Amsterdam SA 2010
Concannon and McNamee both made the trip to Amsterdam last weekend for the second satellite of the season. While Concannon was looking to turn things around after the VDS the week previously, McNamee was only now starting to look at this season. Last week he was in Paris for the World Championships where he won 2/6 in the poules and beat Mohsin (IRN) 15-9 in the L128. He finished 94th after being knocked out by the Hungarian Iliasz, 15-6.
The Dutch federation moved the venue this year and while the new location was an impressive sports facility which allowed an impressive gala final, the main sports hall lacked ventilation and the heat made the fencing that little bit more challenging.
Concannon won 3/6 in the first round despite entering the poule as the second seed, some of the unseeded continental fencers proving too much for him to handle. In particular, the counter attacks of the 6’4″ Hansen left Concannon with few answers losing 5-3. Meanwhile, McNamee was continuing his fine form winning 5/6, only dropping to Speelman (NED) in a close 5-4 match. This round left McNamee and Concannon sitting 4th and 28th out of 46 respectively.
In the second round of poules, Concannon found two of the same fencers from the poule before, facing Goossens (NED) and Hansen (GER) again. Unfortunately, the results were to be the same. Goossens was simply too quick in advance for Concannon who found his counters and parries off the pace on the day. Concannon again dropped to Hansen but this time not through counter attacks but some remises which caught Concannon off-guard. Concannon only won 2/6 in the second round and with some poor indicators was fortunate to make the cut, seeding 33rd while the cut was made from 37th and below.
McNamee repeated his result almost identically from the second round, again winning 5/6 facing an entirely new poule. While he had beaten Elixer Lopez (VEN) in the first poule 5-4, the second round saw McNamee drop his only match 5-4 to Daniel Lopez (VEN) the younger of the two Venezuelans. With less impressive indicators (9) than the first round (15), McNamee saw his seeding drop slightly to 11th after the second poules.
While McNamee avoided the incomplete L64, Concannon had to do battle with the young Goedhart (NED). While Concannon took an early lead mostly won in the middle, Goedhart started to find his distance. Letting Concannon fail his attacks by distance, Goedhart confidently marched several attacks converting a steady number of points to reduce the early deficit. Concannon led 8-5 at the break and the 2nd half was to see much of the same: Concannon winning hits in the middle while Goedhart won more points through marching attacks.
Tied at 13-13, enter the referee. Concannon’s initial attack failed, followed by an immediate riposte from Goedhart which also failed. When Concannon recaptured priority, the referee called final action together, missing Goedhart’s failed riposte. In the next hit, Concannon’s lunge delivered a hit to Goedhart’s chest as Goedhart mal-parried with a late riposte. The referee, however, saw it is a simple parry riposte and while Concannon felt the match should be over (15-13), found himself 13-14 down. The final hit was undisputed as Goedhart delivered one final marching attack to leave Concannon disillusioned… and out.
McNamee met Wiech (POL) in the L32, neither of whom had to fence in the incomplete L64. The early points in the match were divided as Wiech was to take a slight advantage at the break. McNamee was earning points when ever patient enough to go deep into his side of the piste but was not picking up points on Weich’s preparations due to the referee seeing no preparations. The referee was not consistent in his calls but more often than not did not call preparations to McNamee’s detriment as Wiech took the match 15-11.
A disappointing day for the Irish as referees took centre stage. While both fencers were planning on attending the January Copenhagen satellite to turn the season around, it has been cancelled. The result of this is that the next international event that both Irish may attend is in Orebro, Sweden in February next year. Let’s hope for better results in the New Year.
Canco
For the official results, see the link below.
http://fie.ch/Competitions/ResultsList.aspx?Key=C853095D1AE29C8C7C96A2F8888BE8E7
VDS 2010
DKIT hosted the Vinnie Duffy Sabre (VDS) last weekend in the first competition of the season that saw strong numbers from both North and South of the border in attendance. With Tobin missing the competition, there were only three present who had won a ranked event in the last year; Downey, Concannon & Muller.
The first round of poules proved interesting with only Concannon and Nicholl winning all of their bouts as other top seeds including Downey, Mahdavirad & Kitson dropped matches. The most notable match here was Nicholl taking on Kitson, the two only being separated by 2 points in the rankings at the start of the day, Nicholl won 5-4.
With top seeds dropping matches there are always going to be some undesirable draws in the second round of poules which was to be the case. The top seeds, Concannon & Nicholl, found themselves in the smaller poules of 5 instead of 6 and having to face Kitson & Mahdavirad respectively. The Concannon/Kitson bout finished 5-3 but debate continued for the duration of the poule as to whether Kitson deserved an extra point during the bout as the referee awarded Concannon a hit on Kitson’s preparation.
