Irish Open 2011
This year, UCD finally got to hold the Irish Open with the men’s epee satellite attached after last year’s epic snow closed down the UCD campus and the competition moved to RDS Library. While the epee saw a varied list of nationalities entered with fencers seeking points to help toward their Olympic qualifications, sabreurs would be content with mostly Irish based fencers. The main addition was the US Metro fencers that Mc Namee brought with him from Paris, among this group, Gilmas, who last year beat Mc Namee in the final.
The poules were always going to throw a bit of a mix up with the US Metro fencers all too low in the rankings to take any of the top two seeds in any of the poules. There were four poules and there was one fencer in each who won all four matches to grab the top four seeds for the DE’s. McHugh took top seed, helped by having an extra match to boost his points difference. While Mc Namee and Magee took third and fourth seeds respectively, each winning their poules outright, there was a surprise in poule two.
Concannon and Connolly must have cursed their luck to have Gilmas dropped into their poule and the match between the two took on extra importance as a result. When the top seeds did meet, Connolly took the lead over Concannon with a couple remises and closed out the match, 5-3, with a pair parry quinte-ripostes.
A few matches later, Concannon and Gilmas faced off and while Concannon had upped his game with more active footwork, Gilmas’ class showed through as he glided forward in attack winning the match 5-4. One of the final matches of the poule would decide the poule winner as Connolly and Gilmas stepped onto the piste. Connolly pulled out some timely counter-attacks to steal the win leaving Gilmas with a surprised defeat as Connolly went to take second seed for the DE’s.
The seedings were overturned only once in the L32 in a round where only the top three had got byes as Francois-Dainville (17th, FRA) knocked out Boggia (16th, NED). The L16 churned up a few more interesting matches, in the top half of the tableau Cadoret (9th, FRA) put out Nicholl (8th) in a close bout while McHugh, Gilmas and Magee all progressed to the quarter finals. On the bottom half of the tableau Concannon (11th) knocked out Tobin (6th) as Mc Namee, Hayes and Connolly also progressed.
In the quarter finals Cadoret met McHugh and while the match was close in the beginning, it began to get away from McHugh as the match wore on and he grew frustrated with the calls going against his failed attacks. Cadoret would then meet his club mate Gilmas in the semi final as Gilmas beat the young and upcoming Magee.
Elsewhere, in the loudest match of the day, Concannon met Mc Namee in a highly strung contest as the Irish number one and two went head to head. While the early points went to Concannon in the centre, Mc Namee clawed himself back into the match with some composed attacks at the end of great acceleration. In the second half of the match as Mc Namee began to dominate the centre of the piste, Concannon forced the match out to the ends of the piste where his counter attacks came into play. At 13-13, Concannon landed a hit only to have the spool disconnect from the ground wires. He managed to regain his composure, however, and win the last two points to win 15-13. He would meet Connolly in the semi final after he had knocked out Hayes in the last quarter final.
Neither of the semi finals could match the drama of the preceding quarter final. Concannon’s footwork had improved throughout the day since the fencing Connolly in the poules and as a result, Connolly struggled to land the same long attacks. As Concannon pulled through 15-6, Gilmas knocked out his fellow countryman Cadoret in the other semi, 15-7.
Once again, Gilmas and Concannon were to meet and Concannon started the match stronger with some clean attacks and a couple of counter attacks that stopped Gilmas’ fluid attacks. Gilmas went into the break trailing 8-6 but advice from his teammates seemed to pay off. He came out of the break with new verve and his classy footwork truly came to the fore as he glided forward to land attack after attack. Concannon struggled to read the difference between failed and compound attacks as his counter attacks failed to win any points from the president. While Concannon grew frustrated, point by point Gilmas pulled away and finished off with sustained composure to a 15-12 with a commanding second half to the match.
While Concannon continued his good run on home soil, perhaps the next most notable performance of the day was Connolly who has now seeded second in two competitions in a row (Derry last month too) as he seems to dominate five point matches with a very relaxed style of fencing that hasn’t yet work for him in the latter stages of a competition.
It was, however, the French Gilmas who took the plaudits once more as he collected the trophy for a second year running, something not achieved that often in men’s sabre in Ireland. The big quesiton now is, will he come back next year to make it three from three?
Canco
Click here for full results.
5 Nations Fencing Championship 2011
Last weekend, Wales held the 5 Nations in Cardiff and it was the first time in 3 years that all nations took part in men’s sabre. This year, the Irish team was made up of Concannon (c), McCabe, McHugh and Mills. The experience within the team was mixed as McCabe and Mills were called up to the first team for the first time, McHugh was called back after his impressive debut in Herfordshire last year while Concannon was called up again for his fifth time in a row.
There were high hopes among the team that they could snatch a couple of wins on the day which would have been a huge feat as the team has only won one match in the previous four years, a win that came against a weakened Welsh team in Belfast two years ago (I am unaware of any results before this but the MS team were certainly not known for winning many matches). That’s not to say there haven’t been some close matches, three years ago in Glasgow Ireland lost 45-43 to Wales and last year there was the agonising 45-44 defeat to Scotland which almost saw a 7 point deficit turned around in the final bout.
Northern Ireland were first up with a very different team to that first selected. Kitson, Nicholl and Nicholls were replaced by Jackson, Salter and Vondes. Dowse was the only fencer from the original selection to make it to the competition and the team was to change further still on the day as Jackson was called away to fence epee on the day to leave Northern Ireland without any subs for their men’s sabre team.
Concannon got the ball rolling with an unconvincing 5-4 over Dowse as Ireland started with a 123 (3 being anchor) of Mills, McHugh, Concannon. Mills then stepped up for his first senior international bout against Northern Ireland anchor Vondes who is preparing for the Junior Commonwealths next year. Mills didn’t have the strong start he might have hoped for, losing 6-1 but there was plenty of time left in the day to recover. McHugh stepped onto the piste and immediately put Ireland back in front, punishing Salter with a 9-3 bout to leave Ireland 15-13 to the good.
The match remained close but within a three bout period, all three Irish fencers dropped matches to let Northern Ireland sneak back into the lead, 35-34, towards the business end of the match. With the pressure on, there was no better man to step onto the piste than McHugh who fenced with great aggression to win the bout 6-4 take the lead back for Ireland, 40-39. Nerves were clearly high and while Concannon first extended the lead, Vondes settled and started to claw some points back. The crucial point came at 43-42 when Concannon forced Vondes to finish an attack early and landed his counter-attack. Despite dropping another hit, Concannon remained composed to land an “attack no, counter-attack touche” and take the match 45-43.
