Saturday 1st September 2007

Early morning start for me (Robert), Ben and Martin - heading over to Stratford for the first event of the season. Over 90 men and 50 women in one of the biggest sabre events of the season.

The men's pool results were consistent - all three of us got 2 wins from 6 fights. Ben and I both lost a couple of 

fights 5-4, and Martin beat the two of the three strongest fencers in his pool. The DE seeding placed Ben, Martin 

and I at 65, 67 and 61.

This meant that we all had 1st round DE matches against fencers just a few places from us in the seeding. 

Ben got an early lead, but was gradually pegged back and lost 15-14. Martin also lost narrowly. I took an early 

lead and managed to hold on to it through the fight to win 15-10ish.

With ranking points secured, my second fight was against the joint number 1 seed and British number 8. 

This was as tough as expected, and I only managed 2 hits.

Meanwhile, Lisa was earning a seeding somewhere in the middle of the list. She got through the first DE fight 

fairly comfortably, and then met a former top-20 fencer who is returning after a break. Her opponent's 

experience showed as she change tactics and Lisa wasn't able to keep up. A L32 finish and a good number of 

ranking points.

 

Sunday 2nd September 2007

Not quite as early a start, but a longer journey - to Colchester for the Essex Open.

Martin was stuck at home planning lessons, but Ben and I were joined by Mike who had been playing cricket 

on Saturday.

28 entries meant 4 pools of 7. Mike and I both won 4 of our six fights, with Ben winning 3 of his.

Ben chalked up his second 15-14 defeat of the weekend to finish 17th.

Mike and I both progressed through comfortably to the L16. Mike's number 6 seeding and my number 11 meant 

we faced each other. He didn't give me a chance - racing into a strong lead which I never got close to clawing 

back.

Through to the L8, Mike met top 20 fencer Henry Gann. Gann proved too good, Mike managing only 6 hits 

(which was actually more than he let me score in the previous round).

All three of us scored ranking points - Ben to replace his points from Shropshire which will disappear at the end 

of the month, and me to replace the 50 points I scored at Nottingham.

 

Robert Pryer - Club Captain