On the Fence

When Coach Rene Peroy calls out his Varsity swordsmen on the afternoon of November 26, he will be faced with the problem of re-vamping his entire fencing organization to meet with the new rules of the Intercollegiate Fencing Association. It is not that his men won't qualify or that there is an unusually meager amount of good material, but rather that the heads of the Intercollegiate Fencing Association have decided to add another man to the regulation teams, and to change the system of rating.

In the past it was a perfectly simple matter. But now, fencing has become just as involved as the rest of the sport ticket. It rivals football in the intricacy of rules and regulations. In the good old days there was a two man team and the winning team won. Nobody could ask for anything more straightforward than that. Everything went according to Hoyle. But now there is another complicating factor to lend an air of mysticism to the dueling sport, such as it hasn't possessed since the days of D'Artagan. This year each college will be represented by a three-man team, and each-of the three men will be rated A, B, and C, on the basis of their records for the year.

The New System Explained

Take, for example, last year's Intercollegiate Epee championship team, which was composed of none other than our own Harvard representatives, Webster F. Williams, Jr. '35, and Edward E. Langenau '35. Suppose, for a minute, that Williams should win all of his bouts this year, that Langenau should drop one, and that the new man on the three-man team should lose two. They would be rated A, B, and C, respectively.

Under this new system, the winner of the Class A competition will be the Intercollegiate Singles Champion in his weapon and the team with the best record in all of the three classes will be the Intercollegiate Team Champion.

The upshot of the matter, as far as Harvard is concerned, is that Coach Peroy will have to scout around and find at least three new men in addition to his usual quota. He is cheered in his task by the thought that there are six veterans of last year returning to the fencing team and that there is plenty of good material coming up from the Freshman team of last year.

Flock of Veterans Back

Peroy has the veteran combination of Langenau and Captain Williams, epee champions, back in competition this winter, and with several good epee men, among them Frederick W. Sands '37, and Henry D. Grush '37, ready to argue it out for the extra place on the new three-man team, prospects in this class are not too gloomy. In the foils, he likewise has two veterans, Robert C. Ackerman '35, and Phillip E. Lilienthal '36, to serve as a nucleus for this year's trio. In that slashing, cutting, brutal weapon of the gallant Six Hundred, the sabre, Coach Peroy will also welcome back two veterans, Richard Morgan, IV '36, and Richard Morton '36, who worked together last winter.

In addition to these veterans there is the crop of outstanding candidates coming up from the 1937 team to fight it out for the extra position on the Varsity. There is, of course, the perennial problem of finding men for the Freshman team, which is always a difficult task, since so few of the preparatory schools have teams in this more or less obscure sport. But this year there is the promising news that there is a bumper crop of good material and an unusually large supply of candidates. The redoubtable Rene will have a more serious job than usual, but Harvard has almost always come through with a champion in some event and this year should be no exception. BY TIME OUT.