Tonight we had three groups: study group, longsword and tournament practice.
In the study group, we are free to practice whatever we fancy drawing from a selection of sources. Tonight it was Cavalcabo, Bartitsu and Domenico Angelos smallsword.
The longsword group worked on cuts following the Meyer square, putting a music stand to good use!
And John introduced members to the rules, practices and roles of a tournament.
In Godalming we will soon be returning to our regular classes on a Wednesday night.
We are also pleased to announce enrolment is open for our beginners course starting 1 September running for six weeks. Click here to sign up.
Coronavirus has brought the world to a near standstill, but that hasn’t held the HEMA community back.
Enjoy this short video edited by SotS member Alex Rye featuring SotS students and friends from all over the world.
https://sword.school/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/img_5454.movWe had a great turnout of over thirty people for our first Open Sparring Day held at our Oxford chapter.
Friends from Waterloo Sparring, Exeter Sparring Group, AHF, New Cross Historical Fencing, Schola Gladiatoria and more came to fence with a whole variety of weapons and gather for drinks and dinner in the pub afterwards.
Our Open sparring days are held three times a year, are free of charge and open to all. You need your own equipment and at least a basic grounding in HEMA. The next one will be at our Reading Chapter in August.
Two of our beginners passed safety test grading in Reading this week. Congratulations to Joanne and Gary!
Congratulations to Kelley, Luis, Charlotte and Kristian for passing their SotS safety test at our Oxford branch! As full members are now able to attend sparring and train with the rest of the school.
Congratulations to our “three musketeers”: Alex, Matt and Sabrina who have now all passed their safety tests after completing the beginners course and are ready to spar and train with the rest of the School!
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.
