Class Diary April to June '04

July to September 2004

Class Diary Oct to Dec '04

August 4th Open House and Tournament What a great evening of feasting and fencing! Extra special thanks to Lady Jean for setting up the refreshment tables and to everyone who brought treats and drinks. Many wonderful fencers and their family and friends came and enjoyed the open house and tournament of honor. Most nocticeable was the high level of fencing skill displayed by all who were in the tournament. Everyone was fighting in their best form ever and very graceful too. The tournament was in three rounds. The bouting in the first round was selected by luck of the draw with a point scale determined by rank. The higher your rank the higher the points scored against you for receiving a touch. Extra points were awarded for disarming your opponent without receiving a touch in the process. Round two was more evenly matched by selection of the judges and round three was determined by matching the winners in the previous rounds. Listmistress Lisa kept the fencers on deck or bouting, while Lady Mina was marshal of the evening. Maestro Chris kept a running tally of points for each round while Lady Katie kept the tally for honorable play which was factored into each fencer's points at the end of three rounds of bouting. Three fencers placed third; Madame La Teur, Andrew and Joey, second place went to Seth and first place went to the Earl. Receiving the most points for honor and the finest parrying was Penryn II. The Earl received three cheers and a large faceted glass diamond as a token for winning the tournament. There was free bouting after the tournament to entertain the audience until 10pm. Thanks to everyone helping to set up and take down the decorations.

July 30th Fencing demonstration at Pioneer Park in Nevada City. What a fun time for all. Special thanks to Seth, Andrew, Jean, Mina, Penryn, Jason and Crystal for helping the Diamond Rose make such wonderful show for this fundraising event. There was much fencing throughout the day. In the camp the fencing was with all protective gear but we were allowed to free fence over the entire great area and that's where the showmanship went hand in hand with the fencing. There was quite a large audience for nearly all of the two sessions and they seemed fascinated with the fencing and dueling and the camp pavilion and decor. The event coordinators were very appreciative and invited us back for next year. Thanks again to all who came to set up, play and tear down.

August 6th Members of the Diamond Rose attended an outdoor fencing session in front of the Neighbors Bookstore in Lake Tahoe for a fun evening of dueling with Maestros Dante, Rodelli and Lysander. The students of the Silver Rose School of DeFence were very gracious and fenced until well after dark. Everyone was in garb and there were several duels happening at one time, which drew the attention of many onlookers. Afterward was cake and ice cream to celebrate the birthdays of Lady Peggy (Mad-dog) and Jimmy of the Silver Rose.

August 11th Class footwork was led by Andrew and then everyone geared up for drills on circular attacks vs linear parries and vice versa. After that there was a game starting out with two fencers bouting, winning fencer chooses the next oppoenent, this continued for awhile and then that game continued with two on two fencing, then three on three and so forth, until there was an eventual  all out melee`. The new students learned coupe` and disengage, reversal, and parry/handoff/riposte drills. The rest of the evening was free fencing bouts and announcements for upcoming events, such as; Golden Rivers Rapier Tournament in Sacramento on August 14th and the new faire we have been graciously invited to attend in San Francisco at Golden Gate Park on August 28th and 29th.

August 18th Class footwork was led tonight by Matthew. Soon the ranked fencers went right to bear pits, beginning with two or three pits and then up to four or more. The unranked students did many review drills for coupe` and disengage, measure drills, multiple parries, circular attacks and more advanced footwork parries. Then there was a short break for cake and refreshment and Happy Birthday for Chris. And the evening ended with an eight person melee using dagger and any offhand weapon of choice. Other fencers were cycled into the game as the original eight eventually cycled through again and again using many different and most unusual offhand weapons. There was as much laughter as there was parrying going on. Announcements were for SF Faire! If you hadn't confirmed that you will be attending, it's too late.

August 25th Class footwork and parry drills were led by Matthew and then Seth. The entire class then lined up in two rows facing each other and did parry drills for the first part of class. Then the unranked students practiced more drilling and did some beginning lessons in attack techniques and dueling techniques while the ranked students fenced in two areas with one area being a one on one match where the winner advanced to the area reserved for a two on two match. Near the end of class was class announcements, a guard meeting with the DR members planning to attend the SF Faire and sign ups for the various upcoming events.

August 28th A beautiful day full of fencing and friends new and nearly new at the San Francisco Faire at Golden Gate Park. After the coronation of Queen Jane and morning procession the day began and ended with as much fencing as could be had. Our hosts were the Guild of St. Michaels Salle d'Armes and what very fine hosts they were. The games were fun, the level of fencing skill was a sheer joy to watch and very much enjoyed by the audience who were encouraged to participate and cheer for their favorite fencer. Commentary during the game was provided by guildmaster Sir Erland of Ghent. Lessons for the fair-goers was provided by members of St. Michaels; Lady Sydney, Sir Antonio, Sir Scott and other members. By late afternoon the fog finally began to roll in and provide a cool breeze to make the fencing even more enjoyable. The evening ended with all seventeen of the group taking pleasure in a good meal full of good cheer and laughter. Huzzah!

