thanks Gavin
as to the piste - I have fenced on much worse, including mud where we were asked not to go to our knees when legged.
the thing is, when both opponents hand-parry that simple deadly riposte is not so easy. also the foil really come from the age of manirism(sp?) where handparries were AFAIK not tolerated any more. we also do secondaries, just not in that tourney. nobody had brought enough kit
Also I am authorised in a lot more stuff than the other two, so it would not have been fair.
the swords we are using are rapier simulators. and looking at the erectile problems the one I am using is having I now know why I dislike it that much. My own sadly needs replacing, blade has a permanent kink. Blade lenght in both cases is 45".
oh attire: as we are a reenactment society, we try to wear period garb. I have a modern fencing jacket underneath.