The British team could have lined out a stronger team but there was no need. Their team of Braine (just selected as a referee for England for the Olympics next year), Crutchett (Alex, not his older borther Anthony who was on the team last year), Fotherby and Ratneswaren were all inside the British top 20 and comfortably won men’s sabre on the day, the closest match a 45-31 victory over Scotland.
Against England the team lined up with the 123 of McCabe, Mills, McHugh. While McHugh started with a decent 5-3 defeat to Braine, England quickly accelerated into a big lead of 15-3 before Ireland were scored another point. Despite facing a new level of fencing, McCabe settled himself well after a first tough match to take 3 points from Crutchett.
The highlight for the Irish in this match came when Mills stepped up against anchor and experienced fencer Braine. Finding his distance, Mills caught Braine relaxed and took points from counter-attacks as Braine crept forward at much too slow a pace to threaten. The dream wasn’t to be though as Braine upped his tempo enough to prevent an embarrassing scoreline, Mills won the bout 6-5. Concannon subbed in for Mills seeking to put some more points on the board but was swiftly dealt a beating by Crutchett, 5-0.
The only thing Concannon could take away from the match was catching Crutchett’s visor on one occassion but he was far off the pace and should have let Mills finish out the match. In the end, England finished with a commanding 45-17 win, a result that the Irish would endeavour to leave behind them as the day went on.
The Scots were up next with another team of varied experience. Clarke won a point at the Copenhagen satellite two years ago, Ghosh has been on the satellite circuit for some time, Rocks has several satellites under his belt while Veitch is a raw talent and one to watch for the future after only turning 17 in September. It was a match that the Irish hoped they could challenge in and reverted to the 123 of Mills, McHugh, Concannon.
Concannon once again opened with a slow 5-4 win when Ireland threw the match into confusion. Despite Mills being called to the piste, McHugh stepped on to drop a match and Mills stepped on when McHugh was called to claw back some points to leave the score 15-13 to Scotland. It was at this point the error was noticed and Ireland learned just how lucky they were.
Up until recently, if a team went on in the incorrect order, they were given a black card. However, a recent rule change states that the match should go back to the point when the last correct match took place. This would have put Ireland back to a 5-4 win but as Ireland had made the mistake, they were willing to continue the match in the new order of McHugh, Mills, Concannon.
McHugh then dragged Ireland back into the match again using his raw speed against Ghosh, the slowest of the Scots, winning the bout 7-3 to give Ireland a 20-18 lead. Concannon continued his poor form and found himself flatfooted against Veitch who pulled the points back 7-4 to put Scotland 25-24 ahead and they never looked back. Ireland didn’t get more than 3 points in any of the remaining matches. Scotland even managed to sub Ghosh off for Rocks who continued their winning ways and Clarke disposed of Concannon 5-2 in the last bout with several parry ripostes, one of them a spectacular parry seconde-riposte to give Scotland a 45-33 win.
The Irish left the Scottish match disappointed but the attitude from Mills and McCabe was highly commendable as they lifted Concannon in particular to turn the focus to the Welsh match coming up. It was just as well as Wales were the next closest country to Ireland and if a second win was ever coming, it would be against Wales. The Irish team continued unchanged but this time stuck to the order they were supposed to…
Wales lined up with a team of Perry, Nickel and Jupp with Crawford on the bench. While Crawford has dropped out of the British rankings, Nickel and Perry sit at 26th and 30th respectively. Jupp has dropped to 51st in the last year as he has eased off his training but is never a fencer to be taken lightly.
Concannon started strongly with a 5-2 against Perry. Jupp however, turned it around immediately with an 8-3 over Mills that would almost suggest he never took a break from training. Nickel and Perry kept the score ticking over for Wales until Concannon went up against former club mate Nickel. Concannon took a few points back against Nickel to close the gap to 25-22 but Jupp put Wales straight back on course with a victory over McHugh. Concannon provided a brief rally in the last match with a 7-5 against Jupp but it wasn’t to be as Wales ran out 45-36 winners.
Elsewhere, England ran out comfortable winners against each of the other nations. While England swept Scotland aside, Scotland were still clear runner-ups as the most points they conceded was 34 to Northern Ireland. Wales finished third after beating both Irish teams while the Republic of Ireland avoided the wooden spoon with their victory over Northern Ireland.
It was a shame that Ireland couldn’t come closer to another win but the fencers didn’t all hit their peaks together and that was exactly what was needed to cause any upsets. Still, beggers can’t be chosers and Ireland should be happy to take their win over Northern Ireland even if they will hope that they challenge a bit stronger next year.
Canco
For all results, see below*
*Substitutes were not recorded in the results below, I have filled in anything that I saw from the Irish matches.
Round #1 – Pools
| Pool #1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | V | TS | TR | Ind | Pl | ||
| England | 1 | V45 | V45 | V45 | V45 | 4 | 180 | 105 | +75 | 1 | ||
| Ireland | 2 | D17 | V45 | D33 | D36 | 1 | 131 | 178 | -47 | 4 | ||
| Northern Ireland | 3 | D27 | D43 | D34 | D39 | 0 | 143 | 180 | -37 | 5 | ||
| Scotland | 4 | D31 | V45 | V45 | V45 | 3 | 166 | 138 | +28 | 2 | ||
| Wales | 5 | D30 | V45 | V45 | D26 | 2 | 146 | 165 | -19 | 3 |
| # | Ireland | TS | Score | Score | TS | England | # |
| 3 | MCHUGH, Jack | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 6 |
| 1 | MCCABE, John | 0 | 3 | 10 | 5 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 |
| 2 | MILLS, Chris | 0 | 3 | 15 | 5 | FOTHERBY, Will | 4 |
| 1 | MCCABE, John | 3 | 6 | 20 | 5 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 6 |
| 3 | MCHUGH, Jack | 2 | 8 | 25 | 5 | FOTHERBY, Will | 4 |
| 2 | MILLS, Chris | 6 | 14 | 30 | 5 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 |
| 1 | MCCABE, John | 0 | 14 | 35 | 5 | FOTHERBY, Will | 4 |
| 2 | Concannon, Stephen | 0 | 14 | 40 | 5 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 6 |
| 3 | MCHUGH, Jack | 3 | 17 | 45 | 5 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 |
| D17 | V45 |
| # | Scotland | TS | Score | Score | TS | Northern Ireland | # |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | DOWSE, Niall | 6 |
| 1 | VEITCH, Robert | 3 | 8 | 10 | 7 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 7 | 15 | 14 | 4 | SALTER, Mike | 4 |
| 1 | VEITCH, Robert | 5 | 20 | 16 | 2 | DOWSE, Niall | 6 |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 | 25 | 18 | 2 | SALTER, Mike | 4 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 5 | 30 | 22 | 4 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 1 | VEITCH, Robert | 5 | 35 | 25 | 3 | SALTER, Mike | 4 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 5 | 40 | 30 | 5 | DOWSE, Niall | 6 |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 | 45 | 34 | 4 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| V45 | D34 |
