BladeFest Div 2 ROC
C & Under Senior Men's Epee
http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=27065&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=107153#107165
POOLS
Tobias Lee. Lost 5-4.
I started out well but got over-eager to attack and he came back to win. I got the first point using a few half-advance-retreats followed by a half-advance, front foot back into a fleche. I kept trying to set that up again after it worked the first time, but the best I could do was to chase him down the strip. The second point was a double. I set up a circle-6 pattern then attacked with a bind in 8. I hit, but he disengaged and hit too. Then he scored a single light, making it 2-2. I don't remember quite what happened. I think I spaced out for a moment, unsure or perhaps trying to think of something to do. Then I tried to set up a fleche attack. When I fleched he retreated quickly but not so much that I stopped. It seemed like my tip was only inches away so I reached more and ended up chasing him down most of the strip. He continued to retreat out of range and eventually picked off my arm. I knew I shouldn't chase him like that. It was the way he retreated only just enough that lured me into the chase. After that we doubled, somehow, making it 4-3. In the end I tried my 4-6 move, thinking it might work given the angle he was holding his blade. It did work, but he managed to hit too, thus winning 5-4.
Charles Bentone. Won 5-4.
I don't remember exactly how the first few touches went, except that I got the first one and was up a point until we tied at 3-3. My points were mainly counterattacks into his mistakes. His points were mainly fast fleches with binds or disengages. At 3-3 we both attacked. I thought I had hit but the box showed a single light for him, putting me in a bad place, down 3-4. I kept up my game of making a lot of feints, hoping he'd make an overly large parry or start an attack out of distance. Luckily for me he did, advancing with a parry to my feint. This let me attack into the opening, scoring and making it 4-4. At the end I scored with a fast beat-fleche. Whew, too close.
Audun Holland-Goon. Lost 5-2.
I went into this one knowing Audun doesn't attack much, tending toward parry-ripostes and counterattacks. I knew I needed to be very patient and try to create openings or get him to attack. But, as often happens, I found myself attacking anyway, with feints turning into actual attacks now and then. He kept scoring with nice parries and ripostes. At 2-0 I tried a hard beat. I knocked his blade away nicely but then missed, while he recovered and hit. Down 3-0, not good. Taking my time and trying to be very patient, I managed to get a point with my 4-6 move. Almost by chance I glanced at the clock and saw there was only about 13 seconds left. No more time for patience. I tried another hard beat and we doubled, making it 4-2. Eight seconds left and I needed two points to even tie. I attacked quickly, but he parried and scored, winning 5-2.
Mark Blom. Lost 5-1.
The last time we fenced, at the Battle in Seattle, I won. It was close but I felt fairly well in control. Remembering that gave me confidence. Plus we had warmed up together and I had done fairly well, despite taking it fairly easy. But he beat me badly. It started with a toe touch, which I knew to expect yet still was surprised by. Then he ran up a series of touches, mostly to my outside (he's left-handed). I got my one point with a fleche that resulted in a double touch. In another case I fleched and he calmly picked my arm. In hindsight I should have been more patient and less attacking—the main theme of this whole tournament for me.
Steven Bennack. Won 5-1.
This made up for my 5-1 loss to Mark. In the past and in open fencing at RCFC Steven and I have been fairly evenly matched. Over time I've become quite familiar with his style, which helped a lot. I didn't fall into his traps (or not much anyway), and I got him to fall for mine sometimes. I got the first two points by pushing him and faking attacks until he counterattacked into a feint, allowing me to counterattack (or perhaps the term is "counter time", when you counterattack into a counterattack). Eventually I got to 4-1, then won 5-1. Mixed in there I tried using some advice Toby gave me—of trying to get him used to a distance with my arm extended, then slowly changing to a more withdrawn arm distance, hoping to draw him in a few inches too close. I think it worked, although there were certainly other factors too. Afterwards he said part of it was his fencing with a pistol grip because all his french grips were broken. That probably screwed with his sense of distance too.
DE
Audun Holland-Goon. Lost 15-10. He had a good lead for most of it. Got to 13-8 before I finally figured out some 2nd/3rd intention stuff, which worked for doubles, 14-9, then 15-10. In short I attacked too much. Talking to Toby later I realized I kept pushing Audun to his end of the strip only to get anxious about being there and attacking instead of waiting and pushing him until he attacked. I wonder whether practicing with John Varney so much has made me more likely to get anxious when I've pushed someone to their end of the strip. I did get at least two nice touches I felt good about. Once I set up an advancing circle-6 pattern, then made a stronger advance with a circle-6 take, but with a second intention—hoping he'd disengage and attack to my inside and I'd prime. It worked perfectly, he fleched to my inside and I did a prime riposte to score. That felt good. Another time I kept threatening high, then lunged to his leg. That one was good too. But overall I attacked too much—and too often direct attacks right into his strong 4-parry.
Overall I think I had some trouble with focus. From time to time I spaced out a little, or felt at a loss and become less active. I also fell into a bit of the tournament anxiety thing. But at least I was aware of these things and made an active effort to avoid such things. I felt I did alright with breaking off engagements from time to time, retreating a bit and resetting myself.
Although I tried to be patient I ended up making too many attacks—certainly too many long fleches from out of distance, which sometimes turned into chases. I feel like I ought to have worked on shallow targets more than I did. A few times I attacked simply because I got impatient and made a poorly planned attack into a strong defense.
I think my footwork got better toward the end of the tournament. Toward the end of the pools I began to realize I would probably not be fencing much longer, which made me put more effort into fast, bouncing, in-and-out footwork despite feeling tired.
A few videos:
Andrew Lee vs. Henry Duchow
Andrew Lee vs. Mark Blom
Final bout: Andrew Lee vs. George Raush
Next tournament coming up is the Leon Auriol Open. Looks like it will be at least an A1, probably an A2. As usual for me, this means I'll probably have to win two or three DEs to get a D rating. So far the fencers registered are tending toward the higher end, so this may be tough. In addition to the SAS A fencers (Varney, Yuly, Jay), Dragonetti is signed up, as well as Sam Larsen, Cole Mallette, Matthew Comes, and Kaiden Crochett. Well. I think perhaps my goal should just be to not do as badly as I did the last two Leon Auriol Opens—which shouldn't be too hard; last year I didn't win a single bout
Oh, and George just uploaded a short video of me fencing Audun. It's one of the only videos of my own fencing ever, and certainly the only one from a tournament. Maybe I should bribe someone to do more for me.
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