Well, I didn't do too well, 19th out of 20, but that was one of the more interesting, unusual, and exciting tournaments I've been to. It "should" have been an A1 but became a B1. Many of the Ds and Es fencing were probably better than their ratings, and some of the higher rated fencers were not fencing their best, so it was almost like all 20 of us were relatively well matched—or at least more well matched than the raw ratings might suggest, so things could have turned out any number of ways. Also, there were a number of 15-14 bouts, including the final, and a bunch of other close bouts. There were a few upsets, in both the pools and the DEs. The best rated fencers didn't do as well in the pools as they were "supposed to".
My pool was #3, the smaller one, unfortunately, and I ended up one and four, so meh.
I started with Jay Slater (my pool's A fencer, who went on to win the tournament), first bout of the entire pool, and I got a good start, bouncing in with energy. I think I was even up a point, 2-1 or so. But Jay, well...I lost 5-3. Still I considered it a decent start. Jay was using his french grip, which he's getting very good at, but I think I prefer his using french grip over pistol.
After a one bout break I fenced my other clubmate in my pool, Jim Arrigoni. It was an ugly bout, with lots of reckless charging and desperate off balance jabbing. Almost by chance, it seemed, we ended up at 4-4, followed by another "ugly" exchange that I happened to score on. So I won, 5-4. Then I had several bouts to wait before going up against Jim Henderson. The last few times I've faced him I've lost and I still can't quite figure out what to do. I tried my recent thing with absence of blade and working on distance, trying to use good, active footwork, and tried to get him in the "dead" zone, as I think my reach is slightly longer than his. But he is quick on his feet and quite fast with the blade, and kept beating me to the punch when we got into exchanges. I lost 5-3. He seems to have a well-rounded game. If only I could find a weakness... Then I fenced Carlo Malaguzzi. I figured I had a chance with him, but I had to fight for it. Again I worked with absence of blade, distance, and watching for his fleches. I think I caught one of his fleches. I also kept my eye on possible thigh hits, as he seemed possible open to low line attacks. And I think I scored once or twice that way. We went to 4-4. It felt like it could have gone either way, but he got the final point, so I lost 5-4. My last bout was against Matthew Comes, who I have had great trouble with. Earlier in the pool I watched Carlo beat him 5-1, and talked to Carlo a little about it. So I went in planning to do what Carlo had done—which seemed to be drawing Matthew's fleche then parrying/sweeping very hard in 8 or 2. Matthew was using a french grip and Carlo's parries were strong enough to knock Matthew's epee right out of his hand more than once. Well, when I tried that I kept finding Matthew hitting me before I even knew it was coming. I was ready to try strong 8 or 2 type parries, and/or 7 or primes to mix it up. But as with other times I've fenced Matthew lately I could barely manage anything, and lost, 5-1. I try to keep my awareness hyper-focused for the slightly sign of his fleche or his toe-touches, yet they still catch me by surprise. Perhaps a new tactic next time. Sometime different from baiting him. Perhaps much more distance. Hell, I score so badly in pools with him perhaps I should try for low scores and running time out, trying for doubles when I must...
So I came in last place in my pool, though only by one point compared to Jim Arrigoni. We both won just one bout, and we both received 24 touches, but he scored 17 to my 16 touches. Ah well.
The other pools had interesting results. In pool #1 George Raush cleaned up, winning all bouts but one. He lost to Zach DeWitt, which seemed odd since Zach did rather poorly. Mark Blom and Luke LaRocque both went four and two, while Yuly Suvorov, the pool's A fencer, was only three and three, losing to George, Mark, and Luke. In pool #1 Andrew Lee cleaned up and took 1st place, winning all but one, losing only to Cameron Brown; and Cameron won all but two. John Varney, the A of the pool, also won all but two but ended up with an indicator one point less than Cameron's, so came in third in the pool. Meanwhile David Robert, the line U in the tournament (though he's overdue for an E or D rating), went three and three while Russ Redding, one of the two Bs, went two and four.
In short, the pool results did not jive very well with fencers' ratings. The top seeds were George Raush, a C, Andrew Lee (D), Carlo Malaguzzi (D), Matthew Comes (B), Mark Blom (D), and Cameron Brown (D). The three A fencers, John Varney, Jay Slater, and Yuly Suvorov, seeded 7th, 9th, and 10th. Rather mixed up! It was mixed up enough, in fact, that it looked likely that the tournament might end up a B1 instead of an A1, which is in fact what eventually happened.
I seeded 18th, which paired me with Russ Redding, my own coach!, who seeded 15th. People pointed out that if I won the tournament would be a B1. In order to be an A1 it needed at least two As and two Bs or higher in the final eight. We had three As and two Bs total, and two of the As were going to fence in the table of 16, so only two A could possibly make the final eight. Therefore both Bs had to also make the table of eight for the tournament to remain an A1. Russ was one of those Bs. And we fenced in the table of 32.
