2005-04-18 - 1:13 a.m.
Well I had a good time at Tournament of Chivalry, if fact save for a too short bardic, I had one of the best events of my SCA life.
(This will be a long post)
It was close, so I had the chance to get a good nights sleep, though I had to stay up a little late on Friday night fixing armor just for traditions sake. I got seven good hours, which is a new record by at least half. If I had a better idea of when the tourney was going to start I would have slept another couple of hours. (next year we should have a schedule available on-line)
Got to the site with plenty of time to unload, sit and talk then leisurely arm up. (this is key because few things throw off my fighting like having to rush into my armor, some kind of mental thing) It was a gorgeous day, sunny low 70�s, nice breeze. (I�m allowed to say breeze because I�m from Kansas, where a 20-25mph wind is a fixture of life.) To listen to some of the locals you�d think a hurricane was off the coast.
We finally got the fighting going with a Belted vs Un-belted Melee. Turgeis stepped up and did a good job of leading the unbelts, and we managed to win though we only out numbered them two to one. I was doing well until I backed right into Sir Robert, who backed into me as well, it was a very cartoon like moment that he recovered from first.
On to the tourney, four bear pits, three to four knights stationed in each pit. The Knights hold the field, if you happen to best one they send out another until you loose and the Knights retain the field again.
This year, like last, they split up the knights a little by weapon form and a bit by rank (through I don�t know if that was intentional.) This being Atlantia there was one off weapon pit and three sword and board pits. This changed as the day went on and the Knights in the pits moved around a bit.
This made it kind of hard if, like me, your goal was to fight all the knights there. You would line up at a new pit to fight the knights there, and end up with the same knight you had in the last pit. This is no big deal, it just meant that you had to strategically place yourself in line to try and get the right Knight.
I think someone counted the knights at 18, that seems about right. Duke Paul of Belatrix was there, flown out especially for the tourney. With him there along with the best of Atlantia, (and there-by some of the best in the known world) the field was a match for just about anyone.
I had a pretty good day of fighting. I was happy with most of my fights though I lost a couple to pretty embarrassing fakes. Sir Tacius in particular got me with a really slow hand roll, that I just stood there and watched, the slow hand roll quickly turned into a flat snap that got me flat footed. It was actually pretty cool, I just wish I hadn�t have fallen for it.
All the same, when court rolled around and they gave out four garters to the days winners (I thought) I wasn�t disappointed that I didn�t get one. I didn�t feel like I had done so well that I was sure to win. This is a judged tourney, which unlike a regular �you win you advance to the finals tourney�, the knights and ladies of the court watch the fighting and pick the winner(s) as they see fit.
I was a co-winner last year, they had a prize for valor, and one for prowess. I think last year valor was the �real� winner and prowess was kind of second place but they didn�t really make it clear. Anyway, since I had won last year, I thought they would kind of spread the wealth around a bit. So I was happily surprised when they called me down to court as the winner this year. I got a spear shaft and a banner will be made of my arms, which is cool because I was just thinking about making one myself.
Sir Robert asked me up to high table with my lady, (there was a little drama getting Jill there on time, but it worked out) I accepted knowing that Sir Janos would probably give me a hard time for turning him down at 12th knight. He did.
In my defense I had already made plans to go out with our group, and if we didn�t go Christiana would have been stuck be herself, and that would not have been cool.
Feast was really good, I got to talk with Baron Athos a bit. Jill showed up about half way through, but soon enough to get the best of the removes.
After feast we helped in the kitchen a bit and then set up for bardic. I might post more on that later, it was good, but nothing really remarkable.
One of the things I really noticed on Saturday was how much fun everyone was having. Real tourneys can bring out the best and worst in people, but taking away the fierce competition that goes with a regular tourney can really make the whole thing more enjoyable. People fight more cleanly because it really doesn�t matter if you loose, that means less bad feelings, more fun and less pressure. Everyone* really seemed to enjoy the day and that is in fact what we are out here for right?
*I know that the Knights were getting pretty tired by the end of the day, but I think they had a good time too.
Just to top off the whole day, Dunstan let me win a silent auction bid for some nice black leather that I really wanted.
It was in fact a great day, for me, and I think for everyone else as well.
Justus
