Monday, March 26, 2007

Meet Me At Zaban Park - We Cross Swords At Dawn

Fencing outdoors in Georgia never really sounds like a good idea. There is the heat, the pollen, the bugs, the humidity - all this before you calculate the health of the equipment, logistics for keeping the fencers healthy, and trying to adjust to moving around outside - on a rubberized concrete basketball court no less.

But the DFC's March Wind competition went about as well as it could. And the cool March winds were actually quite welcome. The original venue dropped out at the last second, and my club had no choice but to fence outside or cancel. A lot of folks didn't show up at all - but thankfully the Open was still an A1 event with 15 no shows. The DivIII Epee event dropped to a D1, which took the wind out of everyone who was hoping to power to the four and at least be guaranteed a D in the promised C2. But as I have said before on this blog - local C2s are pipe dreams without a huge number of D fencers. If there aren't more than six D's in a C2 - expect no ratings changes to occur, or for less than 4 D's to advance to the round of 8. I suppose it's just as well - it's better to play to win it all than to play just to make it to the final four.

My performance in both events doesn't bare mentioning - not good, not bad, just adjust and move on. The one bonus was that I had a chance to test out my new Triplette weapon and my rewired Uhlmann FIE epee - both received at the Georgia High School Fencing League championships. Directing from 9am to 7pm was worth it to get my Uhlmann fixed for free.

Next up, fencing at Vanderbilt Easter Weekend.

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