[Ansteorra] Marshalling pole challenge
Michael Silverhands
silverhands at sbcglobal.net
Tue Jan 30 12:21:38 PST 2007
On Jan 30, 2007, at 2:08 PM, Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace wrote:
> Salut cozyns,
>
> Gods. The temptation to resort to sarcasm is overwhelming.
>
> *sigh*
>
Congratulations on resisting temptation. ;-)
> Michael, in all your years in the SCA how often have you seen
> anything like the scenario you describe? I've never seen it. Even
> at Estrella, where many of the marshals use hardwood marshalling
> staves to push clots of errant warriors back into the open field, I
> have never seen a marshal's staff break.
>
> Is it possible? Yes. A meteorite crashing through my roof and
> killing me is possible, but I don't plan to start wearing my
> bascinet all the time.
>
:-)
> Let's start with a far more likely scenario for breaking a
> marshalling staff. Say I found myself in the position of having to
> block a powerful shot with my marshalling staff. In the few such
> cases that I can recall, the block was accomplished with a minimum
> of impact (easy to do when you're not the target). Still let's
> posit a blow that actually breaks the staff. It doesn't matter. I
> leave the field and throw it away.
>
> I think this rule is overkill resulting in a waste of cash and good
> rattan.
>
> lo vostre per vos servir
> En Lyonel
To answer your question, I've never personally seen a hardwood staff
fail in the described manner *at an SCA function*. However, I have
seen exactly that scenario unfold with a lightweight, unarmored
combatant who fell against a hardwood staff that was held at one end
and grounded at the other. Luckily, nobody was hurt (any more than
falling on a grounded hardwood staff hard enough to snap it in two).
This was at a marshal arts seminar.
I imagine that with heavyweight, armored Ansteorran beef in the same
situation, the catastrophic failure of the staff would be even more
certain.
However... all of that having been said... I was merely playing
"devil's advocate" and answering the original question "why do we
have this rule?" The scenario I described was (I believe) the reason
for the rule. I was specifically *not* trying to address the question
"is this a reasonable concern?" :-)
Michael
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