Duelists take stab at an ancient art WANT TO GO? FENCING PRIMER

By HUGH MUIR

For most of us, what we know about swordplay we learned at the movies.

But for members of the Dark Horse Fencing Club, what we usually saw on the screen was swashbuckling, which Webster's defines as "the characteristic behavior of a blustering, swaggering, fighting man."

Dark Horse is the Fredericksburg area's major fencing club, with 30-some members ranging in age from 8 to 74 years. Some swagger, but few bluster. To them, and to hundreds of thousands of other fencers across the world, fencing is a thinking person's sport.

"It is a Mensa game, one where you think on your feet," said Dark Horse President George Havrilak. "It's sort of like three-dimensional chess, where you have to see two or three moves ahead of your opponent, how to respond to different possible attacks.

"Of course, you also have to be in shape."

Or listen to 12-year-old Iñaki de Guzman, a foil fencer for two years, who competed in the Dark Horse Youth Scrimmage yesterday: "It's difficult, and you have to do it on your own. The adrenalin gets to you."

Her mother, Wynne de Guzman, said Iñaki also plays basketball, soccer and the piano, "but it's fencing she loves."

"It is an individual as well as a team sport. It builds self-confidence," her mother said.

Eric Kelly, 15, who "lives just down the road" from the club's headquarters in Spotsylvania County, calls foil "a fast, energetic sport." Based on his four years so far on the fencing strip, he said he had "a disdain for saber fencers."

AN APPROPRIATE NAME

The Dark Horse club is celebrating its 20th year. Club Treasurer Bruce Callander, a member since its founding, thought up the name. "Dark horse, you know, an unexpected winner," he said.

"This is a member-owned club and we have no professional coaches. We have lots of trophies, but no place to put them," he added.

About two thirds of the club's members are male. A majority of them fence foil; another eight fence saber, and the rest epee.

Dark Horse meets Monday through Thursday evenings in the Social Hall of Nativity of the Theotokos Greek Orthodox Church off State Route 3 in Spotsylvania.

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WEAPONS

The foil is descended from the classic dueling sword, with a slim blade, strict rules of engagement and the most limited target, the torso. Scoring is with the tip only.

The saber is modeled on the cavalryman's weapon, with points scored not only by the tip but also by hits from either edge of the blade as well as the flat sides. The target is anything from the waist up, including the head.

The epee, whose ancestor is the battle sword, is the heaviest of fencing's weapons. Its triangular blade scores with the tip only. But, as in battle, anywhere on the opponent's body, top to toe, is a legal target.

SCORING

For scoring purposes, all three weapons have been electrified to record a hit (or, as the French say, Touche!). The tips of foils and epees are spring-loaded to break a circuit when a target is hit. A signal goes down the blade, through the fencer's uniform to a wire trailing behind and thence to a lighted scoring box. The entire blade of a saber is electrified so that when any part of it hits the target it gives a similar signal.

UNIFORMS

The wiring--and thus the uniform--differs for the epee, the foil and the saber. For the latter two, to identify whether the blade has hit the torso or upper body, fencers wear light cloth jackets containing wire mesh. The saber fencer also wears a wired head mask. If the blade hits the wired area, that triggers a red or green scoring light (depending on which fencer hit first). If an invalid area is hit, a white light goes on and no score is given.

The epeeist, with a wide-open target, wears the traditional white canvas uniform containing no wire mesh. If the tip touches anywhere, it sends a signal indicating a score. If that "score" happens to be a hit on the floor or anything else that is not the opponent, the judge disqualifies it.

WHAT: Dark Horse Fencing Club

WHEN: 6-9 p.m., Monday-Thursday

WHERE: Nativity of The Theotokos Greek Orthodox Church, 12326 Spotswood Furnace Road (off State Route 3 across from Riverbend High School)

ON THE NET: darkhorsefencing.com

Date published: 2/17/2008

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