Southapmton University Team Invitational Fencing Competition (08/05/99)

Portsmouth Team:
Donna "I'm going to look for some chocolate" Bunford, chocoholic foilist and driver
Jo "are we lost yet?" Thomas, alcoholic sabreur and foghorn
Duncan "I can do better than this..." Robinson, insane epeeist and navigator

Once again, an intrepid, fun loving, Pompey fencing team set out for the (not so distant) lands of Southampton University. We set of in high spirits, happy that Southampton had thought of us Pompey people when organising their little competition, the team being selected mainly for their skill, talent, good looks, sanity - oh okay... we've all got BFA mebership which the organisers had insited upon. We arrived half an hour before check in, expecting to find someone who looked vaguely like a fencer to help us. The security guard on the door didn't, but gave us directions anyway.

Four flights of stairs later, we arrived with our three large kit bags at the sports hall to find lots of scary people in ghi's and coloured belts (that would be a martial arts club then). Behind us appeared a very nice squash player, who'd been hiding in their booking office , eager to help us poor, unfortunate (and as it turned out) two hours early fencers. An internal breakdown in Southampton's communication had lead to a double booking of the hall and we weren't due to start til midday, and were just a "little" early... *sigh*

After being guided to their coffee bar, we sat down and had a second breakfast, using possibly the most flexible and therefore useless plastic cutlery in history - it's as if they don't trust us. Not long after, the team from Seacourt arrived in much the same situation as us (but at least Southampton hadn't lost their entry fee in the high street). Two hours and some very pleasant chat and we finally got started (hurrah!).

What we in our fun-loving, early morning bliss hadn't realised was the standard of the competition: an All Stars team (consisting, as you might have guessed of some very good people) and Seacourt one of the best teams in the south. Still, has being thouroughly outclassed ever stopped us before? Okay, so between us we had 25 years or so fencing experience, but as you'll see later on, this isn't so straight forward. The first round was poules unique, with each weapon fenced individually. Well done Jo for doing so well in her first serious sabre competition, as well as causing a few odd looks (nothing new there then!) by being the only female sabreur there. Duncan also caused a few strange looks by sitting in one corner, reading a bible and muttering to himself. Donna was in the early stages of chocolate deprivation, and while the teams sanity might be in doubt, we managed to get seeded sixth at this point.

The next round was fenced Italian teams style (like at Durham, but with less people) and we were drawn against one of the medium to good Southampton teams... and lost *sob* 30 - 25 (well at least it was close!). Maybe it should be pointed out at this stage was that Duncan had not fenced epee at this level sice his coach died almost exactly two years before (hence the bible) and Jo had only picked up a sabre at Christmas, so overall, not a bad result - we ended up 6th overall, maintaining our seeding. Had it been any other Saturday, we would have stayed to watch the rest of the competition, however it was the AU Ball that evening and Cinderella, sorry, Foghorn had to be back in time for her pumpkin. Donna had places to be so she attempted to drop Duncan and Jo at the train station. Three sets of directions, half an hour, a lot of guess work and an interestingly repetative tour of the one way system and roundabouts of central Southampton (lost, us?)...

Well, to cut it short, and no thanks to the engineering works on the railway, Duncan got to his barn dance and Foghorn went to her Ball.

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