Santa Maria College Rundown
cherylWell it was another school show last night. Santa Maria Catholic College in Attadale this time. An All girl’s school. I believe there were about 150 girls there and we could tell when they screamed. This year we were in the school gym. It was much easier to get the trailer close to and bring all the gear in to set up. There was even a nice water fountain just outside the doors.
Everyone got to the event early which was good. So we all started bringing in the display gear and setting up different stations around the gym. We had crossbows shooting, trying on armour, woading, runes stamped in leather, costumes and the display board and artefacts.
The plan was to do the fighting performance first then man the activities so the girls could roam from station to station having a go at all the activities.
Paul tried a slight change to the order of the fighting performance which worked well. (Certainly gave me time to get my breathe back between fights)
We had 8 fighters so we were split into pairs.
Sam and Matt P fought Judd and Chris as the first fight. Sam and Judd seemed to be doing a beautiful dance fight as they sweeped around the room. Matt P against Chris was a bit more brutal. I know Chris was slaughtered but I can not recall if Sam or Judd died.
Second fight was between Me and Frank vs Lara and Andrew. I took on Andrew with his two swords. I then tried to drive the butt of my glaive thru Andrew, which seemed to be my whole fighting technique for the night. It did work!. I killed Andrew and then came to help Frank against Lara. You know, I don’t think I have heard Lara swear before when she realised she now had both of us to fight. I tried to hang back but she kept hitting Frank with her two handed axe so we had to kill her. She died beautifully and gracefully.
Next Paul got the teachers to choose 8 girls from the audience to come up and pick a fighter to fight for them. The winning Fighter would make the Girl the "Most Beautiful girl in the School" Not quite sure how the killing of people makes her the most beautiful but I was willing to try for the Lady Sophie. ( yay I got a girls name I could remember and pronounce)
Each fighter was chosen by a girl. They were very clever in their naming of their fighter.-"I will have the one on the end or the one next to the guy with the yellow shield." I was chosen by my feathers on my helmet and Paul advised me that later the crowd was chanting my names as "feathers" as I tried to make Lady Sophie the most beautiful girl in the school.
The last girl to choose a fighter – Matt P, got to decide who he would fight. As Paul put it – pick the fighter belonging to the girl you want to knock out of the competition.
She made Matt fight Andrew. Andrew was our only fighter without armour but he did have two swords. He was moving beautiful putting in some lovely shots but he was murdered by Matt in the end.
Chris was up next against me. Me and my glaive killed Chris. He died well
I think it was Lara vs Frank next. There was some fight dancing by Lara and her axe and stomping by Frank and his sword and shield but in the end I think Lara won [edit:Frank won.]. (I was trying to catch my breathe by this time as I had realised I had to fight Matt in the next round)
Of Course that left Sam and Judd. This time Judd won. There was some lovely shots put in by both guys and you can really see they have been practicing together as the fighting was so smooth.
Next I got to fight Matt P. I thought he would kill me but somehow I killed him first. I think my glaive has been missing the shows and is making up for all the shows it has missed by killing everything within range. And it has a long range
Judd had to fight Lara [edit: Frank]. Judd won.
Before Judd and I fought, the Losers got to fight to the death. It was brutal. Matt kept trying to stop Lara backing into the audience before killing her. Chris was killed by Sam I think. Andrew was killed by Frank. In the end it was Frank vs Matt. We had to stop the fight to undress Frank as his leather baldric was interfering with his sword arm. In the end Matt turned his back and started walking away so Frank killed him with a blow across the back.
Now it was up to me to Kill Judd. I had thought Judd would kill me as I was running out of steam. But glaive had other ideas. Judd put a good shot into my side so I dropped the glaive to "hold my injury" thinking the death shot was coming but then I remember my little curved back up sword I was wearing. (Paul made this sword for me about 15 years ago but I never had a scabbard for it so did not wear it as my support weapon. But TA DA he had recently made me one) so I drew out my bitty sword hoping Judd would realise it was not lanyarded and as Judd ran towards me I jutted him.
And so Lady Sophie was titled "the Most Beautiful Girl in School" I think she was embarrassed a little.
