Welcome to Auckland Sword & Shield’s Summer Tournament, we really hope you can join us!

Our Summer Tournament will consist of two competitions:

Steel Longsword and Steel Sabre

And we’re planning some extra fun for the end of the day :)

Tournament Entry

The tournament is open to members of all HEMA, WMA, Historic Fencing, or re-enactment club or society in New Zealand or overseas. Entrants must be 18 years of age or older. The tournament is not open to members of the public although they are welcome to come along and spectate.

Competitors may enter one or both competitions.

The price to enter is $10 and will secure your place in the competitions. We do have to limit the number of competitors in each competition and they will be determined on a first come first serve basis.

Sign up ends on 11:59PM Wednesday, February 24th and we will not be accepting entrants after the cut-off period.

Auckland Sword and Shield may contact the relevant clubs to ensure entrants are indeed members and have the necessary references to enter the tournament. The Head Judge has the ultimate right of refusal of entry.

The Venue

Takapuna Normal Intermediate School – 54b Takaroto Road, Takapuna Auckland

Accommodation

For our out of town visitors who are looking for somewhere to stay we are recommending Verandahs Parkside Lodge ( www.verandahs.co.nz ) located in Ponsonby, Auckland. It’s a lovely and quiet family owned accommodation that has nice rooms and share rooms available at a good price. It’s a 15 minute drive away from the venue and located close to lots of nice cafes and restaurants in Central Auckland.

Gear Requirements & Rule Sets

Summary of the Ruleset: (tl;dr)

● Pools of 8 fencers, through to direct elimination bracket .

● Each match is 3 exchanges or 90 seconds .

● A thrust to the chest or any hit to the head is worth 3 points.

● Almost all other actions are worth 2 points.

● A few edge cases are worth 1 point (one handed longsword attacks, ring-outs,

disarms, pommels.)

● Short time to make a scoring afterblow.

No throws, no joint locks, no attacking banned targets, no presenting the back of your head, no starting attacks after stop.

Gear Requirements

N.B. No gambesons with gaps allowed.

Steel Sabre

Weapon - A steel saber. Both ‘bowl’ guards and ‘D’ guards are acceptable. If in doubt, ask.

Tip - The weapon must have a tip that is safe for thrusting. At AS&S the standard is to use heat-shrink cable caps.

Flex - The weapon must be flexible enough that when the tip is pushed against a set of scales, it bends at less than 17kg of weight applied. For an example of this test see this video.

Mask

● Necessary - A well fitting fencing mask, with no broken wires or major dents. Hard back of the head protection.

● Recommended - FIE 1600N fencing mask, as above. An overlay over the top of the mask.

Glove

● Necessary - Well padded gloves, such as Red Dragons or Lacrosse Gloves.

● Recommended - Consider reinforcing the outside of the little finger and the thumb if you wear padded gloves. If using a ‘D’ guard sabre, consider gloves designed for full contact fencing, such as Sparring Gloves or SPES Heavies.

Body

● Necessary - A groin guard. Jacket - Either a well padded HEMA jacket, or a sport fencing jacket over significant other protection (motocross padding, solid chest guards etc.). If the jacket does not have a blade catcher at the throat, a “Polish apron” or similar guard to prevent the blade sliding under the mask a bib must be worn. No gambesons with gaps allowed, including potential gaps at fastening points. A hard gorget/throat protector. Hard knee and elbow protection. Hard forearm and shin protection. A hard gorget/throat protector.

● Recommended - A hard chest protector. Padded breeches or trousers.

Steel Longsword

Weapon - A steel longsword simulator suitable for fencing (ie. federschwert or longsword foil). Side-rings are allowed this year, but not knuckle-bows or other complex hilts.

Tip - The weapon must have a tip that is safe for thrusting. At AS&S the standard is to use heat-shrink cable caps.

Flex - The weapon must be flexible enough that when the tip is pushed against a set of scales, it bends at less than 17kg of weight applied. For an example of this test see this video.

Mask

● Necessary - A well fitting fencing mask, with no broken wires or major dents. Hard back of the head protection.

● Recommended - FIE 1600N fencing mask, as above. An overlay over the top of the mask.

