Coach, Will, having presented the trophy to victor, Rob and, to get us into the spirit, Mark presenting Rob with a winning box of mince pies (I said it was still too early…I’ll be wearing green for my grinch uniform until at least the 1st December! Bah humbug!)
During a period of awful weather, falling on Halloween and, with some schools still on half term, it was always going to be a hit or miss week for the numbers attending the October 2023 monthly club competition. It seemed our fears prevailed and, with a number of fencers dressing up and braving the rain for Halloween, the hall at Cygnets was graced with only 10 fencers for the competition, one of the quietest months yet.
With two poules of five fencers, the duelling got under way at a pace. Dave and Claudia got poule 1 underway (allowing Sandy and Rob a rest from their epic ‘warm up’ match). This duel was neither quick nor easy going for either competitor. Despite Claudia coming out with a losing scoreline of 5-0, it did not do justice to the difficulty that Dave had overcoming the junior, with Dave desperately lunging for the final hit with only one second to go. Rob, newly engaged to the lovely Rosie, was a man on a high and was the victor of the group winning all four matches. Will came a close second, winning three of his four matches, losing by one hit to the energised Rob. Dave’s night was up and down; he won two of his matches, but lost the other two only scoring one hit, in each, in the process. Rohan’s evening wasn’t as successful as other weeks, with him winning only one of his four bouts, however, this was a tough poule and both Rob and Will were definitely on form on the evening, which meant the others making an impact was less capable. Despite Claudia losing all four matches, the scorelines did not do justice to her tenacity in each bout and, some of the exceptional hits that she made on the night. One her less savoury, but winning, hits had Rob momentarily wondering if he would be able to consummate his future wedding to Rosie!
In poule 2, Sandy, Steve and Sofia each managed three out of four wins. Sandy started the evening well with a closely fought warm-up match, followed by three well fenced matches against Mark, Richard and Steve. However, his domestic and foreign jaunts caught up with him and he couldn’t maintain the pace, losing his final bout to Sofia 5-3. Sandy may well argue, that the direct nipple hit from Richard, in an earlier bout, hindered his performance more than the lack of match fitness! Richard managed to beat Mark, but couldn’t start the evening with a win against his nemesis, Sofia, losing 5-4 in yet another ‘grudge match’! In another very closely fought poule on the evening, it was Mark who came out with zero wins, but like Claudia in poule 1, the percentage of games won and the scorelines, did not reflect the quality of fencing on the night. The following Tuesday will see the knockout stage and, as we all know, this could end quite differently from what is predicted, only time will tell.
The following week saw a much larger attendance, meaning that the spectators to the knock out stage had plenty of company. In the final 16, only two matches were played, with the rest of the competitors receiving byes into the quarter-finals. Rohan was upbeat and ready for action and it showed, quickly seeing off Mark, whereas the Richard versus Claudia match took longer. After three minutes, a 3 v 3 scoreline, and some deliberation, Will came to the rescue and used the electronic equipment to show us how to decide who had ‘priority’ – Claudia. Within the next minute Richard had to score to win, otherwise a drawn scoreline would see Claudia through under the priority ruling. One double hit later and the crowd thought that Claudia might have cinched it, but the senior club member showed that the patience and wisdom of age will always overcome the enthusiasm of youth, eventually winning 5 v 4.
The quarter finals were also all a very close affair. Rob just managed to beat Rohan 5 v 4, with Richard overcoming Will and, Dave beating Sandy by the same scorelines. None of the matches were quick affairs with the score always bouncing back and forth between the two fencers. In a number of cases epees were checked for their performance as it was hard to believe a winning shot hadn’t been landed! The duel that went to the wire was Sofia versus Steve, with the veteran coming out on top, but Sofia managed to hold him off for the final hit, within the three minutes, meaning Steve could only manage a 4 v 2 victory.
The semi-finals were won by the first to reach 10 hits via two three-minute rounds. Rob defeated Steve within the first three minutes by a 10 v 5 scoreline, but Dave and Richard’s bout took longer, despite the score line not being much different at 10 v 6 to Dave. Despite Rob having had a longer break between bouts, Dave obviously felt energised, opting for only a quick drink before hitting the final against Rob. The longer duel of three, three-minute rounds and the first to reach 15 hits got off to a pace. Rob took an early lead, but Dave defended well and occasionally scored a fine hit. However, with 13 seconds of the second round to go, Rob took a 13 v 5 lead and, within the last few seconds managed to land the two winning hits that took him to a 15 v 5 victory. Well done Rob!
The next competition will be on the last Tuesday in November, with the knockout stage being a one-hit direct elimination…that always turns up a few surprises!
