Lions Gate Defenders XLII/2007

(Lions Gate Defenders home page)

Date

12 May XLII/2007

Branch

Lions Gate (Greater Vancouver, B.C.)

Autocrat

Cyneric

Site

Maple Ridge Fairgrounds

Weather

Pleasantly warm and sunny.

Event Highlights

Heavy Defender - Christian Bane
Bardic Defender - Aine inghean ui Chonchobhair
Arts & Sciences Defender - Maedo Mariko
Archery Defender - Stefan of Lions Gate

Pictures

(Links to event pictures off-site)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50925312@N00/sets/72157600208837561/ John Macandrew

Personal Memories

(Add your personal event memories here. End them with a blank line, four dashes and another blank line. Don't forget to sign them with dash-dash-tildex3. Reminder: it's considered VERY rude to edit someone else's memories.)

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[A "Keeper" posting from the Lions Gate e-mail list. Posted 13 May 2007.]

Greetings to all,

Well, it was a beautiful sunny day with just enough white fluffly clouds in the sky to make it ideallic.

There was lots of room for the children to run around, and lots of open space so the adults could see them everywhere they went.

There was fighting, archery, singing, laughing, games played, conversations on the grass in the sun and many more activities with relaxed smiling people participating.

It was a small size event that brought back lots of memories of the ubc land bardics that happened many a year ago.

The heavy defender finals came down to Willian of the battered Helm and Christian Bane.

Glorious were the bouts, Christian Bane was victorious in the end to become Lions Gates' new Heavy Defender.

After the tourney the fighting did not stop as Dukes Darius and Davin took to the field any and all comers, so into the afternoon did the shield bashing continue.

The bardic defender competitors were Aine inghean ui Chonchobar and John MacAndrew.

Great were the voices of each, one in song and one in poetry.
Difficult indeed was the job of the judges three to decide who championed on that day. Well do I know their trials as I was honoured to be among them.
In the end, at court was Aine called forth as the new Bardic Defender.

There were also 2 who dared to compete for Brave New Bard and well pleased were the judges to witness both as they were neither above the age of 12!!!
Myfanwy and Daria were the sole brave bards and all the judges, as well as the audience, are very excited to see these 2 perform again someday. They are definate budding bards!!!!

There were many other performances to please the ear with instruments as well as voices, truly a bardic delight!!!!

I witnessed many a game being played, a fun game of tug-o-war that started with regular sized children and eventually included children of all sizes (and ages) jumping in to try to even up the sides.

I did not witness either the Archery or Arts and Sciences, unfortunately, perhaps someone could post their recollections?

All in all a pleasant afternoon in the sun conversing will other pleasant people, watching the children run around having fun, listening to lovely music and enjoying the mild weather.

Bernadette
contented

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[A "Keeper" posting from the Lions Gate e-mail list. Posted 13 May 2007.]

Yes, it was a grand glorious day in An Tir. The sun was shining, the grass was growing, and the bards were singing.

In the Arts and Science Defender Tourney, two artisans from our fair realm contended for the title. Margaret Hamilton of Stirlingshire entered a hand sewn archer's glove based on a 16th Century painting. Maedo Mariko countered with two entries based on her Japanese persona, a Samurai tunic called a jimbaori and battledore game set. The competition was close but Mariko won the day. A big thank you to Her Ladyship Isabel de la Roche and Dona Lasairiona for being judges. Another thank you to Lord Adam Fairamay for the use of his pavilion. We didn't need it for the rain but it was nice to get out of the sun.

The archery tournament had 14 archers vying for the Archery Defender title. It was scheduled so that the heavy fighters could also participate. David of Tiriane had designed a grand prix style tournament that was possible for all competitors to win.

The first round was a balloon shoot. Fifteen balloons were suspended from three ropes. Each archer wrote his name on one balloon. In each end, all archers got to shoot one arrow at a balloon of their choice. Those archers who still had a balloon blowing in the wind got to continue to the next end. There were many shouts to take out David and John early and the archers complied. The final end featured Eryn against Fiona the Archer with Eryn winning the first round.

The second round was what David called "A Wand Shoot on Acid". The archers tried to hit the target by shooting through the narrow horizontal slots of a barricade in front of the butt. Stefan of Lions Gate won this round.

The third round was called "Gamble Your Life Away". There were three large targets and one small target set up. The large targets had a hidden value of either 1 point/hit, 3 points/hit, or 5 points/hit. But the archers did not know which target scored which points. Do you gamble putting all seven arrows allowed on one target and hope its the 5 points rather than the 1 point or do you spread your arrows out over the three target. The fourth target was the inner gold ring of a standard target but its score would be randomly determined with a gaming dice from 1-20 points. Richarde, in true cavalier fashion, gambled correctly with all seven arrows on the five point target.

The fourth and final round was the "Windmill of Doom". This brought the most trepidation from both the archers and audience. How many arrows would the Windmill of Doom destroy. Archers had to shoot through the vanes of a slow spinning windmill to hit the target behind it. Miles FitzHubert won this round.

Taking into consideration the position of each archer in each round, Stefan of Lions Gate was declared the new Archery Defender of Lions Gate.

Richarde was the highest scoring member of the Sargeantry and took home the throwing axe donated by Blind Hamish.

While not a competition, we also had a fashion show hosted by Her Ladyship, Morweena. It was light and whimsical but also showed off a talent in our society that is often overlooked but so very important. And I just have to worry about whether flashing my braies is going to show up on a photobucket site near you.

I'm sorry, Bernadette, that you missed the croquet game set up behind the Baronial Pavilion. We will have to play a game another day at another event.

It was a fun event and we were able to pull off four defender tournies in one day. We had heavies that participated in both Archery and Heavy, an archers who participated in both A&S and Archery, and another archer who participated in both Bardic and Archery.

In Service,
HL James Wolfden
Arcarius to Master John Macandrew
Co-autocrat

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Warm and bright, just right for an outdoor picnic event.

I look forward to Bardic/Defenders every year. It's one of signs of Spring for me and marks the beginning of the camping season. (May Crown is next weekend.)

Agnes and I cheered on her new apprentice Mariko as she carefully stitched on her beautiful Japanese garment in order to have it ready for judging later in the day. I am diligently enticing Agnes over to the Flemish Girl side of the force and seem to be gaining ground. During the day she cut out and started stitching a white linen coif and wondered if she could put together a Flemish outfit for May Crown.

I got to wander around and visit with folks whom I usually only get to wave at across the field. William showed me how to put blunts on war arrows and brought me up to speed on his latest nefarious plans to create "Williamshire". Amanda and I watched Court together. I got to exchange a few words with (and give strawberries to) Baroness Aurora. Isabel and I were a "Set of Flemish Girls" in the fashion show.

T'was a lovely day.

--Elizabeth Braidwood

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My esteemed co-autocrat and Her Excellency Bernadette summed up the results nicely.

I would like to thank all those who helped out - Aine for stepping in at gate (her first time) until the scheduled gate person arrived, Aibinn for gate (when she arrived), Algae for lists, all the marshals, David for the archery, Morweena for the fashion show, my Co-Autocrat, my Lady Wife, the Pied Piper, the Baron, the Baroness and all the wonderful people that helped out with setup and takedown.

Thank you all for making my job so easy.

Cyneric
Autocrat