https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=30720&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=121121
This was my fourth Leon Auriol Open. They are always hard and I never do that well. But I enjoy them, mostly, and like watching the good fencers do their thing. My first time, in 2012, was my third tournament ever, and I lost quickly, but watched the rest. Daniel Small won. In 2013 it was much the same for me. Adam Frank won. Last year it was in our new space. The final was between Sam Larsen and Walter Dragonetti. Sam won by a point.
This year it was held at Rain City Fencing Center because our new space, in the same building, isn't ready for a bigger tournament. I had to leave before the semifinals so I missed the final bouts. The final was between Matthew Comes and Sam Larsen. Matthew won, despite the fact that the Portland fencers had apparently been studying and planning tactics to use with Matthew specifically. The winner has their name engraved on the trophy cup and I was thinking it likely that Sam would have his on there twice after this, but no! Matthew won by a comfortable 15-9.
About two weeks later, at the even harder Columbia Cup ROC in Portland, Sam and Matthew fenced again in the round of 8. That time Sam won handily, 15-4, and went on to take first place. Interesting how things can turn around like that. I should ask someone who was at both events if there were obvious differences in the way they fenced.
For me, well, I did not do very well in the pools. Not getting a bye, my first DE was with Maria Copelan. I thought I might be able to beat her. It began alright, but she adjusted her tactics and I didn't notice until it was too late and I was down on points. Then she adjusted again and basically doubled to end the bout. Either way though, the winner had to fence Matthew Comes, who was seed #2. I was hoping to get the chance, of course, but it was interesting to watch Maria fence him, and hear some of her teammates' coaching advice. Afterward, Erich Cranor talked to her about the bout and had many insightful comments. Smart fencers down there in Portland!
POOLS
My first pool bout was with a clubmate, of course. In the past that usually meant someone like Yuly. But this time it was with Dell Wolfensparger. This might be in part an effect of my being a C now (Dell is a U). But it was also in part luck. The A in my pool was Erich Cranor. Clubmates were mostly split up among the pools, but George and Russ shared a pool, as did Jim and Yuly, and other combinations of mixed ratings. So it was lucky that my first bout wasn't with George, or any number of other possibilities. I figured I should be able to beat Dell, "maybe even 5-0" I thought to myself. I probably shouldn't indulge thoughts like that, they usually lead to trouble. Dell fenced his best, hard and strong, right from the start. I had my usual first bout slowness. Fairly quickly he was up two points to my one. I managed to tie it at 2-2. Then I made a mental adjustment, increasing my focus and determination. I had started sloppy and a little stupid. So I cleared my mind and focused more on the moment-to-moment fencing. And I increased my pacing, patience, and defense. Instead of making risky attacks like I had at first, I worked on drawing attacks with feints and distance stuff. It worked. Dell obliged me by attacking into my feints or from too far. I got the rest of the touches, winning 5-2.
I considered that a kind of warm-up bout. It took me a couple touches to find the right mindset. But I had found it, I figured, and things would go smoother. My next bout, however, was with Erich Cranor. He's a tall, left-handed, A-rated fencer from Portland. He's a vet, and maybe a little slower than he might have been once. But he is far from slow, and he is a very smart fencer. Plus did I mention he is tall and left-handed? Argh. I remembered doing fairly well against him last year at the Columbia Cup vet event. So I drew on that for ideas. I remember getting him on the knee, which he tends to stick out a bit. And also scoring with a duck under one of his high fleches (did I say he is tall?). I also remembered his good flicks and outside attacks. So my plan was to protect my outside line and arm in general, to look for low line openings, and be ready for fleches I could duck.
I lost 5-0, ouch. So much for the plan? Maybe not. There were two or three touches that were very close. Had things gone just slightly different I might have done fairly well. I think I underestimated his reach and got too close. And my ducking plan did not work, maybe because I began to duck a few times when I thought he was about to fleche but didn't. Perhaps he noticed, so when I did duck his fleche he made sure not to go too high. Anyway, losing 5-0 was a bummer and maybe effected my fencing afterwards.
Next up I had Fynn Mansbridge-Fafard, a Canadian from the Dynamo club. I don't think I had fenced him before, or even seen him really. I lost 5-3. I don't remember the details now, writing this about a month later. In my notebook I just wrote "bleah". Fynn ended up coming in 6th overall, getting a C rating (he was a D).
Then I had Benjamin Duchow. There's a bunch of Duchow fencers, and the name scares me a little. Some of them are very good. Henry Duchow has beaten me a few times, if I recall right. Benjamin is a younger sibling, I think. Again I don't remember the details now, and didn't write notes. But I ended up winning 5-3. This helped boost my confidence. I was two and two, which wasn't so bad. And I had Mark Benack still to fence, who I should be able to beat, right?
I knew I shouldn't think I should be able to beat anyone, since it messes with my head so much. I did my best to put such thoughts out of my mind and went into the bout with Mark Benack with decent focus. It turned out to be a close bout, mostly tied. I got the first point with a pick to his hand as he lifted it for a flick. That felt good. Maybe it made me a little too confident. I made some ill-advised attacks. Once or twice I tried to coax him into distance and then fleche, but he got me with a prime parry and a crazy flexible riposte to my back. The score reached 4-4. We were both fairly cautious. I tried, again, to set up a distance trap. Eventually it worked and he stepped in a little too much. I launched a surprise fleche as he stepped and had it, except I missed! My point went over his shoulder and he had an easy counterattack point to win, 5-4. Alas. Woe. Fun bout though.