| # | England | TS | Score | Score | TS | Wales | # |
| 3 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 1 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 | 10 | 8 | 6 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| 2 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 | 15 | 9 | 1 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 1 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 | 20 | 12 | 3 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 3 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 5 | 25 | 16 | 4 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 2 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 | 30 | 18 | 2 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| 1 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 | 35 | 20 | 2 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 2 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 | 40 | 24 | 4 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 3 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 5 | 45 | 30 | 6 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| V45 | D30 |
| # | Ireland | TS | Score | Score | TS | Northern Ireland | # |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | DOWSE, Niall | 6 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 1 | 6 | 10 | 6 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 9 | 15 | 13 | 3 | SALTER, Mike | 4 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 5 | 20 | 17 | 4 | DOWSE, Niall | 6 |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 5 | 25 | 23 | 6 | SALTER, Mike | 4 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 5 | 30 | 29 | 6 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 4 | 34 | 35 | 6 | SALTER, Mike | 4 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 6 | 40 | 39 | 4 | DOWSE, Niall | 6 |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 5 | 45 | 43 | 4 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| V45 | D43 |
| # | Scotland | TS | Score | Score | TS | Wales | # |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 1 | GHOSH, Julian | 5 | 10 | 8 | 6 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 5 | 15 | 10 | 2 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 1 | GHOSH, Julian | 5 | 20 | 17 | 7 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 | 25 | 17 | 0 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 5 | 30 | 23 | 6 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| 1 | GHOSH, Julian | 5 | 35 | 23 | 0 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 5 | 40 | 25 | 2 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 | 45 | 26 | 1 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| V45 | D26 |
| # | England | TS | Score | Score | TS | Northern Ireland | # |
| 3 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | SALTER, Mike | 6 |
| 1 | FOTHERBY, Will | 5 | 10 | 3 | 2 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 2 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 | 15 | 6 | 3 | DOWSE, Niall | 4 |
| 1 | FOTHERBY, Will | 5 | 20 | 9 | 3 | SALTER, Mike | 6 |
| 3 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 | 25 | 11 | 2 | DOWSE, Niall | 4 |
| 2 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 | 30 | 17 | 6 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 1 | FOTHERBY, Will | 5 | 35 | 19 | 2 | DOWSE, Niall | 4 |
| 2 | BRAINE, Gildas | 5 | 40 | 24 | 5 | SALTER, Mike | 6 |
| 3 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 | 45 | 27 | 3 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| V45 | D27 |
| # | Ireland | TS | Score | Score | TS | Wales | # |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 3 | 8 | 10 | 8 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 4 | 12 | 15 | 5 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 2 | 14 | 20 | 5 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 8 | 22 | 25 | 5 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 2 | 24 | 30 | 5 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 3 | 27 | 35 | 5 | NICKEL, Joe | 4 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 2 | 29 | 40 | 5 | PERRY, Dan | 6 |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 7 | 36 | 45 | 5 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 |
| D36 | V45 |
| # | Scotland | TS | Score | Score | TS | England | # |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 6 |
| 1 | VEITCH, Robert | 0 | 1 | 10 | 5 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 2 | 3 | 15 | 5 | FOTHERBY, Will | 4 |
| 1 | VEITCH, Robert | 1 | 4 | 20 | 5 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 6 |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 10 | 14 | 25 | 5 | FOTHERBY, Will | 4 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 4 | 18 | 30 | 5 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 |
| 1 | VEITCH, Robert | 1 | 19 | 35 | 5 | FOTHERBY, Will | 4 |
| 2 | ROCKS, Stephen | 5 | 24 | 40 | 5 | CRUTCHETT, Alex | 6 |
| 3 | CLARKE, Michael | 7 | 31 | 45 | 5 | RATNESWAREN, Maiyuran | 5 |
| D31 | V45 |
| # | Wales | TS | Score | Score | TS | Northern Ireland | # |
| 3 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | SALTER, Mike | 6 |
| 1 | CRAWFURD, Jim | 5 | 10 | 4 | 3 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 2 | PERRY, Dan | 5 | 15 | 11 | 7 | DOWSE, Niall | 4 |
| 1 | CRAWFURD, Jim | 4 | 19 | 20 | 9 | SALTER, Mike | 6 |
| 3 | JUPP, Alastair | 4 | 23 | 25 | 5 | DOWSE, Niall | 4 |
| 2 | PERRY, Dan | 4 | 27 | 30 | 5 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| 1 | CRAWFURD, Jim | 8 | 35 | 34 | 4 | DOWSE, Niall | 4 |
| 2 | PERRY, Dan | 5 | 40 | 38 | 4 | SALTER, Mike | 6 |
| 3 | JUPP, Alastair | 5 | 45 | 39 | 1 | VONDEE, Morgan | 5 |
| V45 | D39 |
| # | Ireland | TS | Score | Score | TS | Scotland | # |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | GHOSH, Julian | 6 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 2 | 7 | 10 | 6 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 6 | 13 | 15 | 5 | VEITCH, Robert | 4 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 7 | 20 | 18 | 3 | GHOSH, Julian | 6 |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 4 | 24 | 25 | 7 | VEITCH, Robert | 4 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 2 | 26 | 30 | 5 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 |
| 1 | MILLS, Chris | 3 | 29 | 35 | 5 | VEITCH, Robert | 4 |
| 2 | MCHUGH, Jack | 2 | 31 | 40 | 5 | Rocks, Stephen | 6 |
| 3 | CONCANNON, Stephen | 2 | 33 | 45 | 5 | CLARKE, Michael | 5 |
| D33 | V45 |
Intermediates 2011
The season may have begun for some over in Bristol or Hamlet but for most Irish sabreurs, the season only kicked off last weekend with the Intermediates in UCD. The full results have not yet been made available but here’s what I’ve got from memory, feel free to leave comments if I’ve made any mistakes…
The entry list was comprised of all sorts as foilists and epeeists entered the fray. I’m sure the sabreurs were delighted to see the entry reach the 17 mark for the extra points made available. Two of the additional non-sabreurs, Keith Halloran and Dong Li, were going for the All-Weapons trophy. Halloran had an eight place lead but nothing could be taken forgranted as sabre was foreign to both of them.
From the start of the day the last four would have been predicted by many as McHugh, McCabe, Gonzalez and David turned up, each looking for their first ranked trophy. There was always a chance for upset though as there were only three poules which meant that some of the top four seeds would have to face each other before the knock-outs.
