[Bryn-gwlad] championships

[kcmarsh at suddenlink.net]

*kicks back in his rocking chair on the porch with a corn-cob pipe clenched in his teeth, both thumbs hooked around the straps of his overalls*

Well, Sonny, let me tell ya how it was back when _I_ was Champion of the Halberd...

Back in the days when Robbie and Eleanor ruled the barony, just before Johan and Erica stepped up to the baronial throne, we held a baronial champion tournament in Bryn Gwlad.  A pair of fighters would be matched for the first round.  They would fight a bout in full armour, then change into rapier gear and fight a bout that way.  If there was a tie they would use target archery or knife or spear throwing as the tie-breaker.  Then the winner would change back into full armour to prepare to do it all over again in the next round.  Notice a lot of time being spent in armour changes here? Once it got down to the final two fighters they fought in full armour with heavy, 10' long halberds.  

Have you ever fought single combat with a 10' halberd?  It isn't as easy as it looks, which isn't very easy to begin with.  In fact, it pretty much is as _silly_ as it looks, which is really, really silly.  On that particular day the two finalists were myself and Ricardo called the Batillador.  We tried to stand back and bash each other, but the weapons were slow as molases and easily parried.  We tried to choke up and stab each other at close range but it is really awkward trying to use a dagger that is a foot wide and has a 10' long handle.  We stumbled about the field and tried to keep our balance, running into the list ropes and the marshalls a good bit.  Several haft strikes were made but nothing that could be called (we tried, but the marshalls talked us out of it). Finally Ricardo managed to whack me on the helm with the flat of the halberd head just before I went over the list ropes again, and I insisted that it was good and I was done.  Ricardo, as a non-resident of the barony, was named Defender of Bryn Gwlad.  I, as the highest-placing resident in the list, was named Champion of the Halberd.

And I don't think we have fought one that way ever since.

Maelgwyn


---- Tim McDaniel <tmcd at panix.com> wrote: 
> On Thu, 2 Aug 2007, Chris Zakes <dontivar at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Bryn Gwlad's championship was similar, but the bouts were armored,
> > rapier and archery. You're correct that the final bout was fought
> > with halberds.
> 
> Archery using halberds?  There *were* giants in the Earth in those
> days.
> 
> Danett "and Edwin, Clare, and Aethelyan, of course" de Lyncoln
> -- 
> Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com
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