Random Acts of Good Sportsmanship

[40Saberthieves]

I was at a tournament where we were directing each other. My opponent lent me stuff multiple times.


The worst ive seen is at that same tournament. Halfway through the bout I realized that both of the opponent's sleeves were a different color than the rest of his lame, and they were both dead. He was a lefty. I was going for the arm. When I asked to test, he was like "oh ****", but then he claimed that only that touch is annuled. The ref said, "yeah, hes right". (Is that the rule?).

Then he looks at me, and he smiles like "ha, I got 10 points off you with this, let me go change lames"

[MyraTrue]

yes, its true that only the last point can be annuled. Sadly, when its something like a lamee, it feels like every point should be annuled. But because they can't say FOR SURE that you didn't score because of his potentially dead lamee, they can't do anything about it except that one most recent (last) point.

[elberto]

[quote=D'Artag-NOT]There have been a number of threads lately about bad sportsmanship--what it is, who's most guilty of it, yadda, yadda, yadda. So now . . .

Let's hear it for the good guys!

Post your stories--the gracious winner--the valiant loser--the fencer who loaned you a body cord so you could fence that crucial bout--the encouraging spectator--the steady, dependable clubmate.
QUOTE]

this one is cruel and something wierd - just too unbelievable...


previous weekend I fenced with refereeing old fencer (not age just they have been fencing a long time)
my foil broke and I was forced to fence with a french grip
they said the rule had changed and forced me to fence without moving my hand along the grip between fence and halt
I was nearly warned
I have been out of competitive fencing for 5 years and I did not realise
they had been away from the sport a while too as they were so adamant they
had been told the rule had changed

I fenced the next weekned in a competition and when my opponent moved his hand along the grip (as I had done the previous weekend) I was pretty upset as according to what I had BEEN TOLD this was cheating
I clarified with the referee after the bout that he had been watching for movement of the hand ( as I told him three times to watch my opponents hand) during an action whereas I told him I had been told the rule had changed and I had been going on about any hand movement
Nothing was said to me at that competions (round 2 of a team comp... foil of course..).

I was pretty upset re the rule as I did not know where I stood...

so I tried to query it with a few people (my state assoc. for one..) and was told the rule hadn't chnaged and I was backstabbing the person (by another person on the forum) - this pretty much upset me so i emailed him an apology as I am not that low nor stupid to accuse someone of cheating.

this is the email I got back (must be me?!)
this was my email to him:
> sorry I did not realise I had upset you over that bout and Tom (I guess)
> > - my apologies if I had as not offence was intended - I had been wrongly
> > advised of a rule change at he last teams match and warned about the
> > hand when fencing for that reason.
> >
> > I have now clarified with them that they were incorrect and had been
> > misinformed themselves.
> >
> > Sorry if you think I was trying to pick on you in any way and I must
> > admit i was pretty shocked that I could be interpreted as doing so when
> > I was trying to find out what the rule is so I don't make a fool of
> > myself again - but I am sorry if you feel this is any way so.
>
> > I feel quite stupid giving Tom a hard time (during the bout) over the
> > hand when you weren't changing your hand position during the action but
> > out of the action which I had been told was also wrong...
> >
> > Pls pass on my apologies to Tom as it appears offence may have ben given by the response I received.

I got this reply:

Albert,
>
> You accused me of cheating after the bout between us.
>
> You posted several articles lefted without acknowlegment from the web on
> the yahoo group that implied that the refereeing of Tom and myself was
> defective.
>
> I do not speak for Tom. For myself, I was offended.
>
> If you were not trying to imply the refereeing was defective then I fail
> to see your point.
>
> Apology accepted if it does not happen again.
>
> If I ever see anything written by you, like I saw today on the AFF web
> site regarding refereeing, I will ask Fencing SA to revoke your
> affiliation. They of course will probably ignore me, but I find it
> offensive that you seek to broadcast the inadequacies of Fencing in
> South Australia rather than seek to fix them through the proper channels.
>
> You should think before you write!
>
> Regards,
>
> Adrian (the bloody angry)




wow...

I was impressed, actually stunned rigid... but my reputation for being asking questions got me in trouble again I guess...

my other posts (note they were quite a way before and the replies were only recenty .. also of interest I guess... scared the beejezuz out of me..)

http://www.ausfencing.org/modules.ph...ums&file=index
...



Now how does one fence at all with this floating around in the back of your head?

sorry to bring this up I was reading this post and "blurted" this garbage out again ... having just posted replies to the accusations against me (I am the evil one I guess...lol..)

Anyway makes interesting reading I suppose and serves as a warning to others (hmmm...)

[Talyn]

Ugh, everyone in South Australia is so frigging offensive

Another reason i'm happy I live in sydney...

As for a good deed, I know of several times either myself or my opponent has acknowledged a point because our referee was a little inexperienced and simply said "attacks together" when 2 lights showed up

[bbower]

Back in the day ... Canadian Elite NAC

Westbrook vs Banos. Very close bout. Westbrook clearly scores on the final action and removes his mask very quickly in celebration. The referee annuls the touch and cards Westbrook for removal of the mask before the halt. On the next action, Banos makes an exaggerated out of distance head parry, allowing Westbrook to score the final touch.

By the rules, the referee's annulment was correct, and Banos should have been black carded for allowing his opponent to score a touch. By the spirit of the game (at least in my opinion), the referee's action was disgusting, and Banos' was the ultimate display of good sportsmanship.

[Reebek]

I was at a NAC getting ready to fence my first DE. Just as I assumed en garde, the groin strap on my lame came loose. My coach was nowhere to be found. The coach for the fencer I would fence if I won (which I did) fixed it for me. Then his fencer cleaned my clock, but it was still nice of him to do that.

