Event Details

Longsword-only event, Tamworth, first tournament put on by Mercian Medieval Fight Club (MMFC) as part of the Midlands Hema Alliance (MHA) in collaboration with Longpoint, Wolfshead and others. 9am-5pm on 23/02/2025.

Image: Ross Gilbert

Rules

First to 10 points wins.

Wessex ruleset with deductive afterblows/doubles.

3 points for anything to the head or a torso thrust, 2 points for anything else.

Anything delivered with one hand suffers –1 point malus.

E.g. if I hit their head and took an afterblow to the arm, I would get 1 point (3 points – 2 points = 1 point to me). If I thrust their torso with a single-handed thrust, and they doubled with a cut to the torso, it would be a no-score pass (3 point thrust –1 point for single hand, -2 points for their cut = 0 points).

Scores are calculated this way regardless of who hit first, so if you get hit anywhere, you have a strong incentive to afterblow their head to try to get 3 points which would cancel out any hit, or even gain you points. People clocked onto this more as the day went on.

Image: Mike Wigfull

Structure

6 pool matches, 1 fight per person, per pool. Each pool reseeds for the next round. So winners of Pool 1 should be put in pools with winners for Pool 2 etc.

After pools, cut to top 4, with semi-finals then finals.

This gave us a good number of fights (6 to 8 depending on whether you made it to the finals) but there were long gaps between fights. Some people liked this as it allowed them to rest and always fight at near 100% capacity. Others disliked it, as they went cold between bouts.

Image: Wesley Simms

Results

I took gold overall, winning every bout I fought in. Tom Sylvester has confirmed that the HEMA Scorecard website was experiencing some issues when it came to tracking results, and is investigating further to make sure it works as intended going forward. He has, however, reassured us that the scores to enter the top 6 were double-checked and verified. Tie breaks between the several people who had won all 6 of their pool matches (including fellow Instructor Dan Wells) were given to those who scored more frequent valuable hits – 3pt head hits and torso thrusts – and not received as many similar hits against them. This allowed me to advance to the semifinals, while Dan only just lost out on a place by a very narrow margin. Honourable mention to Ben Beasley who sadly lost his first bout against Daniel Wells, but then cooked his way through the rest of the pools, winning most fights 10-2, 10-3 etc.

Overall the 4 Order of the Blade Instructors who took part dropped a total 2 bouts out of 24, one of which was against ourselves. Extremely strong showing across the board.

Image: Ben Beasley

Overall opinion of event

Despite the event being the first ever run by MMFC, it was mostly done very professionally and well. There could have been a little more communication prior to arrival re. Parking, schedule for the day, and other details, but that’s a minor niggle.

Communication during the day was clear, easy to find your piste and pool, judging was cordial and impartial and as good as could possibly be expected for a first event.

Other competitors displayed great sportsmanship and were friendly and welcoming.

The only area of major concern is the above mentioned issues with pools seeding, which casts doubt on the final result. It would be good to know what the issues were, if any, so future events can avoid the same problem.

Oh, final minor niggle – someone in my Pool 3 hadn’t been gear-checked, which is a red flag both that it was missed by the organisers, but also that he hadn’t volunteered himself to be checked before that point. Anyone attending a tournament should be aware of the need for gear-checks, and seek one out if they aren’t given one initially.

Image: Dan Wells and Ben Beasley

Individual bouts and lessons learned

Bout 1

Fought Matt Leaning, from Wolf’s Head. Very close, I had to come back from 8-2 down and only just managed it, I think mostly due to universal confusion over scoring system by all parties.

Lesson: Being able to deal with psychological pressure from a losing scoreline is key. How you do that will depend on who you are as a person, but you need to be able to handle it.

Bout 2

Fought Charles Simpson, from Wolf’s Head again. Only 1 yr experience. Not close.

Lesson: Sometimes you’ll be dealt an easy match. Make the most of the rest, and maximise your score margin in case it matters down the road.

Bout 3

Fought Philippa Stevens, who I’d not met before. Was fighting normally, until I landed a hand hit from Fools, then just did hand hits 2 more times and got enough unanswered points to win.

Lesson: If you’re doing something that works, keep doing it until you win or they make you stop doing it.

Bout 4

Fought Peiyu Wang from MMFC. Hard fight. Fast, and strong with the zwerchs. Had to be told twice for fighting after halt was called, and lamped me a solid one to back of head with a lateral step and a zwerch, so I had to take a moment. But managed to play with his impatience for the last couple of passes and got away with a win. Comes to Musters sometimes, so if you want a pressure test, ask him for one.

Lesson: If you think you might be injured (especially the head) then call halt, and take the time to self-diagnose. It’s not a failing. You absolutely need to be sure you’re happy to continue. Also: if someone seems aggressive or excited, they’re a prime target for feints and voids.

Bout 5

Fought Ian Lynch from School of Historical Combat, Birmingham. Straightforward win once I realised he wasn’t used to fighting actual pressure. Put real muscle into my beats against his blade to convert into clean follow-up headshots.

Lesson: Be able to deploy several different fighting styles. Many clubs only practice one or the other, so doing things that they aren’t used to is a critical skill.

Bout 6

Fought Rose Ashley from Wolf’s Head. Fairly uncomplicated win. I think they were low on energy this late in the day and unable to deal with my random-bullshit-go approach.

Lesson: Conserve your energy at an all-day event, both mentally and physically. Sit when you can. Stay hydrated. Snack. Close your eyes and breathe. Do whatever you need to do to regain energy in your battery.

Image: Dan Wells

Semi-final

Hard fight, as you expect. Fought Teig Coulbeck from Wolf’s Head, their best fencer by a long way. I was getting some solid cuts, but he was very good at getting the afterblow to the head for 3 which meant I was losing a point per exchange instead of gaining 2. Managed to claw back to 9-9 by prioritising defending against those head afterblows and then clinched it with a cheeky 1-pt gayzslen.

Lesson: Two things here. First, if your opponent is doing something well, don’t just keep on as normal and hope for the best – consciously analyse and counter. If they’re getting hand hits on you, protect your hands. If they’re landing thrusts from long range, keep your distance greater than usual and guard up until you’re ready to close. Second, keep an eye on the scoreline and do no more or less than is needed to win. Do not put yourself at risk going for a 3pt hit if you only need 1.

Final

Fought Lincoln Mills from MMFC. Again, very solid bout. By this point I’m grasping at straws for new kinds of trickery to pull out, and it was very back and forth, lots of no-score doubles. I swear I thought I was 7-9 down, so having trained him throughout the bout to expect me to go for headshots and deep body thrusts, I just took an available clean hand hit, thinking it’d get me to 9-9 and then I just needed 1 point to win. Turns out I was already on 8 so the hand hit was enough.

Lesson: You can often get significant advantage in the later passes if you’ve initially trained your opponent against a specific fighting style earlier in the bout. If you start very defensively for the first half-dozen passes, shift into full on blood-seeking aggressive mode. If you’ve gone for the head every time, take some hand and leg shots and vice versa. Your opponent only has a limited sample size of your repertoire – use that to your advantage to wrong-foot them.

Image: Medallists left to right –  3rd – Teig Coulbeck (Wolfshead WMA), 1st – Ross Gilbert (Order of the Blade), 2nd – Lincoln Mills (Mercian Medieval Fight Club)

Images courtesy of David Wrighton.