Amersham

 Greetings

I have recently attended my last show for this re-enactment season.

I have done this show for many years. It is only one day and reasonably relaxing, although it is always on a Sunday, so was a little less convenient when I was working full time.

I made sure all my kit was loaded into the car by close of play on Saturday. I was giving my friend Sandy a lift, so set off bright and early once she arrived.

The journey went well and I even remembered to do the 'All round the houses' route once we reached Amersham, so we didn't drive through the middle of the old town ( as in previous years) , as they had requested.

There were only a few of us there. Mat had brought the arming tent, I had my awning and Gary had a small tent. We set these up and got the cars off site as soon as possible.

We had a guest/possible new member. Paul had decided to join us. He had resigned from the group whose member had nearly injured me at Hever. He had not been at Hever, but he had seen footage of the blow that hit me in the face.  He also told me that the footage showed the same person doing dangerous blows against another fighter.

When he realised that the group had no intention of doing anything about this, he decided he didn't want to be associated with them any more.

Gary and Deejay had come on direct from another event and, unfortunately, Deejay had a hand injury and,Paul , whilst an experienced fighter, wanted to have a chance to do a bit of sparring with us before fighting in tourney.

Consequently, the only fighters were me and Gary.( though Paul did volunteer to be one of the commanders in the Kiddies Battle- brave man. He got out alive...)

I volunteered to be the one armed in 'Arming the Knight' and then did three consecutive fights with Gary, pacing my self as much as I could ( I tend to overheat if I not careful)

We started off with arming sword and heater shield and then switched to just arming sword, As usual, Gary ( who is a few years younger than me and can fight on for longer ) looked more dominant.

I then took a water break and came back with hand-and-a-half sword. Now I am better at this than Gary is and , hence, got more blows in. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep going for very long and gave him an opening to put me down and end the fight.

I think that is the longest I've had to fight near-continuously for quite some time...

We had a reasonable crowd and they obviously enjoyed the fight .

Here is a picture of me waiting my turn in a previous tourney at Amersham, with my lord of Lancaster acting as marshal.

As we had brought less with us, it did not take long to pack down and I had a good journey back.

Until next time

Adieu