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I was there when the lights went out on Saturday.
As a participant in the Epee Open I cannot know nor, given the circumstances, shall I ever again care what results of that event might have been posted under different circumstances. I DO know I excelled in the pools, besting Bill Gelnow, top seed in the event, in the process. So I expected high standings in the results table, had there been any official result. But such was not to be - the electrical situation was the hand dealt us and we are fencers, infinitely adaptable to situations - that is our calling.
In that context I'll never forget our Club's response, dealing with a raw situation, on Sunday at mid-day. Addressing us, the Open Foilists, when the entries closed Paul Egli to his avowed and everlasting credit announced loud and clear the circumstances of the situation, the committee's plan of action, and how that action plan would implemented. And to it's avowed and everlasting credit, under impossible circumstances, the bout committee of Salle Santa Cruz - through the extraordinary efforts of Mary Keene, Jeff Powell, and unnamed others - pulled that off, and made that action plan manifest....
And so I was there that night, in utter darkness except for those jury-rigged lamps, when Anen and Murugin faced off...
What was subsequently witnessed was among the most dramatic, brilliant fencing matches most of us have yet seen in our brief lives. And that match owes it's very existence to just a very few persons of action, reacting to an emergency, attacking an extraordinary, unforeseen situation, and carrying out their game plan forcibly, effectively, honorably, brilliantly...
Daniel Silvernail
Salle Santa Cruz
On May 2, 2007, at 10:47 AM, Karen Bailey wrote:
We shouldn't forget the other saviours of the boardwalk, all of the peopletrying to run in under difficult circumstances. I have been involved inevery boardwalk since its inception and none have been more difficult thanthis one. So let me add my thanks to Paul for being the diplomat, organizerand goodwill ambassador, to Sarah for manning the desk at the most difficulttime and losing her voice in the process and probably her energy for thefoil the next day, to Mary, John, and Andrew for throwing themselves in tothe fires of directing some not to pleasant fencers and Amanda for bothdirecting and helping with registration and last but not least to Geoff andJohann for coming up with the lights , generator and other equipment to keepus going. This one was a team effort. If I have left anyone out pleaseforgive and blame it on mad cow disease, also called old age.BobFrom: "Mary Keane" <mary.keane@...>Reply-To: santacruzfencing@yahoogroups.comTo: "'Jeff Powell'" <jeffp@...>, "'SDCFencers'" <fencers@...>Subject: [santacruzfencing] RE: Salle DeCesare and the Boardwalk OpenDate: Tue, 1 May 2007 20:52:11 -0700And a hearty thank you from Salle Santa Cruz!!-----Original Message-----From: Jeff Powell [mailto:jeffp@...]Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2007 4:09 PMTo: SDC FencersCc: Mary KeaneSubject: Salle DeCesare and the Boardwalk OpenHey Gang,I need to tell you a story. It is titled:How Salle DeCesare Helped Save The Boardwalk OpenOn Saturday, the Boardwalk Open was in full swing inthe UCSC campus when the unexpected happened: the powerwent out. Apparently the entire campus went dark.I wasn't there, but the good folks from Salle SantaCruz that were hosting the tournament realized thatall of SDC's scoring machines could be run on batteries,and moved what they could over to those machines.Alas, it wasn't enough, and power wasn't restored quickly.They had to stop the open epee at the round of 16.Basically, the fencing was called due to darkness.On Sunday morning I was called by Mary Keane askingwhat they could do to run their other scoring machineson batteries, as they had the foil half of the entireevent to run, the power still wasn't back, and 4 stripswasn't enough.We talked a while and figured out a plan. Mary has agenerator and I have a big UPS. That combination woulddrive their scoring machines just fine. Ambient light wasenough for the morning and afternoon, so we hoped thingswould go fast. And they did, for a while. They had 8strips in use as often as they could, but eventuallythings slowed down as fencers were directing, they ranout of directors, breaks were needed, and what-not.And darkness set in, again. As it always does.But Sunday we had more time to plan. We got some halogenlights (thanks to Mary's SO) and put them on the generator.Then we finished the open foil events using SDC's batteryoperated strips. It was an odd sight, fencing by halogenwork light on two strips in that big gym, but it worked.We finished cleaning up at about 9:15pm, I think. Wellafter dark.It was an interesting and eventful tournament, but itnever would have finished up without SDCs equipment.So on behalf of Salle Santa Cruz I need to thank thegood people of SDC for the equipment loan. Though it wasnever planned that way, it saved the day. Thank you!The UCSC people say the problem is the main undergroundpower cable to the west fieldhouse is bad and must bereplaced. They weren't going to work on that untilMonday to save money. Imagine that. :)Anyway, thanks again. You really came through!--jeffp_________________________________________________________________Get a FREE Web site, company branded e-mail and more from Microsoft OfficeYahoo! Groups Links<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:<*> Your email settings:Individual Email | Traditional<*> To change settings online go to:(Yahoo! ID required)<*> To change settings via email:<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
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