2005 IJA World Jousting Champion - Rod Walker (AUS)
2005 IJA World Jousting Reserve Champion - Graham Nixon (NZ)
2005 IJA World Jousting 2nd Reserve Champion - Luke Binks (AUS)

2005 IJA World Skill-at-Arms Champion - Rod Walker (AUS)
2005 IJA World Reserve Skill-at-Arms Champion - Petter Ellingsen (NOR)
2005 IJA World Reserve Skill-at-Arms 2nd Reserve Champion - Talisien Bleechmore (AUS)

2005 IJA World Champion of Chivalry - Klas Lundberg (SWE)

(Klas also placed 4th in the joust).
The final end-of-tournament report...

As with Saturday we had a great day. The weather stayed fine and hot and the crowd numbers were slightly up from the previous day, making the total number of public for the weekend around the 15,000 mark, up 50% from the previous two tournaments.

This is the biggest number ever to attend a pure jousting or medieval event in NZ. We are not sure of how much was raised at the gate, but we know that we have a surplus to seed the next tournament. We are also donating some of the proceeds to a number of local community groups who were working the gates. These included a local school and the local Riding for the Disabled group.

As expected the horses were more settled on Sunday and as a result the skill-at-arms tests were much more consistent. Rod Walker in particular had a brilliant run making the whole course look like a walk in the park. Petter Ellingsen and Talisien Bleechmore also had good runs.

The first round of jousting saw a continuation of the good form shown by most of jousters from the previous day. Petter Ellingsen had a much better day and Luke Binks continued to perform strongly, ending up as the highest scoring jouster from Pool 3.

The temperature continued to rise into the afternoon, again hitting the 30 degree mark.

The final round of jousting was the most intense and dramatic round of jousting most of us had ever seen. At the start of the round, Rod, Talisien, Graham and Luke were all in contention for 1st place. Rod’s hand was damaged yesterday and he was in a lot of pain. However he elected to continue. During the course of this pool Rod’s hand was again re-broken after a big double hit on Peter Lyon. However Rod continued on despite being in obvious agony, finally holding off a strong challenge from Graham who ended up behind Rod by 4 points giving Rod a convincing win.

Rod retained his IJA World Jousting Champion title in the most well-deserved win ever seen in an IJA competition. For those who don’t know Rod he is one of the most determined people you are ever likely to meet and is at his most dangerous when the odds are against him. Personally I think he is insane

Rod’s 3 months of professional jousting in the USA last year has also raised his jousting skills to a level above all of the rest of the competitors in the lists this weekend and we have a lot of work to do catch up with him.

The tournament was also injury free despite the breaks being harder because of the new double compression design of the tips. There were a lot of off the shield deflections, including some good ferrule hits into the heads and bodies of some competitors (I copped a beauty under the jaw from Luke in the first pass of our match) but these caused nothing more than the normal bumps and bruises. This is why we insist on real period armour in the IJA – because it works.

During the day we also observed a National one minute’s silence for the victims of the recent tsunami. Klas and Petter elected to auction their tournament shields to raise money for tsunami relief efforts rather than take them home, and over $200 were raised from each auction.

Heaps of video footage and photos were taken, and there will be a professional video of the event available shortly.

I would like to thank all the Order of the Boar footcrew and supporters for the effort they put into the entire weekend. As usual the footcrew are the unsung heroes of such events and without them it would be impossible to run the tournament.

Prizes and trophies were given out last night after we got back from taking all the gear and horses home.

Klas received a gold plated peacock feather donated by [url]www.livinghistory.co.nz [/url]as his Chivalry award while the other winners were each awarded figurine trophies, with Rod taking home the big one, the huge knight model illustrated in the earlier NZ2005 thread.

Today we are heading back to the park to do a final clean up before the overseas competitors start to head home. Some of them will also be visiting Weta Workshops this afternoon where many of the effects and props for films like the LOTR trilogy, Last Samauri, King Kong etc. were or are being made.

Petter will spend a few more days with us here before heading home later this week. Klas is heading up to Auckland with Simon to see some of the countryside before returning here next weekend where he will spend a few days with us before heading home next week.

On a personal note I would like to thank all of the competitors for coming. As a group they have been the best we have ever had at an NZ tournament and we hope to see them all back here someday.

As far as future events go, late last year we decided to go back to our original plan of running the tournament every two years. The sheer size and scale of the event is just too much work to run it on an annual basis. Therefore the next tournament is scheduled for January 2007. We are also hoping that another group can pick up the ball with the IJA World Championships in 2006 as it better that the World Championships are held in different parts of the world. However if not, we are prepared to run the World Championships again in 2007.