In the first round of poules, the two top seeds to meet were McCabe and Gonzalez (winner?). Elsewhere, McHugh and Davis topped each of their poules respectively. While Davis had an extra match over McHugh to potentially beat him to top seed on indicators, it was McHugh’s devastating form that saw him take the top seed after the first round of poules. In his four matches, he dropped a single hit, coming with a lapse in concentration as he was 4-0 up in his final bout. Davis did manage to take second seed after topping his poule with five wins from five.
McHugh maintained the top seed after the second round of poules, even if his form was slightly less prolific. Davis and McCabe took second and third seeds while Gonzalez took fourth seed. Also spread throughout the poules were some new U-18 faces from Boyne Valley and it was great to see them nicking points from the big names.
The final place in the L16 was to be decided by an all Boyne Valley affair between McCann and Crinion. Time was causing pressure which meant that neither fencer had a coach to guide them through the minute’s break which McCann took an 8-4 lead into. While Crinion rallied to close the gap in the second half, the run didn’t continue and McCann was rewarded with a batism of fire match with McHugh in the L16.
The most eventful aspect of the L16 was the All-Weapons Trophy. Dong was first eliminated (by Kearns) which awarded Halloran with the trophy despite being knocked out himself a few minutes later 15-8 by Gonzalez.
One of the names to watch at the start of the competition was Alex Chekowski (?) who has impressed lately especially at the Souths. He must surely have been looking for a break into the semi’s but it may still be a bit too soon for the Belrussian. My prediction is that he’ll cause some upsets yet in the latter half of the season if he keeps up his training.
The semi-final line-up consisted of the best fencers of the past season with McHugh facing Gonzalez in a Trinity affair. This could well be Gonzalz’ last competition in Ireland before returning to Columbia. The second semi-final was a repeat of the final in Carrickfergus where Davis faced McCabe.
McCabe had the edge over Davis after an early exchange of points and when the battle in the middle started to swing in McCabe’s favour, Davis couldn’t mix up his game enough to change the direction in which the match was going. The other semi-final saw McHugh through to the final in a match that went from high levels of tension to humour between points between the fencers and the president.
In the final, McHugh performed strongly and despite some good attacks in the middle from McCabe, he couldn’t rely on his usually successful counterattacks to the same extent as he might have liked. McHugh went home with his first trophy in what he must hope is the first of many.
It was a good sign of things to come for Ireland too as both McHugh and McCabe will be fencing together at the Five Nations in a month’s time. The season has kicked off in earnest now as the Wests and the VDS are up in the next two weeks so by the end of November we will have a much better idea of how the season will progress.
South of Ireland Open 2011
UCC and the Mardyke sports centre hosted the South’s last this weekend for the only ranked competition of the colleges’ summer break. Late entries ranging from the local Tobin to the far travelling Foyle and Londonderry troupe boosted the strength of the competition significantly raising the entry to 19 fencers.
The awkward number of entrants left DT John Jones with the decision of whether to have big or small poules. Small poules of four and five were chosen to ensure a well-run competition maintaining the reputation the South’s has earned for being one of the best run competitions in the country.
Out of four poules there were only two who came through the first round without dropping any matches. Concannon pulled through dropping only three hits to top the rankings. Davis found himself in the small poule but his 2nd seed was well deserved as he came from 3-0 down to beat McCabe 5-3.
The poule of death saw Nicholl, Tobin and Hayes lumped together. None of the three could win all of their matches as they traded bouts, the closest of them a 5-4 win for Nicholl over Tobin. No one escaped unscathed from the final poule either as Connolly, Gonzalez and a surprise Skonieczny swapped matches too, a great feat for Skonieczny who was knocked out in the first round of the South’s last year.
In the second round Concannon continued his run, winning all his matches to secure top seed. Elsewhere, Nicholl, Connolly and Tobin all won their matches to take second, third and fourth seeds respectively. The closest challenge to any of the top four seeds in the second round of poules was when Beirne (ITC) took Nicholl to 5-4.
In the incomplete L32, Donnolly beat Kearns 15-7 and Staunton beat Lemarchand 15-13. In the final match two of John McCabe’s clubs faced off with Beirne (ITC) beating Reid (Boyne Valley) 15-8.
For the most part, the seedings held true in the L16 but there were two matches that bucked the trend. Right in the centre of the rankings, Davis (9th) pulled out a fantastic display to overturn McDermott (8th) 15-8. The closest match of the L16 saw Hayes (6th) face McCabe (11th) in an enthralling match where McCabe came out on top 15-13.
The seedings were only overturned once in the quarters as Magee (5th) beat Tobin (4th). The match had started off very close but in the end Magee pulled away for a 15-11 victory. The other quarter final results saw Concannon beat Davis 15-9 in a spirited display by Davis, Concannon only pulling away after the break. Connolly reached the semis via a 15-10 win over McCabe while Nicholl sent out a resounding message with a 15-3 win over Gonzalez.
Magee Finding Another Riposte
Of the four semi-finalists, there were three Foyle and Londonderry fencers. The coach Mike Westgate has done a terrific job bringing in new blood into the sport and the dominance of his students could become a familiar sight in future competitions.
In the first semi, Nicholl beat Connolly 15-12. Nicholl stepped off the gas towards the end of the match and allowed Connolly to close the distance before Nicholl fell over the line. The second semi between Concannon and Magee was to be a different match.
Concannon and Magee had met only twice before Saturday, both time in the poules and Magee had won on both occasions. However, they met in both poules on Saturday where Concannon triumphed both times to leave them at two victories apiece. This semi-final was the first time they had met in the DE’s.
The match began in tense fashion. Concannon never led by more than two points in the opening period and at the break Concannon had a slim 8-7 lead. Most points were being fenced in the centre of the piste and while Magee picked off Concannon on some nice preparation hits, most of Concannon’s hits came from sheer power as Magee struggled to successfully parry many of Concannon’s direct attacks.
Concannon received some useful advice at the break to take the match out of the centre the piste to allow his footwork come into play. It worked, Magee struggled to land several attacks in the 2nd half and the more Magee failed to capitalise on priority, the more he was caught in preparation. Concannon won his place in the final with a 15-10 win.
The Concannon-Nicholl final was to be a repeat of the VDS semi-final which Nicholl won. It might not have crossed Nicholl’s mind but if he was to win here he would earn enough points to overtake Concannon in the rankings and secure 2nd place for the end of the season.
The pair stayed in the centre for the first few points and then Concannon started to pull Nicholl out of the centre allowing Nicholl to take priority. He was punished almost immediately as Nicholl pulled out a huge lunge to Concannon’s flank. It was the last long clean attack for a long time, however, as Concannon discovered his quinte parry while Nicholl used his footwork to repeatedly get out of Concannon’s lunging distance.
