direct fleche. He won, 5-4.
Craig was the top seed by quite a bit. He lost only one pool bout, and that 5-4, to Steven. Charlie was the second seed, having lost two, one to Craig and one to Isaac. Luke and Steven were 3rd and 4th seeds, very close. I was 5th.
So there were two DEs in the table of 16 (everyone else got byes). I was paired with Steven Benack in the Final 8. He had gotten a hard hit in the forearm during the pools and was off and on in pain, but seemed to still be fencing well. Twice during our DE he paused and held his arm, wincing in pain. I don't think I hit him in the forearm. Once it was after I bound up his blade rather strongly, which I guess his arm wasn't happy about. The other time I hit his upper arm, so I'm not sure what happened there. I felt bad for him though. Our bout was fairly even at first, mostly tied or within a point or two. In the second period I pulled ahead a couple points and managed to maintain the lead. I won 15-12. If I learned anything I suppose it might be—he likes to retreat and wait for a good time to counterattack. Often when someone does attack he'll simply pull his arm way back and retreat quickly out of range. A few times I kept the pressure on after that kind of thing, forcing him back and/or trying to draw his counterattack. Maybe, it seemed, he has some trouble when the pressure is on like that.
My second DE, in the Final 4 (small tournament!) was with Craig Haworth. The bout had some ugly moments where we both missed and jabbed. I mostly kept to my absence of blade patience game. But his rather relentless advancing kept pushing me back quickly. And I'm still not comfortable at my end of the strip, so I would stand my ground sooner than perhaps was wise. I knew his circle six was fast and strong enough to prevent me from simple hits straight in, even if I could get the distance a little in my favor. Instead I tried various second intention things, but too often he's launch a fast lunge and my arm would be bent and quickly hit. I did manage one lovely hit to his hand from below, which felt nice. On the other hand, I had been thinking a prime parry might work well against his circle-six-flick, but when I pulled out a real prime he was faster and stronger than the parry and powered through. Eventually he was up quite a bit. I think it was 12-8, which was looking pretty bad. Seeking a change of tactic I tried my 4-6 thing and it worked beautifully, making the score 12-9. So I tried it again and it worked very well again; 12-10, looking better. I figured he was probably getting wise to that so I tried to distract him with other things for a little bit before pulling it out again. I think I didn't execute it quite as well that time, and/or he was more ready for it, so we doubled; 13-10. If I remember right I tried the 4-6 thing again and we doubled again, 14-11, then we ended with a double, 15-12. I might be misremembering those final touches. Anyway, afterward he said my comeback near the end had him worried. It made me feel okay about the bout—to be down by four and find a tactic that makes a decent rally. But four points near the end is a lot. Russ said after that I should have been moving more. As usual he's probably right.
In the other Final 4 Luke beat Charlie. It was close until about halfway through when Luke realized he could score well with fleches, and that he ought to be holding his arm higher—he had been holding it pretty low, which Charlie was able to take advantage of.
So the final bout was Craig and Luke. Apparently they hadn't fenced in quite a while but had been "bad talking" each other in friendly rivalry about who would win when they did face each other again. So it was a fun final. Not just because these two finally got to test their trash talking, but also because everything was friendly and stress-free. Since it was an E1 tournament and both these guys had Ds there was no rating at stake. The whole thing was over within a single period. At first it was fairly even, but Luke pulled ahead and soon took a larger and larger lead. He won 15-10. I took video of most of it, below.
For coming in third, tied with Charlie, I got an Amazon gift certificate for $10. Luke got one for $25 for being first. The tournament itself cost $20 to fence in, so Luke made that up and then some. Part of me would prefer a medal, even if your average local tournament medal probably costs far less than $10. Craig joked he would use his gift certificate to *buy a gold medal*—more trash talk with Luke. Fun people though. I had a great time.
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