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Title
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The Remise
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Date
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July 1939
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volume
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4
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issue
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5
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pages
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9, 11, 14-15
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content
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en
THE REMISE
Editor's Note: Inasmuch as the usual anonymous writer of The Remise was not in California during the National Championships and those competitions supply most of the material for this issue, the Editor has undertaken to pinch hit for his usual contributor. With apologies, therefore, to our unknown benefactor we make use of the space and column name usually reserved for him.
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One can hardly enter San Francisco without being conscious of Treasure Island. It has become a prominent living part of that city’s present entity. To feel that that was where the National Fencing Championships would be held, gave every visiting fencer a personal sense of contact immediately upon arrival.
The San Francisco International Exposition is beautiful and very compact. There is little difficulty in finding one’s way from any starting place to any destination. Festival Hall, where the fencing was conducted, was centrally located making matters even easier. The hall itself was unusually large which was fortunate as later details will explain. The Committee had provided four regulation fencing strips, three running lengthwise and one across the end of the very long hall. The hall itself was high and vaulted with large drop lights flooding every strip with good illumination. The center parallel strip was elevated for use in Finals and special matches. Steel folding chairs were provided for all spectators. A public address system was available for the announcement of strips, bouts and scores.
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Mr. Erich Funke opened his Fencing Academy for the use of one and all. Sword and mask proved open sesame there to any fencer. These were friendly evenings that more than anything else is an accepted tradition with our sport.
On Sunday, the fencers were invited to tea at the Berkeley Country Club. There was fencing out of doors for those whose fencing did not start on Monday and as the afternoon cooled off, as it certainly did, they all retired to the large lounge for tea and the never failing fencing discussions. President Harold Van Buskirk arrived, just off the plane, and was put to work immediately in a Bout Committee meeting. After the meeting had ended and the fencing talk had subsided, word was passed around that we were all invited to dinner at the Bryan Smiths. Whether we were subject to question but the fact remains that the fencers descended upon the Smiths en masse and put their beautiful home “to the sword.” Their fine hospitality was equal to the occasion which would have caused Oscar of the Waldorf no small worry. The fencers tackled that larder like so many Japanese beetles and still were unable to strip the field. However, let this be a warning to all swordsmen “at home”. Never breathe the word “open house” before a crowd of more than two fencers.
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Fencing started on Monday afternoon with the Foil Team Championships. The preliminaries were of interest only through their strong contrasts. For the most part the team matches were not close and it soon became evident that the Salle Santelli, the N.Y.A.C., the Olympic Club of San Francisco #1 and the Los Angeles Athletic Club #1 teams were destined to reach the Finals. An occasional individual upset was experienced in the afternoon but these four named teams carried through the afternoon uneliminated.
The Finals in the evening resolved themselves around the two New York City teams, each going through the day undefeated until their last match of the evening. In this final match, the N.Y.A.C. won its first and only bout with the Salle Santelli running out the next five bouts for the match and the championship.
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The first day of competition revealed one serious fault in the otherwise fine facilities. The main floor had been waxed for dancing the week before. This wax was still in good supply and it proved easy to track it upon the fencing strips. It soon became necessary to wash the strips and provide damp cloths at the side of all strips to remove the wax from the fencing shoes. As the days progressed the wax gradually wore away, but on that first day it was a real problem to every one of the contestants.
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There were 28 entries in the Men’s Individual Foil. These were placed in 5 pools, each to forward 3 fencers to the semifinals. There were then 2 semifinal pools in the afternoon, one of 8 and the other of seven men, each to qualify 4 men into the finals.
There were no startling upsets during the day. Duris de Jong was unfortunate in being eliminated in the preliminaries on the basis of touches and Alfred Snyder and Ralph Marson were each eased out of their respective semifinal pools, but there were just too many strong fencers in each pool. Their fates should rather be attributed to “fortunes of war” than to upsets.
Apparently the upsets were saving themselves for the evening finals, for in three hours of nightmarish fencing those finals saw the most complete series of upsets probably in the annals of fencing. As the finals started, based upon their last year ratings the men were listed in the following order: Every, Dow, Huffman, Bukantz, Carfagno and Lewis. If you stick a pin in this list and rotate it you will get the almost exact order of the finish of the 1939-1940 Championships with Hess and Mortimer taking 7th and 8th places, respectively.. Match that anywhere in any sport and Bob Ripley will not believe it.
To my mind the real stars of the evening were Huffman and Carfagno. This despite the fact that Lewis eventually won. Lewis had been impressive the day before in the team matches, superior to the other two in performance, but for some strange reason he was far from impressive in the contest which marked the peak of his fencing career to date. He barely came off the winner 5-4 in three of his bouts, any one of which going against him would have put him out of the medal class. Yet these are the breaks which make or break men who enter competitions.