September 1st Class footwork and parry drills were led by Debbie and Seth. Maestro Chris gave Student Robert his new rosette for the rank of novice for which he tested last week and then had everyone split into three lines to drill and perfect the lunge. The lunge had to be perfect as you traveled through the classroom doing lunge after lunge after lunge until your lunge was perfect. After a short break the class split into two pits to do bouting of only one touch. Then there were more and more pits as this was a very fast game. A couple of the pits turned into two on one bouts for a short while. The class ended with a salute and the reading of a thank you letter from the guild of St Michaels. And the pick up bouting continued until well after class time.

July 28th Class footwork was short this evening. There were anouncements for this Fridays fencing demonstration at Pioner Park in Nevada City and announcements for the open house and tournament next Wednesday. The game of the evening was known as 'heaven and hell'; three pits regulated by your wins and losses and lots of fencing. The newcomers this evening drilled distance and measure of their lunge and advance lunge, also going over the theory of dueling, touch vs non-touch, wound vs kill, honor in the duel, the significance of gaining control of the duel and other theories. The evening ended with JB playing his prize for the rank of cadet, which he received. Huzzah

July 14th Class footwork was led this evening by Maestro Chris. The second week student reviewed their footowkr lessons from last week and then learned to parry one though four followed by the riposte of each and then drill each parry and perfected their footwork. The ranked student went outside for bouting games. The 18 students were broken into two man  groups bouting each other for a set amount of time and then one person from each group switched partners. This continues until every rotating and non-rotating fencer had bouted with 9 different people. There was free fencing matches after that which went on until the sun went down.

July 21st Class footwork was led by Maestro Chris. The newcomers are in their third week of instruction and their lessons tonight covered the eight parries with ripostes, reverso, parry/riposte drills, compass and slope steps. The ranked students studied and practiced tempo changes to improve their fencing abilities. There was bouting in two areas where the ranked fencers practiced bouting at a slower tempo than they were used to.

July 7th Tonight class footwork was led by Matthew and then some fencing, while Debbie spent the first half of the classtime introducing the first day newcomer students to basic footwork steps and the en garde stance. Maestro Chris instructed the ranked fencers to a few Swetnam opening stances and then the fencers bouted freely to use their new knowledge. Towards the middle of class, the newcomer students learned the parts of the sword, basic requirements for garb and an introduction to the "touches". Class ended with the ranked fencers bouting and the new students learning the class salute.

August 14th Members of the Diamond Rose attended the Golden Rivers Rapier Tournament in Sacramento, CA. After becoming authorized through testing, our fencers fought in a five round tournament using five different weapons combinations. Our Maestro Dante De Montaine remained undefeated and had a fence-off with Dirk the Just in a best of two out of three duel. Dirk came out the winner and the rest of the afternoon was spent in pick up bouts with the friendly people of the West Kingdom of the SCA.

September 8th Class started a few minutes late due to the many guests who were present before class. Class footwork was led by Debbie and Andrew. Footwork and parry drills were shortened because Maestro Chris wanted to play a few melee` games before the sun went down. The melee`s were capture the flag with two teams. The standard/flag was carried by a team-member and therefore it was mobile which made the game more fun. Before the darkness overtook the field we got in about four games. The final score was 3 games to 1 in favor of the blue team; it came down to who had better communication between team-members. Inside the clasroom Chris laid down a long strip of blue tape a few feet from the wall, with a row of fencers on either side; the side against the wall worked on parrying and could not cross the tape while the opposite side could cross the tape but had to focus on keeping good measure. The fencers would bout and when each pair was done the whole group would revolve around the tape and that way each fencer would have a different partner each time. Debbie worked on the finishing touches of getting the unranked fencer ready to be tested at the end of the month for novice rank. Katie had a signup sheet for the upcoming events.

September 15th There was no class footwork tonight. Using blue tape, Chris made different shapes and boxes mapped out on the floor and fencers had to bout staying within their respective boxes. The boxes were of different shapes and sizes; this made the bouting interesting. The next box exercise was a game in which a team of two fencers would start from each side of the classroom and could only fence the opposing team by staying in the boxes (certain death ensues when stepping outside the boxes) The winning team is determined by at least one member of a team making it to the other side of the classroom, even by sneaking past a fencer. The next exercise was three person teams, but the winning team had to competely dispatch the opposing team in order rule the field. Communication and teamwork were essential in this game. Class ended with Katie reminding everyone to pay for October's classes early and with Chris reminding everyone that footwork will definitely be done next week.

September 22nd Class footwork was led by Andrew. Class split into groups, one group was usher ranked and higher students doing offhand weapon drills and bouting. While the novice ranked and unranked students did parry drills using dagger and single sword. The drills varied, and emphasis was on perfection in both groups. Class ended with pick up bouts and class announcements.

September 29th Class footwork was led by Matthew and Andrew and Debbie. The usher ranked and higher students bouted with each other but could only win by striking a pre-chosen target. The target on their opponent was conveyed to a "second" and even though a killing blow might have been struck during the bout, it didn't count unless it was the predetermined target. The winner continued to hold the field as long as he/she kept hitting the target first. Targets changed with every bout. The novice ranked students did drills and bouting with Andrew in the other half of the classroom. A new quarterly class starts next Wednesday, Oct. 6th.