Nicholl was to fare less well as, despite beating Mahdavirad 5-4; he was to fall to DKIT’s Varsity killer Maguire 5-4. Meanwhile, McHugh was taking full advantage of the second round of poules. After winning 4/5 in the first round and landing in a second poule without any of the top seeds, he improved on his performance to take a full 5/5 lifting him to 2nd in the rankings for the DE’s.
The top four seeds after the poules were Concannon, McHugh, Downey & Muller but this was to be a day with many twists and turns. In the L16 both of last year’s finalists, Downey (3)* & Concannon (1), found themselves down 8-7 at the break to Davis (19) & Maguire (15) respectively. The dream was not to last for the underdogs however as Concannon went on to produce a comeback with a 15-10 victory while Downey’s comeback was more resounding – he didn’t drop a hit in the 2nd half, winning 15-8.
The L8 saw pressures rising and seedings being overturned. While Downey & Concannon booked their places in the semis as per their seedings at the expense of Magee (6) & Connolly (9), the other quarter finals were not so straightforward. Nicholl (5) dismissed Muller (4) 15-11 with some excellent, patient attacks. Muller too often attempted to counter-attack in the middle in the 2nd half to no avail. Meanwhile Kitson (7) won an energetic match against McHugh (2) 15-11 ensuring that all four of last year’s semi-finalists would once again compete for the distribution of gold, silver and bronze.
The first semi-final was Concannon/Nicholl, the first half being dominated by attacks rather than defence and Concannon taking an 8-5 lead to the break. After the break, Concannon attempted to win points in the middle of the piste with no joy. While Concannon persisted with this tactic, Nicholl stepped up his game with a succession of patient attacks, the kind used to great effect earlier against Muller. Nicholl simply waited for Concannon to fail a counter-attack before lunging and landing each hit, winning 15-12 with a deserved come-back.
With Nicholl’s place in the final secure, the final was going to be a Northern Ireland affair as Downey/Kitson fought out the other semi-final. While Downey had a slow start to the day, things were clearly starting to come together as his movement was much sharper than had been earlier in the day. Kitson couldn’t keep up with the pace Downey was bringing and matters worsened when Kitson once again began to debate several calls of the referee. His concentration waivered as a result and Downey finished the match off to win 15-7.
This was Nicholl’s first final in an Irish ranked competition and he kept his cool throughout. Downey’s energy and pace that had been too much for Kitson had started to run out and while his attacks were still dangerous, there were more of Downey’s typical counter-attacks on display. With Downey closing in on 15, Nicholl put up a brave fight and was unlucky not to put Downey under more pressure.
In the final period of the match, one of Downey’s points (possibly his 11th) saw Nicholl fail an attack and recover with average speed. Downey tried to burst forward to finish his counter-attack but tripped over his own feet and crossed to save his tumble, landing one light in the process. The crossing went unnoticed and Downey awarded the hit.
It wouldn’t have mattered, it was Downey’s day as he eventual retained his title 15-11. This might still be the early stages of the season but from early signs, the race for 2nd might be more heated than in previous years while Downey still seems to have that edge required to keep bringing the trophies home.
*seedings after the second round of poules.
Canco
Full results available on the Irish Fed website:
http://www.irishfencing.net/competition/results/2010/vinnieduffy.html
Gand SA 2010
This weekend saw just two Irish attend the Gand satellite in Belgium. McNamee and Concannon made the trip with two very different agendas in mind. While McNamee is preparing for the World Championships in a fortnights time, Concannon was looking to build on his win at the Wests last weekend in his first international of the season.
The satellite started slowly for the pair as both were left with disappointing results from the first round of poules, both winning only 2/5. With similar indicators, McNamee -1 and Concannon -2, they were left seeded 28th and 29th respectively in the 44 strong competition. Better was to come as the second round of poules was more fruitful.
McNamee took full advantage of finding himself in the only poule of seven, winning 5/6, only losing to the 2008 Olympian and eventual winner, O’Connell (GBR). The strong round leaving him seeded 7th for the D.E.’s. Concannon also improved upon his first round winning 3/5 and seeding 17th. Things could have been even better had he beaten rather than lost 5-4 to former world number 3 junior Bustamante (ARG).
As neither had to compete in the L64, there was a short break for the pair before the L32. Here Concannon met Galasso (ITA) whom he had already met on the day in the second round of poules, Galasso winning the first encounter 5-3 with some commanding charging attacks.
