Ascalon Sword Festival 2023
On March 17th 2023, Hilt and Helm Fencing Club fielded it’s largest group of fencers at a tournament yet. In the words of one of my favorite D&D characters, “We used to be a one horse town. But now, we’re up to three!” Jessie May (Pete’s son) fought in his first ever HEMA tournament and Tony Cavalline fought in his second in Division III Longsword. For those who don’t know, Longsword comes in III divisions: Division I (equivalent to an invitational longsword tournament) is for the most advanced fighters who have either meddled in open longsword tournaments consistently or have a sufficiently high HEMA rating. Division II is (equivalent to an open longsword tournament) is for any fighter to compete in. Division II (equivalent to a beginner longsword tournament) is for anyone who has never fought in a tournment or has fought but has never gotten out of the first round of eliminations. The last division is designed to give new fencers a place to fight against other equally new fighters and we are proud to have had not one but two new fighters enter the fray! Although pictures were a bit sparse, we got some really good ones of Tony fighting for bronze against Dan Evans! Although Dan ended up winning the match and ultimately taking Gold we are immensely proud of Tony for becoming the first ever Hilt and Helm student to medal in a tournament!
Picture: Jessie May at his first HEMA tournament!
Pictured: Dan Evans mid leap going for a bonk to the head on Tony!
Pictured: Tony landing an impressive thrust to Dan, stopping his incoming bonk mid
Pictured: Dan Evans and Tony Cavalline enjoying their medals!
Little old me strolled in late as usual on Saturday to compete in Division I longsword. As I stated earlier, this segment of the tournament was meant for the fiercest most highly ranked fighters, and of all the fights I had in this section of the tournament none was more fun and enjoyable than my rematch against Camilla Frazier: long time friend of the club and owner/head instructor of the New Jersey Klopfechters! During our fight we began dancing around as usual. At some point I got a devious idea … the Cha-cha stab. I shouted out “To the left!” and she responded by moving left and replying “Take it back now, yall”. At this point we were firmly committed to performing the cha-cha slide. When she she said “One hop this time”, she fell right into my trap. As soon as her feet left the ground I moved forward (on the beat I may add) with a thrust and got her directly in the chest! Afterwards we laughed, she called me a duplicitous bitch (and in her defense she was right), hugged and went on with the rest of the fight. In my elimination fights, I wound up fighting Stevie Parker. Initially I thought I may have to dial down my aggression considering her slender frame, but once she came at me I immediately realized how wrong I was to doubt her ferocity. Girl was fast, technical, smart, and above all else really good at pressing the attack. It took everything I had just to keep up with her. And at the final exchange when we were tied I knew I only needed 1 point to clench the victory. I feigned high, then went for her leg, but she outsmarted me and went for the thrust instead of biting onto my feint. With the point differential she clenched the victory and knocked me out of the top 16.
I then spent the rest of the day judging for Division II longsword. If any of you have never seen me judge … this video is a pretty good indicator of my particular judging style. Hey! If you’ve gotta do a job, you might as well have fun with it!
The next day was Rapier and Dagger and sword and buckler. Sadly there wasn’t much footage of my rapier dagger fights, but thankfully there was some rather glorious footage of my sword and buckler bronze match!
Me kicking ass at sword and buckler!
Sadly I got knocked out, but at least I got to take home some pretty awesome swag!
Beat up a bunch of people and they gave me some coffee, dope stickers, and a fancy coaster with a neck strap!
Once again, Royal Arts Fencing Academy put on an amazing event! Between the excellent crowd of fencers they attracted, the USA HEMA software which kept everything running smoothly, and the dope ass medals (two of which Hilt and Helm took home), we had yet another awesome and memorable time.
Looking forward to the next one!
Spencer Waddel and I just hanging out with these shiny-ass medals we won! This dude is an awesome fighter! Check him out!
