Sunday BAT

Beau Geste was Sunday and it was a lot of fun. I fought with my kite and encountered many of the same things I did at Crown. At least I didn't lose my arm. I had some good warmups with Kas and Dougal.

Oscad ran it and he likes to do it double elim, 2 out of three. In the second fight the winner of the first fights starts kneeling, and if there is a third fight the other fighter has to kneel. Because I started out with a tough draw I ended up with some repeats. I had to fight Vasili and Gui twice. My other fight was Dougal. I don't recall fighting any of the others.

My fights with Dougal were fun. I beat him quickly in the first with a simple face thrust from a high guard that he ran right onto. When I started on my knees I killed him with a hook thrust.

My first set of fights with Bill was rougher. I won the first fight with a face thrust. I lost the second fight and won the third, though I can't remember how.

My first fight with Gui was predictably tough. I managed not to lose my leg to his usual attack, even though it is hard to guard against with the kite (harder than with he center grip round for sure). He was hitting light with a light little sword, and probably would have killed me earlier. When he was on his knees I got him in a great spot, a thrust to his belly right inside the back end of his kite. It took me a while to set it up but it was very satisfying. In our third fight he just clobbered me.

I might have had another fight. I cant' remember. I might have had a bye. then I think I fought Bill again. This time I was just all over him. My goal was to be more aggressive and try to overwhelm him, and I pretty much succeeded.

The finals played out pretty much the same as my first set of fights with Gui had. He killed me while we were both standing, I killed him when I was standing. He killed me while I was kneeling. The only difference was the two double kills we had. Since Bill was also fighting left handed, that means that, counting double kills, I had eight tournament fights against left handers yesterday. That will wake you up in a hurry.