http://askfred.net/Results/roundResults.php?seq=1&event_id=105085&highlight_competitor_id=91067
Yay for the rare July tournament. I did about as usual for me lately: Not bad in the pools (3 and 3), lost my first DE. My pool results were a little weird. Other than Bela Suveg, who beat everyone, I beat everyone except the two women who everyone else beat. Still, I was pleased to finally beat Jim Henderson and to solidify my Craig Haworth strategies. I had a close one with Dylan Meehan but managed to come back from being down 3-4 to win 5-4. In my DE I quickly lost to Joshua Meehan. There were four Meehans fencing, plus Justin Meehan reffing. Quite the fencing family.
There were 33 fencers competing, although John Comes withdrew during the pools after twisting his knee. There were five As but only two Bs and three Cs, which made it a rather "bottom heavy" A2. With few Bs and Cs but a surplus of Ds, Es, and Us, well my pool was: Bela Suveg (A), Jim Henderson (C), Craig Haworth (D), me (E), Claire Heppner (E), Abby Barr (U), and Dylan Meehan (U). For once I was kinda in the middle of a pool! Here's how things went.
I started with Bela Suveg. Might as well get it over with, I figured. Also, I tried something new this time, epee-wise. I used either my fairly stiff, "good for beats and binds" LP epee or my more flicky Vniti, depending on what I thought would be best with each person. With strong fencers like Bela I used the flicky Vniti, figuring beats and binds are less useful against people as strong as Bela. This tactic seemed to work pretty well overall.
With Bela I started out bouncing and strong, while he seemed not quite ready, maybe. I got the first point, a somewhat surprising hit to his hand. I was just putting my point out a lot and bouncing in and out, and blam, hit his hand. How nice. Perhaps the flicky Vniti helped there. I got the second point too, with a parry-4 riposte that felt rather nice. Things went downhill from there. In my bouncing in and out I bounced too close and blam, he hit me, 2-1. Then, after a bit more maneuvering I tried bouncing into distance and fleching, but it wasn't a very good fleche and he parried and riposted, making it 2-2. So much for my initial lead. I can't remember the next point, but it was his, 3-2. Then, after a bit more maneuvering I tried a feint-8 fleche-6, a tactic I sometimes try with lefties. It worked, but he counterattacked and made it a double, 4-3. I don't remember the final point, but it was his. I think I was trying to bounce in and out, looking for a single-light opportunity, and I came too close and got hit. So I lost, 5-3. Having seen Bela many times before I figure 5-3 isn't too bad for my first time fencing him. I also figure I need to work on my bouncing in-and-out, stutter-stepping thing more. Much of it is just something I've been trying out over the last week since watching the FIE World Championships and getting inspired. I think I need to work on keeping the advancing smaller and the retreats more frequent, among other things.
Second bout was against Jim Henderson. The last bunch of times we've fenced he's beaten me, sometimes quite badly. My notes about him said little more than "don't miss". Thanks, notes. I switched to my stiffer LP epee for Jim, thinking he might be susceptible to beats. Turns out he was, although it took me some time to make it work. Hmm, writing this now I realize I actually adjusted during this bout, a good sign! Early on he got up a couple points. I continued my bouncing in-and-out thing, being patient and waiting for openings. But when they came up I found Jim was deceiving my parries, getting me to make the wrong parry, or making nice disengages. He also seemed well able to parry my attacks and make nice ripostes. I think I managed to get back to a tie at 2-2. Then he made a lovely shot to my leg, 2-3. At this point I began to focus less on parries and more on beats. At first I had trouble finding his blade to make a beat, but eventually it felt like I started to be able to draw him out a little into places where I could make a rapid bouncing-advance along with a very hard beat attack. After some probing and attempts to mislead him I managed to make a very strong beat. Strong enough to make his tip smack hard onto the floor. I hit and scored. Jim suggested to the ref that his tip had hit the floor off the strip. I thought it had hit the strip, and the ref agreed. Luckily we were on one of RCFC's few grounded strips. So I got the point, 3-3.
I became rather careful then, and I think my footwork got better. I didn't want to attack. I wanted Jim to make a large attack while I retreated, then beat-attack into his committed lunge. So I patiently waited, bouncing in and out, trying to draw him, and making lots of slow bounce retreats. I also used a lot of slow circle-4 and feint-4 type motions, hoping they might induce him to attack. It paid off. Finally he did attack, with a fleche, lowish, toward my leg, exactly the kind of thing my circle-4 stuff was trying to trigger. I responded with a strong parry-8, catching his blade and riposting as he ran by. Score! I'm up, 4-3. The last point was much the same—me patiently waiting and trying to draw an attack. When he did attack I made a strong beat-parry and scored with the riposte, winning 5-3.
Next up was Craig Haworth. In the past he tended to beat me but recently it has felt more even to me. I watched him fence others in my pool and saw he was basically doing the same things he was doing the last few times I've fenced him. Relatively slow footwork, a very strong and fast circle-6 parry-riposte usually followed by a fast flick to the chest, along with some surprisingly long lunges, usually to the leg. In the past I was never quite sure what to do with him, except that I could usually get doubles by attacking with a counter-clockwise circling, evading his circle-6 such that we both hit. This time I thought I could get an advantage using very fast footwork with lots of bouncing "false attacks", triggering his circle-6, after which I could deal with things in various ways. Watching his footwork I thought he tended to be a little over-balanced when he lunges. Also, since Craig is a strong fencer I switched back to my Vniti. Not much point in trying to power through his parries or attempt much in the way of beats.
