Midsummer’s 2011/2012

Hey 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

At 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.

Dale Christian College in Armadale.

We had a great show today at the Dale Christian College in Armadale with a total of 8 members attending. The class was small but very well behaved and interested. We had Emlyn’s games, firestarting, armour and weapons and firelighting followed by a short fighting display.

Derek and Gaynor showed off their firebug roots and Gaynor also lead the sharpshooters with the crossbows.  Judd, Mark and Matt showed off the range of armour and weapons available and waxed lyrical while I made the children work out what goes where with my armour scattered about.  Emlyn ran the games. Before the battle some of the boys helped me into my armour.

The fighting was brief but very well received. First Mark and Emlyn fought with Mark finishing off the invading Viking. Then Judd and I fought in our full armour. My sword belt was on the wrong way around and my helmet fell off but despite this I was able to defeat Judd.

Given a moment to breathe we then had a final fight in which I recruited two Irish (Mark and Emlyn) to help me fight Judd and Matt. Taking on Matt I was overconfident about finishing him fast so let the Irish hold off the well armoured Judd. Unfortunately Matt was too fast and I was unable to finish him quickly. The Irish fought well but Judd ended up finishing them off. Matt managed a disarm on me and brought me down where upon I was captured.

After much debating and explaining from Derek, the children agreed to let me live.  The teacher and the children were impressed.

Afterwards we had a look at the things they had built, including 3 trebs and an extraordinarily lethal morning star, and were ourselves very impressed.

Thanks to Mark, Emlynn, Judd, Matt, BJ, Gaynor and Derek for coming along and making a very fun show of it.

Sam

Day in Pompeii Parts III & IV

Well folks, we wrapped up the final of our Day in Pompeii shows for the corresponding exhibit at the WA Museum and it was undoubtedly some of our finest work.

Pictures are up for our Third and Fourth shows.

The ebb and flow of a great show is something that’s usually quite hard to put your finger on but one thing is for certain, you know it when you see it.

The grand entrance of Senator Titus and his Domina (and accompanying Praetorian Guardsmen), the Processori (introduction of the Gladiators) and the brutal (and quick) bloodshed of the captured barbarians killing each other in the arena are always quick to get the audience into things.

Along with the introductions and brief descriptions of weaponry and armour, there is also the explanation of how the crowd is meant to help the good Senator Titus decide whether a gladiator lives or dies after they’ve yielded in a fight.

Instead of just thumbs up or down (like a movie review) it’s thumb sideways (lives) and down (dies) and a surprising amount of the crowd proves themselves quite bloodthirsty in demanding that the losing gladiators, who have lost their favour so, be put to a quick and honourable death.

A myriad of different fights presented a wide range of fighting styles and deathly blows, from the heavy-on-heavy of two gargantuan Murmillos pummeling each other, to the lithe and nimble Retiarius slashing and spearing the Dimachara (two swords) or a Thracean or two.  There’s even a captured Dacean fighter that proves himself quite well with his native chopping spear, the Falx, while he leaps and chops his way through his fellow captives, fighting his way towards freedom… or a glorious death in the arena.

All up, a wonderful series of shows, and an exhibit that’s closing soon, so you should definitely check it out!

Day in Pompeii – Part I & II

Pictures are up, of course, so be sure and intermingle your bloodlust during reading with the eye-pleasing colour and pageantry of the exhibition as well.

Grey Company was recently contracted by the WA Museum to perform in front of the museum during the "Day in Pompeii" exhibit, and we were only too happy to oblige.

The fact that an exhibit of this importance, with 2,000 year-old artifacts from one of the most fascinating of ancient cultures, almost perfectly preserved in volcanic ash, was coming all the way to humble Perth was only slightly more impactful to our club than the idea that, as what amounts to a theatre performance group, our club is perfectly suited to the crowd interaction (and bloodthirstiness) of the classic Roman Collosseum.

We aim to please.

The first performance day was at the end of May and the latest performance was yesterday, June 20th, and both were phenomenal.

For both Sundays worth of shows, 4 in total, the crowds were both thick and excellent, cheering loudly for their favourite gladiators and issuing harsh judgements of those that they felt deserved the "thumbs down" or a suggestion to our honourable Tribune, the glorious and impetuous Titus Titinius Geminus, that the defeated gladiator be quickly put to death.

For each show, the setup entails a somewhat standard circus-like atmosphere and ensuing performance.  The classic scenarios for each show included:

The crowd tends to favour those with a flair for showmanship and honour, combined with skill and deadly accuracy.  A lumbering Murmillo will tend to fair quite poorly to a lightly-armoured and agile Retiarius, especially if the "pretty" one has the favour of the crowd.

An honourable battle, fought with skill and energy (with that showmanship, of course) may get a gladiator’s life spared, should he/she fall to their opponent, or it may gain a gladiator considerable honour in the arena.

And of course, no honour can compare to that which the All-on-all winner receives… The Wooden Sword of Freedom.

The Rudis, or wooden sword, is a practicing weapon of the gladiator so that they may train in killing without actually killing.  It is a replica of the Gladius, the sword that they are named after and may die by, and so the wooden replica represents their freedom and ability to travel the lands of the Republic of Rome as a free man with rights and privilege.

The final battle of each show is fought for such a prize, and it is fought with much energy.

All on All, no quarter asked, and none given, it is an absolute bloodmatch.

It is this the crowd comes to see and it is this that they love, their cheers of adoration and bloodlust raining down upon the mighty warriors shoulders and ears.

You should come check it out.  You know you want to.

Next show, July 18th 2010.  It’s free and it’s awesome.

Robin Hood Show

Last Saturday we had been booked to perform at the Warwick movie theatre for the new Robin Hood movie starring Russell Crowe. Since the movie was released on the Thursday it was only a normal Saturday night movie session we were performing for.

Once we had all arrived and worked out where we were to perform (a small foyer area in front of the cinema showing the movie.) We set ourselves up to do some warm-up and basic fighting for the people waiting to go into the next movie session. Juanita and Andrew did rope duty while Paul spoke to the audience.

Damien, Stefan, James, Ken, Kevin, Frank and myself all took turns either fighting one on one or two against two as Paul talked about our armour, our fighting rules, the different fighting cultures, the different weapons and he also spoke about arrows and bows and the damage they could do. Kevin and Damien had brought their longbows and arrows as well so Paul had some props when speaking.

The audience was quite captivated with Paul’s lecture (including the gory bits about how sabres could cut through the flesh to the bone) and the fighting

Once the cinema was opened for the people to go in, we followed and went up the front of the theatre and did one final fight.

It was the 3 crusaders – Frank, Kevin and Stefan against the Saracens me, Damien, Ken and James. The floor sloped on one edge and it was quite dark but we managed to do a brutal fight to entertain the audience. My death scream echoed very well throughout the theatre.

After the performance the Usher asked if we wished to leave by the exit doors or by the normal entrance doors and we said “can we just stay here and watch the movie?” They were happy with that so we took off all our armour and sat down to watch the movie.

Which we all enjoyed.

Santa Maria College Rundown

Well 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

Life 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.).

 

The Grey Company

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