[Bryn-gwlad] Fighter practice history (was: Sunday archery/fighter practice site threatened)

[Chris Zakes]

At 01:26 PM 5/11/2006, you wrote:
>The original Sunday practice was started before Tuesday practice.  It was a
>major gathering place for local SCA.  There weren't nearly as many events
>back then, and most people came out to practice regularly, and not just for
>fighting.  It was the official practice, listed in the Black Star, and as
>such was treated as any other official SCA event, with full costume.
>Tuesday nights grew out of a backyard practice, which is why they have
>traditionally been mundane.  They moved to a nearby park when they grew too
>inconvenient for a backyard and attendance became general.  They became
>"official" (in the sense of recognized by the barony) for purely legal
>reasons much later, and a dress code was never established.  (It was hard
>enough just getting people to start following SCA rules, like not fencing in
>t-shirt and shorts.)  Meanwhile, Sunday practice was moved to a less
>convenient site, and attendance dropped off.  Eventually, it became more
>mundane, with some people not even realizing they were supposed to show up
>in costume, and it died out altogether.  Many years later, the current
>Sunday practice was started by people who usually did not go to Tuesdays.
>Nevertheless, I believe that the prime reason for having a daytime, weekend
>practice is to be seen doing medieval stuff, in which case, it should be at
>a convenient and visible location.  Just my opinion.
>
>Gwenneth


I agree that having a visible weekend practice would be a Good Thing, but 
not many people in the barony agree with me--or at least not many agree 
enough to attend one regularly. The Round Rock Sunday practice was 
originally unofficial, and started because a) my work schedule made Tuesday 
fighter practice inconvenient, b) I wanted someplace to fight and train 
other fighters and c) the Round Rock location was convenient for me.

Archery was added a year or so later when the Archery Marshal asked if the 
parks people would mind if we shot out there, and they said it was OK, as 
long as we reserved the area first. That led to the Practice becoming 
"official" because the parks people wanted copies of our insurance 
paperwork, too.

Back in October I changed jobs so that I am now working every other 
weekend. As a result of that, the rapier side of the practice became 
"unofficial" again, except for the first weekend of the month when Kelly 
brings out the waivers and stuff.


Now for some ancient history. Originally, fighter practice was held in 
Waterloo Park, downtown on Sunday afternoons. After many years, the City of 
Austin started using Waterloo as a major venue for concerts, political 
rallies and suchlike, so that on any given weekend we had a pretty good 
chance of having *no* convenient parking as well as hundreds or thousands 
of people--frequently with loudspeakers and suchlike--crowding the park. 
Sometimes the whole park would be fenced off so we couldn't even get in 
without paying admission.

Fighter practice was moved to a corner of the Hancock Golf Course, which 
turned out to be rather unpopular--almost no shade, inconvenient bathrooms, 
not much parking, etc. and attendance dropped to amost nothing. At the same 
time, attendance at the "unofficial" Tuesday parctice in Patterson Park was 
quite high. This led to the powers-that-be in the barony deciding to make 
the Tuesday practice "official" as well, and later to dropping the Sunday 
practice due to lack of interest.

         -Tivar Moondragon
         fossil-in-residence