The Pomme de Terre, once again, was an outstanding tournament. A few
comments:
Space:
The Wellesley gym space didn't have as much "atmosphere" as the
Brandeis gym, which has beautiful light and feels spacious and calm.
It also didn't have the huge bleacher seating that Brandeis had. It
was one of those cattle-barn field houses. However, it had much more
usable room. There were strips galore, more than a normal NAC,
curtained off by that pipe-and-drape stuff into four clearly-marked
strip areas with walking chutes in between. I'm not sure how
necessary the curtains were, now that I think of it, since there were
few spectators, but a friend I traveled with said that it had the
advantage of helping you know where things were. They had two of the
modular finals strips set up at the end of the space, with adequate
bleacher seating for an audience and those cool electronic
name-displays flashing the names of the competitors, and the PA system
was pretty clear considering the constraints of the space. The
vendors, armorers, bout committee, and referee center were in the
perimeter of the space and a little crowded. There was a refreshment
stand, and a running projection display of results, pools, and
pictures. The registration was out in a separate space near the
locker-rooms (showers!). On the whole, I like the Wellesley space
better even if my daughter DOES go to Brandeis.
Host hotel: Sweet. Clean. Friendly desk. Free continental
breakfast. Went out of their way to make me comfortable. Not as
close to the venue as I would prefer but you can't have everything.
Thumbs up.
Operations: There were a huge number of walk-ins despite the
well-organized pre-registration drive (and despite the T-shirt
incentive for pre-registrants) which made events start a little later
than they could have, but for me it went very smoothly. There was an
experienced, competent bout committee with lots of computers, and
there were a plenty of qualified referees. It was actively managed,
by which I mean the organizers didn't sit behind a table waiting for
people to complain, but rather walked around finding problems before
they were problems, and fixing them. I was particularly impressed by
the way they managed the difficult on-campus parking situation; we
were directed from the first lot we chose because it was too far away,
and then (because we had parked in an awkward place) someone tracked
us down and helped to park later in a lot which the college had just
opened up.
My event: as usual, the open women's sabre was a strong event, though
as usual, the field keeps getting stronger at a rate which doesn't
match my rate of improvement
. I had a nice pool, with a consistent
and courteous referee. They didn't rush us excessively (because sabre
is the fastest event, it is often run at breakneck pace, perhaps
simply because you CAN), and the DEs started very promptly. Having
trained hard for the last month and a half, I was stiff and leaden and
never felt right, and my second DE was embarrassing for both me and
the opponent who took me out, undoubtedly right on track for a
much-more-satisfying Summer Nationals for both of us.
Prizes: Nice plaques with the logo on them, and the usual potato
prizes! People are curiously motivated by the thought of snagging
these, from idle conversations I had here and there.
For anyone who wants a good tune-up for Summer Nationals, this is a
great place to be.
.
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