Grey Company Highlanders at Northam
cherylYesterday The Grey Co Highlanders went to Northam.
It was a good trip up and the trailer travels along much better now with the assisted brakes and we have taken unnecessary items out of the trailer so it is not so heavy. In fact I was pulled over by the Police just by the York turnoff as I was doing 96km in an 80km zone. This also meant Pat Robinson also got pulled over as she was following us in her car. The nice policeman gave me a warning and the other policeman told mum to blame me for getting her pulled over.
We took the trailer to the event site on Saturday afternoon and spent an hour or so unpacking and setting up the tents and eric ropes. The organisers had arranged for our area to be cleared by the council bull dozer so no rocks in our fighting circle.
We have now realised that the farm where the event is held must grow and harvest rocks and double gees. There was also much red dust so it looks like the surface of planet Mars. Yesterday we got there nice and early and set up the rest of our display. Ken and Bj brought along some wooden benches and the organisers provided plastic chairs which we place all around the eric for seating.
The kiddie crossbow tent was again popular as well as the armour tent. A few Viking runes were stamped for children and their cats and dogs. The other activities like woading and brass rubbings were not very popular but we all got a bit of sewing done as we manned the stands.
There was not very big audiences for either fighting display show we did but we kept ourselves entertained.
Some of the highlights of the shows are Good Scott and Sam fighting each other, with Sam flashing what was under his kilt. Then there was lots of boxing and flipping each other. We decided that Sam was kindly rolling around in the dust trying to pick up all the double gee prickles so the rest of us did not get them in our shoes.
The 3 Highland sisters Heather, Rose and Thistle made an appearance. Rose and Thistle were out “shopping” as highlander women do armed to the teeth and proceeded to beat up Emlyn and Ken. Rose (Bj) got Emlyn in a headlock or Booblock as Paul called it before flinging him to the ground and stabbing him.
Hamish (Sam) got himself arrested by Good Scott for carrying weapons and wearing tartan. He was on his way to a duel (also an arresting offence) but was subdued and taken away by Scott the Englishman. So he was late for his duel with Alexander. Since Heather (Cheryl) his older sister was waiting with spare weapons for him, she had to fight Alexander after he called Hamish a coward. Once again I have proved it is a good idea to wear lacy bloomers under your skirts when you manage to throw your skirts over your head when you do your death spasms.
It was amusing watch Lord Derek trying to keep his lovely green velvet coat out of the dust when he died and fell to the ground.
The last fight of the day was the rescue of Hamish. So the English – Good Scott, Ken, Lara, Emlyn and Derek vs. Alex and the Highlander women in the village – Cheryl, Bj and Juanita. Somehow the highlanders did manage to rescue Hamish and kill all the English. It was a slaughter.
We also had Paul keeping us amused and historically educated on the PA while young Daniel did security work around the eric for us. Bianca took some good photos for me and I have put some on our face book page and will get the rest up on the Grey Co website. We packed up by 4pm and headed home covered in red dust.
ST Georges’ Day show at Elizabethan Village
cherylWe had a very successful show and display yesterday at the Elizabethan village.
We started setting up around 10am and got out all the activities for the kids to do as well as setting up the fighting eric. We even had a Stall set up which Mrs Robinson run selling items she had made like soft toy dragons, steam punk toys and dragon banners as well as a few items from other members. John had some of his jewellery on sale and I had some pouches, hats and tunics. (Mrs R did well and was a very popular addition to our display. The organisers like the addition of her stall as well)
The kids’ activities ran hot and busy all day long. In fact you could see children would go from one activity to another then back again all day long. There was a decent turn out from the public who seemed to enjoy our displays. We did two fighting shows during the day. We went with a mainly 15th Century theme but had Evil, Charlotte, Frank and Alex doing dark ages. Evil is back and getting into his Evilness again by fighting off Charlotte, Frank and Alex during the shows.. It was funny to watch Charlotte doing a shield bash against Frank and then nearly rebounding away.
We did not get much St George into the show other than our banners but Joan of Arc made an appearance instead. So we worked on the English vs. French instead. Greg kept yelling out random French type words like croissant and baget to show he was French and I kept hearing voices from God to prove I was Joan of Arc…. And remember Paul was introducing me as “YOUNG Joan of Arc” Not the Middle aged Joan of Arc. (It is nice to have your husband doing the voice overs)
There were some good fights performed (especially since most of us had not prearrange what fights we were going to do) Bill and Scott did a good performance with their big swords performing all their flash manoeuvres. Judd played an Irish man against Sam the Englishmen. Judd should get the award for the most awkward death position. He died face down, butt up and did not look comfortable.
