On the 25th November we ran a small internal Franco-Belgian* longsword tournament (and a bit of messer) to raise some funds for Paws and People Animal Rescue. After adding up all of the funds raised by our students we were absolutely delighted to announce that it totalled to an amazing £1020!
We’re hugely proud of everyone for all their effort in raising this and for the excellent fencing and we saw from everyone on the day.
Of course, a tournament isn’t a tournament without a fitting prize! In keeping with the spirit of the event, we kept these nice and lighthearted – a very limited-edition mug for our tournament winner, and a lovely little capybara for the fencer who won the most votes from their fellow fencers at the end of the tournament.
*A Franco-Belgian tournament is a style based on what we know of the tournament/fechtschule format that seems to have been used in the Fench and Belgian fencing guilds from around the 16th to 18th century. It’s essentially a ‘last man standing/king of the hill’ format where each fencer has a number of lives, and each time you lose an exchang you lose a life. The valid target area alters as the tournament proceeds as well.
