A quite week for Ed
A relatively quiet weekend with only Ed in action at the senior Newham Open in London on Saturday - and quite frustrating it proved to be, too. There was a very strong field of 54 and Ed went into his first open since May with a filthy cold and headache. It certainly didn't help that the scoring equipment throughout the competition was both basic and old and many fencers were having difficulty with their hits registering. The box was erratic throughout Ed's poule and failed completely mid way through. Ed had a strong poule and he fenced well, beating Paul Harden of Saxon 5-1, Vinton Cheng of Oxford University 5-2 and Benjamin Udrzal of the home club 3-1 - having lost to Udrzal on the last 2 occasions they'd met, Ed did well to offer a strong defence which deterred Udrzal from attacking. Ed lost 3-5 to strong Italian Lorenzo Rossi and was disappointed to lose 3-5 to GB 6th ranked senior fencer Glen Ostacchini after being ahead.
That left Ed 19th seed for the DEs, He dispatched Dale Harrington-Johnson of Fighting Fit in London 15-4. He then faced Conor Sharman, late of Loughborough University, in L32. Ed had never lost before to Sharman and took an early lead, which he kept until 11-11. Ed then had a string of hits which didn't register at all and he ended losing 11-15. In the course of the match Sharman had perhaps 3 hits that didn't register and Ed had perhaps 6. Ed might well still have lost had the equipment been up to scratch but it was frustrating not to know.
It will be a quiet few weeks on the competition front. Ed is refereeing at the Manchester Cadet International next Saturday and the weekend after that Ed and James are training with British Fencing's Talent Programme, again in Manchester. Ed's next competition is in Leszno on 28th October with the GB U20 squad.