Second Intention Read Online Free PDF Page B

in progress. Our little nucleus of foilists were hard at it at the far end of the hall, bouncing around and punching the air every time a hit had been awarded to them, whilst nearer to me the epeeists were doing their thing, just as dynamic but a little more restrained in their celebrations.
    I gave my face a quick wipe, took a swig of water, and stepped onto the last available piste where Jack, one of our juniors, was already wired up and waiting for me.
    I wired myself up, plugging the tail end of my body wire into the spool which would connect me to the electronic scoring box. I tested the epee, pressing the spring loaded tip into my foot and bringing up the red light on the box which showed I had scored a hit, then stepped forward to test it against Jack’s weapon.
    In epee fencing a hit can land anywhere on your opponent, from the top of the head to the soles of the feet, but hits on the weapon don ’t count. For this reason the body wires we use actually have three cores - two which complete the circuit to activate the light and buzzer, and a third which earths out the epee itself, making sure that a hit on the guard of the weapon isn’t shown as a valid hit. It’s a good system, and one which has been in use for a fair few years now. It’s also very simple, and therefore easy to fix if you get a problem. Before a bout begins, we always hit our opponent’s epee on the guard as a check that the system is working properly.
    I tapped Jack ’s guard which, as expected, produced no reaction from the box. He did the same to me.
    ‘ Bzzzzt.’ A green light appeared on the box.
    ‘ Do it again,’ I said, frowning.
    ‘ Bzzzzt.’ Another green light as he hit the guard of my epee.
    ‘ Maybe it’s a bit of dirt on your guard?’ He suggested. ‘Try your spare.’
    I unplugged the offending weapon and swapped it for one of the two spares I had left by the side of the piste.
    ‘Bzzzzt.’ Green light.
    ‘ Hang on, let’s try the wire,’ I said, unplugging the epee. I held the tip of his sword against the earthing pin on the plug of my body wire, and was surprised to see that it brought up the green light again. So that was the culprit. Ah well, it happens.
    ‘ Sorry, Jack. Give me a moment.’
    Body wires do fail sometimes, but it’s a nuisance when they do, as you have to wriggle out of your jacket to change it for a spare, which isn’t easy if you’re all sweaty. I walked over to my bag, dropped the failing wire into a side pocket, and took out one of the two spares I always carry. After getting it in place, zipping up the jacket, and pulling my glove back on, I wired up for a second time.
    We went through the whole process again.
    ‘Bzzzzt.’ Green light.
    What the hell was going on? Yes, body wires do fail sometimes, but twice in one evening? This just didn ’t happen.
    The last time I had touched any of my kit had been on Saturday evening, the night before the competition at Cheltenham. As always, I had meticulously gone through all of it and checked it thoroughly. I had cleaned it all, made sure that the travel and point pressure on the epee tips was legal, and ensured that the whole lot worked perfectly. How could two body wires, which hadn’t been used at all, both be failing now?
    Jack was beginning to look puzzled, and also a little impatient. He had psyched himself up for the fight, and was keen to get on with it.
    ‘Hold on,’ I said. I fetched the third of my body wires and plugged one end straight into the spool. I then put the tip of Jack’s sword onto the earthing pin.
    ‘ Bzzzzt.’ Green light.
    Three failing body wires?
    We swapped ends, just to make sure there was nothing wrong with the box, the spools, or the ground leads which connected them all together, and tried all three of my body wires. Red light each time.
    This was no coincidence. I peeled back the rubber cover on the plugs of all three wires, and was shocked to find that an earthing pin had been disconnected on each