I started out aggressively bouncing in and out, mixing in some fast advancing "stutter-bounces" that might scare him back or might also be turned into real attacks. He retreated in the face of this and soon was way back in his end-strip box. I continued to press, but with more caution, thinking he would attack out of the box at some point. We had a flurry of blade action. I was careful to not overcommit but tried to keep the pressure on. During the exchange he took just too much of a step back and went off the end of the strip. I did not intend to push him off the end, and I think he didn't realize just how close he was. But he stepped off and I got a point. That's the first time I've ever seen that happen that I can recall. Once in practice Yuly pushed me off the end of the strip, but that's the only other time I can think of.
The next point came after a big exchange, where I managed to land a riposte. I can't remember the details, but I was happy to be up 2-0. Then he got me with one of his long lunges to the leg. Perhaps I was bouncing too close, as I've been doing a lot. Well, 2-1. Then we got a double somehow, 3-2. I think I got the next one, somehow, making it 4-2, a comfortable place. My notes about Craig said to try my 4-6 tactic and variations. I had been trying to set it up but not quite commiting. So now I commited and it seemed to work. I landed my point nicely, but it didn't go off and Craig scored. I had my epee checked, it was fine. This is one of the risks of the Vniti—it is so whippy sometimes it looks like a good hit but landed flat. So I was up 4-3. I know how every point counts in pools and how it would be best to get a single light to win rather than a double. But at 4-3 I got a little worried and decided to double out. I knew from past experience I could score doubles with Craig by fleching while disengaging his circle-6. So I did that. It worked perfectly. Ending with a double and a score of 5-4 was not as good as a single and 5-3, but I was pleased at how well I was able to pull the double out when I wanted it.
So I was 2 and 1. Not bad. And the remaining three fencers were two Us and one E. Looking good? Well, I should know better than to think ahead of things like that. Next up with Abby Barr. I've seen her around but never fenced her. She seemed pretty good, but fairly small. I took my "beat and bind" LP epee on strip, thinking it was the one for her. But alas, it failed the small shim. It's been a little flakey lately like that. Oh well, I switched to the Vniti. In hindsight maybe I should have switched to one of my stiff Absolute spares instead, but I didn't think of it. Anyway, things began well and I got up 2-1. Then I bounced into distance with a couple of stutter-steps/body-feints. She made a bit of a panic parry and I rather easily lunged to her bib, making it 3-1. Going fine! Then...well I'm not quite sure. Perhaps she adjusted to me. Definitely I got a little too cocky and let myself bounce too close too much. I was also getting tired from all my bouncing, which probably made me more sloppy and slow. She got a point, then we doubled, 4-3. Then, when I should have been patient and keeping good distance, I bounced too close without a plan and she easily hit my leg, making it 4-4. And again I got too close and she hit, winning 5-4. So, a lesson. People often say confidence is good in fencing. But when I get up a few points I often get reckless.
Next up was Claire Heppner. In theory I should have had no big trouble with her, but my attacks kept failing and she kept hitting me. I got one easy point when we had a blade exchange where it seemed like someone hit, but neither of us did. She paused just for a second and I got an easy hit. Besides that though we quickly got to 1-4, yikes! At that point I redoubled my efforts and scored, 2-4. A ways to go. The next one turned into a double, so she won, 5-3. I think I was making many of the same mistakes I made with Abby—bouncing too close too much, too often without a good plan. I was certainly tired and getting sloppy. I could try to blame the Vniti a bit—I simply missed several times, and the Vniti has a "less stable" point than the LP. But still, I lost fair and square.
My final pool bout was with Dylan Meehan. I had watched him and he seemed pretty good—maybe not super-great but better than his U rating might suggest, I thought. He was young and fast, but didn't seem "strong" like Bela or Craig. So I decided to stop using the Vniti and, since the LP was out of service for the moment, try one of my spare Absolute epees. They might be even stiffer than the LP, but a little annoying in other ways.
By this point we were double-stripping and not getting much rest between bouts. And I was feeling tired. So I tried to be extra careful. He got the first point, I forget how (my point by point notes get worse over the pool bouts, perhaps a symptom of being tired?). I kept being patient, slowly retreating, waiting and trying to figure out what to do. He got impatient and launched an attack from too far, which I was able to parry and score with a riposte (parry-4 riposte I think). So, 1-1. Then, well, I don't remember the details, but he got up a point, 2-3, then 3-4. I hate being down 3-4 in a pool bout. But I turned up the energy and was able to make a strong beat attack, getting a single light, 4-4! For the final point we maneuvered cautiously, then both attacked. Double touch, thrown out. More maneuvering, then an exchange of bladework, after which I made a small retreat, perhaps just a little off balance, and he attacked. As his blade came out I managed a nice hard beat and scored a single light, winning 5-4. Woo!
So I was 3 and 3 in the pools. Not bad, not bad. Bela won all his bouts, so took 1st. Jim Henderson was 4 and 2, so took 2nd. Craig and were both 3 and 3, but my indicator was -1 while his was +1, so he was 3rd and I was 4th. Phooey. Maybe I shouldn't have ended our bout with that double after all! Still, I seeded 15 out of 32 out of the pools. Above the median. After the DEs I finished 19th, a little below the median.
For my DE I was paired with Joshua Meehan. A B fencer I'd never seen, I was told he was a leftie, aggressive, and strong, but, according to Jim Arrigoni, "you can beat him". Hmmm. Well, he trounced me pretty badly. Ah well.
Videos in next post.
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