Midsummer’s 2011/2012
juddHey All,
Just a note to rundown for those that were absent (SUCKFOOS) and recap for those that weren’t (WINZ).
Saturday morning brought the first of the absolutely perfect weather (cool for Summer, but ideal for fighting) and a Novice Tourney. While Alex The Red had the unfair advantage of being around a lot longer, and also being a relatively awesome fighter. Rebecca the shin-kicker, Alex the Red, Viking Danny, Good Charlotte and her man No Nickname Dean all competed to an interesting clear winner and the rest drew (I think, I’ve probably got that wrong). I’m forgetting things here, so I hope that a discussion ensues where others correct and add more excitement as they see fit.
The Big Boys Tournament certainly was exactly that. Cheryl cheekily wouldn’t show me the scoring, so I have to make my best guesses as to how close I was to winning. I’m going to say I won something important. Like the “Winter Honey” award, for the combatant who is most lacking in swiftness. I know that Sam narrowly won over Bill, Good Scott and Wes who were all right there at the top. I would’ve killed Sam in our last fight and ruined the tournament for him, but I wanted some fresh blood on the trophy. Instead I settled for losing to just about everybody. I know that the usual skullduggery went down in the Long Sword and Sword & Shield rounds, but the Open Round was a hoot with Alex Le Rouge busting out the longsword, I had two swords (which was more than my actual wins!), Paul and Wes brought out some manner of barn door to hide behind and Damien grabbed a huge shield and a tiny axe. He even killed me with it and I have no idea how. Overall, I think it was an absolute blast for all involved.
We followed that with what folklore will hopefully refer to as “Attack on The Fort”. It was awesome. Over time, Sam (with help) has planted some huge poles, built walls up, and now has a decking platform thingo for a purpose-built fighting structure. Well, it doesn’t fight, but you get what I’m saying. And it’s awesome. One group defended from inside the structure while the other group attacked, all while being pelted with “rocks” from above. Most of the youngsters thoroughly enjoyed the soft, taped-up rocks, and hurling them at the shield-walled onslaught was as close as many of us will come to Siege Combat. Many attacks succeeded, many were repelled. Sometimes we got to “win” shields and other weapons and sometimes Sam just made it all up on the spot (as he is known to do). Spirited fighting was enjoyed by all.
Those of us unafraid of either unexplained superpowers or sterility then ventured under the giant powerlines to an area that Sam had mown out to resemble various rooms of a dungeon. After I made fun of him long enough, the tall grass turned into lava and the “rocks” from earlier were now “gold”. Intrepid explorers ventured through for “gold” while “monsters” of varying kill-locations and abilities awaited them. Sure, it may sound a bit lame on paper, but it was ridiculously fun. And that’s from a guy who’s NEVER actually rolled any D&D dice, so there you go.
The afternoon then slowly started to dissolve into some early judging of the Brewing Competition, with many hours ahead to carefully sort out a winner. While some of us were busy keeping the tents populated and the mead from getting lonely, Wyrmy and Rusticles were rocking in fine fashion on not just a siege engine or two, but an entire presentation. Nearly all the kids and adults gathered for what was probably the most informative, interesting and interactive preso any of us will ever see on how to medievally fling things really, really far. I regret my early besotted comments obscured some of the talk, but Trish shooshed me long enough to learn about slings, mounted on sticks (I forget the name… damn mead) and variations of such. A printed booklet of early depictions of nearly every weapon (most not to scale, but still) was followed by a launching of something cool. Again, highly enjoyed by all. And let’s face it, I don’t care who you are, when you see a large and working trebuchet launch a concrete ball over a 100 metres before it rips a large branch off of a distant tree, you’re going to remember it fondly. That was seriously awesome.
The evening took its toll with its reckless lazery, and there was talking and drinking, and drinking and talking and then, before we knew it, there was food and eating and even more drinking. It was quite good food too, getting eaten by most of the kids even. The weather was perfect, the mozzies were completely absent (Derek’s citronella lamps?) and the evening was grand. Big congrats to Emlyn for Steersman and our 3 newest Warriors: Alex, Tom and Juanita. Congrats to those fine kids and I’m totally looking forward to bashing you properly in showfights. Also, I got stuff which made me tingle. Me getting Steersman is one of the biggest things I could imagine, an amazing honour, and it’s one of those things that makes me feel like the entire weekend was a celebration of that award. I certainly drank like it was.
Sunday morning brought fresh fried eggs (those noisyass birds are good for something) and more yumtastic foods from assorted folks like Ken & BJ and Damien & Sandra. Fat and happy, Kurvy led us in a well-attended archery tournament (as opposed to the ONE attendant last year). We shot lots of targets, a boar on a box, and the kids comp was intermingled as well. Heaps of fun and some real skill shown by both adults and smaller people. I believe Kevin won for the adults because he was the only one keeping score and one of the McConnell boys won for kids while the other got second. Well done all.
Then, it was the Big Fun. Combat archery. Not a huge field, but huge fun regardless. 3 infantry and up to 6 shooters, if I recall, and the firing positions from the top of the fort were well-coveted and the infantrymen (like myself) were often caught thinking, “I’ll just run up there and kill ‘em, these guys can’t hit a thi… *CLANK*” and took one to the noggin. Some beauty shots and the same spirited fighting that we had all weekend.
I think it’s safe to say that Sam & Roni’s place is the place to be for this kind of fun, and while I know it’s a lot of work and a reasonably-sized Pain in the Arse to get it all together, I’d love it if this wasn’t the only weekend a year that this kind of fighting and fun can happen. And that’s NOT just the mead talking… heh.
Cheers to all for all you did, you made one awesome weekend out of it.
PS – Apologies to anybody who’s important something I forgot to mention. Again, blame the mead.
West TV – Medieval Battles
juddAt first, we were stoked to be asked if a video crew from The West Australian could come out to our training and make us all stars. Then they got the date wrong and then it rained and we were getting worried.
Then it happened, and the finished piece is very, VERY impressive.
Paul, Bill and Cheryl, 3 of the very first founding members of our wonderful club all gave fantastic interviews and most of the shots they got really were quite excellent.
Sam and Andrew get great coverage as the lines clash and Good Scott carves up good ol’ Titus (Tom) for the camera a few times. Bill and Good Scott wage a great armoured battle, one on one, and Cheryl gets one of her patented Death Cries on camera too.
There were also some great shots of Kevin and Charlotte doing some training and the lovely Juanita helping me get my armour on, and if I’m not mistaken, there’s a shot of me cursing facedown in the dirt that my back has gone out again. Perfectly timed, of course, with the point in the video where Paul explains how it’s easy to get hurt out there.
Overall, a quality piece that gives some great exposure to the club and some of our members.