Bienvenidos!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who would believe it?
Wow, what a weekend. The Glasgow Open has proven once again to be one of the friendlist, most fun opens of the year (but this time didn't cost everyone an arm and a leg!). We left on Friday evening, crammed into the van likle sardines thanks to the amount of kit we were lugging, and got to our hotel at about half eleven. After a quick run to the local takeaway it was straight to bed as we were all tired from the journey. We were picked up Saturday morning and Glyn-bo navigated superbly to get everyone to the venue in time for epee check-in. I managed to squeeze in a warm-up before the first round of pools started, and did pretty well, going 3 up, two down and finishing 5th in the table. Didn't do as well in the second round - I won one and lost three on belle-touche, one 3-5, so I dropped a bit in the seedings. Went into my DE against one of the girls who had beat me 5-4, and surprised both of us by winning 15-7. In my second DE I was up against a woman whom I had beaten fairly convincingly in the first round, but who had then gone on to beat me in the second round of pools. It was a tight match, and I lost it by three points. I was so disappointed after that - I'd lost some silly points and was annoyed at myself for not picking my game up. I'd really wanted to go into the semi-finals, but it was not to be. I ended ranked 8th of 17, which I felt ok about. Mario did really well, finishing 6th overall, and Mike kicked ass in sabre, coming 7th. We hung around to watch the finals and then headed back to the hotels to change and drop off kit. After a drink in this very cool little bar/grill place (with live piano music, no less) we went to the same noodle bar we'd gone to last year - this time I had the thai chicken curry, which was lovely and soooo satisfying after all that chocolate. Plus it came full of vegetables, so I nearly had my five portions. Most of the group went back to their hotels after dinner - Gav wasn't feeling well, Roobs was full of cold, Ben needed sleep, the girls were tired... So five of us bought some nibbles and headed of to the party at Mark's flat. It wasn't nearly as full as last year (possibly because last year Simon Trinder was there, and he counts as at least three people in terms of loudness and girth...), nor as fun, really. I was falling asleep by half eleven, so we ended up leaving at about 12:20am. Mike walked back to the travel inn and us four walked for ages looking for a taxi. We finally beat some bouncing goth girl into a cab and got back to the hotel at something past one. I went to sleep almost straight away, which made a change from last year...
Woke up far too early on Sunday, thanks to Mario's habit of setting his alarm for about 45 minutes earlier than he gets up, but after a cup of coffee and some brioche I was nearly conscious. We packed everything up and headed out to the minibus, which was considerably less full than the day before as Marnie had taken the group who were staying at the hostel in her car. We arrived in plenty of time for the men's foil check-in, so I lay about on one of the gym mats for half an hour, nearly falling asleep again. I went and sneakily watched a couple of the guys' matches before going and getting changed and checked-in myself. Pools went ok - I went two up, two down in both rounds and went into the DEs ranked somewhere around 11th. My L32 match was one of the girls I beat 5-4 in pools, so I thought I had a pretty good chance against her - did I - I won 15-2! I found out then that my L16 match was one of the scary German women who Susan had had some trouble with in the pools. I spoke to her before we started fencing, partly in German, and she wasn't scary at all. I honestly thought she was going to knock me out but went in aiming to just fence well. I did myself proud - after the first break we were about equal, and I was having a really good time against her. Two of the people watching at my end of the piste gave me a couple of tips, but I don't think I used them as I wasn't sure how to do what they suggested. I was still holding my own, though, and managed to get a point ahead, and keep the lead. I think I was 14-13 up when I did a really nifty deception and landed my point a couple of inches under her mask. There was only one green light - I was in the quarterfinals! I was so chuffed with this - I'd only ever reached L8 in epee before so I was really pleased about getting a foil L8 too. I went into the match planning to just take my time and see what she was like, so I did, and I have no idea how she ended up in the L8 as I found her a lot easier than my last match and ended up winning something like 15-8, mainly with beat attacks. I couldn't believe it - I was through to the semi-finals with a medal guaranteed. I was up against Sheila Yau from Aberdeen, whom I had fenced at last year's Glasgow Open, in our BUSA Trophy match and in the pools this time around. I'd lost against her in the pool but the president was rubbish so more of the points should have been mine. I started by getting the first 2 points, which I think rattled her a bit. After that it was equal for a lot of the time, but I'd figured out her distance and was getting her on the parry-ripostes. A little stupidly, I kept trying to do a disengage attack, which kept failing, but each time she circled her blade I thought 'maybe it will work this time...' I did that when I was 14-10 up and lost two points, but then let her come to me and landed the final hit with a sweet, sweet parry-riposte. She was not pleased at all with that, and the Aberdeen crew looked thunderous. There was a huge cheer from my end when I got the last hit though, and everyone was coming up and hugging me. I was in shock - not only was I guaranteed a medal, but now it could even be a gold. I had never gotten this far in a open tournament before - not even in what is supposed to be my better weapon. I put my jeans on over my breeches to keep warm and tried not to think about having to fence on the big piste in front of everyone. It seemed like an age before we were called. I was against another German lady, who had won women's sabre the day before. I went and shook her hand and exchanged pleasantaries before the match, and she was just as nice as her team-mate. Shortly afterwards the president came bounding up, and it began. To my relief, I was able to block out the audience which had gathered and again took the first two hits. I stayed ahead until we were at 6-all, then Frederieke started to pull ahead as I got tired. I managed one more point, eventually losing out 7-15 in a match to be proud of.
There was no time to shower as the trophies were being awarded after the men's final and we needed to pack up kit, so I ran and changed out of my breeches and hastily slapped some make-up on so I didn't look too bad in the pictures, and went to watch the end of the men's match. It was quite good - one guy brought it back to equal scores before they timed out, the match went to priority and he won it. Good stuff. Mario had knocked out Gavin in the L16 to finish 6th again, whilst Gavin surprised a lot of people and finished 10th. Asides from winning the silver medal in foil, I found out that I'd also won the Best Student trophy, beating Mario by five points. It was the first time the winner was both not scottish, and female, so that was quite groovy. Mario picked up the Master at Arms trophy for his two L8 finishes. As a club we narrowly missed out on the best club award, which I think went to Glasgow West End. After pictures and thank yous and goodbyes and being complimented on my German, we piled back in the minibus to head home. Three people had made alternative arrangements so there was much more room on the journey back. We didn't actually leave Glasgow until about 7pm (We left the sports centre not long after five) due to dropping Gavin off at the airport and then getting stuck in traffic on the way back. We stopped at services about halfway back for horribly over priced food, and got back into Liverpool around 11. Mike stayed over at my place and gave Mario and I a lift into campus in the morning when he dropped the bus off. I've spent the rest of today feeling completely dazed and achey all over, but my god it was worth it.
5:27 p.m. - 2006-04-03
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
other diaries: joethebrave |