In the fence off Lewis was clearly the master. His stamina was magnificent and his “will to win” had by that time been whetted. He went out to win with the determination that is the mark of the champion he was to be.
The judges owe John Huffman an apology. They made him work harder for his touches than any set of rules require. Even so, when he entered the tie for first place he had the best point record of the evening. Touch after touch had been discarded as too light until Huffman, ever resourceful, attacked deeply to bend his blade double. That is a killing requirement and found him physically exhausted when the fence off was necessary.
The Eastern fencers have not seen enough of Carfagno to appreciate his ability. He proved that evening that he was one of the best foilmen in the country. He is tall with a fine build for fencing. He is coolheaded and instinctively adaptable. He could be considerably faster and more resourceful with training and that we hope he will endeavor to obtain during the next 12 months, for he is at the present time not using his potentialities to the full.
Neither Dow nor Heiss fenced as well in the finals as they had fenced during the day. Dow, strangely enough went completely to pieces and was a hollow shell during the latter half of the evening. Something snapped in his spirit along the route and we saw the toughest individual competitor of the year drop one bout 5-0 without so much as a care for the broken pieces. Heiss had been without the necessary competitive experience throughout the past few years and the amazing thing is that he fenced so well most of the day in a weapon in which he has for several years made no pretentions.
While Bukantz and I were fogged down into a strange mental state that never saw us function at our best, Mortimer fought hard with all he had but just lacked the experience and training of the others. He put up an excellent fight but fell before the faster reactions of a group any one of whom might have bowed to him when they were in their first Nationals as he was.
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Helene Mayer was the only defending champion to retain her title during the Individual Championships. As such she probably deserves a more reverent touch in these columns than anyone else. However, it was my opinion that she encountered tougher resistance this year than in any of the five previous years she has swept the strips for her well-deserved title. Her total point score was most impressive but as a close observer that evening it was noticeable that she had to fight harder to make those touches than she ever had in the past. Was it because she is failing to get the competitive opposition so necessary to keep her at her peak? Possibly, but I think the real reason is that American women’s fencing has definitely improved and no one would be more gratified with this development than Miss Mayer.
She was never really pressed with a threat to her title. She lost one bout to Miss Calkins who was amazed apparently that she could hit Miss Mayer so easily. Miss Calkins did exactly that, she hit Miss Mayer with just the right movement at just the right time and if it were a new experience for Miss Mayer imagine what it must have been to Miss Calkins or any other girl in the country.
Miss Dalton proved again that she will not permit more than one girl to be ahead of her in any competition. Her consistent performance in the long series of competitions this year has won her the respect of all her opponents and placing second to Miss Mayer was a just reward for her season’s work.
Mrs. Vokral proved again the value of experience in foil. Not as finished a fencer as Miss Mayer nor as cool a competitor as Miss Dalton she impressed the writer as being the correct third place winner even though this was only on the slim margin of 2 touches. Right behind her was Miss Stewart whose technique at times was the best of the evening but whose confusion in just one bout cost her a medal.
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The remainder of these personal remarks of the championships are for the most part not drawn from personal observation. I left San Francisco early Friday evening, missing the finals of the Individual epee and all of the sabre. There was shopping, errands and sight-seeing to be done on Thursday, packing on Friday and a personal desire to get away from fencing right after the Women’s foil on Wednesday. Such comments as are made hereafter have been pieced together from hearsay but presented for the general interest of those readers who have borne with me thus far.
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In passing through Chicago on the trip West I had telephoned Frank Righeimer, a very close friend of long standing. As a parting shot he said, “Watch those boys from Illinois in epee. They are going to surprise you.” I arrived late for the epee. The Illinois team had just defeated the Salle Santelli team, consisting of two American epee champions and the All Eastern Epee Champion. A stunned silence met me from sources I had expected to be particularly optimistic at that period in the contest. I heard one Fencers Club partisan say to a member of that team, “Watch those boys from Illinois. They are going to surprise you.” Shades of Righeimer.
One cannot derive intense surprise from an epee victory by a Senior Epee Team from the Fencers Club. That club was winning epee championships long before any member of the Illinois team was born. Nevertheless, anyone can derive surprise in any team winning an epee championship in the manner in which this team won. They won 29½ out of 31 bouts throughout the day. They had a perfect score of 15 wins and no losses in the Finals itself in which their touch score was 45 to 18. The Illinois team took a well deserved second place losing only to the Fencers Club in the finals.
