Tuesday, November 10, 2009

3rd Annual Unarmoured Tournament

A shot of the bout between Mat Brundle (L) and Beau Brock (R)
AEMMA Toronto hosted the 3rd annual unarmoured tournament at its salle d'armes on Dupont st, Toronto on Saturday, November 7, 2010. It was an all day event, with combatants being comprised of twelve combatants including schollers and free schollers from the Toronto Academy, Guelph Chapter, Ottawa Medieval Sword Guild (OMSG) and one Dale Gienow from Muskoka. The weapon to be used for this tournament was the Tinker Pearce blunt trainer longsword. David M. Cvet and Brian McIlmoyle were the marshals for the tournament, and OMSG's scholler Leanna Falkenhagen assisted with the execution of the tournament.

This entire event was initially organized by David Murphy, founder and instructor of the Guelph Chapter, however, was unable to attend the event due to illness. He is on the road to recovery, and he was missed by one and all.

A shot of the bout between Chris Penney (L) and Bill Brickman (R)
The event was structured so that each combatant had a chance to fight with all other combatants, resulting in approximately 73 bouts during the day (a couple dropped out towards the end of the tournament due to incurring injuries). For details on the structure and rules of the tournament, click here. All went well, and the quality of the bouts were extremely good, with most of the bouts demonstrating the art in spirit and principle. After the conclusion of the tournament, all combatants casted a secret ballot for voting on which combatant best demonstrated the principles and spirit of the art, selecting him/her as "first amongst equals". The ballots selected the AEMMA Guelph Chapter's Bill Brickman who was awarded a prize (under contruction at that time) of a sword created by Charles Jevons, the same individual who constructs AEMMA's aluminum arming and long swords.

An assessment and review of the Tinker Pearce Blunt Longsword Trainer can be viewed by clicking here. Videos depicting some of the bouts can be seen by going to the AEMMA Channel on youtube.