At the break Concannon was up 8-4 and burst off the engarde line in the 2nd half as he had done in the semi-final to build up a commanding lead, most of his points coming from counter attacks in Nicholl’s preparation. Concannon was temporarily stalled on 13 as Nicholl won back four points in a row but Concannon killed off the comeback to win the match 15-9 and win his first competition in Ireland since the Wests way back at the start of the season.
With one season finishing and eyes turning straight away to the season ahead there are almost certainly changes laying in wait for the year ahead. The new ranking system means that the British and international circuit will surely play a bigger part in who finishes at the top this time next year.
This year McNamee took home 1st place in comfortable fashion mixing some great home and international results – winner at the Nationals and runner-up at the Open while taking bronze at the Helsinki satellite.
While I might not be brave enough to predict a change at the very top of the table for next season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least two of Nicholl, Connolly and Magee battling their way into the top 5 as Foyle and Londonderry continue to build on their recent successes.
Canco
For full results, click here.
Carrickfergus 2011
Rumour had been rife that this year’s Carrickfergus Open would not be held but last weekend it did and it turned up a couple of surprises. There was several that made the trip up from the Southern counties including Concannon, Davis and McCabe, who also brought several of his Boyne Valley protégés to their first competition.
The entry stood at 13 as, surprisingly, few of the experienced Northern fencers made the trip this year with big names Downey, Jackson, Nicholl and Kitson all missing. Perhaps they got word that the traditional sponsors of the Open, those that provide the much craved winner’s sword, had pulled out this year.
Due to a strange twist, both Concannon and McCabe found themselves in the small poule of 6 while Davis had an opportunity to win all of his matches as he faced Brigadir and Kearns in his poule. Concannon came out with 5/5 dropping a total of 7 hits, giving him an indicator of +18. McCabe only dropped one bout to Concannon and finished the poule 4/5.
However, it was in the other poule that Davis was making waves. He had won 5/6 bouts and with one remaining took the time to check out the standings in the smaller poule which had already finished. Going into the last bout he had indicators of +16. Davis closed his poule with a 5-3 win which put his wins at 6/6 and indicators of +18. With Davis and Concannon tied at the top on indicators, Davis grabbed the first seed for the first time on points scored with 30 to Concannon’s 25.
McCabe’s fortune was out of his hands as anyone in the large poule who dropped only one bout would seed third ahead of him. As fate would have it, both Brigadir and one of Boyne Valley’s novices dropped two bouts and McCabe snuck in as third seed.
With a shortage of pistes, delays were inevitable but the sabreurs were assured that they would be fencing within the castle rather than the marquee. This came as great relief as the marquee had some questionable flooring which could have led to fencers catching their feet in the middle of points.
The quarters saw two Boyne Valley club mates face off (names are welcome in comments as the results aren’t up yet!) with the winner through to challenge the top seed Davis in the semis. Meanwhile, Concannon and McCabe set up a second match of the day in the other semi.
The first semi saw Davis take on (Alec). Davis took a comfortable lead at the start of the match, so much so he went into the break with an 8-2 lead. (Alec) wasn’t finished just yet and with the Boyne Valley crowd rallying behind him there was a comeback on the cards. A huge string of successful hits closed the gap down to two points at 10-8 to Davis, who seemed to have lost his fluidity and was attempting slower versions of his earlier successful counter-attacks. Davis dug deep though and closed out the match with beaming pride for his first final appearance.
The second semi saw Concannon start slowly as McCabe took a 3-1 lead. Concannon got vocal to himself as he tried to raise his game but couldn’t close the gap. Just when it looked like he was going to close the gap to one point, his body wire pulled out of the sabre to hand McCabe an easy counter and McCabe extended his lead to 8-5 at the break. After the break tensions rose significantly as Concannon tried desperately to land some successful attacks but McCabe’s attacks in preparation were so sharp, well timed and consistent that Concannon’s confidence fell apart. On McCabe’s 14th point he let out a roar that sent out the message that he believed it could have been his day. While Concannon managed to pull it to 14-13, the comeback wasn’t on and McCabe went on to defeat Concannon in the DE’s for the first time and book a final with Davis.
While the two have met before several times, they had never met in the final and they were forced to wait even longer as the final piste kicked up such a fuss that the final had to be moved to a different piste in another part of the castle.
With the UCD team divided between supporting foil and sabre, Davis’ crowd was dwarfed by McCabe’s Boyne Valley troupe who were hungry for more success after Alex Lolies’ WS win. The match was closely contested but the pair were both showing visible signs of fatigue both during and between hits. In the end it looked like McCabe had the edge as he continued to throw himself forward while Davis reverted to counters that failed as his body grew weary. McCabe came through to win and had to make a prompt exit due to work commitments but at some point he’ll get to sit and down and savour his first open win, even if didn’t get to take home a new sword.
Canco
If anyone has any extra scores or corrections, please leave a comment, the results were not up online at the time of this post!
Irish Nationals MS 2011
Last Sunday McNamee returned to Ireland, Maynooth more specifically, in attempt to win the Nationals for a third year running. He wasn’t the only one to fly home for the occasion as Mooney was also back in the country from Canada for a limited time and with some coaching from across the Atlantic there were more than a few keeping an eye on Mooney throughout the day.
Concannon was once again injured (hamstring), Downey didn’t travel down and Easts’ champion Mills couldn’t make it for the competition but unlike the Easts or the Irish Open, there was a decent contingent that travelled down from Northern Ireland this time around.
There seemed to be plenty of big matches throughout the three poules. McNamee didn’t dominate quite as expected as he dropped a bout to Connolly who had a clean sweep in the poules. Connolly managed to defeat both foreign based fencers as his clean sweep also included defeating Mooney. Mooney also lost to McNamee in the same poule leaving him a very unpredictable L16 bout ahead.
In the second poule, McCabe and McHugh were thrown in together and they met in exciting circumstances. They were stuck in the small poule of 5 which would hold them back from the top of the rankings but when they were called to fence, they were both 3-up, 0-down. McHugh had conceded some soft points early in the poule but showed his abilities with a resounding 5-0 win to top the poule.
The third poule began with a bit of an upset as Donnelly beat Nicholl 5-3. Nicholl has been having a good season so far but it was great to see Donnelly taking a scalp, a reward for the large amount of travelling Donnelly has done (he was the only Northern Ireland based fencer at either the Easts or the Wests). Tobin was on a roll and took the poule with some confident attacks shining through.