Of course I didn't let any of that stop me from fencing my best. I thought it was possible to beat Russ. I had been doing pretty well against him in practice lately—getting a fair number of arm hits and escaping his fleches with quicker footwork. And he was using a french grip, which gave me a little extra confidence. I mainly fenced absence of blade with quick footwork, although I knew it was very hard to trick Russ on distance. He tends to hold his blade out, trying to get you to beat or bind it. Sometimes I'm able to, but mainly he's able to disengage out, especially when he's fencing french grip. So I tried to mainly use beats and binds as feints, setting up second intention type stuff. Or feinting attacks but then holding back looking for an arm hit from below or a low line. We went back and forth, mostly tied or nearly so. At one point he got up three points, 5-8 I think, but I caught up and we tied off and on to 12-12. We started the 3rd period tied 12-12, but alas, he got the last 3 points and won, 15-12. The first point was my fault—I basically stuck my hand onto his point, argh. The second point I thought I had—we had closed to near-infighting and I had my point right on his stomach, while his blade was far out of line. I thought I had hit, but he had bent over enough to just escape my point while at the same time doing a rather desperate flick and hit and scored. Argh! The final point was relatively unremarkable. So close! On the other hand, I fenced with my relatively new tactic of being confident. I also summoned with some success the feeling of fencing Russ and doing well. I didn't win, but I think these mental things helped me fence better.
The rest of the DEs were quite exciting with many very close bouts. In the table of 16 George Raush and Jim Arrigoni fought to 14-14, with George getting the final point. Jay Slater and Luke LaRocque also went to 14-14. Luke was doing really well against Jay, trying to draw him out and counterattack, I think. Jay managed the last point and won 15-14. Mark Blom and David Robert also went to 14-14, with Mark getting the final point.
And perhaps most exciting, in the table of 16, was Andrew Lee and Russ Redding. They also went to 14-14, then time ran out. Russ won priority and they went into sudden death. Both started carefully. Andrew fleched, Russ blocked him out with his excellent prime parry, but neither scored. I think that happened a number of times during the full bout. Russ has such a good prime parry, and he used it to stop Andrew's fleches a bunch of times. But Russ was having trouble landing the riposte from prime, so usually he'd manage to block Andrew but neither would score. Afterward Russ was talking to someone about his prime parry and said the french grip makes the prime and its riposte a little harder. He's usually pretty good with the prime ripostes, at least with me (!), but perhaps better with his pistol grip, now that I think about it. Anyway, continuing sudden death, there was a double touch, thrown out. Spectators were making comments about it being a "nail biter" bout. Finally there was an exchange and Andrew went for the foot and hit. There was a moment of uncertainty—had he hit, was it the floor? They were on a grounded strip, but still. Marshall was reffing and paused for a second. Andrew looked uncertain for a moment, then Russ said "oh that was good". And Marshall, who perhaps wasn't pausing out of doubt, called bout. So Andrew won in sudden death, 15-14.
Andrew beating Russ turned the tournament into a B1. Well, the relatively poor performance of the three As in the pools had at least as much to do with the event turning into a B1, but we didn't definitely become a B1 until Andrew beat Russ. John Varney and Yuly Suvorov were the two As who fenced in the table of 16. Yuly won, 15-11. Marshall was the ref and before they began he jokingly scolding them: "You guys are not supposed to be fencing each other yet!"
There was a moment after Andrew Lee beat Russ that Robert Lampson, who was watching next to me, thought that Andrew had earned his C as a result, but no, he had to come in 4th or higher for that. There was another moment when I thought perhaps Andrew would have earned a C for beating Russ if the tournament was rated A1, but by beating Russ the tournament became a B1 and thus Andrew did not earn a C. That would be sucky, I thought—to win and earn a C, but by winning not earn a C! But looking into it I realized the difference between an A1 and a B1 is minimal. In fact, the only difference seems to be that in an A1 tournament the first place fencer earns an A and the second place a B, while in a B1 only the first place earns a B. Everything else is the same: C down to 4th place, D for 5-6 and E for 7-8. Perhaps this system is designed in part so that situations like what I imagined—earning a rating by beating someone better, but then not earning it because you beat someone better—don't happen or are highly unlikely.
The final 8 bouts were not as close—Jay beat George, 15-8. Matthew Comes beat Mark Blom, 15-10. Cameron Brown beat Carlo, 15-12, and Yuly beat Andrew Lee, 15-10. The semifinals were even less close: Jay beat Matthew Comes, 15-9, and Yuly beat Cameron Brown, 15-8:
The final bout, however, was very close. Jay vs. Yuly. I had watched them practice just the day before, both working hard for quite a while, and looking pretty evenly matched. Yuly mostly held the lead in the final bout, but Jay caught up in the end, getting to 14-14 and winning the final touch, 15-14. I made a full video of this bout:
So, despite the rather wacky pools and DE seeding, two of the three As did manage to get to the final bout, and one of the two Bs tied for third. But the third A, Varney, came in 9th, below three Ds and two Cs. David Robert, the one U, came in 12th out of 20, above one B and two Cs. No one earned new ratings, although Cameron Brown renewed his C and Andrew Lee his D. Me, well, the only thing that stopped me from coming in absolute last was John Comes, who lost all his pool bouts. Apparently he hasn't been fencing very much recently, trying to recuperate from back troubles. Still, despite doing poorly I had a good time watching everyone else. It was nice to realize out of the 20 fencers I knew them all—mostly pretty well and friendly.
The next local epee tournament is a Thursday evening RCFC event, but so far only six people have signed up. About a week after that is the WWD Div II/III qualifier event. That should be interesting.
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