Tournament of Chivalry

A lovely weekend trip to Tournament of Chivalry. After much tooth gnashing last week, the number of knights in attendance proved to be more than adequate.

Friday night Roland was gracious enough to help me finish off Girard's squire belt, whose buckle end I was perhaps a bit overambitious in designing. But it came out fine, with help of several of Roland's fancy hammers.

Girard didn't have any last minute change of heart, so just before the fighting began he gave his fealty to me as my squire. Welcome to him and his lady! And special thanks to Evja, who came just for the ceremony on what turned out to be the last weekend before her husband Tom ships out to Iraq for another six months.

Girard's Pics here.
And my few pics here.

Thoughts on the tourney

If I recall from Genvieve, the Mistress of the Lists correctly, there were 86 fighters in the list. About 15 knights. My impression of the unbelts as a whole is that the top end was relatively well represented, the bottom end was there in force, and the mid range was oddly absent. Clearly, gas prices affected attendance, as the number of people who had traveled from below the Virginia state line could be counted on one hand.

Allowing the unbelts to choose between tourney fights, sparring passes and instructional time made for a more collegial atmosphere between the participants. I am undecided about whether this was a good thing. Certainly this was a less intense Tournament of Chivalry than any previous.
The "three passes" option also slowed down the line of those waiting to fight.

Great weapon skill is very lacking among our unbelted fighters.

Several people told me there were some good pics of me taken. I can't wait.

Later
After the tourney we had a lovely party at Jen & Alan's, which thankfully I didn't have to cook for.
Countess Alexis made a surprise appearance, everyone had a good time, and I decided I needed a nap around 9:30. That turned in to a solid twelve hours of sleep.

Then a yucky drive home in the rain, and an afternoon of enforced laziness on the sofa, since all our projects are outdoor ones just now.

Much to my surprise, I'm not particularly sore today, and I only have one bruise: perfectly off target on the inside of my right wrist.