CFFA update for 10/28

We had a couple of people venture out over the weekend.  Elina Grooman went to a tournament at Mid-South.  She went 1-3 in her pool, but lost her first DE.

Oliver Galbraith was our only entrant in the Tiger Open.  He finished 8th in a 72 person A2 for epee while simultaneously finishing 5th in a 45 person A2 in foil.  He re-earns his foil C for the effort.

Things return to the post Florence normal this week.  We will need to put the overheads back up Tuesday night.

November
1st is the date by which I need to turn in a roster for the homeschool
league.  Right now we have the three Hurricanes from Jacksonville and Schoonmakers and O’Briens from Wilmington.

We
will be holding an NCFL meet on Saturday, November 3.  Right now definitely men’s teams from Hoggard, Orange, and Chapel Hill.  Women’s teams from Ashley, Orange, and Chapel Hill.  Hopefully men’s and women’s A teams from RTF, East Chapel Hill, and Epiphany.  B teams from CFFA and a couple from Chapel Hill.  Hopefully some from Thales and Epiphany.  More CFFA fencers – must be middle school and up are welcome to fence and create more B teams.   As
always, refereeing, armoring, managing help from the club is greatly
appreciated.  Set up and tear down is always helpful.

Richmond is holding a Vet series of events on that date.  The epee looks to become a B.  I doubt the foil and sabre will get over an E.

Remember November 4th is the fall back part of Daylight Savings Time.

November
11th is the Harry Rulnick event in Fayetteville.  It has an open Men’s foil event (currently with 5 fencers) and
Women’s foil event (currently with 2 fencers).  I will be going up to observe and am happy to drive someone if that helps.  Check askfred for more info.

November 14th is the last day to enter the Charlotte NAC at regular rates.  The events are Div 1 (You must be a C to enter), Junior, and Senior Team.  The Div 1 epee events have an unusual format.  You fence Day 1.  If you are still in you fence the rest of the event on Day 2.  If you are knocked out on Day 1, there is basically a loser’s bracket on Day 2.  This is often an A event in itself, so you get more bang for your buck.

Our
next home event is November 17th.  It will have an open foil, an open
epee, and a D and under epee.  Get signed up on askfred now, and it
might start to look more like a Tiger Open. The earlier
it looks like an interesting tournament the more likely it is to draw
more and stronger fencers.

The more likely it is to be a rated
(and a highly rated) event, the more likely it is that the people who
sign up will show up.  On the other hand, don’t sign up if you know you
won’t be coming.  We don’t want a reputation for promising big events
and then not delivering.  If the D and under epee can get at least 4Ds,
(Robert, Kenyatta and two more), and 4 Es (Mike and 3 more), and 25
total fencers; the winner can get a C without having to defeat any Cs.  In any event, all of you epee fencers who participated last Saturday can do another Open and then also have an event where there is no Oliver, no Josh or Jesse, and no Erica and Nicole.  You just have to beat on each other.

The
Division qualifiers for the Junior Olympics have been scheduled for
December 8th and 9th at Research Triangle Fencing.  You must attend, and
do well enough (unless you have qualified at a National event), to be
able to go to the JOs.  The JOs are in Denver over the President’s Day
weekend in February, so I certainly understand if you may not be able
to attend that.  In any case, these are really good events to attend to
see how you stack up against the other fencers your age in the state. 
All of the events are split by gender, so ladies, you do not have to
compete against the guys.  If you are looking for that next step up from
local events, these are excellent events to fence.  Additionally, the
number of qualifiers the Division gets is based on the number of fencers
in the event.  Just by going, you may help other fencers from NC be
able to attend.  We will help with plastrons, knickers, etc as much as
we can.  The two age groups are Juniors (ages 13-19) and Cadets (ages
13-16).  All of the Junior events events are on Saturday, and all of the
Cadet events are on Sunday.  If you qualify by placing high enough in
the Junior event, and you are eligible, you are automatically qualified
for the Cadet.  So do well on Saturday, and be eligible for the Cadet,
and you don’t have to re-qualify on Sunday.  No CFFA fencers are signed up yet.

pax vobiscum,