[Ansteorra] Crown Tourney

[Richard Threlkeld]

The day started cold. But then it stayed cold. And got colder.
 
We had a very short morning court in the hall and then adjourned to the
field in the park across the street. It was 27 degrees with a wind chill to
20 degrees. We had sleet virtually all day and snow from time to time. 
 
But 25 fighters braved the cold and the wet to compete for the honor of
leading Ansteorra. For the first round everyone lined up in reverse
precedence order in the hall prior to moving to the field and the lowest got
to choose someone from the upper half to fight. Then the next lowest and so
on. An indication of the depth of the list was obvious when our newest
knight Giotto was in the lower half and got to choose his opponent.
 
The first round went well with excellent fights by all. Sir Tomas's fight
against the the dreaded by (Ozzy) was by far the shortest and he won it. I
took many pictures of this part, but could not possibly get them all.
 
The second round was down to 13 fighters. The wind, sleet, and occasional
snow continued. Casillda offered coffee, hot chocolate, and snacks in her
tent. His Majesty had each person select a wooden coin from a bag. There
were two of each number and the matching coins fought. There were many acts
of chivalry and great fights and I got a little of it on digital film.
 
This round left 7. There were many good fights here. Ulstead and Alexis were
very evenly matched and their fight went on for what seemed in the cold to
be hours. In Gunther and Miguel's fight, Miguel "dukaled". But he had
forgotten the Crown had asked for no such civilities in the quarter finals
and later (or perhaps he did not realize this was the quarter finals). So
Gunther had to armor up again and they went at it for real. None-the-less
Gunther won the round. Again many pictures.
 
The semi-finals were a Round Robin where you had to lose two in a row to be
out. The contestants were Duke Ulstead, Count Gunther, and Sir Jean Paul.
Each lost one with Jean Paul being the last to lose one. If you lost, you
stayed in and he did. Gunther then fought Jean Paul and Jean Paul had two
losses leaving the finals to Gunther and Ulstead. Ulstead and Gunther fought
for quite a while with Ulstead finally hitting Gunther in the grille (I
believe) to win the first point. An extended fight ended with Ulstead again
getting Gunther's grille. 
 
Ulstead and his consort Ebigardis were crowned on the field and then we all
retired to the hall for eating and court.
 
In court, the Crown wanted to give the Sword of Chivalry to the next holder,
but the current holder, Count Gunther, had left it at home. Much was made of
this and he promised to get it to the next holder. His Majesty then
announced Count Gunther as the next holder and told him to keep it safe.
 
Despite the cold, a great time was had by all.
 
In service to Ansteorra and her Crown (and heirs),
Caelin on Andrede