This tourney is unique in that the winner is elected by the Insegnanti (that is the correct plural of Insegnante by the way), listmistresses, and the fighters. It is a great honor and represents the respect of many very respectable fighters.
Hawkins decided on a challenge tourney, run thusly: each fighter lines up by Order of Precedence, lower fighters pick first. For subsequent rounds, fighters line up by record, then by Precedence. For every match, each fighter was encouraged to declare a challenge for themselves to try to meet. It was a great tourney idea, and the fighters quickly got into the spirit of the thing. Setting a difficult challenge for oneself took some of the sting out of losing bouts.
First fight - Ld Andrew Selwyn. He gave me the ole one-shot to the head. He's a tall guy with long arms. Blame it on bad light, karma, or mental unpreparedness.
Second fight - Ld Yoshiie Hokumori. A decent fight. I yielded when I perhaps shouldn't have (first blood fight, you know). I don't know if either of us were quite satisfied.
Third fight - Don Donovan Fitzpatrick. 0 and 2, I needed to turn things around. I had noted earlier that Don Hawkins and Don Donovan both were wearing their scarves unattached, but looped through wings on their doublets. I'd also had the notion that snatching a white scarf would be a bold challenge--very Cyrano-esque. Since Hawkins had already been challenged this round, and this might be my only chance to meet Donovan in the tournament, he would have to be my victim. A number of factors worked in my favor: the confines of the small indoor tourney field, Donovan's noble challenge to disable my hands with less than 5 shots, and his large scarf looked very grabbable. I began, thinking that I would use my sword left-handed, allowing me to block out his sword (held right-handed) and grab the scarf with my right-hand. I didn't feel very confident in my left hand, so I immediately switched and planned to block him out and down, and reach across my body to grab the scarf with my left hand. I began to close. Donovan threw a shot that tapped the edge of my right glove. One! After a little more circling, I rushed in, pressed his blade to the outside. He twisted his torso to withdraw for a shot, but it brought his left shoulder forward, and I grabbed the scarf. As soon as he noticed, he pulled away, but it was too late!
Fourth fight - Don Stephen Hawkins. Case of rapiers is my current favorite style, so I chose that against Hawkins. Plus he has a new Del Tin, so we could try out the long & short sword style, taking Del Tin and schlager. For some reason, I decided I would try to take out his arms, so we fought a sniping game, which is not my style at all. He took my left arm fairly quickly, and then we fished about awhile until he finally made it through the ring guard.
Fifth fight - Don Timothy le Courbousier. All the fights have had the pleasure to share with Timothy over the last year have been enormously fun. I brought out cloak. For his challenge, Timothy decided he would fight seated on a bench. We traded the cloak a few times, until I discarded it. Then we had an invigorating exchange, at least a dozen blows, and all amazingly clean. Later, Puck said it looked like we were inventing moves. I began to get a sublime sense of control over the fight, once I started using my footwork to take advantage of his immobility. Eventually, I got him with a quadruple disengage to the inside, on the gorget.
Written: 15 Sep 00, Last edit: 15 Nov 00
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