Honorary Chairman, Paul (far left), handing over the trophy to the victorious team of (l-r) Peter, Sandy, Will and Mark
In the week following the conclusion of the club’s, record-setting, longest monthly club competition, fifteen fencers arrived at Cygnet Leisure with the bit between their teeth and compete for the third team relay title of the year. With Richard excluding himself, due to still suffering the symptoms of a recent bout of Covid, we found ourselves in the enviable position of three pistes, with one being manned permanently, by Richard, as referee. Despite piste 1 not having a working timer, Dave found a long-standing app, on his mobile, that proved invaluable for timing and scoring…if only anybody using it had the eyes for the small print! With all fencers ready to commence, we made a start at exactly 7.30pm.
The middle piste saw Steve, Rohan, Henry and Tadek fence each other, with Steve and Rohan each managing 3 out of 4 wins. Hot on their heels was Henry with 2 victories and Peter and Tadek each managing to bow out of the poules having got 1 win each under their belts. Most of these matches were closely fought, with no fencer receiving zero hits scored in any of their bouts; although one must wonder about the competitiveness of this group with Peter having to receive an apology from one fencer for a particularly hardened shot and, Steve having his sword spliced in two in his match against Tadek. They all finished the poule in one piece (apart from the sword!).
On the end piste, Will proved that his time spent teaching youngsters in America, over the holidays, had not gone to waste and he saw off all his competitors, winning all four of his fights. Newcomer, but old-time fencer, Tom, was as equally unfazed by his new surroundings and came in second with 3 wins. Dave managed 2 victories, but after an injury and a few sessions away, the break proved too much for Paul, who could only win one match. Sofia placed 5th in and extremely difficult poule, but kept the side up for the juniors by scoring consistently and not letting any of the others have it all their own way.
The final poule, refereed by Richard, saw Rob claim the top spot, winning all his matches, although Andrew proved his undoing by holding Rob to a 4 v 1 victory, rather than allowing Rob to triumph with the illustrious 5 hits in the three minutes allowed. Abs, having previously used his height to his advantage, is now proving a contender, having improved his form, to finish second in the poule, having won 3 out of his 4 matches. Mark was next with 2 wins and Claudia also managing to claim a win. Andrew’s recent absence was glaring with no match conquests, although he did manage to score against both Rob and Claudia. Despite a delay due to faulty equipment (always remember to try first – ‘turn it off, turn it back on again!’) this was the final poule to finish and still in plenty of time to, possibly, complete the event in one night. However, problems with the laptop, making it difficult to work quickly enough (user error?..never!!! A thank you to James for his help on the night), meant that the team relay knockout would have to be concluded the following week. I guess you can’t have it all.
The first Tuesday in October saw the conclusion of the September competition. After much deliberation and having finally sought the wisdom of the fencing oracle, Paul, the teams were announced. With Andrew on holiday, but Jake and Sandy in attendance, we managed to compile four teams of four, ready for the finale. Team A; of Dave, Henry, Jake and Rob, managed to see off Team D; of Claudia, Steve, Tadek and Tom, to make the final. Claudia’s nemesis, Dave, took an early lead against her for Team A, with Henry holding the lead against Steve to take Team A into a 6 v 1 lead at the halfway stage. Next up came Tadek, who provided a much needed comeback, and boost, for Team D, pulling the score back to 7 v 9, against Jake, but still in Team A’s favour, but with some hope in sight. Rob and Tom finished the relay for Team A and Team D respectively, but were evenly matched, meaning that Rob, managed to sustain the earlier lead for Team A, winning 12 v 10 and taking them into the final.
Team B; of Mark, Peter, Will and Sandy took on Team C; of Abs, Sofia, Rohan and Paul for their place in the final. Mark took an early lead, against Abs, for Team B, with Peter extending the lead against Sofia and, Will following on his teams impressive run, against Rohan, to give Sandy a 9 v 4 head start against Paul in the final leg. With Sandy back from a few weeks away, he had the bit between his teeth and Paul stood no chance against his spirit, ensuring that Team B were through to the final with a resounding 12 v 6 victory.
The third place play off saw no position changes to any of the fencers, ensuring that Abs fought Steve, Sofia was against Claudia, Rohan fenced Tadek (much to Tadek’s dismay) and Paul battled Tom. After a closely fought first round, Steve scraped the win 3 v2 against Abs. Claudia accomplished a couple of well-placed hits against Sofia, extending the lead to 6 v 3. Despite his scepticism at facing Rohan, Tadek maintained the three-point lead, through a series of double hits and in the final bout a couple of double hits meant that Tom sauntered Team D to the third-place victory.
Team A and Team B both saw positional changes for the final. Team A’s new order of Dave, Henry, Jake and Rob, were to brave Team B’s Mark, Peter, Sandy and Will. With Dave taking an early 3 v 0 lead over Mark and, Henry preserving the advantage it looked like Team A might have it in the bag. But, Peter’s leg against Henry proved the turning point. Although Peter completed the round behind, he had pulled the points advantage back for Team B, to being only 4 v 6 down. The third leg proved to be the tactical trailblazer for Team B, as Sandy overcame the deficit and procured a 9 v 7 lead for Team B. The tables had turned. The final pairing of Rob v Will proved decisive, with Will scoring the final round 3 v 1 and taking the team to a 12 v 8 victory and, Rob declaring, on the presentation of the trophy; “If I’d known there was a trophy at stake, I’d have tried harder”! Well done Team B (Mark, Peter, Sandy and Will), you are the champions for September. For a ‘friendly’ event, there was a lot of audience participation this week – very raucous cheering from the sidelines! On a final note, it has been brought to my attention that Mark and Peter have so far been in each of the victorious teams from the relay competitions. It looks to me like the only way to win in this event is (1) be paired with these two or (2) break up the Mark/Peter dream team. Only time will tell…
Well done to everyone competing, especially the victors and, next months competition will be held on the final Tuesday in October. Be there, ready, for a 7.30pm start.