My last pool bout was with Aaron Page. The last time we fenced was in a DE at BladeFest vets. It was tough, but I had won. I had used a lot of point-up hand invitations coupled with hard beats, and we had talked about it afterward. He had clearly thought about this tactic of mine and had come up with some ideas about countering it. So this time I thought it might be wise to do something else entirely. I figured he would expect similar tactics (and I think he said he was, more or less, afterward), so perhaps I could throw him off by doing totally different things. Also, I was having epee trouble and both my LPs were out at this point. I had the choice of either using my relatively stiff Absolute epee, or the more flicky Vniti. Normally I would use the Absolute, especially if I planned to use lots of beats like I had with Aaron at BladeFest. But because I was thinking of using different tactics I decided to use the Vniti. And because the Vniti is flicky I thought I would focus on flicky things.
The plan was to avoid his blade, draw attacks, then land flicks on his arm one way or another. Well, it wasn't what he expected, apparently, but it didn't work either. He won 5-1.
DIRECT ELIMINATION
So I came out of the pools two and four, with a -7 indicator, making me 34th seed out of 47. There were a good number of byes, so I got a first round DE with Maria Copelan, who was 30th seed. We had fenced once, long ago now, in a pool bout. I had won that time, but probably more out of sheer energy than good form or tactics. At one point I had chased her down the whole strip, somehow actually scoring at the end. I've seen her fence a number of times since then, including at Nationals, and felt like I had a decent sense of her style. It was funny how, before we fenced, she introduced herself to me and I felt like saying "oh, I know who you are!" Well, I did say something like that, but a little nicer, I hope.
The key to her style, I thought, was that she likes to fleche. If I could draw her fleche while ready to quickly retreat I thought I would have a decent chance to score. In other regards, I am taller, and maybe could get some shallow target hits. Or at least I could threaten shallow targets as part of drawing fleches.
The bout began more or less as I had planned. I used threats and feints and shallow attacks and she fleched a lot. I retreated as best I could when she fleched and was able to score or at least get a double touch most of the time. I got up a few points. Then she changed tactics and I didn't notice (she told me afterward). She realized her fleches were not going to do it. She stopped fleching and concentrated on a more defensive, shallow-target thing. Not realizing, I continued my own shallow threats and feints, which gave her opportunities to score. Actually I don't remember quite how she scored during this part of the bout. I think I was a little stuck in my "draw her fleche" mindset. She tied the score, then got up two or three points.
Around that point I finally began to realize that something had changed, although I wasn't sure what. Not being sure, and now being down on points, I grew more cautious and probably hesitant. And at this point, once she was up a few points, she changed again. She started fleching again, figuring (she said afterwards) she could double out and win. And that's pretty much what happened. She got a bunch of fleching double touches. Maybe my hesitancy at this point worked against me and I was more easily surprised by her fleches. In any case, once she was up on points and started fleching again she won pretty quickly. The final score was 15-11.
In hindsight, and after talking to her a little, I learned some useful things—especially about my not noticing her changes in tactics as the bout progressed. It is good to have a plan, especially if it is working. But it is important to watch for tactical shifts. If a plan is working a smart opponent will try to come up with ways to adjust. I should not get stuck in a plan, and should watch even more closely for changes when things are working well. And the same thing the other way. If the balance of points changes, it is possible that a smart fencer will adjust tactics then too. It is tricky seeing tactical changes like this, and making them myself, but it is one of the things I like the most about fencing tournaments these days.
After beating me Maria fenced Matthew Comes. She lost, but did alright, 15-10. Afterward she and Erich talked a little about what happened. I was nearby and heard some of it. They had made plans for Matthew specifically, apparently studying videos of him, or at least talking about his tactics. One thing they had worked on was Matthew's ducks. A few times Matthew had successfully ducked Maria's fleches. Talking with Erich she seemed to know she had miscalculated in those cases. But she said, in a somewhat flummoxed way, that Matthew had used ducks offensively, which she didn't expect. It was interesting hearing Erich's response. He said no, they were not offensive ducks, but rather than tell her what he thought he instead asked her a series of questions that led her to the conclusion he had in mind. In short, Matthew had used an aggressive advancing move followed immediately with a ducking extension. While advancing he made blade motions that cleverly looked inviting but not obviously so. Maria had fleched into this, and thus right into Matthew's duck. Had she not fleched, nothing would have happened. So it wasn't an "offensive duck". Maybe you could call it a counter-offensive duck, I don't know. I tried it myself a bit in practice after this, but I can't duck nearly as well as Matthew. Alas, I'm a lot older. On the other hand, at least I can duck at all. Many people my age don't, or can't.
After watching Maria and Matthew, I watched a bit more before having to go. I saw Sam take out Shawn Dodge. Sam seemed to be in excellent form and I left expecting him to win first place. I watched Yuly beat Andrew Lee in a very close 15-14 bout. Then Yuly had Matthew. I had seen them fence quite a few times and had to go anyway, so I left. Matthew won, 15-13, and went on to win the whole thing.
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