Caldicot Castle 8th-9th September 2007
As the tourney was rather short of competitors Dai got talked into having (quite literally) a bash. These full contact tourneys are an interesting thing and rather different from the battles that Dai normally takes part in. In the tourney you get a selection of weapons and can do headshots etc that are not normally allowed on the battlefield. Anyway, Dai went in and got given two swords, a way of fighting he has never tried before. He did his best and it was a creditable effort, although his opponent was much practiced in the tourney and was always going to win, but he had to work a bit harder than he expected. Mind you, full credit to Dai for getting in and having a bash, lasting three minutes fighting toe to toe in full plate armour is no mean feat.
On the second day the weapons chosen were sword and buckler so Dai did a bit better but unfortunately didn’t quite get through to the next round. He did discover where there were one or two gaps in the armour due to the large bruises which appeared, although he does need to modify his helmet so that it doesn’t catch his nose as he currently has no skin left on it and it is very bruised. His entrance into the beer tent on Saturday night was to the sound of a number of fellow reenactors singing ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed reindeer’. Sympathetic lot eh?
So, between the tourney in the mornings and the battle in the afternoons Dai wasn’t in much of a state to do a whole lot of forging, but we did get some bits and pieces made and kept the crowd amused. We’ll be back for this one next year.
