Yearly Archives: 2018

This weekend saw the final leg of the highly popular Wessex League 2018, where no less than 13 SotS members competed and several more admirably volunteered to staff the event. Hosted by Southampton Historical Fencing, the weekend included six competitions. The performance and quality of fencing all round was very high indeed. Congratulations to the following people:

Adrian Faulkner: Open Rapier & Dagger – Silver

Emilia Skirmuntt: Women’s Longsword – Bronze

Fran Terminiello: Women’s Sword & Buckler – Bronze

Matthew Crane: Open Rapier & Dagger – Gold

Mikolaj Krukowski: Open Sword & Buckler – Bronze

Particularly impressive is Matt’s win, which makes it his 3rd gold medal in a row in this series for rapier & dagger.

In addition the league winners were announced, and once again The School of the Sword holds the team trophy for another year. Well done to all the finalists:

Adrian Faulkner: Open Rapier & Dagger League – Silver

Emilia Skirmuntt: Women’s Longsword League – Bronze

Fran Terminiello: Women’s Longsword League – Silver

Matthew Crane: Open Rapier & Dagger League – Gold

Stewart Hotston: Open Sword & Buckler League – Silver, Open Rapier & Dagger League – Bronze

The School hosted a leg in Reading in 2017, and we hope to host future events for the league. Several members of the School are also main organisers. We look forward to seeing more SotS members participate, whether staffing or competing, in 2019.

Philip Hodder vs Josh Bradshaw – Open Sword & Buckler pools

Fran vs Emilia in women’s Sword & Buckler bronze match

Women’s sword & buckler finalists

Women’s longsword finalists

Open sword & buckler finalists

Open rapier & dagger finalists

Wessex Winchester 2018 Finalists

Wessex League Champions 2018

Sots is once again proud to host the ESO2019 in February next year. This time it will be at our newest chapter in Historic Oxford. Our first sponsorship is from Kvetun Armory who will provide all the swords for the tournaments. News on classes, activities and competitions will be coming soon.

The School had eight reasons to celebrate after several members took part in the Wessex League’s second event of the year in Taunton this weekend. Congratulations to the following people:

Matthew Crane – open rapier and dagger 1st

Adrian Faulkner – open sword and buckler 2nd and open rapier and dagger 2nd

Emilia Skirmuntt – women’s sabre 1st and women’s longsword 3rd

Fran Terminiello – women’s sabre 2nd and women’s longsword 2nd

Stewart Hotston – open sword and buckler 3rd

Well done also to Andy Bone, Apollon Makropoulos, Chris Bear, James Barker, John Waller for some brilliant performances in both Sword & Buckler and Rapier & Dagger.

Preparations and training for Wessex League Cardiff are already under way.

We had an energetic evening of coaching in rapier and dagger, and Manciolino’s closed play in the Bolognese group. All good prep for those attending The Taunton Chapter of the Wessex League this weekend. Lots of luck to those taking part.

Lead instructor Emilia taught the first class of the beginners course at our new chapter in Oxford this evening. We were fully booked as eager new students picked up the longsword for the first time and learned about the principles of longsword according to Fiore dei Liberi.

Classes take place each Thursday at Magdalen College School.

Sots brought home wins from the first leg of the Wessex League 2018 hosted by London Historical Fencing Club this weekend in south London.

Reigning league champion for open r&d Stewart Hotston took gold in open rapier and dagger as well as silver in open sword and buckler.

And women’s longsword league winner 2017 Fran Terminiello took gold again in women’s longsword. Emilia Skirmuntt placed bronze. And for women’s rapier and dagger Fran and Emilia placed silver and bronze respectively. Well done to all SoTS members who not only competed admirably and with great skill but also worked hard to staff this event.

The league, in its second year, has several School members on the organising committee, Sots hosted the second chapter last year in Reading.

The next chapter takes place in Taunton on 29/30 September and is hosted by Taunton Longsword Association.

We had a busy session this afternoon in Godalming, with the Wessex League starting next Saturday in London it was probably not surprising that a lot of us wanted to hone our skills.

It was also the end of Mark’s block on Agrippa single sword so lots of people wanted to use the time to try out what they had learned.

On Wednesday Lynette will continue her block on rapier & dagger, and Simon will be joining us to look at sidesword and parrying gauntlet according to the Anonimo Bolognese as translated by Piermarco.

Several of our beginners in Godalming have levelled up to full membership recently. After taking their safety tests and being cleared for sparring, they can now attend all classes at all three sites as well as our regular sparring.

The test consists of several exercises to assess technical knowledge, skill and above all control.

Congratulations to Maria, Michael, Sarah, Joshua and Sebastian!