Hangover epee - real or urban legend?

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Several years ago, the Swedish fencing paper had a note about a competition called the "hangover epee" held by some club in New York on Jan. 1st.

Is this based on reality?

The paper noted that all hell would break loose if a club would name a competition like that over here, where teetotallers are are virulent and make up 40% (IIRC) of the parliament.

Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[Catal]

http://www.geocities.com/nyfencing/metsched_0203.html

Scroll down to January 1st, and you will see the listing for the Hangover Open. I've only ever seen one person who was visibily drunk, then hungover at the event; but, the top eight winners get some kickin' alcoholic drinks, so I imagine a number of people are hungover on the 2nd.

[counter riposte]

i think i might actually come for that... thanks catal...

[wirewoodpride]

we actually have a hangover here, I competed last year. It was great, we did an alternative to the pools to DE style. Every one has to fence everyone else in 5 point bouts. Last year I think they gave prizes to 1-12, last, highest female, and first to finish all their bouts. I wasn't old enough to win the good stuff but they had alternate prizes for us younguns. It was a blast and I am looking forward to tomorrows at DCFC.

[nahouw]

It's only called the Hangover Open because it is held on New Year's Day -- presumably, because most people were out the night before celebrating. Of course, it is always an A-rated tournament, and some people come ready to be the first person to get an A in the new year!

It's a full round-robin epee competition -- I fenced in it once; there were 24 people; I have heard of some years in which there were 40+ people, so in those years, they shortened the bouts to however many touches that the organizers felt would enable to finish the competition at a good hour.

Everybody is assigned a number, and you get a sheet with everybody's number. You have to find each person and fence with them, and keep track of your scores on your sheet. It is fun, and you get to fence alot. There are prizes of beverages for each person (of course, 1st place gets a nice bottle of scotch, and those under 18 get non-alcoholic beverages).

[135711]

Happy New Year Guys!!! May the force be with you. I'm sitting with some friends now, and we're having champagne, mimosa's and coffee, I hope you are too!! See you around the salle!!Amore!

[a517dogg]

boston fencing club also runs the jack norton hangover open every year. this year it was an A2 event. my dad got my champagne...

[earlie]

Vermiont fencing union is the best for a schnapps tournemant. Vermiont fencers know all about a good hangover. Handover no, hangover yes. Vermiont is where it is a-happening, ya-hooo!

[U.M.Amherst.Sabre95]

There's a true story about a fencer having competed for UMass in the 1980's I believe who had gone on something of a bender the night before a competition (this was back when there were some very talented fencers with, well... free spirits and varying degrees of discipline.)

The story goes that a UMass men's epeeist was in the middle of a bout when suddenly, well... next thing you know he's quickly stepping off the strip where he heaves violently into his mask. The director calls time, and in abscence of having an extra mask available, the fencer runs to the bathroom where he quicky washes the mask off, comes running back out, puts it on, and proceeds to finish the bout.

I'd hate to think of fencing hungover.

[Aoife]

lol- how lovely. At least he was determined

Surely doing anything much when hungover isn;t a good idea! (not that I've ever been hungover, of course, what with being a minor and all. No sir-ee-bob, not a drop of alcohol has past my lips )

[Chris]

Originally posted by nahouw
It's only called the Hangover Open because it is held on New Year's Day -- presumably, because most people were out the night before celebrating. (snip)
It's a full round-robin epee competition -- I fenced in it once; there were 24 people; I have heard of some years in which there were 40+ people, so in those years, they shortened the bouts to however many touches that the organizers felt would enable to finish the competition at a good hour.

I heard this year there were 37; rules posted on the internet implied that, at the beginning, some fencers were drawn at random, and winners stayed up as long as they liked. Though this still makes for a bit of "where's 'so-and-so', they are my last bout..." at the end of the day.

Originally posted by Aoife
Surely doing anything much when hungover isn;t a good idea! (not that I've ever been hungover, of course, what with being a minor and all. No sir-ee-bob, not a drop of alcohol has past my lips )

A long time ago, way back in the last millenium, when there was a little more 'go' in my tank, and a little less gut in my belt, I had occasion to combine going to a good-sized tournament (70-90 in both foil and epee) with visiting a good friend of mine, also a fencer, who was coincidently, having a Hallowe'en party that Saturday night (a good time was had by all!): though my friend only fenced foil, as luck would have it, the foil was Sunday, 8AM check-in; so when our state of consciousness changed at about 7:15, we decided that, since we had already paid our money, and the gym was only 15 minutes away, we should probably go, as we also didn't want to disappoint the organizers, whom we both knew well, and who we knew were expecting us.

Needless to say, even though the fencing did not start until sometime close to 9:00 (pre-computer age, at least at this tournament), I was really still not awake: when I recognized my first opponent as someone who had previously directed my pools in other tournaments, I wasn't sure if he was classified higher than me or not (I later found out he was a 'D'), but when he jumped up and started bouncing up and down on his toes after our bout was called, I thought to myself, "Well, I guess I'll just have to suck this one up, and try to wake up, and win some of the rest..."

When the ref' said fence, and this guy just came charging in on attack (lefty-righty), I was so tired, I just closed my eyes, and waited to get hit: I didn't realize I had done opposition-counter-attack in four, until the ref' was awarding me the point!

I figured "Well, at least I won't get shut-out!"... The THIRD time, I actually managed to keep my eyes open, and decided that, as I was ahead 3-0, I'd actually have to try to win the bout!

Fortunately, he volunteered to do all the footwork necessary for me to hit him, and whole thing only took about 10 seconds clock time; I spared him the embarassment of telling him how hung-over I was! After that I caught a 3 bout break, and actually regained some alertness, and beat most of the rest of the pool, but I think he had the worst score.

Naturally, I don't recommend actually getting drunk the night before a tournament, BUT, there IS something to be said for a couple well-timed stiff drinks the night before, to help drown out your room-mate's snoring!

Have Fun!
Fence!

Chris

[jeff]

Since Chris posted his cool story, I'll add one. I witnessed (No - wasn't me :-) a fencer competing while adversely impacted by alcohol. We had a college match the day before the Christmas break, when all afternoon classes were cancelled. So, two of the sabre fencers decided to make the best use of their time by spending the afternoon in the seedy bar near the school. Sabre fencers, what can I say?

So, they order a pitcher of beer and after one mug, one of the fencers (let's call him Gary) says 'I dont feel so good, why dont you finish the pitcher'. The other fencer (let's call him Ernie) says 'okay', and does so. After some time, Gary says 'I feel better, lets order another one'. However, Gary feels poorly soon, and Ernie winds up finishing the pitcher again. There is some understandable confusion about how many times this process is repeated, with the net result that Gary is fine when the competition starts, but Ernie is rather worse for wear.

Well, a few of us walk (drag) Ernie around the fencing room, as he's rather a limp item at the moment. But, he doesn't look worried, in fact he's saying 'I have the psychological advantage!'. The net result is that he must have been right, because he won all three of his bouts for the very first time. He was happy, the coach was happy (but a little surprised), and I didnt ask him how he felt the next day.

cheers, Jeff.

[a517dogg]

me and a friend both won our divisions of the bay state games while hungover. he was more adversely affected than i was however.