social

16 06, 2024

Godalming Cutting Party – 16th June 2024

2024-07-22T00:05:27+00:00June 16th, 2024|Godalming, social|

Students from our Godalming chapter as well as some from other chapters gathered for an afternoon of cutting things with swords.  Whilst we don’t use sharps in our training for obvious safety reasons, it’s a useful part of our training to get the experience of cutting at inanimate objects to see just how good our blade alignment really is.  And so sideswords, sickles, spears and more were set to task against objects such as milk bottles, fruit, clay and even a birthday cake.  A lot of fun was had by all.

21 04, 2024

SotS Cinema Night – 21st April 2024

2024-05-07T22:53:59+00:00April 21st, 2024|Godalming, social|

Tonight, our Godalming Chapter  held our latest SotS Cinema: John Boorman’s classic Excalibur 1981. Before the screening for our members and their families, we had a brilliant demonstration of jousting Armour from Jedd, one of our instructors. It was a wonderful evening with fantastic moments.

9 12, 2023

Oxford Xmas Meal – 9th December 2023

2023-12-12T20:26:17+00:00December 9th, 2023|Oxford, social|

Our Oxford students had a rare occasion to meet up today without any weapons as they enjoyed a Xmas meal together at a local pub.  It’s been a fantastic year for the chapter filled with great fencing, tournaments and swords, and they are very much looking forward to welcoming new beginners in 2024.

19 11, 2023

The Princess Bride Social – 19th November 2023

2023-11-20T23:22:12+00:00November 19th, 2023|Godalming, social|

Our students from Godalming (and other chapters) gathered in Chilworth Village Hall tonight for a special private screening of The Princess Bride (1987). There was an introductory talk on the swordmaster Agrippa prior to the film given by Godalming instructor, Mark Sains.  This was followed up by instructor John Waller, showcasing a number of local blades made locally by Alan Meek.
19 08, 2023

Coming of Age Event: Boat Trip

2023-08-23T07:54:50+00:00August 19th, 2023|Events, Godalming, Oxford, Reading, social, Swindon|

After a busy first day of workshops and sparring, what better way to unwind than a cruise down the Thames.  Attendees from all four chapters at our Coming of Age event this weekend, boarded a boat and set sail for an evening of food, drink and conversation.

18 08, 2023

Coming of Age Event: Friday Night Social

2023-08-23T07:27:49+00:00August 18th, 2023|Godalming, Oxford, Reading, social, Swindon|

This weekend sees our 21st Anniversary celebration with a range of workshops from instructors from all four of our chapters.  However, before the weekend could begin, we needed to partake in a little light liquid refreshment as we made our way into the town of Marlow for some pub food and celebrate the first time that students from all four of our chapters have gathered together.

The food was excellent and the company was brilliant, setting us up for what promises to be an exemplary event weekend.

4 12, 2022

Oxford Chapter Xmas Dinner – 4th December 2022

2022-12-27T09:50:33+00:00December 4th, 2022|Oxford, social|

It’s not all swords, bucklers and daggers! Members from our Oxford chapter took time to socialise and enjoy a festive meal this evening.

30 09, 2022

SOTS Summer(ish) Social

2022-10-19T07:25:09+00:00September 30th, 2022|Godalming, Oxford, Reading, social|

What with the pandemiic it’s been a long time since the school had a proper social. That all changed on Friday night when members of all chapters gathered in Reading for a night of food, drinks and sword related chat. It was good to catch up and meet members from other chapters we’d not encountered before. Thanks to Josh and Jubie for opening their house to us all.

28 05, 2022

School of the Sword Cutting Party – 28th May 2022

2022-07-01T17:49:21+00:00May 28th, 2022|Godalming, Oxford, Reading, social|

After not having seen a lot of each other over the pandemic, School of the Sword held a cutting party in Godalming this weekend with attendees from all our various chapters. Armed with milk and soft drinks bottles, we got to see how rusty our cutting had got using sharp swords against them.

There were lots of photogenic splashes, a few flying bottles and a whole lot of fun.

17 07, 2018

Albion Cup 2018

2018-07-17T09:58:28+00:00July 17th, 2018|Events, Rapier, social, Sword & Buckler, Trophies|





 

 

 

 

 

 

On 6-8 July we held the inaugural Albion Cup – a multi-discipline tournament event that we hope to reproduce each year. We had seventy attendees from the UK, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Norway and Italy. The weekend was blessed with beautiful sunshine and we picked a very pleasant venue in Belmont School, a beautiful site snuggled in the forests of the Surrey Hills in Holmbury St Mary near Dorking. Attendees were able to camp on site or sleep in the hall which made everything very manageable.

