Hello. What you all do over the weekend? The other Map Twats got drunk and abused me, and my indie icons, in foul terms.
I was at the Much Wenlock Olympian Games. It's a funny mix of comedy sports, children's events, and high-level fixtures, as my fencing match was. Outside was the Vintage Bicycle Race, inside was a decent event attracting quite a few international-level fencers! It's just a shame that the Women's Pig-Chasing event was phased out a few decades back. Surely, that should be an Olympic sport again? The Games were set up by the local doctor, who also founded schools, organised clean water, got the railway line extended to the village, and generally did everything he could to turn what was a slum into a model village (and now an incredibly expensive place to live). There is something hugely inspiring about seeing hundreds of people joining in, competing, working, or just visiting, an event that could so easily have died or been spoiled by commercialisation. The sun shone, we all worked hard, and there was a general sense of perfection. Then I went back to Wolverhampton and to feuds, litterers and atomised selfishness.
So anyway, I spent Saturday helping to set it up, was in the hall at the crack of dawn working again, and finally got to do some fencing some hours later. Thanks to some pure dumb luck, I managed to narrowly beat a couple of really good fencers, including a Cadet (youth) GBR lad and got a decent seeding of 6th. My first direct elimination fight was against the coach I sacked from my university squad a few years back, so there was a little tension. He's a recent veteran Sabre world champion, so he's pretty good, but I again scraped past him 15-14, having been 6-2 up at one point. Pure luck: his last hit missed and I timed my riposte well.
Then my luck ran out - in the quarter-finals I lost to an Army guy, Max Weedon, who had brilliant timing and telescopic arms. My awkward tricks got me a few points, but it was utterly one-sided. There were a couple of consolations though - he won the event, and he's a very nice guy, so it's impossible to be bitter. I came 5th overall and won this trophy (third time) for the best Shropshire fencer - then got on with taking the competition down, which with all the aches and pains, was far less pleasant than setting everything up.
One of these photos is from Wolverhampton. You decide which…