It was a disappointing match for Concannon who led 8-5 at the break thanks to some patient defending. After the break, however, Galasso returned a new man and Concannon changed tactics to attack. It was to be a poor decision by Concannon as the Italian took full control of the 2nd half with Concannon scoring only a single hit, the match finishing 15-9 to Galasso. Meanwhile, McNamee finished in the L16 after being beaten by French club-mate Foures in a close match dominated by counter-attacks.
It’s worth mentioning that last year the Irish duo were a trio including Corcoran who had a lot of success last season including a L16 at the Kish Island World Cup. Due to an accumulation of events leaving Corcoran without a proper training regime, he has withdrawn from the circuit with immediate effect for the foreseeable future.
Hopefully the time will come for Corcoran to make his comeback in the green, white and orange as without him there are now only two competing internationally in men’s sabre. At one point last season the three Irish were searching for qualifications to enter Ireland’s first men’s sabre team into a World Cup. Now there are not even enough competing to field a team.
It is time to look at some of the up and coming fencers in Ireland to fill this gap but with the deadline passed for the Amsterdam SA it will be at least January in Copenhagen before we see three Irish at a satellite. It is more likely however that this will not happen until Newcastle’s Cole Cup in June next year.
Canco
Full results from Gand are available from the FIE website at the following link:
http://fie.ch/Competitions/ResultsList.aspx?Key=B3E348CE100A0438C3AD35C2DBE49EAF
Wests 2010
Welcome to the world of Ireland’s men’s sabre. The opening competition of the season was hosted by the NUIG fencing club. What a job they did, Galway hasn’t hosted a sabre competition in four years but this year men’s sabre came back with a bang.
The small turnout of nine does not capture the intensity of this competition; there was no cannon fodder. All nine were at a sufficient level where turning off for more than a minute meant losing a match.
Two of the top four ranked fencers were present in Concannon and Mahdavirad while the winners of the last two tournaments, Tobin (Souths) and Muller (Inters) also made the trip to the Kingfisher Club.
The poules could be described by one word. Messy. If there was a second? Exciting. So many matches went to 4-4 that on a different day the rankings for the DE’s could have been almost completely inverted. The fact that no one won all of their bouts clearly demonstrated the difficulty of the task at hand.
The exciting matches were only beginning though as the first DE between McHugh and Donnelly showed that no one wanted to go home early. McHugh led comfortably at the break, up 8-2, but the match was far from over as Donnelly rallied bravely in the second half. Donnelly closed the gap to two points at 11-9 but was it was not to be as his momentum could not overturn the six point deficit. McHugh earning his place in the quarter-finals in his commanding first half display.
The top four seeds from the poules each won their quarter-final matches and the semi-finals read Muller/Tobin and Concannon/Mahdavirad. In a sloppy first semi-final, Concannon took an early lead over Mahdavirad with the majority of 50/50 calls going his way, this trend continuing after the break. Mahdavirad made one final surge of five straight points while Concannon was temporarily stranded on 13 points. There was to be no come back here however as Concannon closed out the match to book the first place in the final.
Muller/Tobin provided a much higher class of fencing with Tobin struggling early on with the smooth and swift footwork of the Frenchman. Three points just before the break left Tobin a fighting chance as Muller led 8-5 at the minute’s break.
Tobin slowly grew in composure, competing with Muller’s footwork and edging the bladework game that dominated the second half. Tobin took full advantage of Muller’s failed attacks with some confident parry-ripostes from quinte thrown into the mix to grab the second spot in the final, this being Tobin’s second final in two competitions.
The final brought the two former teammates of Concannon and Tobin face-to-face for the first time in three years. Early points were met with tense silence from the crowd and it took some crowd interaction from Tobin to get the atmosphere going.
The early stages were dominated by defensive hits with both sides using counter-attacks, preparation hits and parry-ripostes. Looking for change, both fencers looked to use their attacks more productively and the game’s pace increased. Neither fully acclimatised to the pace as Tobin was carded for crossing in attack and Concannon for ducking in retreat moments later.
Concannon carried a lead into the break and the game changed tactics once more with point-in-line becoming the new weapon of choice. Once again, both fencers struggled to use the point-in-line effectively showing signs that this was the first competition of the season. Concannon ran out winner in the end to win his first trophy in over 18 months in front of an enthusiastic crowd (once again, thank you Mr. Tobin).
It was great to see the Wests alive and kicking in MS again with a great team of organisers and an exciting venue that will host the Varsities in February early in the new year. I know at least I’m looking forward to it.
Canco