The tournaments began on Saturday with open longsword, followed by women’s sword & buckler and then rapier & dagger. There was a good showing of women in the S&B tournament and the quality of the fencing in all competitions was brilliant.


   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first day ended in the form of entertainment with the “Renaissance Fencer” matches: a series of showfights between preselected pairs of fencers who train in multiple weapons. Each pair had to
fence continuously with matched weapons for two minutes each with a 1 minute break in between. The order was longsword, then sabre, then rapier & dagger and ending with sword & buckler. We had 4 pairs who took part including instructors Fran vs Emilia, and Piermarco vs Håvard Eidheim from Norway. It was a gruelling but fun spectacle and the crowd cheered on all the participants.

 

After a night of celebrations in the nearby pub, the second day picked up the packed schedule once more with sabre, then smallsword, open sword & buckler and women’s longsword – again with a very healthy number of participants which is encouraging to see. The quality of the fencing throughout was excellent, and we began the prizegiving with a traditional ‘Fechtschule’ where the participants each voted for the best technical fencer of the weekend. The clear winner was Håvard , and his prize was the coveted ‘Albion’ bastard sword: forged and sharpened by our platinum sponsors Balefire Blades.

The School put in a brilliant performance, in terms of competition, organisation and volunteering. Thank you to all that took part. Notable competitors are Adrian who climbed 26 places on HEMA Ratings, winning all his pool matches in rapier & dagger and sword & buckler. Another climber is Mikolaj who climbed a staggering 440 places in sword & buckler, also winning all of his pool fights. SotS Oxford leader Emilia climbed 22 places in women’s longsword to 25th, and Katie climbed an impressive 47 places, also in women’s longsword.


We take this opportunity to say thank you to all of our participants, we wouldn’t be able to put on such a big event without you. We especially thank our hard working volunteers, some of whom travelled great distances simply to donate their time and make the Albion Cup such a great success, and some who couldn’t event be there but put in the organisational hours just to make it happen. With gratitude to Jon Rolph, Sue Kirk, Alejandro Cortes Garcia, Chris & Alicia of Balefire who also acted as armourers for the event, James Wiggins, Artur Agustyniak, Stewart Hotston, Jay Maxwell, Richard Hughes, Emma Smith, Emma Holding, Jon Middleton, Josh Davis, Alexander Davis, Chris Bear, Dan Skellon and many more.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The organisational committee also included Pim, Fran, Masha, Matt, Adrian and Sasha.

And of course, the wonderful prizes and donations from our generous sponsors are what added sparkle to this fun event:

Balefire Blades

Kvetun Armoury

THOKK – Historical Fencing

Neyman Fencing

Silkfencing Team

Rearguard

Sparring Gloves

Sword Experts

Hematees

Rui Ferreira Art

Broken Anvil

Malleus Martialis Swords

ProGauntlet

Special thanks to Enrica Angiolini Art for designing our logo.

The tournament finalists were as follows:

Women’s sword & buckler

1st Maria Makarova The School of the Sword
2nd Fran Terminiello The School of the Sword
3rd Hanne Eik Pilskog Fekteklubben Frie Duellister

 

 

 

 

 

Women’s Longsword

1st Tosca Beuming De Zwaardkring
2nd Emilia Cecylia Skirmuntt The School of the Sword
3rd Michela D’Orlando Ordine delle Lame Scaligere

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open sword and buckler

1st Alexander Makarov The School of the Sword
2nd Jay Maxwell The School of the Sword
3rd Håvard Lund Eidheim Fekteklubben Frie Duellister

 

 

 

 

Open Smallsword

1st Håvard Lund Eidheim Fekteklubben Frie Duellister
2nd Rowan Skilbeck Waterloo Sparring Group
3rd Jay Maxwell The School of the Sword

 

 

 

 

Open longsword

1st Alexander Makarov The School of the Sword
2nd Thomas Couturier La Salle d’Armes – Escrime Ancienne: SA-EA
3rd Federico Dall’Olio La Salle d’Armes – Escrime Ancienne: SA-EA

 

 

 

 

 

Open sabre

1st Tim Fuke London Longsword Academy
2nd Rowan Skilbeck Waterloo Sparring Group
3rd Pedro San Miguel Schola Gladiatoria

 

 

 

 

 

Open rapier and dagger

1st Håvard Lund Eidheim Fekteklubben Frie Duellister
2nd Alexander Makarov The School of the Sword
3rd Matthew Crane The School of the Sword

 

 

 

 

 

Best technical fencer overall – as voted by all attendees:

Håvard Lund Eidheim Fekteklubben Frie Duellister

Well done to all the finalists!

Thanks to Richard Hughes for the photos.

 

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