Tournament Combat

Introduction

This guide is intended to apply to the tournament combat that occurs in the list field. This includes Armoured, Youth Armoured, and Fencing Combat. Where advice is specific to only one of the combat styles this will be specifically stated.

Combat held on the war field is covered in a separate guide. War Combat.

Marshal in charge of the event

The Baronial Marshal for a combat activity is NOT the default Marshal in Charge and they do NOT have the right to demand that they are.

The SCA martial rules require there to be an Authorised Marshal of each appropriate combat activity who is designated as the Marshal In Charge (MIC). This is an important reporting position and is also a part of the grievance/appeal chain should anything go wrong on the field.

However, this position does not mean that you need to spend your entire event doing this.

• The Marshal in Charge of the event does NOT need to be the Marshal in Charge of each tournament. Feel free to delegate to other people.
• The Marshal in Charge can still fight. Occasionally some people will have the opinion that the Marshal in Charge can’t/shouldn’t fight, this is not correct.

Reporting

Once the event is complete you must write up a report. The easiest way to make sure you don’t forget anything is to make sure it is written down during the event.

The list keepers will have forms which can record any issues and will record the number of combatants and the winner.

You should not assume that the list keepers are marshals and will know everything that happens on the field and sidelines. If something needs recording then you should make sure it is.

At the end of each tournament, double check with the marshals to see if there were any issues and then double check the list paperwork while everything is fresh in your mind.

If someone other than the marshal in charge of the event is not running and/or attending the tournament then the marshal in charge of the tournament should be aware of what is expected/required of them.

Scheduling/Timing

Feedback from previous Canterbury Faires

Feedback from CF2024 had the following comments about the scheduling/timing.

• Armoured combatants responded that 9am was too early to schedule a tournament. Fencing did not have these comments, this is likely due to needing less time to get into armour.
• Avoid the hottest part of the day (being the early afternoon).
• There were many requests to have more early evening tournaments.

Clashing with other activities

In most years each of the activity streams has had an activity which is its premier activity which no other activities are scheduled against. In addition there are some other site activities that cannot be clashed with. These include:

• Fighter Auction Tournament for Armoured Combat.
• Baroness’s Rapier Tournament for Fencing Combat.
• Thorfords Arrow for Archery.
• The Market.
• Court.

Other than preventing these clashes the other thing that needs to be considered is the use of the list field.

Sharing the list field is possible if both coordinators agree, however it is possible that additional barriers may be needed.

It is likely that if Canterbury Faire continues to grow then we will require 2 separate list fields.

Calendar Event Descriptions

It is important that each tournament has its description submitted to the Timetable Coordinator, and to the Event Webwrite so that it can be correctly advertised.

Make the descriptions simple but detailed enough that a new person can understand what is going on.

A common complaint is that people don’t know what an activity is because they only have a title to go on.

Marshals, Heralds, and List Keepers

Pre-event planning

For each tournament it is important to have an idea of the tournament format and how many marshals, heralds, and list keepers are needed.

This information needs to be communicated to the Steward, Chore Coordinator, Bookings Officer, and Event List Keeper.

Volunteers

When people book on the booking form they can select that they are interested in marshalling, heralding, or list keeping. This gives us a list of names of people who can be contacted to fill those roles in advance of the event.

When people sign in at gate they will sign up for some of these roles.

List Keepers

List Keepers are generally assigned in advance of the event as they require extra preparation, because of this the Event List Keeper organises this.

In order for the List Keepers to do their job they need to know what the format of the tournament is going to be. A challenge tournament where the List Keeper just needs to keep the list of entrants and a tally of wins is going to require less organisation and experience than a swiss chess triple elimination tournament fought on 4 fields.

It is not uncommon for the tournament format to be dependent on the number of entrants. An example of this is that a tournament will be a round robin if it has less than 10 combatants, a triple elimination best of 3 if there are 10-20 combatants, and a double elimination best of 1 if there are more than 20 combatants.

Marshalling

If the tournament has an unusual format then it is important that the marshals are clear on the format/rules.

It is important to note that for melee tournaments more marshals are needed than normal (and the number increases with the number of combatants).

Any marshal who performs armour or weapon inspections must be a registered marshal who is a current member. This must be verified by seeing their authorisation card and membership card.

Any fighter of that combat form may oversee the fighting on the field. This means that in elimination tournaments the pool of potential marshals will grow as the tournament goes on.

It is often possible to recruit extra field marshals on the day if you are really short on people.

Heralds

It is not uncommon for people who have limited or no experience to volunteer for heralding duty. The List Keepers folder has a script for people who are unsure about what they are supposed to say.

It is a good idea to have more than one herald per field so that they can rotate duties to rest their voice and have a drink.

It is often possible to recruit extra heralds on the day if you are really short on people.

Traditional Canterbury Faire tournaments

Armoured Combat Tournaments

Unbelted Tournament

Historically held on Monday Evening after dinner.

A double elimination (or round robin if numbers are low) tournament with no knights allowed.

