Knight's Gambit 2022
Dalwhinnie Fields
Marion, AL
14 May 2022
On the 13th of May Anno Societatis LVII, I travelled off the Plateau south to the heartlands of Meridies to Dalwhinnie Fields on the borderlands of the Barony of Iron Mountain. The event, Knight’s Gambit, was hosted by the Shire of Thorngill. Knight’s Gambit is a day of focus for unbelted armored combatants testing their metal against each other in the Robert Hightower Celebration Tournament followed by one-on-one time with members of the Order of Chivalry. Early summer warmth greeted my arrival in the mid-afternoon of the day. The journey was made with ease, though the roads south have seen better days and are showing signs of disrepair.
I arrived the day before formal activities were scheduled so found the site mostly vacant minus a few souls who had also made the trip to Dalwhinnie early. I setup camp and settled in for a quiet evening. After dusk, an informal gathering of travelers who had been arriving through the eve occurred in the gallery above list field. The crowd was not overly large but pleasant. I stayed for a bit enjoying the comradery before retiring to bed.
I awoke the next morning to the sound of ducks on the pond. Commencing my morning ritual, I eventually made breakfast and joined Sir Hrothgar by the pond to welcome the day. His Squire, Martin, joined us and we had pleasant conversation in the mild morning air with the sun slowly rising through the trees. A good start to the day.
The day properly greeted, I prepared for myself for the tournament to come. Arriving at the list field, there were many combatants already there and more coming in as I found a place to sit on the southern side of the field next to the eric. There were many familiar faces and warm greetings there waiting for me as I settled in. I did a few passes with Martin before the tournament to warm up and then waited for the tournament draw and my name to be announced.
The tournament was a standard double elimination style. There were many fighters there and the tournament would go several rounds before it was done. My first bout was against Marcus Tullius.
Marcus is a quick and cagey opponent that I have shared the field with many times. Our match started with us pressuring each other looking for openings and feeling each other out. After several minutes of this back and forth, I made a mistake. I pressed Marcus. He responded with a ‘warning shot’ intended to give me pause and make be slow my advance. Unfortunately, his warning shot landed on my sword arm. I think I probably moved into it. But, it was a good hit and I took it. We restarted with my sword in my left and no shield. Marcus was still fully armed. He quickly attacked. I blocked at least one strike, maybe two before taking a clean hit to my left side. He advanced and I was 1 down.
My second round fight was with John O’Doogan. John is a tall and burly fighter like me who I was also very familiar with. We have often had hard fought bouts that exhaust us both which we joked about as we crossed the eric onto the field proper. At lay on, I was able to take his sword arm fairly quickly. He swapped to his left and we restarted. I made another mistake in forgetting he had a thrusting tip on his sword. I saw an open strike to his head, took the shot. While doing so, I took a thrust to my midsection. This resulted in a double-kill. The entire match was restarted with us both fully armed. In the restart, I again focused on his sword arm (another probable mistake on my part) and in my attempt to land a strike to his arm, I took a shot from him to my head ending my tournament.
My bad showing in double-elimination tournaments this year is worrisome. In this tournament I was fighting with a bit of tunnel vision. I can see it clearly. I fixated on things and did not open my field of view to the entire fight and what was happening. With Marcus, I got caught up in trying to bait him into my range without any effective strategy other than that. With John, I zeroed in on his arm. Maybe I was too tight and not relaxed enough. Not sure. I’ll be fretting over this for a bit.
In the afternoon, I made good effort to get passes in with as many of the Order of Chivalry as I could and did manage to cross swords with most. This is the list I recall sharing ‘stick time’ with:
HRM Lochlainn
Duke Garrick
Duke Timothy
Earl Robert (Auk)
Count Barthelemy
Graf Ulrich
Sir Isaac
Sir Chinua
Sir Erik Martel
Those I missed:
Duke Boru
Viscount Valeric
Sir Conal
Sir Randver
Sir Lugh
Sir Seamus
Sir Iastreb
I had some good efforts and some bad. I also have some good takeaway notes of some things to try and develop. I respect them all and know that they all have something to share and have differences in how they share. Some show you things through action, others instruct while others say little to nothing. Each knight is a new experience in discourse, expression and style. They all offer some bit of knowledge or lesson. The real challenge can be deciphering what has been taught. For some, information is freely given. For others, inquiry must be made. All in all, I find the Order of Chivalry in Meridies is more responsive now than I can ever recall. The knowledge is flowing. Encouragement is everywhere.
My reality is that I am older than most of the Order and have been fighting longer. In fighting terms, I am an old squire. I started fighting in 1987. I first took the red belt in 1992 at Border Raids, first to Count Hadi. After his passing, I swore oath to Earl Benen. For some in the Order, I started fighting when they did and may have even shared the same fields with them ‘back in the day’ learning how it all works. I sometimes wonder if my ‘old squire’ status equates me as a bit of an ‘old dog’ that ‘cannot learn a new trick’ with some of my interactions with the Chivalry. In that same regard, I wonder if a younger knight looks at me and wonders “what can I offer Eoin that he doesn’t already know or hasn't already heard?”. On the other side of these thoughts are the members of the Order that treat me just like my own knight does. They will call me out on things I do that are wrong; they offer suggestion for improvement and if they see my slacking in some aspect, tell me like it is just like any other squire, ageless.
I reflected on all of these things as I packed up at the end of the day and bid my farewells for the journey back to hearth and home.
I enjoy fighting. Good, bad or ugly, I fight with a smile on my face and laughter in my chest. Not sure when this euphoric state came into being, but I notice it more now than I can ever recall. Maybe I’m having more fun than I should and it is hindering my progress and ability to ‘just win’? I hear winning is fun to. Is it more fun? I cannot say. It is disheartening to not perform better in a tournament. Some of the Chivalry told me I did well. But I was out in 2 rounds. Is that good? Or was the commentary merely a pleasantry? Or was it a ‘you fought with honor’ observation. Again, I cannot say.
None of us know how long we can do this. I know that my history in armor is now much longer that my future will be. I do not believe that I have hit my peak. Even with all the aches and pains, I feel youthful on the field and try to share that with those that cross my path. I find people do not seem to note my age, but do note my maturity in the arena. My time in kit is both my asset and my curse I think. It is both my promise and my hindrance in moving forward on my path to Chivalry. My challenge is to shed off any personal discouragement I heap on myself in failure and find ways to improve without losing the joy I feel as I grin at my opponent like a fool through the grill of my helmet.
Knight Marshal, Shire of Easaraigh
Kingdom of Meridies