Another NAC story. Despite having checked all my weapons, I had three fail before a pool bout. Some fencers from another club in my division who weren't fencing that event were there to witness this disaster, and offered to fix the weapons for me. Unfortunately, they were my only three epees. Another fencer in my pool let me use her spare. O.K., so I didn't win the bout - being two points down before it even began didn't help, but I was very grateful to all of the people who helped me. I then went back to the fencers from my division and learned how to better check and repair my equipment to avert such a disaster in the future.

[MyraTrue]

At a recent tournament I attended I was watching one of the epee pool bouts. One bout between two of the women came down to la belle. One comes forward, the other attempted to parry and reposte. The woman who'd attempted the parry riposte had her light go off, and supposedly that was the end of the bout. They were both unhooking when they both stated "I have NO IDEA where that hit".

What ended up happening was that the fencer in question with the "unknown" touche simply said "we'll say that I hit the pole, and annul it, ok?" She then lost, but I don't think it bothered her that much. I don't think it hit the pole, or the floor. But no one had a clue what it had hit...

[gojujay]

Originally Posted by D+F+P=Hadouken!

When I loaned my weapon to my opponent.... and lost.

I hate when that happens. I'm the club armorer so it's kinda odd getting beat by a weapon I fixed.

[JAySE SUiCiDE]

Hmm..I was fencing in Summer nats, and when I check the score, I only checked to make sure they wrote down the right # of points that I scored, not the opponents touches scored. So I signed off, and was hanging around the strip talking to my parents. A girl in my pool came up to me and asked how many touches she got against me. My mom kept track, and her book said I got 2, when the score sheet said she got 1. She went up and talked to the ref about it, but wouldn't change it. She asked me to go up with her, so I went up with her and said that she really did score 2 on me, and they changed it.

At a competition, I dropped my glove rushing to my strip, but didn't realize. I was at the strip and heard "spencer? spencer?" and turned around. A mom said "here..this is your glove, you dropped it" and gave it to me..thought that was awful nice

one time I needed a headband, someone else's coach gave one to me...

I was fencing a bout with someone who was older and a lot more experience than I am, and he kept giving me suggestions, and he made the bout tough for me, but didn't cream me, like he definately could have.

~Jes

[prittieinpink]

at collegiate club champions this past april in UNH, a teammate of mine was fencing some dude from some school, i dont remember. but my teammate won and the guy seemed a little upset during the bout, but quite a while afterwards he came up to my teammate and was like "im sorry i was getting upset, youre REALLY good and totally deserved to win." it was nice to see.

[daveappr]

This past summer nationals as I went to sign the score card I realized the referee had transposed the score of a bout I had lost. My opponent had signed off already but I pointed the mistake out to the referee- who then called the other fencer over- pointed out the mistake and proceeded to correct it- after some playful ribbing to drive home the point of actually reading what you sign. The playful ribbing stopped when his father? or coach heard what was happening- that was an awful earful.

[noodle]

Originally Posted by prittieinpink

at collegiate club champions this past april in UNH, a teammate of mine was fencing some dude from some school, i dont remember. but my teammate won and the guy seemed a little upset during the bout, but quite a while afterwards he came up to my teammate and was like "im sorry i was getting upset, youre REALLY good and totally deserved to win." it was nice to see.

that teammate was me

the guy got frustrated on the strip and was visibly really pissed off. he was pretty inexperienced but was forced to fence A strip in a pretty tough field. it was one of the last bouts of the tournament for them and it was just getting to him a lot. he came up later when we were leaving and apologized to me, he was a much nicer guy than he seemed on strip. i gave him some tips based on what i saw when he was fencing (he was obviously a boxer before he took up fencing). its not easy to apologise, kudos to him (i don't want to say much else about who it was for anonymity's sake)

[MyraTrue]

he was pretty inexperienced but was forced to fence A strip in a pretty tough field.

I can sympathize with the situation. I got stuck in the A slot as well.

I actually saw some pretty decent sportsmanship at club chamionships at UNH last year. I remember wanding past a foil bout and seeing one university lending another a jacket (and glove, I think) because this fencer was so sweat soaked that he was on-targeting in foil.

I do, however, remember the sabre fencer who was warming up the first day by our clubs stuff, and somehow blew his knew. Hit the floor screaming, and it sure took a while to find a trainer.

[pkt]

Now that Laurie Shong has fenced his last World Cup event in Vancovuer in March, this should be repeated. [I may be wrong on the details, someone can correct me if i'm wrong.]

In 1988 in his Cadet World Championship bout the ref gave him the last hit and therefore the bout.

Laurie corrected the ref by pointing out that his hit was on the floor. The ref accepted his statement of fact.

Laurie did go on to win the bout and the Championship. He was recognised for his sportsmanship by being awarded the Sport B.C. junior athlete of the year, 1988; Sport Canada's National Fair Play Award, 1989; B.C.'s Fair Play Award, 1992.

http://www.fencing.ca/athlete_bios/laurie_shong_bio.htm

PK

[I_luv_saber]

I remeber one time at a tourney my bodycord failed. My friend lent me one which I proceeded to break in my 3rd pool bout. He lent me his 2nd spare and I finished the tourney. I replaced the one I broke, of course, but I liked the fact he was still willing to lend me a cord after I accidently broke his 1st spare.

[noodle]

Originally Posted by MyraTrue

I do, however, remember the sabre fencer who was warming up the first day by our clubs stuff, and somehow blew his knew. Hit the floor screaming, and it sure took a while to find a trainer.

i remember seeing that, sucked for him for sure, such bad luck/timing

i feel that usacfcs is pretty friendly and sportsmanlike because a lot of the teams know the other teams, its often a competition amongst friends