Ray Coates Memorial Team Epee
I barely took notes and the results never seem to have made it to AskFred. So I gotta go on memory here, which is already fading. Oop, wait, it is on AskFred, here:
https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=31383#123618
I was on "The Marshall Plan" team, with Kundry and Perth. Kundry was captain. I had never done a team event before, other than last year when my team had to forfeit in the first match when Shawn had to drop out. On the other hand, I had fenced most of the people we had to face this time, while Kundry and Perth mostly hadn't. So I gave a lot of advice and ended up being anchor twice.
The tableau table looks weird on AskFred:
https://askfred.net/Results/roundResults.php?seq=1&event_id=123618&highlight_competitor_id=129105
Because we fenced off for every place, so almost every team could get three matches. It's also a good format because the final matches are usually close. There were no pools. Instead the tableau was seeded by points based on letter/year ratings. Not perfect, but close enough.
We won our first match by a decent margin, then lost our next two by about the same margin. Our first two matches are in the big table on AskFred. The third one is in "Table H (loser finishes 4th)", which FencingTime calls, more sensibly, "Bronze medal match".
I was the anchor, the last fencer, in the second two matches. The first time we were down 34-40 and I had Matthew Comes. I only got one point. The second time I had Mark Blom at the end, who I feel like I've figured out to a degree. But the score was 30-40, so I had to score 15 points before he scord 5. And in less than three minutes. So there wasn't much hope. I managed to get eight points before he got five, mostly via doubles, so at least that felt rather nice.
FIRST MATCH
I did scribble some notes after our first match. We went up against team "IDK": Jeff Johnson, Jim Henderson, Garrett Armstrong, and Jeff Lucas. The first bout was me and Jeff Lucas. He was the alternate. They switched him out for Jeff Johnson after this first bout. I felt bad beating Jeff Lucas 5-0 but, well, it's a tournament. You do what you must. Afterward he was annoyed. Not at me but at the whole situation, and called it quits and went home. He told me his team told him to play a defensive game, which made some sense but probably wasn't the best idea, given his style. Had he been fencing more like he usually does he probably would have gotten at least a double touch or two against me. Ah well, I did feel bad. Still, starting off 5-0 in a team event is a nice thing. We kept a lead the rest of the way. If they hadn't had an alternate I'd have fenced Jeff Johnson first and chances are he'd have beaten me, or at least it would have been a lot closer.
My second bout was with Garrett Armstrong. I got a couple good points in near the start, then made a couple of bad attacks that failed and gave him points. At one point my attack missed and his point got my back hip, but in an odd way, kind of tucked into the seams. It didn't go off. He had his epee checked but it was fine. It just landed in an odd way. The bout began with my team up a good amount and I was able to get us to the next five point break. I can't remember how many points he got. Three?
It was interesting to watch Perth fence Jeff Johnson. I had warned him about Jeff's style, but he still got in a fair number of his standard attacks. But Perth got some nice hits on Jeff. At least two lovely fast fleches that doubled—being in the lead it was fine to double. For the final point Perth made a nice fake that got Jeff to bite, and Perth did a kind of cutover counter to his arm, for a single light. Very nice. I think Jeff scored more than five, but we still kept the lead.
My third bout was with Jim Henderson—it was the second to last bout. We seem to go back and forth and I wasn't sure how things would go this time. I got two or three nice shallow hits, just in distance. In one case we had a minor exchange, then a moment pause, his arm slightly raised and looking like an invitation. The distance felt just close enough and I made a simple straight attack and got his arm, to maybe both of our surprises. I made a couple of mistakes and he got two, possibly three points, to my five. Kundry thanked me for giving her the last bout with a score of 30-40.
Kundry had the final bout with Jeff Johnson. As with Perth it was interesting to watch. She had seen enough of his fencing, along with my advice, to know what to expect. I'm still not sure how she got her points, but she scored five points to his four. So we won, yay!
SECOND MATCH
We watched the match that would decide who we had next. It was team "Rebel Scum" (Kyle Margolies, Jameson Lu, and Svetoslav Dimitrov) or "Darth Maulers" (Matthew Comes, Robert Tiosejo, and Tzveti Dimitrova), both WFA teams. Matthew was obviously the ringer in this group, but Rebel Scum did pretty well with him, maybe because they fence more often, being from the same club. I don't know. I was hoping Rebel Scum would win, not wanting to face Matthew. And it was pretty close. But Darth Maulers won 45-40. So we had to fence them.
Our plan, as Kundry put it, was to score lots of points against Robert and Tzveti, and try to keep the score low when facing Matthew. Well, scoring points on Robert and Tzveti was not so easy. I don't remember the details. I think I did alright with both of them, but scored more evenly instead of "a lot of points". I was given the anchor spot, to face Matthew at the end, with the idea that I had fenced him many times, while Kundry and Perth hadn't. I had a somewhat better idea of what not to do, at least. Well, by the time we reached the final bout we were down 34-40. Unsurprisingly Matthew finished me off easily enough. I got one point and at least that one felt pretty nice. Otherwise, oofta.
THIRD MATCH
Having won one and lost one put us in a semifinal match for third and fourth place, to my surprise. If we won this last match we'd get medals, which would be nice. We were up against team "Darth Old Guys": Mark Blom, Johannes Klein, and John Comes. Two lefties! Still seemed like a winnable match. I had fenced all three of these guys many times, but I don't think Kundry or Perth had at all. So I gave what advice I could and was made the anchor against Mark Blom.
If I remember right I had the first bout, with John Comes. Again I've forgotten the details. I think he won, but only 5-4. Not a bad start. But we slipped from there, with a point gap opening up wider and wider. I had trouble with Johannes, scoring three, maybe four to his five, I think. Kundry and Perth had some good moments. Both had trouble with Mark Blom, I think. So by the time we reached the final bout it was 30-40. I felt confident against Mark Blom, but that was too large a hole! Still I would try. Obviously I had to attack a lot. There was only three minutes. If time ran out and they were ahead, they would win. Mark had only to kill time and look for doubles. Perhaps this made him fence in a way that was actually easier for me. In short I was quite aggressive, throwing out hard beats and fleching. I got a good number of points, some of which felt quite nice. Early on I launched a beat-fleche that worked nicely. Shortly after I tried again, but was not quite as close. Mark had a chance to pick my arm as I flew in, but missed. I remember the instant of feeling the edge of his blade on my arm as I reached for his shoulder. A nice feeling, if a little lucky. A point or two after that I tried the beat-fleche a third time and that time he did pick me off. Basically, if he gave me his blade I would try an attack with a hard beat. If he dropped his blade into an absence position I might try a low line. I think I got his leg once or twice that way.
Anyway, I put my all into it and scored eight points before he got the five he needed. At least three of his points were doubles. All in all, although we lost, that last bout felt good and I was fairly happy with the result.
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