After a 5 minute recovery it was on to the activities. Imogen bravely manned the costuming but was over whelmed by the girls. I tried to remind them that we are all Ladies so let’s behave like ladies. But they were still feral. Imo took her first show injury by getting elbowed in the face by one of the girls trying to get to the costumes. She was ok but moved on to Woading replacing me as my painting of Boars on girls foreheads was not quite working. I was painting a new breed. It was a dolphin/boar and I was telling the girls names they will called them names like Salty.
All the activies went very well. We ran out of leather for runes, out of blue face paint for woads and several dresses and belts will have to be repaired in the onslaught from girls trying to grab things to wear to be Princess.
Matt P did a nice questions and answers session at the end. The audience had some very good questions to ask. We ate beef rolls and juice then packed up and went home.
It was a good show and I did enjoyed it. It reminds me why I keep making the kiddy costumes so they can go feral trying them on.
Special thanks to Imogen for coming along and setting up the costume display so well and helping with the activities. Thank you to Matt for coming and collecting the tubs of costumes and bringing them in his car then reversing the trailer into our car port.
Cheryl aka Feathers
Midwinter Banquet 2010 Competition Guidelines
juddLife Imitating Art
This year’s Midwinter Banquet is rapidly approaching so it’s time to get cracking on your competition entries. There are some really fantastic prizes on offer this year so "Come on show us what you’ve got." There will be all the regular competitions plus we’ll try a couple of new and interesting ones. Listed are the competition categories along with some basic guidelines and tip or two.
Life Imitating Art
The theme at this midwinter banquet is "Life Imitating Art". You can imitate any art form, be it sculpture, effigy, tapestry, carvings or painting etc. Acceptable historical period of garments is from the beginning of time up to the advent of the sewing machine (circa 1851). To help with presenting your costume, Uncle Dick is willing to capture your efforts in cellular or digital form. This will then contribute to decorating our lovely Grey Company Gallery.
Costume – Novice Level
Requirements are that the garment has not been entered previously and you may have won a maximum of one novice 1st placing at a past Grey Co banquet.
Tips – Research your garment and be prepared to answer a few questions about it’s construction.
Costume – Open Level
Requirements are that the garment has not been entered previously and you must have won two novice 1st placing at past banquets.
Tips – Attention to details eg. the accessories, choice of fabrics, hand sewing, head and foot wear will make for a better costume overall. Questions tend to be more in-depth. Evidence of research and supporting references would be advantageous.
Mad Hatters
All civilians throughout medieval time wore some kind of head-dress, such as: A coif, liripipe, fez, chaperon, sugar loaf, kerchief with wimple, chaplet, horns & veils, hennins and French hood and bonnets. Come and try your hand at making a head-dress for a new outfit or to finishing touch an existing one.
Brewing
Mead, Ale, cider, mulled wines etc. It’s all good! We’ve had some delightful entries in previous years. Test out your brewing skills.
Tip – make enough for all of us to have a taste!
Military Craft – Novice Level
There can be quite a variation in armouring skills between newbies and the very experienced members of the club so it’s hardly fair that everyone should compete at the same level. So that’s why this year we’ve introduced the novice level, to encourage our up and coming armourers to show off their fighting kit and also have the chance to take home a cool prize. Novice fighters up to Warrior (of no more than one year) as well as non-combatants may enter at novice level.
Military Craft – Open Level
Open level contestants will be one of the following: a previous Military Craft winner, 2nd year or above Warrior, a Huscarl or Steersman.
Non-Military Craft
There are many extra things that make up a top quality re-enactor’s outfit such as authentic shoes, eating utensils, drinking vessels, jewellery, leatherwork etc. We’d love to see more things like household furniture items, work implements, tools, pottery, weaving, period tents and the like. So put some thought into what you could produce to give your kit (and our club) that polished finish.
Bardic
The Bardic entries provide us with most the entertainment for the evening. Acts may be in the form of a song, musical piece, story telling, comedy, poetry, shadow puppet show, juggling act etc. You can do pretty much anything as long as it’s entertaining. Use your imagination.
Please let Sandra know if you intend entering any of the competitions or if you have any queries (like if she’s interested on help with her typing, grammar, etc.).