March 2013

Oddly enough, it was the first real nice day, weather wise, that we have had at Grant's Tomb, yet only five people showed up in armor. Nonetheless, we had a tournament and it rocked. 

Gui was annoyed that his man at arms Anton had not shown up by 1:00 when the tournament was supposed to start, so he made a rule that only people who were on tim e could advance to finals. This meant me, Landon, and Alexander. Tycho and Anton fought, however. 

With five fighters we ran an elimination bear pit. We ran a round robin, starting with Alexander holding the field against everybody, then Anton against the three people he had not fought, etc., till everybody had fought once. The person with the most losses was dropped for the next round and we continued like that till finals. In case of a tie the fighters who were tied fought for the right to advance. I fought with a great sword and got my butt kicked! (and was happy I wore my body armor). I ended up tied with Tycho for most losses at three, then he beat me in the play-in fight. This continued till the end. Landon and Anton won, but because Anton could not advance Alexander advanced into finals. Landon won in two quick fights. Vive le Beau Geste! 

February 2013

Today we held the second of our revived Beau Geste tournaments. It was bright and sunny but COLD. 29 degrees with a wind chill of 15! I ran the tournament as the current Beau Geste. There were four fighters: Dougal, Gui, Tycho, and Garret (Zach). We fought three rounds in which each fought each of the others, then the fighters with the fewest losses advanced to the finals, which would be three out of five with mixed weapons: great sword, then two weapon, then sword and shield, then great ax, then choice. The finalists were Gui and Garett. Garrett won the first two fights and then Gui won the final three for the victory. Dougal was granted the banner for his chivalry. Vive le Beau Geste!

January 2013

We finally rebooted the Beau Geste tournament this weekend. There were seven fighters in the list: myself (Valgard) Agrippa, Anton, Baron Alexander, Tormundr, and Zach and Tycho from An Dubaghine. We fought a round robin, two out of three for each round. Agrippa and I advanced to the finals where I was victorious in three fights plus one double kill. We now have a spiffy medallion for the Beau Geste.

April 2010 Beau Geste

This month's Beau Geste was contested today by five fighters: Hildemar, Zumi, Johnathan, Oscad, and Jabril. I ran it with three rounds of round robin. Everybody had to fight everybody else three times. In the first round, the person with the lowest precedence got to choose weapon forms (though they could choose fighter's choice). In the second round the fighters with the higher precedence chose weapons. It was mostly weapon and shield fights, but we did have some good pole arm fights in Zumi's rounds (I am very impressed with her. She fights like she has had a fair amount of Kendo training, because her style is true classical Japanese, not SCA Japanese). The third round was single sword at the barriers.

Jabril, because he arrived late, had to fight his first two rounds straight through, eight fights in a row. In the end, he won the tournament with nine total victories out of 12 fights--a truly impressive feat of prowess.

Vive le Beau Geste!

March 2010 Beau Geste

This month's Beau Geste was held this past Sunday. There were six fighters: myself, William Vincenti, Vasillis, Timur, Avran, and Baron Alexander. It was a round robin, best two out of three, with each fighter starting on his knees once and then, if there was a third fight, both standing. Lots of great fighting. It came down to the very last set of fights, as both I and Vasillis had one loss. In the end I was victorious.

Next Month's Beauu Geste will be held on Sunday April 18.

v.

The winter doldrums

have set in deep, and there was no Beu Geste last weekend. Myself and Vasilis were both there, but decided it wasn't enough to hold a tournament. He was busy fencing, so we didn't get into heavy armor at all. Next month, 3rd Sunday!

Janyary 2010 Beau Geste

The winner of this month's Beau Geste tournament was the new Kings Champion, Oscad de Segovia. There were five fighters in the tournament: Oscad, Vasilis, and three visitors from Settemore Swamp: Johnathan, Edward, and Brother Simon. Vasilis (who was fighting right handed, hitting harder than a Mack truck, and doesn't know how good he's gotten) was in the finals. In keeping with His Majesty's proclaimation about crown tourney, the finals were three of five with mixed weapons. It was one of the most entertaining finals I've seen in a long time. They didn't even make it to the sword and shield round. They fought pole arm, two sword, single-sword at the barrier, and bastard swords without thrusting tips. It was a great tourney. Some of the fights, (unfortunately not the finals) are below.