In particular, the Nicholl/Tobin match was a cracker, possibly the best fencing seen on the day with Tobin winning 5-4. There was fluid movement from both, confident attacks that hit, fell short and were parried, counter-attacks in time, attacks with tempo… it’s surprising but in a 5 point bout it had it all. It would have been a great advertisement for Irish fencing. That win pushed Tobin to top of the rankings while Nicholl had to wait with baited breath to see who he would meet after his 3-up 2-down.
The DE’s only L32 match was between Farrelly and Nulty. Farrelly took a commanding lead into the break of 8-3 as Nulty had failed to take up opportunities of Farrelly’s many failed attacks. After the break a comeback looked on for a while as Nulty grabbed a succession of points and managed to get to 8-10 down. He had seemed to take heed of some good coaching advice but it wasn’t to be and Farrelly finished off the match by stepping up his speed to catch any apprehension from Nulty.
Hayes was the only seed overturned in the L16 as Simpson came from behind to win 15-13. Hayes struggled with Simpson’s remises to wrist and lost confidence in his attacks allowing Simpson to soldier on to the quarters. Meanwhile, there was one match that wasn’t expected so early in the day but not a surprise given the number of bouts they both dropped in the poules. That was of the two overseas fencers– McNamee and Mooney. While Mooney put on a brave display to dispel the memories the disappointing poules, McNamee was in no mood for hitting the showers early, winning 15-11.
Only one seed was overturned in the quarters in a very tightly contested 15-13 bout between Connolly and Nicholl. Neither of the two clubmates were in flying form as it was an age old example of two clubmates producing a scrappy match.
It was good to see the integrity of the fencers as Connelly was quick to concede when he felt he was awarded a hit incorrectly for a parry-riposte, the president (Concannon) erring in confusing a hit to hand as a parry. As the fencers share the same coach, there was no advice on offer and the scrappiness continued after the break with Nicholl edging it in the final few points.
Elsewhere in the quarters, Tobin beat Simpson, McNamee started to find his rhythm beating McCabe 15-3 and McHugh made it to the last four for the second time this year beating the up and coming Magee.
In the semi’s, the “old school” pair of Tobin and McNamee were in position of 1st and 4th seeds while the “new boys” Nicholl and McHugh lined out in 2nd and 3rd. Tobin showed far too much respect to McNamee for the first half of the bout as McNamee took a commanding 8-3 lead. It wasn’t until McNamee hit 10 points that Tobin really started to let fly with some beautifully executed attacks using great lengths of the piste.
Tobin was the only one to do this to McNamee all day and it was a shame that it took so long for Tobin to get going. It may have been a case of McNamee taking his foot off the gas but it gave some cause for concern before McNamee stepped it up again to finish grab the first place in the final.
Meanwhile, on piste number one Nicholl was relying on his large flunges against McHugh to win the match. McHugh was unlucky with some calls going against him as there were probably a couple of failed attacks in Nicholl’s flunges that went unpunished. However, McHugh couldn’t turn it around and Nicholl made it to his first final this year, his second of the season as he met Downey in Dundalk in the VDS in November.
The final was, by and large, an ugly affair. Nicholl used great patience early on as once he had earned priority, he crept his way down the piste forcing McNamee into unsuccessful counter-attacks. However the score remained close up the break with tensions rising on more than one occasion as McNamee wasn’t seeing everything the same was as the president (Concannon). Fortunately for Concannon, some of these decisions were accompanied by one-lights that were able to placate McNamee’s incredulity.
The pair seemed to make good use of the break to lift their energy levels for the second half of the bout with Nicholl’s looking to convert his 8-7 lead into his first big win. However the energy was, more often than in the first half, exerted in the centre of the piste with simultaneous actions (and the searching roars that followed).
The scores kept rising but it began to show that Nicholl was getting tired as incorrect attacks began to occur more frequently as he threw himself forward and McNamee duly replied on each occasion with clean counter-attacks that have worked well internationally this season.
As the pair grew weary and the simultaneous actions reached a crescendo, the score made it to 14-14 while a large crowd of spectators held their breath. The first action was to be once again simultaneous. However, on the second play, McNamee took full advantage of Nicholl’s hesitation to deliver a final blow and win 15-14. McNamee now joins a short list of names that has won the Nationals three years in a row.
He jokingly questioned whether he could now take the trophy home for good? Sadly he was informed by officials, no.
Canco
Full results available here.
Easts 2011
February is reserved for two competitions on the Irish circuit, the East of Ireland Open (Easts) and the Intervarsities which usually follows towards the end of the month. The Men’s Sabre of the Easts gave us a pretty good insight into what we can expect when the Varsities are held in the Kingfisher Sports Centre in Galway this weekend.
Several of the top seeds were missing for the Easts, Concannon was unavailable through injury while Downey led the pack of NIR fencers who didn’t make the trip down to Dublin this year, a surprise given the impact that Nicholl, Magee and Kitson have been making on the Irish circuit. Meanwhile McNamee’s absence shows his focus outside of Ireland as he achieved a L8 at the Orebro satellite in Sweden.
Of those were entered in the tournament, there was a new contingent from IT Carlow (ITC) and huge plaudits must be given to their coach John McCabe for some of the fine fencing they put on display. One who stood out in particular was Kevin Beirne and is certainly one to watch for the future.
Other groups from UCD, DUFC, DKIT and the Netherlands helped the entry list up to a hefty 31 which would ultimately lead to some planning difficulties for the organisers but still fell just short of the 33 required to increase the ranking points going for the day.
Due to the large entry and the time restraints placed on the organisers, there would only be one round of poules. With five poules, McHugh (DUFC) found himself in the poule of seven, the largest poule. His impressive fencing saw him defeat Smith (UCD) 5-4 and Muller (DUFC) 5-0 to run out worthy top seed at the end poules.
Elsewhere, Mahdavirad also won all of his bouts with some convincing 5-0’s of his own but with one match less had to settle with second seed.
With time ticking away and the UCD organisers under pressure, the decision was made to bring in a cut. It was an extremely regrettable and a harsh ending to the day for some. There were apologies from the organisers but their hands were tied.
It was to be a day of close matches and the tone was set early when in the L32 Staunton (NUIM) defeated Brigadir (UCD) 15-14 in an extremely tough bout that never saw Brigadir fencing at his best. Staunton should be happy with his hard fought win, sending a reminder out that NUIM still fence sabre and shouldn’t be overlooked.
In the L16, half of the matches came down to two points or less as fencers of similar standards lined up. Maguire (DKIT) who had a fantastic Varsities last year beat Davis (UCD) 15-14, Mills (DUFC) beat Smith (UCD) 15-13, Fung (UCC) beat McDermott 15-13 (UCD) and Gonzalez (DUFC) beat McCabe (DKIT) 15-14.