Gloves

● Necessary - Gloves designed for full contact fencing, such as Sparring Glove

Mittens or SPES Heavies.

● Recommended - Reinforcing the end of the thumb if you have SPES heavies.

Body

● Necessary - A groin guard for men. A chest protector for women. Jacket - Either a well padded HEMA jacket, or a sport fencing jacket over significant other protection (motocross padding, solid chest guards etc.). If the jacket does not have a blade catcher at the throat, a “Polish apron” or similar guard to prevent the blade sliding under the mask bib must be worn. No gambesons with gaps allowed , including potential gaps at fastening points. A hard gorget/throat protector. Hard knee and elbow protection. Hard forearm and shin protection.

● Recommended - Padded breeches or trousers. A hard chest protector.

Non-tournament Fencing

Foam Fencing

While we don’t have any foam competitions this year, there will be sparring games and free sparring opportunities on the day.

Weapon - Foam longswords and sabres are available from Auckland Sword & Shield.

Mask

●Necessary - A well fitting fencing mask, with no broken wires or major dents.

● Recommended - Hard back of the head protection. FIE 1600N fencing mask, as above.

Gloves

● Necessary - A pair of gloves.

● Recommended - Well padded gloves, such as Red Dragons or Lacrosse Gloves.

Body

● Necessary - A groin guard.

● Recommended - A padded jacket. A hard gorget/throat protector.

Synthetic Fencing

While we don’t have any synthetic competitions this year, there will be sparring games and free sparring opportunities on the day.

Weapon - A Black Fencer nylon sidesword/longsword/sabres will be available from Auckland Sword & Shield.

Mask

●Necessary - A well fitting fencing mask, with no broken wires or major dents. Hard back of the head protection.

● Recommended - FIE 1600N fencing mask, as above.

Gloves

● Necessary - Well padded gloves, such as Red Dragons or Lacrosse Gloves.

● Recommended - Gloves designed for full contact fencing, such as Sparring Gloves or SPES Heavies.

Body

● Necessary - A groin guard. A padded jacket.

● Recommended - Padded breeches or trousers. Hard knee and elbow protection. A hard chest protector. A hard gorget/throat protector.

● Consider - Hard forearm and shin protection.

Why this gear list?

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is the last line of protection against injury. However a competition that requires trying to

attack one another with weapon simulators! While the rules are designed to reduce the chance of injury, a good protective kit is a must (no matter how good you are.)

This document is organised by weapon section. Each section is then broken up into necessary equipment , then recommended equipment . In organising this competition a balance has to be struck between safety and accessibility.

The aim is that without the necessary equipment an entrant could expect to receive serious injury, and so the necessary equipment is compulsory. The recommended equipment makes any serious injury unlikely, and so please give it serious consideration. Without it you may have a bad time. Finally the equipment worth considering has been recommended elsewhere, but is by no means compulsory.

Equipment not on this list may be allowed, at the organisers discretion . If you have any questions then please get in contact.

Also note that Auckland Sword and Shield will be bringing a variety of synthetic and foam weapons to borrow on the day, and will also have a range of masks and gloves that can be borrowed for foam and synthetic fighting.

Fencing Rules

Competition Format:

The AS&S 2021 Summer tournament will have two weapon categories , representing different historical weapons systems.

Each category will consist of large pools of up to 8 fencers. In a pool, every entrant will have a match against every other entrant. The most successful fencer(s) will be taken from each pool to fence in a small elimination bracket to decide an overall winner.

Given the large number of matches, each match will have three exchanges or a 90ssoft-timer.

Why these rules?

These rules don’t really simulate a ‘real fight’. Rather they facilitate fencing competitively in reasonable safety, with external feedback. Doing so enables entrants to test their skills in some depth against a number of opponents.

The format of the competition is different to previous years. We’re limited by size of the venue and how long we have the space for, but the aim is that an entrant gets to fence as many opponents as possible in each weapon category, as much as possible. 

In the afternoon everyone can relax and have less serious games.

Match Outline:

At the beginning of the match, the head judge confirms that both fencers are ready and then begins the match, ie.:

“Red fencer ready? Blue fencer ready? En guard, ready, fence!”

“Right fencer ready? Left fencer ready? On your marks, fight!”

When a fencer carries out a scoring action, the referees the action, ie.:

“Break!”

