Z,

We had 34 in four pools of seven and one of six. My results were from
the pool of six was 4-1. I was feeling smooth but not getting any 5-0
shut-outs. Also, I got to fence Ray Gorden. He is the head coach at CFC.
I have been coming down to his club for many years to compete, but never
saw him in any of the events. He was left handed and had some moves that
were really surprising. I hit with attacks, then he shut those down.
Then I started drawing out his counter attacks with counter time, but he
stopped those. Then I switched to false attacks with second intention
and was able to score counter reposts. It was only a five touch
encounter and I got to hear form Gorden again later. I got to fence
Grace Fried from Hopkins who fences with The Fencers Club of New York.
She was quite good, but did not adjust for my height and I was able to
score most on reposts. I did loose one to a fellow that seemed annoyed
with my calls when I was directing his bouts; I was doing lots of
directing. He just came straight out and smashed me with brutality. Most
of the other bouts were sort of technical/easy-going in tone, I just
didn't ramp up my aggression level fast enough to be able to develop a
strong response. I was retreating to give distance and trying to parry,
but there was nothing to parry as he was sort of running up on me and
finishing with what resembled an upper-cut. That was the only bout that
he won that round, funny. That loss cost me about five places seeding
tenth into the final.

As with last week this field had a great variety of fencing ability
represented. My first round opponent was a youth, possibly under
thirteen. Strange, because the USFA restricts senior events to an age
limit of thirteen. He kept marching forward to attack and I kept
reposting with disengage for a result of 15-1. Me and Medalis were in
the same bracket but Chris M was knocked out by Ray Gorden. Ray did a
great job of preventing me from doing all my favorite stuff. I did not
follow my own advice about fencing left and often strayed in too close
and was hit by a straight lunge into eighth. I was in a tight spot long
before 3-13. I started feeing empathy for the youth from my previous
round. The amazing this was the straight lung attacks. I have
encountered very few fencers with the timing that can hit me with a
straight attack. Ray reminded me of someone from DC who is left and
often attacks exclusively with straight lunge. ...I'll think of his name
in a second.

I stayed on to finish judging the competition. Ray Gorden payed me the
standard Referee's fee for MD Div. I was our friend Patric from BDF
fence and nearly defeat Ray in the next round. They when into sudden
death at ten-ten, but Patric, who had priority was hit by counter
repost. It was unusual because the phrase did not go that deep before
then. Patric was the highest rated fencer at the event, the only one
with C6. Ray was gunning for renewal of his C, just like me his C03 is
in jeopardy if it is not renewed in this year. This time it was the Gold
metal round - Ray and one of his CFC students and again in sudden death
at six-six with his opponent with priority. This time Ray gets lured
into an attack and hit with repost, missing his upgrade by that one
elusive touch that sometimes everything comes down to. I hope to spend
some more time fencing Ray because, he reveled almost every technical
weakness that I have against left.

Cheers! ~CLF