Surprisingly enough, Norman Armitage of the Fencers Club was the Star of the day. I have often starred Armitage in sabre matches but this is an entirely new experience to me. He had fenced in only one epee competition throughout the year, had very possibly not even trained with an epee and yet pinch-hitting so that his clubmates might have a team he had a perfect score throughout the championship. Furthermore, to save his more experienced teammates for what he believed would prove a strenuous Finals, he assumed the brunt of the work during the day. As a result he fenced more bouts (12) than either Heiss (11) or Jaeckel (8) with the very fine point score of 36 touches made against 13 received.
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Loyal Tingley is our new champion in epee. Shades of Righeimer once more. This statement is true in more ways than one for Tingley’s accomplishment is very similar to Righeimer’s own in 1929. Together they are the only men ever to win a National Fencing Championship while still in college. Furthermore, Tingley gained his opportunity to go to California through winning the Midwest Epee Championship from Righeimer earlier in the season.
Some people call it Lady Luck, others call it Destiny but whatever it is it covered Tingley in its protecting wings that day and saw him through. He qualified from the preliminary pool on a basis of touches much to the embarrassment of Tracy Jaeckel who was disqualified when that particular count was taken. Destiny had already been in evidence for Tingley, for the locker room key had been lost that morning. As a result, the competition was delayed and entries were postponed from 10:30 to 11:00 A.M. Tingley arrived at 10:50 and had been saved from disbarment by a misplaced key. Was it destiny that made Andrew Boyd careless of his electrical equipment in his last Finals bout? Would he have won that bout and the championship had his plug been taped as it should have been? We think he might, but he didn’t and since the responsibility was his own we must pass on to the factual results.
Tingley tied for first in the Finals and won the fence-off. The results of that fence-off were clear and decisive as were Lewis’ results in the foil fence-off. But both men rode at times throughout their respective days under the protecting wings of a favorable destiny.
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There are so few professionals who “know” sabre that as a result there are very few fencers who handle a sabre in the winning manner. The New York Athletic Club has made a specialty of this weapon for years and as a result there was no considerable surprise when its team, consisting of specialists in this sport, swept through the championship without appearing pressed at any time. The Salle Santelli has persistently bid for top honors in sabre and again was runner up to the N.Y.A.C., forcing that team to a 5-3 score, the best score made against the champions. Since George Santelli coaches both teams, his monotonously annual professional leadership in this phase of fencing was again without challenge.
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From the spectators' point of view there is no weapon to touch the sabre for excitement and interest. There is something in the wider movements of that weapon and the fact that sabres actually flash that draws and holds a crowd. It was therefore fitting and proper that the week of fencing closed with this exciting weapon.
Once more, the Individual Sabre Championship hinged upon the bout between Norman Armitage of the Fencers Club and John R. Huffman of the New York Athletic Club. These two fencers have shared this title for the past ten years, permitting no substitute for that honored position. A packed auditorium was at hand to witness the meeting of these rivals, a mark of true respect to everything their preeminence implies. They were well rewarded for their interest for the bout went to 4-4 before Armitage put over the winning touch, to make their dual string of Championships even once more, with each having five gold medals to his credit.
When these two men meet it has been useless to forecast on appearances during the early evening. Time and time again one of them has reversed the tables on the other who seemed at the moment to have matters well in hand. Actually, this evening Huffman appeared headed to defend his title successfully. He had been more impressive throughout the day while Armitage at times was not in full cry. Perhaps that is what made the bout between them so exciting for Armitage hit into Huffman with more dash than he had shown against the others and throughout the bout there was the exciting possibility of either coming through. When the score finally reached 4-4 there wasn’t a person in that packed hall whose heart did not thump more strongly than usual.
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In the early part of this article we mentioned that it was fortunate that the Exposition officials had provided so large a hall for the fencing. Throughout the week there was a constant flow of spectators many of whom were seeing fencing for the first time. The real test of spectator interest, however, is in holding them. Each Finals succeeded in doing that and the attendance in the evenings exceeded expectations. The big turnout naturally was for the sabre, which weapon gives the uninitiated spectator something to get his teeth into. Imagine everyone’s surprise when 1,500 people were on hand to see Armitage defeat Huffman. An unusual thing then happened. The announcer in his excitement stated that the championship was thereupon decided. The spectators incorrectly interpreted this as meaning the end of the evening’s fencing. The hall practically emptied with another eight or more good bouts yet to be fenced. By the end of the evening the hall had refilled once more with official counters amazed to report a total of 6,000 people to see the fencing in one day.
Dernell Every
