[Ansteorra] Marshalling pole challenge

[Michael Silverhands]

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