In the first show’s final battle I, as Joan was meant to be captured but got killed instead. In the second show’s final battle Us French won and managed to slaughter all the English.
We packed up about 4pm and headed into the pub for a drink or two before having a lovely meal.
Saturday 21st April Viking photo shoot
cherylWe had a good little encampment set up for the Photographers on Saturday down at Lake Joondalup Park. We set up 3 tents – a Ken and BJ’s large Viking tent with Derek’s wood slat bed in it, our new Saxon style tent with Good Scott’s wood slat bed set up inside (with a lovely large cow hide which I got for my birthday on the floor) and Emlyn set up his open smaller Viking tent where he sat and played board games during the photo shoot.
We set up a fake fire with cooking pots set in front of the tents to give it the small encampment feel. We all then started doing something to try and look interesting so the photographers could start taking photos.
Paul set up the Kubb Viking game and got a couple of people to play with him. We had all brought along some food so we could sit and have some lunch and look to be doing something. With the amount of bread that was brought along we decided we must be Bread Merchants as we had so much bread. And the bread was very valuable as we had the warriors to protect it.
Some of us ladies sat and did sewing or brushed each others hair which the men posed holding weapons or stood chatting. Damien was working on carving from door horn which got some interest. Greg decided to do some whittling with my eating knife. We decided he was whittiling a sharp stick. In case of a vampire attack. Young Alex wanted to eat the prop bread ( the more authentic looking bread) instead of all the other types of bread loaves he could try. Charlotte was busy cooking us a nice egg shell soup on the fake fire – as we were putting all our rubbish in the large caldron so the rubbish would not be in the photos eggshells included.
The photographers were everywhere taking photos. They loved when Zoe was using a flint and steel and getting some sparks. I noticed at one point that a couple of the lady photographers had gotten Charlie to pose for them holding his little weapons. (I don’t know how they got him to stand still long enough).
Our guys also did two sets of fighting for the photographers so they could get some action shots. I think they really enjoyed that.
The organisers were most impressed and happy with what we did for them.
Batavia Show at Christ Church School
cherylThe Batavia show at Christchurch went very well today. The weather conspired against us but at least we got one good fight outside – thanks Sam and Scott for such a good opener. We had to moved the show inside into the Chapel which was good for talking but not so great for combat with a much reduced area and lots of expensive things around that could be easily damaged.
The blood thirsty young students seem to have a good time. They cheered as young Alex hacked down Cheryl – a tough fight as the combat area was much smaller. Then Kenny butchered Russell to more applause. They were also fighting in tight to avoid the very expensive piano.
The talk seemed to go well. The students responded well to the gory bits and really got into the pike drill -and from where I stood it looked great. We had helmets for most of the front rank. The torture of the teacher was certainly popular.
Thanks to all who came and apologies to those who did not get to fight. I was hoping for a big melee at the end but we had no space once we moved inside.
All in all a success I think. Will wait for the feedback and hopefully they will send photos again like last year.
Irene McCormack School show
cherylThe show last night at Irene McCormack College went very well. We had 6 fighters, Paul doing the voice over and Juanita being crowd control and chocolate girl.
The kids had no idea what we were there for as a couple of them came over to ask what our play was about. Paul replied “violence, it will contain lots of violence” their reply was “cool”
We took the new PA along to see how it worked. It is very clear and projects very well. Paul got into the grove of things and was added more history information into his voiceover. Not sure if he just enjoyed the sound of his voice or because the sound was so clear he thought he would give the audience more information.
The opening fight was between the Shawn (Bohemian) and Daniel (Bran). When Shawn did his introduction roar he got lots of Boos. It was amusing watching Daniel running around taunting Shawn to come and kill him. I can’t remember who won. Daniel I think
Next was Ken (Rolf) and Lara (Lara the axe) vs. Emlyn and me. I took on Ken and died a messy death while Lara slaughtered Emlyn.