“Stop!”

The judge’s assistants communicate what they saw from their side to the head referee, who then describes the exchange and awards points, ie.

“Attack from red fencer to the head landed, three points red.”

“Attack from the right fencer, attack was parried, both fencers attacked simultaneously, right landed to the arm and left to the head. One point right.”

At this point fencers have a right to protest and to have their protest heard. They do this by returning to their corner and raising their hand after the referee announces their initial explanation of the action.

The head referee must take this new information on board, and consider how it fits with what other information they have. The referee may also question the fencers.

Fencers are expected to be honest - it is a small community after all. Having considered this input, the referee may change their decision or may stay with the original call.

The referee can also throw out an exchange and have it replayed if they are unable to reach a sound conclusion.

Ultimately the head judge has the final say.

After three exchanges, or the match runs out of time, the referee will end the match and announce the winner.

Judging Systems:

All weapon categories will use a “1+1” judging system , consisting of a head judge who describes the action and declares a result, helped by an assistant referee watching from the  other side of the fencing.

Scoring:

In an exchange, certain actions are rewarded with points, while other behaviours are penalised.

Scoring actions:

An attack with the weapon scores if it is; - made with the blade of the weapon, it was an intentional action (rather than being an accidental contact), it has not been seen as using the flat. Judges may discount touches made accidentally, with the flat or without any force.

We all know what a good hit looks like, or what an incidental contact (say a missed thrust that grazes the opponent) looks like. The reality is that ‘sufficient quality’ will be established by the judge during the bout.

A valid attack that lands on the opponent, is rewarded with points as follows:

Deep Target - 3 Points.

A deep target is a thrust to the torso, or a cut or thrust to the head and neck. All other hits with the weapon are Shallow Targets.

Shallow Targets - 2 Points.

Everything not covered elsewhere, ie. a cut to the arm, thrust to the leg, cut to the body etc.

Super-shallow-targets - 1 Point.

In Longsword , an attack made with only one hand on the weapon, outside of a grapple, is awarded 1 point. This is to keep very uncommitted attacks like Talhoffer’s gayszlen or di Grassi’s one handed thrust in the game, but to reward them less than more committed actions that make up the vast majority of techniques seen in the sources.

Ring Out - 1 Point.

If a fencer leaves the ring with both of their feet, their opponent is awarded 1 point.

This can be by carelessness, or by being physically moved (safely!).

Disarm - 1 Point.

If a fencer loses their weapon, and is not involved in a grapple, the opponent is awarded 1 point.

This means that if disarming someone, you must then break away from them to be awarded the points. If disarmed but still grappling, you can continue to (safely!) try to score a ring out.

Pommel to the front of the mask - 1 point.

A pommel delivered safely to a front mesh of the opponent’s mask is awarded 1 point. A pommel to the top or to the side of the mask, or one delivered forcefully enough to injure the opponent, does not score, and may be penalised as dangerous behaviour.

Afterblows and Doubles

When the referees see a hit land, they call ‘Break!’ and stop the action.

The fencer who has been hit is allowed to complete their action (ie an attack that they are (currently making) and have it score.

This rule is to penalise making an attack without regard for what your opponent is doing. It is not designed to encourage chasing down someone who has landed a hit to get your revenge!

Penalties

While the judge is free to offer words of caution or advise, entrants are expected to have read and understood the rules. So please don’t be surprised if you receive a penalty the first time.

Minor infractions result in an exchange being halted and a penalty point applied. Any action up to the halt will score, but then a penalty point will be applied against the fencer in question. If no scoring action has happened yet then the exchange will be replayed.

Dangerous or repeated infractions will be dealt with more severely. This can include forfeit of the match up to expulsion from the competition.

If an entrant is seen to be uncontrolled and not in control of their actions, but not malicious, they may be asked to voluntarily withdraw from the competition with no hard feelings.

Unacceptable behaviour:

No throws.

No joint locks.

No attacking banned targets. Banned targets are;- the back of the head, the spine, the groin.

No presenting the back of your head.

No initiating an attack after stop.

No hitting the floor with your weapon.

No Unsportsmanlike conduct , including;- verbal abuse of opponent or officials, displays of disrespect etc.