fencing antics

[mrgenius]

what kind of silly stuff have you seen going on at fencing tourneys and practices? I mean like fencers comin in with boomboxes on their shoulders playing loud music, wearing capes, jump around, talking like shakespear, etc.

Stuff that only someone really really good can get away with without being ridiculed.

There is an Alexander Dumas Memorial fencing tournament in my area in the summer. A friend and I thought up plans for silliness, but we don't intend to carry them out. I can imagine putting wheels on a piece of wood and a clothe on a stick ontop of this wood, then "sailing" down a stream from a hose. Once we arrived inside we would declare ourselves the real D'Artagnan or Monte Cristo, then challenge each other to a duel.

I also thought of slapping opponents with a glove before everybout.
You may not find these funny but what experiences have you had with this kind of things.

[The0ne]

hmmm, my fencing antics are usually just pushing my friends over when they're streching. . .

[drseudo]

One time I hired some goons to break one of my opponent's legs with a lead pipe before a bout. I thought it was pretty funny, personally.

[telkanuru]

Well, I wore a cloak to a tourney once. Oh, and when fencing Concord-Carlisle (Best fencing team in area), our team chant before the meet was "WE'RE NUMBER FOUR!", because we are, instead of the usual "Terriers!". One of the foilists on my team last year asked his (superior) opponent if he had eaten his Wheaties (tm) that morning. We gave the same kid a pair of knickers labled "AZN'" ('cause he is) with masking tape. We made strips out of 2" white masking tape and then wrote interesting things on them, like Job 38:11 on the warning line (thus far thou shalt come, but thout shall procede no further). When a teammate says he/she can't come to club, they usually get slapped in the face by a glove and reminded that the best place to defend their honour would be at the club on the day in question. We shout "Carpe his jugulum" at our fencers who are on the strip. The universal response to the suggestion to play the game 'Jedi Mind Tricks' is "You don't want to play Jedi mind tricks with us" (accompanied by the obligatory hand wave). A sabreur always wears knee socks she picked up in germany that say "SEX" on them. Oh, and when the BU team gets near the UMass team, they apparently try to steal their gnome. I only attended BU practices, so I don't know how true this is However, I shall attend UMass ones next year, so I'm sure I'll find out That's all I can think of for now.

[MHS Fencer]

Haha, if we count high school fencing then I've had some goes at it - I once spent the seeding pool reciting the dagger soliloquoy from Hamlet over and over to harass the director (a friend) and losing just to piss her off.

Umm, I've walked in carrying a boom box playing we are the champions, of course.

Once a few of us got together and did the can-can before a meet with a team we were friends with, and then proceeded to have our worst showing ever - needless to say we didn't do that again.

I've had some other interesting experiences that I just can't think of ... some not so ridiculous stuff as just odd/weird, so I won't go into those.

[fencerontheline]

My school team had put it's hands together(at the beggining of the championship meet) and we did the thundercat's cry,

we walked out in V formation- like the mighty ducks,

I shouted all sorts of stuff when we fenced, ranging from "boomshakalaka" to "whomammy" and "Youlikeit"........

perhaps that compares to the time I fenced with a police sign headband at empire state games.... I stole it from one tree (which no longer needed it) and it read- "warning".....

[CarlKnoch]

Antics I've seen...... 2004 SE Sectinals. Three fully armored men walked through the venue. Fully armored means that they had chain mail, helms, weapons, and some assorted plate armor on.

That was just weird.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Thats would be wierd

[Gav]

I fenced in a bus station once.

[J.Harris]

Stuff that only someone really really good can get away with without being ridiculed.

Like Laurence Halsted wearing his Spiderman Mask ?

X-treme footwork's always good (footwork across a zebra crossing).

[Triton]

We had a bagpiper play for our club's Robert Burns Day mini-tournament. The winner gets the title of "Haggis King" or "Haggis Queen" and bragging rights until the next year's tournament.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Now I remember, down a stair case, and into a mens restroom. You should have seen the look on the peoples face when we were fencing in a restroom... priceless.

[laughingduelist]

A guy at my club had just returned from fencing in Turkey, and was teaching fencing at a girls theatre camp. So another friend and I got our coach to help us choreograph a duel with sabres (he used to choreograph stage fights) and we snuck into the school where the camp was being held and fought an approximately ten minute duel in the school courtyard, complete with kicking each other down stairs and similar antics (we had scoped the courtyard out the week before) right in the middle of the fencing class. There were about twenty or thirty cheering spectators by the time we had finished.

[dunastor]

The winner gets the title of "Haggis King" or "Haggis Queen" and bragging rights until the next year's tournament.

Does that mean they have to EAT Haggis too?

[The0ne]

Haggis isn't all that bad. . . Not as bad as I thought it was going to be when I tried it! My antics are all too modern for this thread. . .

[oiuyt]

Oh, and when the BU team gets near the UMass team, they apparently try to steal their gnome. I only attended BU practices, so I don't know how true this is :D However, I shall attend UMass ones next year, so I'm sure I'll find out :p That's all I can think of for now.

To clarify/further expand on this....

The night before Collegiate Club Nationals this year a group of UMassers went out for a Gatorade/video run. The grocery store they stopped at had a selection of garden gnomes for sale and it was decided that UMass needed one as a mascot. The gnome was prominently displayed throughout the weekend as UMass rotated from strip to strip. At one point BU, who we are on fairly friendly terms with, decided to steal it (successfully). UMass got "revenge" by attempting to steal Dave Blake, BU's coach (somewhat less successfully....). There were also assorted games played with the banners of the two schools (simultaneously USMA and USNA were playing various upstaging games with each others and their own school banners).

Given how well UMass did on the weekend, the gnome is likely to continue to receive prominent display at future UMass Fencing events. From rumors I've heard, BU attempting to steal him is also likely to continue. It's also fairly likely that Smith College will also be attempting to steal the gnome in the future. Courtesy of one of the art majors on our team, our gnome has been repainted and is now wearing UMass Fencing warm-ups (insanely well detailed, down to the various manufacturer's logos).

-B :)

[noodle]

...
There were also assorted games played with the banners of the two schools (simultaneously USMA and USNA were playing various upstaging games with each others and their own school banners).
...

i have pictures of those if anyone wants them
the cow cracked me up when i saw them making it and putting it up

[npkeith]

Does that mean they have to EAT Haggis too?

The thing about eating haggis (assuming it was caught in the wilds of the highlands and properly cleaned and prepared... ;-) ) is that it is traditionally served with whiskey. After 3 or 4 drinks, the stuff tastes pretty good...

Before the flaming starts, I'm a scot by heritage, and yes, I actually *like* haggis (and yes, I know whats in it.)

-Keith

[Gav]

As a Scot I can't believe that Haggis deserves so much comment. I don't like it personally - the texture is just too odd. Having said that everybody else I know loves it. It's traditionally served with 'Neeps" [aka Turnip] and 'Tatties' [aka Mashed Potato].

If you would like to try some othe real tasty cuisine try and get your hands on Cullen Skink or Cranachan (yummy!!!!).

[Triton]

The winner of the Burns Tournament is not *required* to eat any haggis, but is strongly encouraged to do so. Unfortunately, the USDA apparently frowns on authentic Scottish haggis, so an American equivalent has to serve in its place. We haven't served haggis at the event yet, but we plan to next year. Instead we have had a Burns Dinner separate from the fencing event. (Can't serve good whisky to high school kids anyway, so more for me.) The tradition is only a couple years old right now (new club and all) so we're working our way up.

And yes, for the record, I have eaten haggis, both here in the US and in Scotland. It's only bad if you think too much about what it is made out of...