Candlemas
Earlier today I went to church, not for church services though mind you. In actual fact I met a few good friends and few probably hundred others or so for some good tournament sword fighting, medieval recreational style. The event is called Candlemas, has been going on for a long time, is hosted here in Lexington and is known for two things historically: great fighting and great feasting. It was not a disappointment on either account today.
I got to site shortly after it opened, after having ran an errand or two that I had to be done. In typical SCA fashion, being there on time meant I had plenty of time to get in armour and ready to go. This was a good thing considering how long it had been since I had been in armour and the overall lack of practice and such. So, I starting put on armour and after some minor strap repairs, I was good to go get inspected. And the new gauntlets for MadMatt over on the armourarchive.org were great by the way.
I went through the inspection and everything was great except my helm was leaving a questionable gap beneath the chin going up to the gorget. This is something that had been raised as an issue once before. I was legal but cautioned about it. I went ahead and tied the aluminum camail into place just to make it a bit safer and keep from being hassled by marshals throughout the day. I really think it looks bad, being aluminum, tied on (instead of properly sewed to leather and then wired), and generally think it is too short also, but it served its purpose and now I am even more inspired on the riveted mail I need to get ordered. So I then chilled for a bit until the tourney started, but kept the armour on to get back used to having the extra weight and limited mobility.
For those that do not know, this was an SCA event and the SCA uses rattan based weaponry for combat in the heavier styles of things. There is a little bit to what is legal, but basically you end up an inch and quarter stick to try to hit someone, of course you have to be willing to take a blow and there are even more rules about what is required in regards to the armour and such. And the blows are hard hits generally, but not cranked up as hard I could hit someone with a three to four-foot long stick of that size. And of course all the combat is on the honor the participants to acknowledge a good blow based on the rules of the list and such.
So in the tourney, in the first round it groups of six fighters and you did a round robin. Now recall, that my forte is doing things on a horse instead of ground before I say this next bit and that I also did not get the practice I should have. Okay, I went 0-5. I got suckered on the first bout, as much from crustiness and anything. The rest I think I gave pretty good and even pressured my opponent, but for the most part, my head is just to big and my shield arm is too slow. And in the third bout I believe, I took a body shot – beneath the arm and I got what is going to be a nice bruise forming as that area did not have armour.
So I was out after the first round, but there followed some really great boughts that ended with two of the best fighters from multiple kingdoms in the finals. Duke Brannos overcame His Highness (and Duke) Logan to win the tournament.
Moving on to the feast quickly. I had volunteered to wait on the high table, as someone needed to step up and do that for the group. I was assisted in the endeavor, for which I am grateful. The cooks, as has come to be expected did an excellent feast with several kinds of smoked meats and some wonderful side items of various varieties. I seem to be giving the feast short change here, but it really was excellent and that is about all that really needs to be said about it.
So a few things that came out of yesterday for me:
- I definitely have to get to some practices and get going with that.
- I also have to get to working out and getting in better shape, especially with Gulf Wars coming up soon.
- I need get the smaller shield strapped, padded, and maybe if cut down a bit, to eliminate some weight and speed it up.
- A proper camail needs to be acquired and put on the helm appropriately.
Yes, I have some great pictures of my Knight in Shining (okay not so shining) Armor!!
Dude! Y'all need to pop back on Legio Draconis - they've had a group purchase going on camails for some time....talk to Brannos! And he was right there, too....ah, well. See, if you come up for Val Day you could get more practice AND talk to His Grace about camails....just sayin'....
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