Despite a slow start to the evening; probably due in part to the poor weather and the ‘January Blues’; the numbers soon picked up and we had a very healthy nine competitors for the first monthly competition of the year. With the usual January winner, Henry, at the Vicar’s for tea and a meeting about his upcoming nuptials, this event was ripe for a new champion. Rumour has it that Rob was also missing due to his inherent fear the predicted one-hit format!
Indeed, Rob’s prediction was correct. The need to ease the fencers into the new competition year, as well as re-train the scorer, made for an easy format for the first event of 2025. The rules were as follows:
- Everybody fences everybody else
- You have one minute per duel
- In the event that a fencer lands a hit, s/he wins the match
- In the event that a double hit is obtained, then the match is finished with neither fencer scoring
- In the event that the time runs out, the match is finished with neither fencer scoring.
After some initial dilly-dallying whilst we waited for Will to finish some coaching and, the fencers to complete warm-up matches, we raced through the event with ease. During the event there was plenty of haranguing of the scorer from Dave, Mark, Peter and Sandy as they were neck and neck on games won and, desperately trying to work out if there were any techniques to become champion, or, which clashes were left, so that they might predict who would win. Steve tried to pull a fast one in his match with Dave; which would have given Dave the win over Sandy, but the scorer was on to his unscrupulous behaviour and made sure that the event was completed in a true and fair manner! Peter had been the early leader but with the later matches seeing him acquire two losses and a double hit, Sandy, Mark and Dave saw their chance to make a dent in that lead.
Richard fought valiantly throughout the evening – another casualty of injury, he was fencing with his non-dominant left hand. Despite this he secured a great hit against Claudia and, managed to hold Meri to a time out. Claudia kept her composure throughout the event scoring a surprise hit against the in-form, Peter; managing a double-hit with Sofia; a time-out against Meri and, finally, scoring the win against an unusually lacklustre Steve. The best match had to be Steve versus Meri. With Steve attempting to run at, and attack, Meri, she held her nerve to score the hit during an entanglement of bodies!
Once all of the matches were played, the total wins were added up for each player. With Dave, Mark and Sandy all on six wins each, we had to rely on some sort of countback to determine a winner. With Dave and Sandy both having a match each that was timed out or a double hit, rather than an outright loss, Mark was demoted to third place. Then, on the countback of who had won the Sandy versus Dave match, it was determined that, as the winner of that match, Sandy had to be crowned January 2025 Champion. Peter came in fourth with five wins. Steve, Claudia and Sofia all managed two wins each, but with the girls each managing to time-out or double hit in two of their matches, that saw them placed in fifth equal and Steve pushed down to seventh. Meri managed the eighth spot, despite having one win to her name just like Richard, but again it was the double-hit/time out ruling that saw her push him into the final placing.
It was a fun and interesting evening (and for the scorer, a relatively easy one too!). Well done to all those who competed and a special congratulations to the man who has knocked Henry from his perch as the usual January champion – Sandy! Congratulations Sandy, may this be the start of a good year for you!
Next competition commences on the last Tuesday in February – details of the format to be decided!
