Training Reading 20 August
In Reading tonight we had a Rapier & dagger sparring and feedback session while the spada a due mani group practiced an assalto from Marozzo.
21
08, 2018
18
08, 2018
The School of the Sword Oxford Grand Opening Day
Today we held our opening of The School of the Sword Oxford, with Q&A sessions, mini classes, demonstrations and sparring.
We had an enthusiastic group of newcomers to HEMA who put in a great effort, and we look forward to welcoming them to our Beginners Course.
If you would like to sign up please fill in the registration form:
18
08, 2018
Instructor Training
The School has always been praised for the quality of its teaching, and to maintain this level of tuition we run periodic gatherings of instructors to discuss and consolidate on teaching practices across the three sites. It was a very productive morning, with lots of insights and ideas shared among the senior members.
18
08, 2018
Sots Sweeps the Board at Fightcamp Rapier Tournament
Fightcamp is the largest and longest running HEMA event in the UK, and three people from the School entered the Rapier tournament which resulted in three medals for the School! Congratulations to Adrian, Apollon and Alexander for achieving 3rd, 2nd and 1st place respectively.
Alexander went on to win silver in the longsword competition, first place went to Jack Gassmann who has also taught at the School in the past.
8
08, 2018
Level Up!
On Monday in Reading we had a very special evening full of lots of fights as Stewart and James took their Spadaccino and Laureando exams.
Laureando is the second exam students at the School can take after the initial safety test (to make sure they are safe to spar). This is typically after 200 hours of study and some experience of teaching others. James took part in five 3-minute bouts, ending in an exchange against a weapon he hadn’t encountered before, in this case it was a katana! James chose sidesword and put in an impressive performance. He will also submit a written piece of research.
Spadaccino is the most senior rank in the school and Stewart racked up an impressive ten bouts of three minutes at a time in sword & buckler, rapier & dagger, spadone and dussack. As our treasurer and with 0ver 400 hours of study and many sessions of teaching under his belt, it was time he showed us what he was made of – and on a very hot August evening he cut a swathe through all opposition and emerged victorious! His final match was using parrying gauntlet and rapier, and he has submitted a longer written piece. Well done to both and all who helped take part in the bouts.
8
08, 2018
Women’s Open Day
On Sunday in Godalming we held a women’s open day after sparring. We were pleased to have a fantastic group who all did some Q&A with all our women instructors and students, took mini lessons in longsword with Emilia, sword & buckler with Fran and rapier with Masha. By the third sparring session everyone was really getting into it! We hope to see plenty of them at our beginners course in January.
17
07, 2018
Albion Cup 2018
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:
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.
22
06, 2018
Annual Awards 2018
Recently we held a summer social event consisting of a potluck and test cutting session, it was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to get the students from Reading and Godalming together. Lead instructors Fran and Matt, of Godalming and Reading respectively, took the opportunity to announce the annual awards:
The Scholarship Award
This is given to the student who has stood out for their research and interpretive work on historical fencing texts. This can be someone at any level but given that the Laureando and Spadaccino gradings both contain a written submission it tends to be students at these stages in their careers who are eligible. The prize is cash to be spent on fencing books or manuals, and the nominees (pending receipt and review of their written laureando pieces) are:
Kasten Harris
Simon Bowers
Josh Davis
Dan Skellon
The Endeavour Award
When a student reaches a certain level of competence: demonstrates good all round skill with weapons, applies themselves in class and demonstrates an adherence to the texts and techniques taught, they are eligible for the Endeavour Award. We grant this to the student who demonstrates all of the above and who we believe will make an excellent ambassador for the School. The prize is cash towards travel, accomodation and entry to an international event.
This year’s Endeavour Award goes to:
James Barker
The Dagger of Honour
This is our highest honour. The Dagger of Honour is the oldest award within the School and it is given to the student who has stood out in their services to the School, this can be in any number of ways.
This year’s winner has worked incredibly hard on the behalf of SotS: whether that’s travelling to teach workshops, to participate in tournaments (and win!), or arranging sponsorships and fantastic prizes with suppliers for the events that the school is involved in organising. The English Sidesword Open was the brainchild of this individual, and we thank them for their vision, passion and enthusiasm that inspired us to make it such a successful event, and we plan to repeat in years to come.
The winner of the Dagger of Honour 2018 was an easy decision, and that person is Jay Maxwell.
Well done to all the winners and nominees!
14
06, 2018
The School of the Sword Oxford – A new chapter begins
The School of the Sword is proud to present a new chapter opening in Oxford this Summer.
It has been in the pipeline for almost a year and we decided that the time is right to launch a new sister to the Reading and Godalming sites. The lead instructor will be Emilia Skirmuntt, who has been studying HEMA since 2002. Emilia has been a guest instructor at both Reading and Godalming, and is an international instructor and competitor, having taught and medalled at many different events.
Unlike our other chapters that study Bolognese sidesword & buckler as the foundational weapon system, SotS Oxford beginners will learn Fiore longsword. The rapier will remain the focal weapon of the School as ever.
We will hold a grand opening at Magdalene College School on 18 August 12.00 – 14.00.
Come along to see fencing with rapier and companion weapons, sidesword and longsword. Chat with our students and staff, have a go at historical fencing techniques for yourself and sign up for our new classes. These will be on Thursday evenings at the same venue 19.30 – 21.30. More details about Emilia and the classes will be appearing on the site soon. Follow our Facebook page for details of events and training.
4
05, 2018
Fightcamp Skirmish 28/29 April 2018
Last weekend Pim and Fran gave a morning class on Bolognese Sword & Buckler at the inaugural Fightcamp Skirmish, hosted by Schola Gladiatoria. Billed as a little sister event to the larger annual Fightcamp held in Coventry, this is a more bijou and luckily local event for us with a greater variety of activities such as axe throwing and archery. Attendees could camp on site at the event in Ripley, and there were several other attendees from the School as well.
It was a great crowd and we look forward to future events.
