Due to time constraints, I shall focus only on Saturday, the Novices 2009 team event.
The night before, I stayed in hall so that in the morning I wouldn't have to travel so far, lugging all that heavy equipment. I must add that I was afraid of having to eat dinner on my own. When I went down to the communal hall, I asked someone and she explained to me how the system of taking helping myself to the food goes.
After which, with my plate and slice of watermelon in hand, I saw a girl eating on her own nearby, so I asked her if I could join her, and she very gladly welcomed me. I then went to take soup and a drink. (ooo, got soup too, I thought won't have soup at all.) The food wasn't that bad, quite edible :) Don't worry mum, I was well-fed. The girl explained to me that today still had vegetables in the soup. On other days when there are more people dining, by 6.30pm, all that was left would be the clear liquid soup. She turned out to be a friendly person, a year 4 electrical engineering student. (engin!) She was also a Christian. She came to Singapore for studies since Secondary School. We exchanged numbers and she invited me to call her next time I had dinner in hall. Yay, now I have a makan buddy!
Now back to Saturday morning. I had 3 bags packed, one with fencing gear, one of my school backpack, and the last one with my laptop and laundry. While I was waiting for the shuttle bus (which gave me false hope twice), Jason appeared and helped me with one of my bags. I gave him what I thought was the lighter "laptop" bag, but I'm not exactly sure if the fencing gear was indeed lighter or heavier than a laptop+laundry... Turns out he was going to Eusoff hall to meet Celeste first, so I followed along and the 3 of us went together to Clementi Sports Hall.
SQ was already there, but by the time she reached there were many bags already spread out behind the barricades. The yellow barricades were not there last week. Ivan was also already there. WC, Marcus, Jeff(?), Alan, Yan Jie came down to support us. Yan Li and Zhu Ping (how to spell) were presiders. Aerene arrived soon. Cheryl also came down to support too.
The first match was against SMSS team C, the weakest of the 3 teams sent by SMSS, and we managed to trash them 42-18 :D Yay! We won something! During the match, Yan Li, who was presiding on the other side of the hall, kept turning around once in a while to watch us. It was very clear he was concerned for his team. I don't know if I am describing it correctly, but we're somewhat his students/proteges, and as our direct coach (our coach engaged from outside doesn't interact as much with us as he does), he's concerned for us as a teacher is with his students. He was quite happy with our performance, that we fenced better than before because, he sensed that, we were less nervous. :D
I, the reserve, substituted Aerene (fencer 4) for the last of her 3 bouts for both matches. 5 was Celeste, our anchor, and 6 was SQ. I managed to score 5-1 against SMSS, which you can say it's good but could it have been better for some of my teammates managed to get 5-0? Anyway, I'm happy with that. So I fenced only for about 4-5 minutes, since one bout was 3 minutes long and both bouts finished before that for someone scored 5 points and reached the next tier of 5 points first before time ended.
Next match was against ABF, who were the top-seeded team, who henced bypassed the first round of DE. We would surely lose, and did, so we here fenced for experience, just do our best. Angie was in that team, having been with them last year as well. It was good to have an opportunity to fence against them. However, we aren't happy with the match. We lost but our losing margin should have been a lot smaller for the presider was a lousy presider.
REFEREE KAYU!!!!
That basically summed up what I and some others feel. First of all, his presiding wasn't accurate. Secondly, he was from ABF, both facts Yan Li told us during the match when he had that small window of opportunity to talk to us, for he was presiding on the piste next to ours (and hence still turning around to watch us). Compound these 2 points together: there were many controversial awarding of points to ABF. It was very clear I and some of my teammates parried and reposed, so it was clearly my and our priority, even though both lights lit up, but he awarded the points to ABF. By the time this happened to me, the incident happened a few times, so Jason went to protest to the presider, who wasn't sure if he had awarded the points to any of us for that particular point yet. If he wasn't sure, he should have declared it "simultani" and continued from there, where none of the teams would have been awarded points, but instead, he awarded it to ABF. It was very bad. Yan Li was furious. So were Jason and I(being the indignated one here, and full of adrenaline and emotion cos it was while I was fencing). Initially, the other 3 teammates didn't want to protest to the DT table during the match for they reasoned "what was the point? it's too late now". I agree with them, for I don't know what could've been done. Later after the whole match was over and Yan Li was done, we complained to the DT table. Later, when it was arranged for WC's team to be presided by him, the DT table granted our request to change the presider.
