I drove to Dayton today to fence the Wright Challenge at the WSU. Unfortuantely, only 5 of us were there rather than the expected 11 and thus there was one D whom I've lost to more times than I can count, one E, me, and two Us.

Guess who was older than everyone's mother.

My first bout was against a new fencer so I was pleased that I won 5-0 but figured it was just because he was new. Mr. New Fencer, however, had a good parry-with-opposition and defeated everyone except the D fencer (and got one point on him).

I lost 5-0 to Peter, the D-rated fencer, whom I've never been able to defeat, and my next bout was against the other E08 fencer. I was down 3-0 before I figured out how to fence him and went on to win 5-3. Yes! Next up was the other U and -- since our director had a good grasp of sabre RoW -- I was able to win 5-3 primarily by tricking him into counter-attacking into me.

That felt SO good!

I was seeded 2nd and had a bye and then I was up against #3 seed, which is the young fencer I'd defeated 5-0 earlier. Given what I'd seen from him fencing the others, I knew that he had a deadly parry-with-opposition and thus I focused on trying to make him fall short on an attack or -- since he liked to fence defense -- take tiny steps that kept me just out of his reach until he launched an attack. I'd either finish or parry-riposte.

I won 15-3.

I am SO evil.

Peter, of course, wiped the floor with me as he always does.

I will never be happy losing, but felt so good to win against three young and athletic guy fencers.

Old age and treachery.