And welcome back to Fencing Today, fencing fans! It was a lovely 75 degrees here in downtown Oakland, and we were at the East Bay Fencers Gym for today's Open Women's Epee and Senior C and Higher Mixed Epee tournaments.

As you know, these are Bay Cup events, and the last in the series for this season, at that. The turnout was great and we were well-represented. Joining the lineup today were Juliette Flores and Sharon Parker in the Women's tournament, and Keith Lichten, Mehmet Tepedelenlioglu, Mike Slater, Jonathan Jeffries, and John McGrew in the Senior C and Higher.

Joining them on the line were our refs, Jim Liebich, Kyle (Mmnmmn), Susan Powell, Mehmet Tepedelenlioglu, Beau Mitchum, and, once more in a pinch, Mike Slater! Thanks, y'all. You are a pleasure to work with and make this announcer's job so much easier.

Well, we started the day with the youth women's epee (notice this is the first time I've mentioned this one!), and what an exciting tournament it was! Yes, we were literally standing at the door in excitement (except for Mehmet, who was lying on a bench), wondering if more than one youth woman was going to show up! But we moved quickly, and by 10:15, we declared her the winner and gave her the gold medal she fought so long and hard for. We can't be sure here in the announcer's booth, but we think she had tears in her eyes. It was a touching moment.

But moving right along, as we do here at Fencing Today, we quickly started the Open Women's tournament, and wiped our forehead, as there were 13 women present. Whew! This was a very quiet tournament, with not much sound, which is generally what "quiet" means. We are women here in the announcer's booth, and we're not sure, but we think it was quieter because this tournament was . . . all women. Not that women are generally more quiet than men. Except that we are.

Anyway, while quiet, it was also very exciting, and when the dust settled (I said we were quiet, not that we couldn't kick some serious a . . . oh! There's the FCC! . . . kick some serious tail), Juliette Flores came in second and Sharon Parker came in twelfth!

While the women were busy fighting to the death, the men arrived, and then it was very noisy. Not that men are noisier than women! Except that they are. And then we here in the announcer's booth decided to start the C and Higher tournament because, well, heck, everyone was there.

We in the announcer's booth saw some things today in the C and Higher we have never seen before in a fencing tournament. We saw fencers charging down the strip at top speed at one another (very exciting!). We saw fencers actually doing that weird around-the-back-of-the-head touch that we thought was on the wall just as a very strange fencing joke (very educational!). We saw fencers making barnyard animal sounds at one another (very hilarious!).

And we saw some excellent fencing, but we didn't see anyone make six touches in six seconds, and, frankly, we were disappointed, because we had watched a youtube video before the tournaments began (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqB8mN_05aI) and Kolobkov did just that in the last six seconds of Challenge Bernadott 2008 Semi-Finals.
 
But we were highly impressed at the final bout between, go ahead and guess, you'll never guess, not in a million years, oh, alright, I'll tell you, between Mehmet and Keith. Yes, these two fencers displayed an amazing ability to bob up and down. We cannot truly convey to you in the listening audience how they continued to bob up as well as down. At the end of the first period, the score was one to one, and that was a double touch.

And this is where the barnyard animal sounds came in.

But then, in a very exciting second period, Mehmet stepped off the strip!

We here at Fencing Today helpfully reminded him that Kolobkov had made six touches in six seconds at the Challenge Bernadott 2008 Semi-Finals.

In the end, though, Keith emerged victorious, with a final score of 15 to (mmnmm). We think this may have been a direct result of the barnyard sounds from earlier in the bout.

However, Mike Slater stepped in to called that bout! And the sweat was just dripping down his face, listeners! Oh, the tension, the stress in his voice as he called "Halt. Off-strip." when Mehmet stepped off! It was truly a moment to remember. Or several, now that we think of it. "Ground is here." It is indeed, listeners. It is indeed.

At the end of the day, Keith was first, Mehmet second, Mike Slater was sixth and earned his C09 (yay!), Jonathan Jefferies came in seventeenth, and John McGrew came in twenty-fourth.

And this has been your last installment of Fencing Today, until such time as another tournament happens, which will be Summer Nationals. We in the announcer's booth wish to extend our thanks to all and sundry who have made running these tournaments so very, very wonderful.

And now we are going to eat dinner.