Author: Peter

Eleven of us attended on Saturday for a very energetic and fun session including case of swords, longsword, smallsword, sidesword, sabre, and sidesword & buckler.

A contingent, as ever, also attended the Norway HEMA Open 2017 held in Oslo hosted by Fektklubben Frie Duellister; entering women’s longsword, men’s longsword and open rapier & dagger. Huge congratulations to Pim and Sasha who fought each other in the final to win Gold and Silver respectively, and best wishes for a swift recovery to Michela who took an injury whilst competing.

The next event is the May Melee in Bath, followed by the Horned Crown in Wexford and  the Sweden Open in Kristinehalm. These are respectively the second leg of the IHFL, and the final leg of the NHFL where the overall winners of each category will be announced. Will WSG be in store for more prizes? Watch this space.

Three medals from three different tournaments, congrats to Mike and Artur!

A handful of brave souls are off to the Big Moscow Tournament this weekend.

The rest of us will be in Southwark, as ever.

Bring swords. Bring friends with swords.

In November the Bartitsu Society announced:

…the first international Bartitsu sparring video competition, for prizes of up to US$1000!  The contest is open to martial artists and combat athletes of any style(s) and its object is to help fulfil the Bartitsu Society’s mission: “to continue the legacy of martial arts pioneer E.W. Barton-Wright”.

WSG regulars decided to set about each other with canes, in the prescribed style, and over two sessions of friendly yet antagonistic violence compiled the following:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZtTQraRunc&w=560&h=315]

We are happy to say that WE WON!

A busy weekend, but let’s recap last weekend first of all.The eventual WSG medallists at the Helsinki Open were:

• Sasha: Gold Rapier and Dagger
• Piermarco: Silver Rapier and Dagger
• Michela: Gold Women’s Longsword

Congrats also to James and Masha, who represented the group and fought valiantly. WSG is now #2 in the Nordic League’s Club Ranking, which is pretty awesome for being in the wrong geographic area!

This weekend we were visited on Saturday by Jonathan Burke from the Lionheart HEMA club in Taiwan, who’s on a tour of the UK. He fought almost everyone attending at least once. He took his (literal) bumps with good grace, too, after in-advisably closing on our pet Ringen-Rancor.

Several WSG regulars (Peter, Jamie, Claudia) journeyed to the home club of semi-regulars Tea and Merlin – Cambridge HEMA. Jack Gassmann led a seminar of sparring games followed by several hours of sparring. Fun *and* educational!