These results saw hearts broken and tempers flare. No UCD fencers progressed to the L8, I’m not sure when the last time that would have happened at UCD’s flagship event. It must also set off alarm bells for the UCD MS team who last year won the Varsities by the skin of their teeth (albeit with Concannon in his year of grace) and they have some serious work to do if they are to come even close to defending their title.
With UCD out of the picture, the L8 consisted of DUFC’s five against two from DKIT and one from UCC. This is when DUFC set out their stall clearing the rest of the field (see L8 below). Also worth noting is Gonzalez’s victory over Mahdavirad, 15-11, which will surely give the DUFC selectors some headaches as there are only four spots on the team while there are five fencers who deserve a place on the team.
McHugh (DUFC) 15-11 Maguire (DKIT)
Mills (DUFC) 15-5 Fung (UCC)
Muller (DUFC) 15-7 Fegan (DKIT)
Mahdavirad (DUFC) 11-15 Gonzalez (DUFC)
The two semi-finals were run simultaneously and on centre piste, McHugh faced Mills. This was the second match between these two clubmates in just over a month as they met in the L16 in Belfast, McHugh victorious on that occasion 15-13. While McHugh took a lead of 8-5 into the break, the match intensified after the break as Mills closed the gap. But just as McHugh came from behind in Belfast, Mills did here and earned his place in the final with a tight 15-14 win.
The match between Muller and Gonzalez was a nail-biter. The early points were dominated by Gonzalez with marching attacks proving fruitful, especially when Muller failed an attack as he would then recover too hastily and leave Gonzalez with a lot of room to work with. Muller’s desire to step up his attacks was highlighted as he threw himself to land a point, only to cross in the process and earn himself a yellow card.
After the break Muller stepped it up a gear and started forcing through some attacks with power and pace while Gonzalez could only mal-parry. Towards the end of the bout they began trading points as from 11-11 on the lead was won and conceded in turn and things really began to heat up. As Gonzalez went 14-12 up, Muller regained his composure to bring it to 14-13 and then level it with a beautiful feint-to-head and cut-to-wrist attack to level affairs at 14-14.
After Allez, Gonzalez stepped back and allowed Muller to attack only for him to fall short. Gonzalez took a fraction of a second too long to start his attack and Muller threw himself into a counter attack that landed one light but resulted in a corps-a-corps. The referee (Concannon), unsure of how exactly to proceed, annulled the hit but did not award the 2nd yellow card that Muller deserved which would have handed Gonzalez the match. The winning point came for Muller in similar fashion to the annulled point moments early, minus the corps-a-corps, with a counter attack forced through Gonzalez’s large preparation.
It’s worth noting at this point that the semi-finals were contested entirely by the DUFC first team and that there isn’t a whole lot between them as both matches found their way to 14-14 so even the competition for the starting three at the Varsities will be intense.
The final began in tense fashion as both fencers were getting tired, particularly after their efforts in the semis. From the first point, it was a battle of Mill’s lunge against Muller’s distance parries. In the first half, almost every point seemed to start with a Mills attack. Mills won the point if it landed and if it failed or was parried, Muller would chase Mills down the piste to take the point himself.
This favoured Muller slightly and thus Mills started pulling out some nice counter-attacks taking advantage of any lack of commitment in Muller’s lunges. The match didn’t change much after the break as the fencers worked their way up – 8-7, 8-8, 8-9, 9-9…. all the way to 14-14. Mills in particular was growing weary and his body language showed that he was fit to collapse.
The final point was the same as so many others, Mills attacked and fell short. Muller took up the attack but Mills countered for one light and finally got his breather, falling to his knees with delight and winning his first senior open.
Predictions for the Varsities? DUFC – 1st, DKIT – 2nd, UCD – 3rd (I expect 2nd and 3rd to be close while I dare anyone to bet against DUFC). But we’ll find out soon enough with the Varsities on this weekend. Full report to follow on MS early next week.
Canco
Full results are available here.
Northern Ireland Open 2011
Welcome back to Splitting Time for 2011 after the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. Last weekend, Avoniel Sports Centre in Belfast played host to the NIO 2011. While Avoniel hosted long queues of locals outside in the cold not too long ago for bottled water during the thaw-induced water leaks, the turnout for the men’s sabre was only slightly up on last year at 15. Perhaps next year with new sabre clubs popping up around the country in Cork and Carlow the NIO might finally see some L32 matches in sabre with some extra ranking points to boot.
Traditionally a small turnout with a very high standard, those who had been before knew what to expect, anyone close to the NIR team will show up – this included some making the trip over from England including Tom Nicholls and Niall Dowse sitting 17th and 83rd in the British rankings.
It came as a surprise to the fencers when the poules came out as rather than three small poules, there were two large ones. The next surprise was that this wasn’t the only round of poules, there would be a second to follow and both would count for the DE rankings.
Whether this was a good or bad surprise depended on how many Christmas dinners and treats one indulged in over the holidays.
Downey found himself in the smaller poule of seven in the first round and was the only one to win all of his bouts in the first round. Concannon seeded second from a poule of eight, winning all but one to the upcoming Magee.
The second round of poules however seemed to significantly shake up the rankings as once again Downey went undefeated while Concannon dropped a further three bouts, forcing him down the rankings. Jackson, who only lost one in each round seeded second in the rankings while Nicholls and Kitson finished off the top four seeds for the DE’s as each of them dropped three bouts in total.
In the L16, one of the more competitive matches was McHugh vs. Mills, teammates in DUFC who fought out a gritty match swapping the leads after the break. The two were left exhausted after the match as a string of simultaneous actions showed that the tension was high, neither wanting to try anything too risky. McHugh won and as his reward, he would have his shot at toppling Downey in the quarters.
The quarters kicked off with Concannon beating Kitson to overturn the seedings. The match’s first half was tight with Kitson being punished as his parry quinte allowed Concannon to force through the tip of his blade either being mal-parried or with remises. The second half of the match continued in the same vein and Concannon won 15-10.
Up two pistes from Concannon/Kiston, McHugh was fencing Downey in one of the pair’s first 15 point matches. McHugh maintained enough pressure on Downey to prevent his charging attacks and trailed at the break 8-6. Downey took the first few points after the break and managed to pull off one of his hallmark stop cuts to wrist just before McHugh staged a comeback. McHugh managed to pull it back to 14-13 before Downey finished off the match 15-13.
After seeding second, Jackson faced Dowse in the quarter-finals. This bout brought out some spectacular fencing where preparations were being called by the president with both fencers appealing at times showing their discontent. Both Dowse and Jackson have developed commanding marching attacks and once a march began, it usually ended with the attacker winning a point. The only difference between the two was that Jackson would march at break-neck speed with feet just shy of crossing while Dowse was slightly more patient changing tempo more frequently. The score was truly reflective of how close this match was as Jackson came from behind to win 15-14. In the last quarter final, Nicholls beat Magee as he had done in the poules earlier in the day.