Fighter Auction Tournament

Fighters are auctioned off (usually the night before the tournament). At the end of the tournament the fighters will be ranked from the winner down. The patron who purchased the first place fighter will get first pick of the prize table, then the patron of the fighter who came second will get the second pick, then the patron of the fighter who came third will get the third pick, and so on until the prizes run out.

The tournament and auction format is covered in a separate guidance document. Fighter Auction Tournament

Canterbury Roll Tournament

Canterbury Faire's annual team melee tournament. The winning team will get a trophy to keep for the year.

Each melee team is to represent a Crescent Isle group (Hamlet, Shire, or Barony). Fighters are not required to fight for their home group. There are no other limits on team size or composition (but if you want lots of fighting, you may not want to be on the largest team). There will be a "hats off" break between each scenario.

Three scenarios will be fought. Each scenario is worth one point. In case of a three way tie, the winner of the Last Fighter Standing scenario is the overall winner.

• Scenario One: A Buckler is placed on the ground in the centre of the field. It is not to be moved. This scenario lasts 15 minutes, with random holds called by the timekeeper Marshal. Whoever controls the buckler by closest proximity at the hold gains a point for their team. If two or more fighters from different teams are equidistant, a short fight will resolve the tie. There will be two random holds during the scenario, plus one at the end of the scenario. Time during a hold does not count towards the end of the scenario. In case of a three way tie on points at the end of the scenario, the team holding the buckler at the end is the victor. Unlimited resurrections. Each fighter takes a slow count of ten at the resurrection point before returning. Teams may not use a watch or other method of tracking time.
• Scenario Two: Queens and Kings. Each side nominates one member to be their leader and makes them known to the other teams. When a leader is slain, their entire team is routed (and must retire immediately from the field). No resurrections. No time limit.
• Scenario Three: Last fighter standing. No resurrections. No time limit.

Important notes from previous years:

• Due to the chaotic nature of the tournament it is recommended that there are more marshals than the minimum number. At least 4 are recommended.
• The list keeper has 3 duties.
  • Keeping track of participants for reporting purposes.
  • Recording the winner of each scenario.
  • Timekeeping and scoring scenario 1. This will require a stopwatch.
• Death from behind has historically been allowed. This was unpopular in 2024. A full run through of death from behind is recommended before the tournament if it is being used.
• For scenario 1 the resurrections should occur at a specific point for each team rather than being allowed from any gate/entrance.

Fencing Combat Tournaments

Welcome Tournament

Originally designed to run between the end of opening court and lunch. More recently has been run on Monday afternoon.

Historically run as an open ended round robin (a round robin but we don’t expect all the rounds to finish).

Going forward it is recommended that this be run as a challenge tournament on multiple fields.

Baroness’s Tournament

The most spectacular and prestigious of all the rapier tournaments, the one which honours and entertains the assembled Baronesses.

Fencers may enter even if they are not a Baroness, and even if they did not bring one of their own. (These are both common questions that are asked and should be in the description)

A standard double elimination tournament, but the Baronesses are known to make requests if the fighting is not up to their high standards. (The requests should be vetted by a marshal before being asked, some things that have been requested in the past are either illegal or very unfair on one combatant)

Cut & Thrust Tournament

Usually 4-8 combatants due to the low number of people who have a cut and thrust authorisation.

Usually run as a round robin tournament, sometimes this will run through 2 or even 3 times.

Fencing Melee

Melee scenarios on the list field. No rubber band guns.

• Team vs team. Split into 2 or more teams. Can have killing from behind or not. No resurrection or limited resurrection.
• Zombies.
  • One person is the alpha zombie (should be an experienced fighter) and can fight normally, cannot be injured, can only be temporarily killed by a headshot (kills them for 5 seconds).
  • Other combatants are infected and turned into zombie minions by being killed by the alpha zombie or a zombie minion.
  • Zombie minions should zombie shuffle to move around. They also cannot be injured, can only be temporarily killed by a headshot (kills them for 5 seconds). However zombie minions also have to temporarily die if the alpha zombie is killed.
  • Last human to die becomes the alpha zombie for the next round.
• Escort.
  • Combatants are split into 2 teams.
  • One team (or both teams) designates a VIP who they must escort out the other side of the list field. When the VIP exits the other side of the list field that team wins. If the VIP dies then that team loses.
  • Can be run as a no resurrection, limited resurrection (other than the VIP), or unlimited resurrection (other than the VIP).
• Steal the gold/sheep
  • Gold or sheep (these should be soft as they might be stepped on)are placed in the field . Commonly either in the middle of the field or in the home corners.
  • Combatants are divided up and allocated a home corner of the list field.
  • Timed scenario, unlimited resurrections. Whichever team has the most gold/sheep at the end wins (could optionally say that if a team gets all of them then they win automatically).
  • Gold/sheep cannot be thrown or hit with weapons (that leads to broken fingers) to move them. When you die you drop them immediately.

Youth Armoured Combat Tournaments

Highly variable depending on the number of youth combatants.