I persuaded Stephen to take me to the tournament this morning, and provided him with a folding camp chair so he could enjoy himself.

The event was once again at Moorestown High, a much better venue than the old one, Cinnaminson High School, which was dark, hot, and uncomfortable. It's a pretty well-run tournament--Wayne from PdF runs it, and everything moves fast--and this year I was pretty happy with my refereeing for a change. A young gentleman named Ian was my ref in the pool, Chris Toleson refereed my first DE, and Charles Astudillo reffed my second DE.

Ian told us in the beginning he wasn't going to call bouts--not even numbers. I know there is much discussion of the virtues of this, but even with the large font I can't read the pool sheet that well. I ended up having to ask him every time when my next bout was going to be. And it was a large pool, so there were often two or three bouts between, and a number of the other girls in the pool lost track and didn't know they were up until well after the previous bout was over. I went three and three, losing to Aziza Hassan (3-5? 2-5?), Sarah Leung (same vague score), and a nice 43-year-old left-handed foilist (my notorious weakness) named Gail Kedoin (4-5). She said she hadn't really fenced for 20 years, and said "I just warm up in my living room," and had practiced twice at a club, but she was clearly a strong fencer and being disingenuous--I looked her up and she's a former NCAA champion and US team member, and coaches, so she was playing silly games with me. She also said she fenced foil, but apparently she also fenced epee in college. I beat my other opponents in the pool, including Natalia Dashnaw, Annabel Sharahy, and Paola Pliego, who was messy and cranky and who clearly thought she should have beaten me.

Ian handed me the clipboard after my last bout when I was at the table and asked me to check my results; once again a bout I won had been entered as lost, but he fixed it and didn't argue with me like the last guy. While I was standing next to the table, the fencer on the next strip smacked me on the back of the next with a wide swing. It didn't hurt, but I got out of there post-haste.

I had Pliego again for my first DE, and had the great satisfaction of beating her again. She was making a tremendous fuss about every touch that went against her, arguing the two-light touches and venting about the one-light touches, and the adults who were beside the strip with her were arguing vociferously with my referee, who was amused (as was I). It was fairly disgraceful, and she left the strip afterwards without signing the slip. I found out later she took second in the Y-14 WS yesterday, because the Y-14 girls I knew were all thanking me for beating her. I hope she gets over her attitude problem soon.

That was pretty much it for me. I had Alexandra Tannous for my second DE, and knew I wasn't executing properly because I was tired.

However, I successfully competed without showing pain today, and stayed relaxed. It was really nice having my husband there. I'm hoping to gradually get him to come to more of my events. He tends to adopt an amiably martyred air about all my tournaments, but it's not as if he wants to do anything when I stay home--he watches TV or works on his computer--so coming with me is much better for both of us.

Aziza Hassan defeated Sarah Pak to win the event. She is fencing well--she defeated Kamali Thompson before that in a very close bout--and makes lovely economical use of distance and time.