Hello everyone!

There's a lot to catch up on, tournament-wise. So let's dig in.

Let's start with the Duel in the Desert, from which I have seen fabulous pictures, and if I can manage to print a few, they will go up in the gym.

This tournament is part of the PCS circuit (Pacific Coast Something) and first prize is a thousand dollars in poker chips, which look heavy in the picture. There were 74 fencers total in the Men's Epee event and we were well-represented with seven fencers. Keith Lichen was defending his title from last year, so he fenced the first-place winner from the day, Eric Hansen from the Los Angeles International Fencing Center, and won again! Congratulations, Keith! Of course, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, so Keith had to return every penny of his earnings before boarding the plane for home.

Rumor has it that Mehmet Tepedelenlioglu, who came in 10^th, did an excellent job coaching on the sidelines. Dylan Case came in 12^th; Mark Wheeler, who took the great photos and was the source of the rumor, came in 47^th; Cameron Parker, in his first "away" tournament, and who has his eye on those poker chips, came in 53^rd, Jonathan Jeffries took 55^th, and Todd Russell took 60^th. But let's not forget Sharon Parker, who took 25^th out of 40 fencers in the Women's Epee event.

In the Vet Combined Mixed Epee, out of 26 fencers, we had two, and so I'm proud to report that Mark Wheeler came in third (Congratulations!) and Jonathan Jeffries came in 22^nd, but I don't think anyone believes that's a true representation of his skill as a fencer.

Last weekend there were two tournaments in which to find EBFGers – the NAC Ds in Louisville, Kentucky and the D and Lower Senior Mixed Epee here in the Bay Area. Sadly, I have absolutely no rumors about either one of these tournaments.

There were (I can hardly believe this) two hundred and forty-five fencers at the NAC from all over the globe. This is a Div I (meaning C and higher) event. We had three fencers: Keith Lichten, who came in 26^th, Dylan Case, who came in 70^th, and John McGrew, who came in 229^th. I hope ol' Kentucky treated you well, guys!

At the DLSXE, at the Marin Fencing Academy, we had three fencers and the event had 37 competitors total. This is a lot of fencers in one place at one time. Cameron Parker came in 5^th and earned his E09 (he had an E08 before – I know he's not satisfied, but still, congratulations), Patrick Wang came in 13^th, and Andrew Brewer came in 16^th. Great showing for EBFG!

And that's the way it is, today, January 21, 2009. (Does anyone remember Walter Cronkite?) (I love Walter Cronkite.)