Inns of Court Gold Cup

Dear member,

Our opening event of the 2019-20 season was held on Saturday, with the Inns of Court Gold Cup contested on the sun - and (occasionally) rain-dappled lawns of the Hurlingham Club.

We had a great turnout with 8 fencers in all: Andrew Brannon, Rob & Sue Brooks, Lawrence Burr, Laurie Laschetti, Mariette Mason, our President David Partridge, and me. There were a number of spectators, too, including Alex Brooks & Lizzie Stack, Sue & James Burr, John & Patricia Glasswell and David Worsfield.

Fencing was done with the wireless scoring equipment, which seemed to work well for the most part albeit sometimes it was difficult to see the lights on account of the sunshine. A low-tech solution to a high-tech problem presented itself by Pat Casey shadowing the lights after hits were scored… before we realised that, with no wires, it was easy to move the table entirely to the shaded side of the piste!

With a large pool the decision was made to shorten fights to 3 hits / 2 minutes. After some close fights Lawrence and David were tied with 5 victories apiece, but I managed to win all mine to collect the trophy.

Al