Here is a quick review of the first try out for the Open rules as used at the Knight Shop Grand Opening/ 2 Days of the Blade event in Feb.
Jake Free, the worthy victor of the 2 Days of the blade longsword competition.
It’s written by James Marwood and is featured on his blog “Safeism”, I wanted to feature his outside view of the rules as I know he had very strong reservations about them.
Before we go any further however, I would like to congratulate both Silver medalist Colin Fieldhouse (who performed exceptionally well and showed great sportsmanship throughout) and the winner Jake Free who earned his victory with aplomb.
Colin Fieldhouse, excellent silver medalist.
So the review, take it away James…
Colin Richards of Arts of Mars recently announced that Dave Rawlings’ rule set would be the one used for his upcoming World Wide Open Championship to be held in Apelern, Germany this summer. This is a Good Thing.
There’ve been debates about rule sets for historical european swordfighting for a few months now. Dave Rawlings, of the Boars Tooth Fight School and the name behind the Rawlings Range sword simulators has been promoting a standard set of rules for competitions. Whilst I haven’t taken part much in the debate I have followed it pretty closely and I have to admit I thought it had taken a very wrong turn. I thought they were overly wordy and far too complex. They looked like they had all the bad features of something designed by committee, and worse a committee of people who rarely actually met and instead had disjointed and poorly managed on-line communications. The debate became acrimonious in places and I thought this project was destined to crash and burn.
The rules were given their first dry run at the opening event for the Knight’s Shop in Conwy earlier this year. I was there to teach Modern Bartitsu and, after my class, I ducked out of watching the earlier parts of the competition whilst I caught up with people. I was downstairs from the tourney and the news I heard during set up seemed to confirm my fears. Over an hour into the event and the rules were still being communicated and discussed. The judges all seemed happy and confident with what they were doing, but the competitors less so. Given these guys were coming from a very wide variety of clubs and for most this was their first time competing this was perhaps understandable. However my heart sank when I heard some of the moans about complexity.
After the first round was out of the way I went to watch and had a quick chat with Dave, who was martialling the event. He had Colin Richards and the Thomas Brothers judging, Tim Gallagher referring and Phil Marshall as time and score keeper. Very experienced guys with good knowledge of the arts. The arena (pictured above) was a circle, with the judges at fixed positions around it (Or at least they were supposed to be, Colin seemed to find it hard to stay in place despite Dave frequently reminding him!). The biggest challenge I saw was getting the guys kitted up and ready before each bout. The Knights Shop had provided hocky armour, gloves and groin protection that was mandatory for all fighters and getting them into and out of it was delaying the bouts. With the help of a very pretty lady I was able to get this sorted out and get the fighters out to their bouts in a more timely manner.
This was when I was very pleasantly surprised. The rules worked. And they worked well. Tim called out engagements, and judges scored them by the raising of flags (improvised at this event, but I understand proper ones have been purchased). Phil recorded the score and Dave made sure everything was running smoothly. After the initial teething issues it seemed to go very smoothly. Phil had written a nice time and score display program that was projected onto one wall for the competitors to see. Sadly this was not as visible to the crown, but otherwise it worked well.
There was some complexity to the rules which could probably stand to be reduced, and the way they are communicated needs tightening up. However they work. The best fighters won their bouts, which were of a sufficient length to give people a chance without them becoming boring for the audience. Effective judging and refereeing is key and not everyone was 100% on the ball. I think it’s fair to say that Colin, whilst a great guy and a gifted instructor is not the best choice as a corner judge! The other judges and especially Tim as ref did sterling jobs. Really very impressive.
Dave and the other guys involved are well aware of the areas they need to improve but I think the basic premise of the rules is sound. I’m sure the next run out they get at the World Wide Opens will be equally as successful.
James
