Merseyside Open 2019
Yes, I know this is now more than a year late. I am catching up with things.
Actually, getting a hotel for the 2019 edition was a story in and of itself
This was the first Merseyside where I couldn't just kip at Mum's the night before and get driven to the tournament, because Mum had moved to Bradford. Because women's foil is on the Sunday, and starts early, I couldn't just get the train up on the day. I would need a hotel room. Unfortunately, Liverpool Football Club are quite popular and were playing at home that weekend. And the hotels knew they had a captive audience and put up their prices.
Cue yours truly going, "no way am I paying £120 for 1 night in a hotel room." ($150 or AUSD 236)
I had a booking.com account anyway but even the options on there weren't brilliant. I managed to find a reasonably local room rent for the night for a reasonable price. Which is fine, and all I really needed.
Of course, a month before, the person whose room I would be renting decided to sell her house. I mean, thankfully she found me another hotel room and refunded me the money but still. I have learnt my lesson, actual hotels only from here on in. (And in a spoiler for the 2020 version of this post, I have found a perfect little hotel, which I will rave about then, unless anyone is in need of a recommendation for a hotel just outside Liverpool city centre, in which case, tell me and I will give you the details.)
So I catch the train up, and run into epeeists I know. I go with them to the hotel and find out that there are two Premier Inns in Liverpool near the airport, and I am in the wrong one.
The whole place is overrun with Irish Liverpool fans, who pop over for the weekend. Unfortunately, that means that getting an evening meal becomes complicated.
Breakfast is also complicated by finding out that various of the referees (and one of my opponents) are also staying at this hotel. I hide behind a menu and eat quickly.
Once I finally got to the competition, it didn't get much better. There were various ways that you could describe my first round draw, but none of them are publishable. I got drawn against both AF and MP, which is a terrible way of starting a day. AF's ranking is always lower than it ought to be because she only does like 3 competitions a year, and it always screws up the pools.
Needless to say, the pool does not go well.
It does feature one of the most glorious fencing stories I have though.
There is a Liverpool Fencing Club beginner in the pool. She's fencing MP and gets carded for something and looked very confused (sorry, I was straightening my foil so I didn't see what happened). At the end of the match, she goes over to her coach for an explanation. Cue coach nearly killing himself laughing, as she said when he'd asked the referee what she been carded for, all the ref said was "cuckoo, cuckoo". In one of those 'fencing uses too many French words' moments, what the ref had actually said was "corps a corps" but if you don't know what that is, apparently it sounds like bird noises.
(I swear it's funny. To a niche audience.)
I win 1 (against the beginner) and lose 3. This is not good for my ranking.
Second round of pools, I get a different Liverpool beginner, a veteran who I sometimes beat, a veteran I almost never beat, and an occasional team mate. It also does not go well (1 win, 3 losses). The most frustrating was the two veterans because well, one of them was acting up and the other one, I missed her shoulder by centimetres to lose 4-5.
This all means I get a semi-terrible draw in the knock-outs. Somewhat frustratingly, I get a lead, but I then lose, when her coach tells her what to do. In French. I can't lip-read French. I did tell her coach that I would be working on it though ;) (Don't worry, I know her coach, and have known her coach for many years. In fact, her coach has knocked me out of things before.)
All of this meant I got points, just. I was 20th or last points scoring position. Not brilliant, but it'll do.
Actually, getting a hotel for the 2019 edition was a story in and of itself
This was the first Merseyside where I couldn't just kip at Mum's the night before and get driven to the tournament, because Mum had moved to Bradford. Because women's foil is on the Sunday, and starts early, I couldn't just get the train up on the day. I would need a hotel room. Unfortunately, Liverpool Football Club are quite popular and were playing at home that weekend. And the hotels knew they had a captive audience and put up their prices.
Cue yours truly going, "no way am I paying £120 for 1 night in a hotel room." ($150 or AUSD 236)
I had a booking.com account anyway but even the options on there weren't brilliant. I managed to find a reasonably local room rent for the night for a reasonable price. Which is fine, and all I really needed.
Of course, a month before, the person whose room I would be renting decided to sell her house. I mean, thankfully she found me another hotel room and refunded me the money but still. I have learnt my lesson, actual hotels only from here on in. (And in a spoiler for the 2020 version of this post, I have found a perfect little hotel, which I will rave about then, unless anyone is in need of a recommendation for a hotel just outside Liverpool city centre, in which case, tell me and I will give you the details.)
So I catch the train up, and run into epeeists I know. I go with them to the hotel and find out that there are two Premier Inns in Liverpool near the airport, and I am in the wrong one.
The whole place is overrun with Irish Liverpool fans, who pop over for the weekend. Unfortunately, that means that getting an evening meal becomes complicated.
Breakfast is also complicated by finding out that various of the referees (and one of my opponents) are also staying at this hotel. I hide behind a menu and eat quickly.
Once I finally got to the competition, it didn't get much better. There were various ways that you could describe my first round draw, but none of them are publishable. I got drawn against both AF and MP, which is a terrible way of starting a day. AF's ranking is always lower than it ought to be because she only does like 3 competitions a year, and it always screws up the pools.
Needless to say, the pool does not go well.
It does feature one of the most glorious fencing stories I have though.
There is a Liverpool Fencing Club beginner in the pool. She's fencing MP and gets carded for something and looked very confused (sorry, I was straightening my foil so I didn't see what happened). At the end of the match, she goes over to her coach for an explanation. Cue coach nearly killing himself laughing, as she said when he'd asked the referee what she been carded for, all the ref said was "cuckoo, cuckoo". In one of those 'fencing uses too many French words' moments, what the ref had actually said was "corps a corps" but if you don't know what that is, apparently it sounds like bird noises.
(I swear it's funny. To a niche audience.)
I win 1 (against the beginner) and lose 3. This is not good for my ranking.
Second round of pools, I get a different Liverpool beginner, a veteran who I sometimes beat, a veteran I almost never beat, and an occasional team mate. It also does not go well (1 win, 3 losses). The most frustrating was the two veterans because well, one of them was acting up and the other one, I missed her shoulder by centimetres to lose 4-5.
This all means I get a semi-terrible draw in the knock-outs. Somewhat frustratingly, I get a lead, but I then lose, when her coach tells her what to do. In French. I can't lip-read French. I did tell her coach that I would be working on it though ;) (Don't worry, I know her coach, and have known her coach for many years. In fact, her coach has knocked me out of things before.)
All of this meant I got points, just. I was 20th or last points scoring position. Not brilliant, but it'll do.