In the meantime there are several events being organised elsewhere in NZ over next summer which the organisers are looking at adding an international angle too. So any IJA members who are thinking of holidaying in NZ next summer and who also may want to take part in a jousting competition, please let us know.
_________________
Callum Forbes
IJA New Zealand www.jousting.co.nz

On a personal note I wanted to thank Callum, Linda and the Order of the Boar for a fantastic week. One of the most sociable and fun tournaments I have ever been to.

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How's your wrist, Rod? Did he say re-broken? *ouch*

Sounds like fun. One of these days, we'll just have to make the trip to "see" it all in action.

Jenn

[ 01-19-2005: Message edited by: Fire Stryker ]

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There is a lot of planning going on for an IJA tourney here in the states and there is always the Dragon's Lair tourney in June up in London, Ontario - if you just gotta see us hit each other.

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Break a Lance,

Wisconsin is a bit out of the way as is Ontario if you drive it. Plane tickets can be a little on the cost prohibitive side.

Anything in the Northeast?

[ 01-20-2005: Message edited by: Fire Stryker ]

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Cheers,

Gordon

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I know that there was a discussion on one of the jousting lists as to one of the reasons why they didn't use them.

So I was just curious.

Jenn

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Long and illustrious (or infamous, take your pick!).

It is easier just to give websites:
www.kingschampions.com
http://www.scholasaintgeorge.org/bios/lloyd_clark.html
http://www.azurecrossknights.homestead.com/LloydClark.html

Sorry, but I am lazy in the offseason!

Cheers!

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Break a Lance,

Very impressive "about you".

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EEK! Sorry! That comment came off far differently than I intended it to, for I am well aware that you have a great deal of experience in jousting! I was just wondering about the Busted Wrist/Hand angle... DO you fellows use Lance Arrests?

Good to talk to you on this board, BTW! Fun chatting with you over on the MyArmoury forum too!

Cheers,

Gordon

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I rebroke my knuckle simply because I had not rested it and let it heal properly.

Out of the 10 comptitors on the weekend 3 of us have lance rests as we had harnesses that would have had them. Simon used his. I took mine off as the lances used didn't fit it and Callum had his off as well.

Using my rest wouldn't have made any difference on the weekend as the lances didn't have grappers.

My lances here at home have simple nailed on leather grappers to catch the rest.

I love using my lance rest as long as the lances fit it properly.

There is a professional DVD/video being produced of this event. You can contact Callum at www.worldjousting.com for more info.

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Living history groups are a little different in their allowances. But in the competitive arena such as IJA and Euro Jousting, absolutely you can be a woman and play the game.

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She placed 3rd in the skill-at-arms and from memory 5th in the joust. However she was right in the hunt for a place in the joust right until the end of the tournament.

While strength is important to help break the lance tip through to the socket, riding skills and lance placement are more important making women competitive in our style of joust.

I am not sure about other international events in NZ although we plan to run NZ2007 - IJA Champion's Trophy - in January 2007. An NZ 2006 event is being talked about and if it goes ahead will take place next Summer either in Taupo or Auckland. The organisers are hoping to make it an international. As we don't plan to host the IJA World Championships here again until at least 2009, the internationals that we host until then will be strictly invitational.

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URL=http://www.jousting.co.nz

No offense taken.

As for broken hands/wrist - yep, each of the last four years.

Like Rod, I have a arret on my breastplate, but I need to have a bit more practice with it before I use it in either tourney or show again.

What we discovered with the North American heavy lances was that when the vamplate was securely attached to the lance it gave the hand nowhere to go on impact - causing injury. The addition of the grappers did somewhat aleviate the problem, however, if you did not couch the lance correctly and the grapper did not butt solidly up against your breastplate, they are essentially useless.

Rod and I discovered (after we had both broken our hands at DL 2004) that attaching the vamplate with masking or duct tape still allowed for strong strikes, but also broke free and prevented the hand from taking too much impact. Even with the grappers there is a degree of "slide" as we found on many of our lances that the grappers themselves, which were securely screwed into the lance, were shoved up the lance about 10 to 11 inches - which will give you an idea of the impact.

I am looking very forward to using the IJA style of lances, if for no other reason than to protect my poor right hand .

Anyone in the US that is interested in getting into jousting, especially those that are looking for a more living history take, feel free to contact me about the IJA and the joust training sessions that we are planning for this Spring and Fall.

Cheers,

Lloyd

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Break a Lance,