The first semi-final pitted Downey against Concannon for their first match this season. Downey took an 8-2 lead into the break with some impressive stop cuts. Downey was also much faster off the line on the “Allez” several times giving him the upper hand as Concannon could do little more than stutter backward and mal-parry the oncoming attacks. Concannon held what is becoming a traditional mini-comeback as he won a small string of points that had Downey temporarily stalled on 13 points but Downey regained his composure and continued to win the bout 15-11.
Early in the other semi (Jackson vs. Nicholls), Jackson managed to badly hurt his foot which seriously restricted his movement and though Nicholls already had the lead, he needed no invitation to take full advantage of an unusually stationary Jackson. Jackson took his injury time just after the break but despite getting his fencing shoes back on he couldn’t keep up with the speed of the bout in or out of the centre as Nicholls reached the final for the second year running.
The men’s sabre final was the last of the four weapons held on the day to a crowd of spectators including the Lord Mayor of Belfast. This order led to a long break after the semis before the final leaving the pair enough time to rejuvenate and possibly even get a little cold.
The match began with Nicholls taking an early lead only to be pegged back by the break, Downey leading 8-6. The referee was not in for an easy time and one could be forgiven for making errors with so many tight actions. Nicholls certainly felt that some calls were not going his way and to tell the truth, more often than not, I agreed with him.
The second half saw Nicholls close in the gap and get more frustrated with each call he felt he should have been awarded. The match made it to 14-14 to give the crowd a truly exciting final match of the day.
Despite replaying the final hit in my head several times, I find it hard to describe but I shall try my best.
Here is the hit in my eyes:
Downey takes a small step forward but pulls his hand back in the process. Nicholls takes step forward fractions of second after Downey starts but does not withdraw his hand. Both fencers lunge together and make successful hits.
Downey was awarded the hit but in my eyes it should have been awarded to Nicholls. Nicholls felt the same and his face was torn between frustration and disappointment at the call. Just for clarification, others who saw the final point did believe it was Downey’s while others would have called simultaneous actions.
I suppose that’s just part of the sport and goes to show that if in doubt, you have to make it one light. After this result Downey regained the NIO trophy but as Downey missed both the Nationals last year and the Irish Open just before Christmas, he has finally fallen from the top spot in the rankings. So with the new year, a new number one as Concannon leads the rankings for the first time.
However, the points between first and second are closer than they have for a long time however with only 12 points separating them. The second half of the season has it all to play for.
Canco
Full results are available here.
Irish Open 2010
With the frosty weather forcing the IFF to change venues at the last minute, one had to wonder if all the fencers from around the country would be able to venture through the snow and across ice to the RDS. The RDS Concert Hall was a fine find by the IFF and credit should be given to them to have the back-up plan to ensure the competition took place, even if there were no showers for the fencers afterwards…
The snow was clearly too great an obstacle for many up North of the border as only Magee made the trip to Ballsbridge. However, McNamee did manage to fly in from Paris bringing some of his USMT club mates along too. The entry list of 21 was down on last year and split into three poules for the only round of poules, a welcome decision as opposed to four smaller poules providing extra that extra bit of fencing for all.
Only one fencer, Gilmas (FRA/USMT), won all of his matches, meaning that aside from the top seed, the rankings for the DE’s were very much up in the air. Concannon dropped one match to Magee, 5-4, but finished his poule with strong indicators to seed second. Magee however couldn’t take full advantage of beating Concannon and dropped a match to Cadoret (FRA/USMT) but still managed to grab third seed.
In the second poule there was at least one upset as McHugh defeated McNamee for a second Irish Open in a row. As McNamee had already lost to Gilmas, this only increased the likelihood that McNamee would clash with one of the top seeds before the semi-finals to ruin somebody’s day. McHugh also lost to Gilmas but pulled off an impressive fourth seed as he managed to better any results from the final poule.
The final poule had mixed results as Clarke seemed to wreak havoc upon a few of the more experience sabreurs beating Mahdavirad among others. With no one winning all of their matches and no particularly strong indicators, the fencers were scattered throughout the rankings from what appeared to be the most even poule.
McNamee’s two losses in the poules left him seeded 7th which led him to meet Concannon in the quarter-finals. In their last meeting McNamee had an impressive come-back to win in the National’s final and the Irish captain must have been feeling confident after his recent World Championship success. McNamee led from the start in a tight first half, played out in Concannon’s half for the most part with McNamee’s attacks coming up trumps against Concannon’s stop-hits. McNamee led 8-7 at the break and then took control, taking the score to 14-9. Concannon changed tact and won some consolation hits with some aggressive play to bring it to 14-12 before McNamee stumbled over the line with a final point that saw both fencers miss simple attacks, the final score 15-12 to McNamee.
The tournament was greatly helped by the two dedicated referees and both semi finals were run simultaneously on adjacent pistes, a feat rarely achieved at any Irish competition. McHugh’s impressive start to the day continued through the quarter-finals as he beat Cadoret, the Frenchman having knocked out Tobin in the last 16. But Gilmas, who won his only other Irish tournament at the Irish Open in 2008 proved too much for McHugh to handle.
Gilmas took a commanding lead in the first half giving McHugh the minute break to see if anything could be salvaged from the game. McHugh came out with impressive footwork in the second half to put up a much more resilient display but it was not to be as Gilmas stepped it up a gear to finish off a comprehensive win. McHugh would have to be (and rightly should be) happy with a bronze from this year’s Irish Open. In the other semi final, McNamee took on Magee. McNamee once again showed his form and put out Magee 15-7.
The final brought the two club mates Gilmas and McNamee together. Gilmas broke into the top 100 in world rankings at his peak back in the 2002/2003 season and while McNamee has just broken back into the top 200 in the world ranking. The match was tense as the crowd didn’t seem to know who to cheer for while the other French spectators in the crowd seemed to share jokes with the fencers on piste as the match tipped in favour of Gilmas. It was refreshing to see the honesty with which they both fenced as McNamee conceded a hit that was about to be given to him. The referee, clearly put off by the concession, duly awarded the hit to Gilmas.
As was to be the case in previous matches with Gilmas, after extending a lead that was thought to be comfortable, McNamee made a rally at the death to bring the score close again. It was then Gilmas’ turn to do the honourable thing. At 14-11, with the referee about to award a failed attack as a successful one to Gilmas and half the crowd clapping, Gilmas insisted that he concede the hit. At 14-12 Gilmas earned a generous applause for his integrity before finishing off the match 15-12 to claim his second Irish Open in three years.
Canco
Full results are available on the IFF website here:
