Another weekend, another International
So. another weekend and another "international". Though this one was the senior Welsh Open in Cardiff - a mere 3 hour trip each way. A big competition with 102 entrants and a lot of senior ranking points up for grabs by reason of the large number of highly ranked fencers attending.
James had a very good start in the poule, with 5 wins and only one loss - 4-5 to Tom Corlett of ZFW in London, 22nd in the senior rankings. This meant he went into the DEs seeded 22nd. Ed had a tougher start and a poule of 6 rather than 7. He lost 3-5 to Shaun Alderman of Edinburgh's Salle Holyrood, ranked one place above him in the senior rankings and also 3-5 to left hander Sean Jamshidi of Salle Boston in London. He cruised through his other 3 poule fights, resulting in a seeding of 42. Both boys had to adapt to fencing in opens again, after several months of competing only in cadet and junior competitions - the pacing and tempo is slower.
James had a bye into L64, whereas Ed had to fence Tom Nash of Phoenix near Bristol. He eased to a 15-4 win, getting back into the swing of things nicely. James saw off Daniel Feaster in L64 with a commanding 15-3 victory. Meanwhile, Ed fenced Freddy Bennett of Surrey University, the 23rd seed. Ed adapted brilliantly to the referee's interpretation of the rules and came out a 15-6 winner. James then struggled slightly in his L32 match against Hong Kong fencer Arcturus Yung, whose rather dynamic style resulted in a victory for him and 25th placing for James. Meanwhile, Ed faced 10th seed, Scottish veteran international Nick Mort of Saxon in London, who is well known for catching out attacking younger fencers. Ed made no such mistake and won 15-9. Finally, Ed fenced GB junior Sebastian Pallier of Fencers Club London. He made a few tactical errors at the start and suffered from some inconsistent refereeing to lose 8-15. Ed finished 16th and won a Leon Paul voucher for being best cadet. Really good results in this field from both James and Ed.
Finally, congratulations to Ed for being selected for GB for the Eden Cup on 16th December in London - this is an U20 World Cup competition. British Fencing selects either the top 15th juniors plus top 5 cadets or the top 20 juniors - Ed falls within both categories!