ABF, which is a very strong team and I respect them, won the team novices title, and I congratulated Angie when I found out on Fb last night.
After phototaking with Aerene's camera, 6 of us: Celeste, Aerene and I, Yan Jie, Jason and Yan Li, went out for lunch to some small hawker centre near the market nearby where there was some famous wantan mee and youtiao. On the way, Yan Li asked if I made a lot of noise while fencing. I told him I didn't but I made a lot of noise when I was NOT fencing, and was told to keep quiet when my teammates were in the midst of fencing. But I don't think he heard me. The reduced noise-making was an improvement for me, as with my posture. By adopting the more correct posture, I was parrying and reposing better, more clearer and getting my target more often. My fencing was a lot neater, and hence I could score more and perform better.
Aerene ordered ji si mian from the famous wantan mee stall, which hence took a long time to come. Jason and Yan Li had to go back first, Jason to look after the boys team and Yan Li to preside, so Yan Jie remained with us 3 girls. Since he says we could treat him like an older sister (jokingly) for I commented he was the only guy amongst us girls now. So now I am going to tease him and call him "Yan Jie Jie" which I have already done so once.
He was from NPF last time, and hence he told us of the style of fencing for NPF. NPF is a strong team and has the potential to win novices, but not for higher level competitions, for NPF is stronger than NUS in terms of physical strength and technique, but the thinking and mental aspect of fencing they are weaker in. So when YJ joined NUS fencing, he was forced to use his mind for whereas in NPF, he had to fight based on his physical prowess more. So he explained to us how he can be manipulated by Zhu Ping to do certai moves to Zhu Ping's advantage, which reminded me of how YJ forced me to do certain moves when I fenced and hence trashed me during free-fencing.
WC, Yao Wen and Marcus formed one team, Ivan, Jeff and Alan formed another. Both were eliminated in their second DE (like us), for the boys teams are much stronger competition than the girls teams. I went down to the pistes to support them and cheer them on. We waited a long time in between the DEs and YJ took a lot of photos with Aerene's camera. For WC's team, which was NUS team A, it was a near a "nail-biting" finish, for I could feel the tension within myself, that there was a chance we could win it, but we had to catch up and fight harder. In the end, we lost by around 4-7 points, I can't remember exactly. Yao Wen was the anchor and kept lunging and scoring, each score met with a cheer, and Yao Wen was injured! So every time he lunged his injury would hurt. O man! Ivan used his height to his advantage a few times, as did Marcus (Marcus's nemesis from the indiv was a short primary school boy from Z fencing I think, one of the clubs). Alan fencing was fast and decent. Jeff remembered to extend his arm and use his length advantage. (The first DE for both boys teams were against greendale secondary team C against B, team A against D, so these are smallish young boys you can ka cao and irritate, and use your height much to your advantage, just as we girls did against SMSS.)
During one of the lull periods, I found Pamela, who for the first time I saw her in fencing attire in the morning (yay, she recovered), chatting with her friends while watching the ABF girls team fence against Z fencing. NTU's coach comes from Z Fencing. She had made friends with and introduced me to Rachel, who was the wavy hair chinese girl from blade club who liked to run around in her ballet flats, and when I queued up for reporting, kept staring at me with BIG eyes. I had fenced against her in RJ invites and she remembered me charging at her. Well, "I had too if I wanted to score something," I told her. She's only P6 this year so she's still young and learning about social conduct (don't stare at people like that, ok?), as Pamela describes it "bu dong shi". I lost to her anyway in RJ invites.
Pamela told me she also feels like "referee kayu" to ZP, who gave her team a lot of yellow cards during their bout but not the other team at all, but fortunately for her team, they won anyway.
We'll be back next year, and I will be if I'm around. SQ and some seniors are graduating, so we floated an idea of setting up an alumni team. YL joked that we join his club (which he will set up). Because for SQ to compete next year, and to continue fencing, right now, she would have to join an external club. But I think we really should pursue this idea and set up an alumni team or something.
