After 2 days of some pretty hard jousting we're down to the finals tomorrow. The 5 finalists are-

Steve Charleton
Fred Piraux
Toby Capwell
Steve Mallet
Stacy Evans

We've had a bit of a shakeup in that some of the "regular" jousting horses are not here this time, including Toby's horse Switch and Steve's horse Merlin. Toby is jousting on Seamus, who is proving himself to be a tempermental and sullen horse. He's giving Toby a bad time and really affecting Toby's jousting, much to Toby's disgust. Steve is on a new horse who runs like a maniac so Steve is jousting like a train. During the 2 weeks he was back in the US Jeff's horse Carla was ridden by someone who gobbed her in the mouth at the beginning of each run, so she's been rearing. Jeff is dealing with the rearing better than I could have hoped for but Carla's faffing about at the beginning of each run has affected Jeff's timing on the runs and he didn't make the finals, although to his credit he was #6, being 2 points behind Stacy.

There was some excitement today when Dom and Steve met in the next to last run of the day. Dominic's horse Hawthorn and Steve's horse took off down the list at a tremendous pace and stuck to the rail like glue. When they met the impact was tremendous, and both riders came out of their saddles. By some miracle Dominic managed to stay on Hawthorn's back but Steve was catapulted out of the saddle by the force of the impact of his lance against Dominic's breastplate. Steve went flying off and landed outside the list. It took him a couple of minutes to collect himself but damage was limited to a cut on his nose, a chipped tooth and a twisted wrist.

Tom Hayman has settled in and proven himself a very capable squire and standard banner. He's been helping Toby, Steve and Dominic arm as well as Jeff, and at various times has carried Jeff's, Toby's and Steve's banner on the field. He was there to help sort Steve out when he went flying today, and he even had people ask for his autograph yesterday. He was there to help me answer questions yesterday when I was mobbed by admirers while carrying Toby's heImet back from the tiltyard.

All in all very exciting jousting and a good time to boot!

quote:

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Originally posted by Ginevra:
When they met the impact was tremendous, and both riders came out of their saddles. By some miracle Dominic managed to stay on Hawthorn's back but Steve was catapulted out of the saddle by the force of the impact of his lance against Dominic's breastplate.

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Cool How are the RA taking the harder jousting from the visitors?

More updates when you get the chance please Gwen. How is Jeff?

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Cheers

Seth: I was the guy on foot in the red hat with the red and blue livery coat.

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Steve Mallet came on like a ball of fire today, and he and Magic were in top form, taking the day.

The Order of the Crescent aquitted themselves very well this weekend, and Tom Hayman has proven himself a valuable member of the team--after he stopped drooling on Toby's armour that is...

The boys are off having a last round of celebratory drinks down at the pub, and will be coming back to get me before we all head out for our last dinner together for this season. What a fantastic time we've had, and what wonderful friends.

I shot literally hundreds of photos, and I'm quite sure Jeff will be able to find some to post soon.

Gwen

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Congrats to the Crescent.

Cheers,

Jenn

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Same goes to The Order of the Crescent for its sense of team spirit in this individual joust.

It was a pleasure to meet Thomas and get to see you all again.

Looking forward at the Easter Tournament !

Fred Piraux

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[ 09-12-2005: Message edited by: Thomas james hayman ]

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