On what was another warm (and unseasonably high temperature for the time of year) Tuesday evening, at the end of September, the fencers of Gravesham gathered for the monthly club competition. The scorer was hoping for an easy evening, with small poules over more pistes and the hope that all of the initial round fights would be completed in one evening. However, with an initial fourteen fencers attending, it was not to be and two pistes of seven fencers were put through their paces, before an additional two fencers arrived later on, adding to the melee! Unusually, Sandy was a very up and down on the evening, winning three of this seven bouts but also losing three. Tadek was more consistent within the poule winning all but one of his fights and Henry matched him on the scorecard, fight for fight and hit for hit, both for and against. Josh was close behind winning five of his seven bouts but scoring in the two losing bouts, putting him in good contention for a high seeding for the DE (Direct Elimination).Peter described his poule as the ‘poule of death’, but despite his misgivings he did very well, winning five of his seven fights, despite injury and, although behind Paul on number of matches won (Paul won six of his seven) and tied with Rohan, Peter took the second place seeding in this group by way of his indicator score (hits scored versus hits against). Ben also fought well, winning four of his six matches, but absence on the second week saw him not complete his final bout and thus drop down the DE seedings. Richard won three of the six fights that he participated in, and Mark also claimed three wins, whilst Phil just declared that he was ‘having a shocker and might as well go home’ – you can’t win them all Phil! With some of the poule matches fought on the Friday and then completed the following Tuesday, the seedings were calculated. Paul took the top slot over Tadek, merely by means of the indicator. Henry, Peter, Josh and Rohan were all next and tied for matches won, but separated by their indicator scores. Ben and Tom were next, followed by another four grouping of Dave, Sandy, Mark and Richard who were ultimately seeded by way of their indicator scores too. The two ‘otters’, Steve and Phil, were the bottom two to have at least won a match, before Ellora and, newcomer Lloyd were the poules wooden spoons and again, only separated by their indicator scores.With the seedings and DE matches finalised, we were hoping to get the final result before the night was finished. Paul, with a long fencing history, made quick work of, new fencer, Lloyd in the first round DE match to five hits. Dave and Tom were much closer at 5 v 4 to Tom, as was Steve’s and Peter’s match, which fell Peter’s way. Rohan and Mark were close behind with a 5 v 3 victory to Rohan, whereas Tadek had clearly taken inspiration from Paul and beat Ellora 5 v 0. Josh and Phil had byes through to the quarter-final due to the non-attendance of Richard and Henry and, Tadek, having beaten Ellora, found himself with a bye to the semi-final, due to Ben and Sandy not being able to make the evening. In the quarter-finals, Paul was seemingly on an invincible roll and beat Tom 5v 1, Josh was equally impressive against Peter, also winning by the same scoreline and Rohan was taking heed too, beating Phil by an impressive 5 v 2 hits. However, Paul’s run was coming to a crushing end, with in form Josh, beating him 10 v 4 in the quarter-final, whereas Tadek versus Rohan was a much closer affair with Rohan just pulling away in the last few hits to make his way to the final, against Josh, with a 10 v 8 win over Tadek.The final itself was a very close affair, with Dave refereeing and being amazed at the number of double hits that Josh and Rohan managed to land. However, it was the longer-term member of the club, Rohan, who managed to pull away at the finale and beat Josh, who is normally a sabre fencer,15 v 12. It was a fine scoreline for Josh, who wasn’t fighting his preferred weapon, but, overall, it was a fine win for Rohan, who for once was not the ‘bridesmaid’. Well done, Rohan, a well-deserved win that has been long overdue.