Hello Fencers!
The news for the club this week was the foray of our epeeists to the South West Championships. Ross Grodent, our man on the spot has sent in a report, pasted below (but modestly omitted to mention that it was he who was the winner of the plate competition). Here is Ross' report:
A great time was had by the Bristol White Eagle delegation at the EFSW Epee Seniors competition last weekend. Three members of the club were representing, Lia Emanuel, Vangelis Papantoniou and Ross Grodent as well as Club regular and epee guru Jon Mason. What the White Eagles cohort lacked in experience they made up for in verve and endeavour as they pitted themselves against a stacked and experienced field of entrants. The competition was run in the following format: two sets of poules before the direct elimination (DE) portion of the event with each successive round informing the placement of each fencer in the next.
The men were up first leaving the women a bit of a wait – not necessarily what you want when all that nervous energy is kicking around – with Ross and Vangelis recording a victory in their respective poules. This gave them an idea of where they would end up in the next poule and also who they would face. Jon posted three victories and only narrowly missed out on a clean sweep.
Then it was Lia’s turn to fly the flag, harrying her opponents with her movement and attacking instincts and recording 2 victories in her poule. So far so good.
The second round of poules were up next and with them a degree more pressure as it was the results of these that would establish who each fencer would face in DE. And with all four of the fencers in action more or less at the same time (literally in the case of Ross and Jon who were paired together in both round of poules) the exact details became harder to keep a hold of until everyone was able to meet up again and compare notes. Some victories were claimed across the three less experienced members of the group while Jon continued to tear up trees.
After a bit of a break it was DE time and with each match going to 15 points compared to the first to 5 in the poules it was a different animal. The fact that each of Lia, Vangelis and Ross went out in the first round of DE doesn’t really tell the full story as each made their (considerably more experienced) opponent really work for their victory. One of the matches went to 14-15, the others went near or into double figures and whilst initially dejected each of the three could hold their heads high on the basis that they could have given no more than they did.
The three then turned into the Jon Mason cheerleading squad as he roared to second place and a silver medal, fencing superbly all afternoon. As well as that the Club can proudly boast the winner of the ‘Plate’ (a side competition for those knocked out in the first round of DE) among its ranks.
People can take what they want from fencing – what one gets out of it might be different to another and that’s just fine – but in my limited experience there are few things like turning up in a competitive environment with your club mates and banding together against the rest. Those little mid-match observations and nuggets of advice about an opponent’s style or tendencies make all the difference and whilst you may end up facing each other there are many more times when you don’t. It’s an experience worth having at least once in this writer’s opinion.
Big thanks to Gemma and to the friendly and familiar refereeing faces of Jon and Ann Dawkins, both of which looked smart and sharp in their finest garb.