Paul then got the audience more excited as we had to choose a champion then fight to the death on their behalf. Emlyn was called out first and had to fight Ken. Ken was victorious so had to go up against Shawn. Ken was crushed like a bug so Shawn then had to go to the next round and fight Lara. Lara died very delicately so then I had to fight Shawn. He was getting tired by now so I slit his throat and took on Daniel in the next round. Daniel did his leaping around thing (ahh youth) while I just lumbered close enough to chop him up. So I won on behalf of King Braydon who got a chocolate from Juanita the chocolate girl. He was so please he could not speak.
Then we had a circle of death. We were all getting a bit tired and it was getting darker. They had set up spot lights which we had to make sure we did not look at directly so we did not get night blindness. I took on Daniel (he was seeking revenge) and when Shawn came up behind him, he made the mistake of turning away from me. So of course I had to cut him across the back. It then came down to Emlyn, me and Shawn. After Emlyn’s death it was down to me and Shawn. It was over quick and I got to give my death scream as I fell over. Shawn was victorious.
After the show we got seated at the centre table and feed some lovely roast pig, salad and baked potatoes. We were given a couple of boxes of chocolates and ice cream. At one point Ken disappeared from our table and I was told he was sitting at one of the other tables as the girls wanted to stroke his beard. (Like a small furry animal I guess). The girls at the same table then tried to get Bran (Daniel) to come and sit at their table. I think he was embarrassed as he tried to hide from them. Oh and on the way back to the cars Daniel was approached by a young green female dragon and asked how old he was. When he replied he was 20 she said “oh I thought you were about 14. But at least you are better looking than Justin Bieber) After Juanita relayed this to us, Paul started singing Justin Bieber songs to Daniel.
The school was pleased with our show and have asked us back next year. We got fed some nice food and did not suffer any bad injuries. And we now know that Daniel is better looking than Justin Bieber. And has more fans than Alex now.
Perth Medieval Fair
cherylOn first arriving at the Perth Medieval Fair on Saturday we could see that the organisers had arranged for more stalls than we have seen before. The Braid van was there again- and he went home with a lot less braid after Paul took me over there. Western leathercraft had two stalls running with some interested stuff. Paul brought me a copy of a book from a local WA author about a medieval murder and there was a stall selling Steampunk gear.
Tom’s stall did very well. It was amusing watching all the people walking away from his stall clutching their swords or axes in their sweaty hands. I thought it was very clever of the organisers to situate the ATM machine near the gate entrance behind Tom’s stall as well.
We set up a basic display this year aiming on recruiting instead of entertaining the public. We put out flyers and handouts, the display board with photos of the club and Derek and his plate armour. We then all took turns talking to the public and got quite a bit of interest in people possibly joining. (I have received 2 emails this morning from people that are asking for further information about the club)
We had 10 members come along to help us during the day. Several of the guys also did some basic training in a small eric we put up. The public did stop to watch what was going on. Two members from the Twin River Guard group from Geraldton also came along to do some training and helped with our stand.
Overall it was a good fair with more stalls than ever and you could see that a lot of the public came along as they had an interest in history or fantasy or role-playing so was the perfect place to try and recruit from
Hyde Park Pirates
cherylIt was a hot two days of playing Pirates at the Hyde Park Fair on the weekend. I can see why pirates’ worn tricorn hats as they are very handy keeping the sun off your face.
It was great to see so many Grey Co pirates turn out in their assorted outfits. Even Bianca and Corbin looked very good as pirates. We had some good performances and at some stages the audience even clapped for us.
Some of the memories I have of the weekend are –
Thinking there must be a bush fire somewhere because I can smell something burning. Then realising Ken has gotten into his role of Blackbeard and has burning wicks in his beard.
Charlotte getting so excited as she got to play a tavern wench and her father got to see her perform.
As I was walking the eric ropes and turning around and seeing Bill flying and thudding into the ground as Greg flipped him. The look of surprise of the kiddies faces too
Fighting in the group melee and hearing Juanita giggling as she slaughtered John. I was not sure if she was nervous but it sounded like she was really enjoying herself
Watching John and Rusty getting into their roles playing two drunken sailors and have to lean on each other to stay upright.
Alex flicking his hair as he fought as the fancy pirate. (Alex you got some of the ladies attention with your hair)
We all worked hard during the hot too days but hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves.
We now have a couple of weeks before the next show.
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.
Dale Christian College in Armadale.
SamWe 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