Had a great tourney on Saturday.  I drove down with my Lady and Theign Oak.  We got through the border without issues and made it to the event just a bit before court, with enough time to get parked and set up and all.  We came forward to kneel and say that we would fulfill the duties of a champion if we succeeded.  After that we had the rest of the morning off, as the tourney was scheduled for one in the afternoon.

The event was outdoors with a few things in small halls.  And it was freezing.  Very freezing.  It tried to snow once.  So we spent most of the morning inside halls either watching the A&S or the Bardic competition and trying to stay warm.  Around noon Oak and I began practicing a little, and trying out the baton and cloak, as both were likely to come up in the competition, and Oak didn’t have much practice with either.

After lunch we armoured up and began practicing.  We got some fights in with some of the local dons and they gave us some good pointers, then we got ready for the procession.  We had the procession and setup for the tourney.  There were six entrants.

As one of the three lowest ranked entrants I was on the challenger side.  I chose to fight Mercia to five touches, touch on any point of the body counted.  We asked the baroness what weapon style she would like to see us use, and she asked for us to fight single sword.

I haven’t fought people from down south in a while.  I’ve been fencing just in Tir Righ recently, and only in the tournaments with higher level fighters.  I’d say I”m a low level fighter right now.  I’m generally out of my league in most tournaments up here.  I’ll win a few fights, but that’s it.

The fencers who were there were all mid level fighters in their area.  Based on the tournament, down south I’d also be considered a mid level fighter.  I was rather surprised to discover this.

I beat Mercia four touches to one, and we then had a fight to the death at the request of the Baroness.  I lost my hand, but got a good killing blow in.  I need to work on keeping my defenses tight while making my attacks.

That put me on the side with the other victors.  My second fight was against Utgar.  It was seven bouts with sword and dagger.  After six fights it was three three.  In our final bout Utgar got a shot in as I missed my parry, and that was that.

Now on the challengers side again, I chose a fighter who I’d never met before, and still can’t remember the name of.  We went seven fights with cloak, as that was the style that no one had done yet.  I definitely need more practice with cloak.  I lost the first three fights, but realized that I was focusing on his cloak and not on my sword position.  I started twitching my cloak to try to attract his attention, and focused more on my position.  I managed to win two fights, but then lost the last two.  Almost had one of them though, I had a very nice head cut on him, but my wrist turned at the last moment and I called it back.

After the tournament I got to fight a bit more with some of the local dons and other fighters.  Don Indigo gave me some great pointers.  He liked my style, and accuracy.  He also complemented me on waiting for an opening and then taking it.  He did notice though, and I agree with him on this, that I hesitate before taking advantage of an opening.  I see an opening, I get ready to take advantage of it, and I hesitate and think and worry that it might not be an opening.  By the time I take my shot it’s normally closed.  He recommended running some music through my head when I fight to try to stop my brain from second guessing my reflexes.  I’ll be trying that out next time at practice.

Mercia was the victor in the tournament, as chosen by her excelency.  All in all a great tournament.  I had a blast, and might go again next year.


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