The Remise
Item
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Title
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The Remise
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Date
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July 1940
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volume
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5
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issue
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4
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pages
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7, 16
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content
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en
The Remise
It always seems wise to plan the National Championships as a Gala Week, le grand semaine. This not only sounds well but also provides the opportunity for fencers to come from far and near to participate in all events. On the other hand, the week itself generally proves to be a pain in the neck for those responsible for its conduct. The Bout Committee and the various League Officers are pretty bleary-eyed and fed up with the grand semaine before it is over. The Directors and Judges feel that if they have to see one more bout of any kind they will burst out crying. Nerves become edgy, tempers frayed.
We see no alternative to the plan as recently employed. Hard though it may be upon those who shoulder the week's burden, it is the most practical and the fairest plan to fencers who live any distance from the site of the Nationals.
The fencers owe a debt of gratitude to many individuals who contributed willingly of their time and services to make the 1940 Nationals the success they were. We are thinking particularly of Harold Van Buskirk, Dr. Tibor Nyilas, Miguel de Capriles, Warren Dow, Curtis Rice, Hans Stark and Douglas Gerard. There were countless others who served as Directors, Judges, Scorers, Ticket Collectors and in all the other miscellaneous jobs that make things easier for the fencers themselves. The fencers get the glory and the fun, the others get the thankless work. This column wants specifically to thank the workers.
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The A.F.L.A. borrowed the facilities of three clubs for the week's competitions; the Fencers Club, The Salle Santelli and the New York Athletic Club. Despite the possibility of confusion in this arrangement, there was none. The fencers and spectators showed up at the right clubs at the right times and furthermore with the right weapons.
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With the exception of the Individual Sabre which Armitage seemed to dominate right from the starting bell, the other Individual titles were anyone’s guess up until the final touches were made. Both Every and Siebert won their foil and epee titles in last-minute fence-offs while Miss Mroczkowska stood 3-3 in the last bout of the Women’s Championship, the loss of which would have thrown her into a triple tie with Mrs. Vince and Miss Stewart for another first-place fence-off.
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The Salle Santelli teams came off with exceptional success; exceptional in that the pre-contest guesses were not in their favor. This was particularly true in the two Foil Team events where competitive statistics strongly favored the N.Y.A.C. for the Men’s title and the actual mid-way score of 4-1 favored the Salle d’Armes Vince for the Women’s title. In the Epee event, the Santelli cause did not appear too bright when it lost its second match of the evening. However, that was the only match it did lose throughout the Championship.
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Professional laurels go to George Santelli and Alvar Hermanson for the second year in a row. With all Championship Teams coached by Santelli either at his private Salle or at the New York Athletic Club, his clean-up in that field was complete. The individual success of the fencers he coached was also impressive for all three medalists in both foil and sabre were his pupils although 3 were from the N.Y.A.C., two from the Salle Santelli and one from the Fencers Club. Alvar Hermanson’s pupils took two medals in epee while Rene Pinchard’s took one. Joseph Vince coached one medalist in the Women’s Foil while surprisingly enough the other two medalists were trained by other amateurs.
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The Women’s Foil Team Championship provided considerable excitement in the final match between the Salle Santelli and the Salle d’Armes Vince. The Salle d’Armes Vince has held this team title for so many years that, if there had been a Trophy for this event, it would look much like a V by now. The Vince team was well on its way to repeating the old, old story, leading 4-1 in bouts when the Salle Santelli began the longest, successful, back-to-the-wall stand that we can recollect. The Vince team was actually and psychologically handicapped by the loss of Maria Cerra who was seriously ill the evening of the competition. Her younger sister, Kathleen did a most commendable and courageous job as pinch-hitter but was unable to replace fully her more experienced sister. Miss Grimmellmann deserves praise for her work for the Santelli team. She too was the least experienced of her team but despite this she achieved the outstanding upset of the matches in causing Mrs. Vince her only defeat of the Championship in a bout which turned the tide definitely to the Santelli team.
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Upsets marked the early rounds of the Foil Championship. The trip across country stole the reaction time and tempo from Snyder, the California left-hander, who was unexpectedly eliminated by a one touch advantage in the first round. Osis of Michigan dropped all bouts in the semi-final round after coming off top man in his preliminary strip which had included Every and Lubell, two of the eventual Finalists. Alessandroni, twice Champion, also lost all bouts in his semi-final pool to allow three new men to go forward into the National Finals from his strip.
All of the Finalists, except Dow, ran into difficulties almost immediately. It was a bunched field with Dow in the lead until almost the end when he unexpectedly lost his last two bouts and joined the tangle. Every, Lewis and Dow came out on top in a triple tie and finished in that order in the fence-off.
Giolito earned a fourth place cleanly by losing only to the three medalists. This was his first National Finals and only lack of experience kept him from the medal class itself. Huffman and Steere were right behind Giolito, suffering primarily from mental reservations; Huffman not having steadied consistently with the change in style he has adopted while Steere being slightly confused after several years absence from hard competitive fencing.
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Epee too had some surprising upsets. Mike de Capriles was blitzkrieged out of the first round without a win while Heiss received the same treatment in his semi-final round. The Finals was a tug of war. At the half way mark Sardina, Doughty, Siebert, Skrobisch and Tingley were in a quintupal knot with the last three gradually coming out of the scramble to take the lead at the end. Siebert had his close calls but seemed to thrive on them and once having achieved his chance for the fence-off rode through with flying colors.
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The Sabre Individuals, as has already been mentioned in the main article, was the only Championship dominated by one fencer from start to finish. Armitage was hot and distributed his heat evenly over all of his opponents except Joe de Capriles. This loss gave Joe a clear claim to second and left brother Mike and Huffman to match points for 4th and 3rd places. These four have dominated our Sabre Nationals for the last four years and seem to have formed the habit of swapping places with each other.
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The Women’s Foil was a fooler with the sequence of bouts supplying the source of that confusion. The eventual medalists undoubtedly had the upper hand but there was no clear distinction among them. Miss Mroczkowska had steadiness and stamina, Mrs. Vince had experience and Miss Stewart had speed and technique. Mrs. Vince lost 2 of her first 3 bouts and for that reason was not closely watched by those who were following their score sheets automatically. Those bouts were all she lost but that was not appreciated until much later. After 5 bouts apiece Miss Mroczkowska and Miss Stewart were tied with 4 wins and 1 loss apiece and interest centered in them. Then Mrs. Vince defeated Miss Stewart and tied matters with her at 2 losses apiece which tie held throughout the Championship. What about Miss Mroczkowska? Was she not the least experienced in the Finals? Did not fencing precedent say that she would blow up, fall down or at least get sword-shy before the end. It did, but she didn’t do any of those things. She remained steady and her stamina stayed with her and these, her main assets saw her through to a distinct one-bout advantage claim to the Championship.
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The Foil Team Championship seemed a set up for the strong N.Y.A.C. team, made up of four of the first five men from the Individual Championships. This team and that from the Salle Santelli romped through the early matches to clash once more in the final match. This A. C. team had taken the Santelli team 5-0 and 5-1 in earlier season team competitions. So what? The Salle Santelli neatly turned the tables and retained its National Title with a 5-1 revenge. Does this not make fencing as unpredictable as horse-racing? One would reasonably expect 2 high-powered teams to have close scores and yet in the last four meetings the scores have been 5-1, 0-5, 1-5 and 5-1.
Although the Bout Committee had arranged the Epee Team matches in a way to allow the strongest teams to forge ahead, thereby eliminating the necessity for completing every possible match, these plans went awry. Five of the six teams proceeded to battle it out from the start and every match was necessary to decide the Championship. No team was consistently good, but each of the five top teams flashed periods of fine epee. The best manner of reviewing the team achievements is to recite their losses.
The Santelli team lost only to Southern California. The Cuban team won all matches except against Santelli and the Fencers Club. Illinois lost only to Santelli and Cuba. The Fencers Club was defeated only by Illinois and the Salle Santelli. The changes of fortune were many and frequent that night and the spectators were hard pressed to know which of the three fencing strips to watch for the maximum excitement.
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The Sabre Team Championship was again very much a race between the N.Y.A.C. and the Salle Santelli to see which team could dispose of its opponents the easier. The final match between these teams was in favor of the A. C. all of the way. The spectators were in a party mood in anticipation of the Gala Night immediately following and viewed the sabre bouts more as a floor show for their entertainment than as a hard fought National Championship.
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The entire statistics of the week were as follows:
Individuals | Competitors | Bouts (Prel. | Semi. | Finals)
Foil | 26 | 48 | 25 | 39
Women’s Foil | 21 | 32 | 26 | 36
Sabre | 24 | 39 | 27 | 36
Epee | 23 | 36 | 28 | 36
Totals | 94 | 155 | 106 | 147
Teams | Number | Members | Bouts
Foil | 4 | 14 | 27
Women’s Foil | 3 | 9 | 22
Sabre | 5 | 17 | 45
Epee | 6 | 19 | 106
Totals | 18 | 59 | 200
There were 153 entries and a total of 608 bouts.
Vital Statistics: One turned ankle and one split tip.
