Sarah Hay Wins Grail of Chivalry at Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament 2015

This is not the first time that Australian jouster Sarah Hay has won a jousting tournament, she has actually won several national and international tournaments around the world. However, it is the first time that she or any woman has won the tournament championship Grail of Chivalry prize at the Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament.

Throughout the tournament, Sarah's equestrian partner was the appendix (quarter horse/thoroughbred) gelding PJ. PJ belongs to tournament organizer and leader of the Order of the Boar jousting troupe, Callum Forbes. PJ has been ridden in the Harcourt Park Jousting Tournament since 2005, and this is the second time that PJ has carried a rider to the overall championship of the tournament.

Sarah Hay riding the appendix gelding PJ during the Grail of Chivalry joust at 
Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament 2015 (photo by ATPhoto)

There are actually quite a few women who compete in jousting, and as in most equestrian sports, there is no distinction between male and female competitors. However, Sarah is probably the most active woman in the sport of jousting. She regularly competes in tournaments not only in her home country of Australia and its neighbor New Zealand, but also in Europe (Belgium, Denmark, France and Poland) and North America (Canada and USA).

Sarah Hay during the awards ceremony at Harcourt Park 2015 (photo by Gene Alcock)

Jousting tournaments usually include several competitions based on various skills within the overall tournament. The number and style of these competitions can vary from tournament to tournament. During the previous Harcourt Park Jousting Tournament, which was held in 2013, there were three competitions: jousting, mounted melee and mounted skill at arms(MSA). Sarah won the jousting competition, but did not do as well in the other competitions and so ended up earning second place overall. However, this year, due to her consistent achievements across all four of the competitions that made up the 2015 tournament (jousting, mounted melee, MSA, armour), she earned the title of tournament champion.

Sarah Hay(left) breaks not just the frangible tip of her lance, but the solid base of the lance all the way down to her hand in a strike against Andrew McKinnon(right) during the jousting competition at Harcourt Park 2015 (photo by Gene Alcock)

Left: Sarah Hay seems to be enjoying herself as she fights Rhiannon Forbes during the mounted melee at Harcourt Park 2015 (photo by Gene Alcock)

Right: Sarah Hay, riding the appendix gelding PJ, takes aim at the rings during the MSA competition at Harcourt Park 2015 (photo by ATPhoto)








Left: Sarah Hay wears her 14th century jousting armour and carries her personalized ecranche (jousting shield) while appendix gelding PJ wears a chamfron (face armour) in one of Sarah's heraldic colors and a caparison displaying Sarah's coat of arms during Harcourt Park 2015 (photo by Katherine McWade)






As for the winners of the four competitions that were included in the overall tournament:

The jousting competition was won by Gunnar Cederberg of Sweden, who also earned second place in the overall tournament. Quite an accomplishment considering this was his first time competing at Harcourt Park.

Gunnar Cederberg(left) jousts L Dale Walter(right) at Harcourt Park 2015 (photo by ATPhoto)

The mounted melee competition was won by Australian jouster Andrew McKinnon who was riding the Order of the Boar's well-known Charlie Warhorse.

Andrew McKinnon riding Charlie Warhorse during Harcourt Park 2015
(photo by ATPhoto)

The mounted skill at arms competition was won by New Zealand's own John King. This was John's second time winning the MSA competition at Harcourt Park, since he also won it during the previous 2013 tournament.

John King tilting at the rings during the MSA competition at Harcourt Park 2015
(photo by ATPhoto)

Since this year's tournament was designed around a 14th century joust, there was also an armour competition based on the quality of the 14th century jousting armour worn by the competitors. Aspects considered in the competition included the overall look of the armour and accessories, the workmanship of its construction and its historical accuracy. Australian jousters Sarah Hay and Rod Walker tied for first place.

Rod Walker walks the list field in his 14th century armour during Harcourt Park 2015
(photo by ATPhoto)

Rod was featured in a previous article about Harcourt Park because of the photo documentation he shared of the creation of his 14th century kit. Unfortunately, the armour competition was the only competition that Rod was able to participate in during Harcourt Park 2015. He was badly injured during a pre-tournament practice, and though he was able to attend the tournament, he was not well enough to ride in it. This is not the first time that Rod has been injured at Harcourt Park. During the previous tournament in 2013, Rod injured his knee during the jousting and again during the mounted melee. After the second injury, he wisely chose to withdraw from the 2013 tournament.

Since Rod was unable to compete, New Zealand jouster John King's son, Glen King stepped up and rode in Rod's place in the joust. This was Glen's very first jousting tournament, and according to tournament organizer Callum Forbes, Glen did "really well", managing to tie with Sarah Hay for second place in the mounted skill at arms competition.

Glen King competing in his first jousting tournament at Harcourt Park 2015
(photo by ATPhoto)

Other jousters who competed in this year's tournament included Anders Fernstedt of Sweden, Vikki Subritzky of New Zealand and L Dale Walter of USA.

After the tournament, organizer Callum Forbes stated that this was to be the last Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament. The event will continue, but under a new name, Harcourt Park Festival of History, which will include not only the medieval time period, but also other historical periods as well. Of course, the Grail of Chivalry Jousting Tournament will remain a featured part of the festival.

Callum Forbes, tournament organizer of the Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament 2015 (photo by ATPhoto)

Many thanks to Gene Alcock, Katherine McWade and professional photographer Andrew Turner of ATPhoto for allowing the use of their photos. You can find out more about Andrew's work on the ATPhoto Facebook page, and you can see and purchase photos from both the 2015 and 2013 Harcourt Park events on his ATPhoto website.

Related articles:
Fourteenth Century Style Jousting at the Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament 2015

Canadian Dale Gienow Wins New Zealand's Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament

Female Jouster, Sarah Hay, Wins Full Tilt International Jousting Tournament 2012

Informative Video of the 2013 Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament

Video from Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament

Articles about Harcourt Park Jousting Tournament from other news sources:
Radio New Zealand News: "Medieval merriment comes to Upper Hutt"

The Dominion Post: "Medieval Merriment in Upper Hutt"

The Dominion Post: "Jousters at the Ready to Do Battle"

The Dominion Post: "Jousting Tournament Returns to Harcourt Park"

Fourteenth Century Style Jousting at the Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament 2015

During the weekend of February 21 - 22, the 8th Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament will take place in Upper Hutt, New Zealand. The tournament, which is organized and hosted by Callum Forbes and the Order of the Boar,  was first held in 2003 and has grown bigger and better with each iteration. Currently, the tournament is held every other year, and the most recent Harcourt Park joust, which was held in 2013, was won by Canadian jouster Dale Gienow.

Dale Gienow(left) jousts Simon Tennant during Harcourt Park 2013 (photo by ATPhoto)

This year's tournament will feature the usual jousting competition for the Grail of Chivalry, which includes Mounted Skill at Arms(MSA) and Mounted Melee competitions in addition to the actual Jousting. Other old favorites will also be part of the overall event, including a Medieval Battle Display and an individual Medieval Martial Arts competition involving dagger, sword & small shield, and longsword. Due to its successful launch during Harcourt Park 2013, there will again be a Junior Sword Fighting competition featuring the Order of the Boar's Knight School students in association with the Upper Hutt Martial Arts Academy.

Harcourt Park Jousting Tournament tv ad (video by Callum Forbes)

However, this year's Harcourt Park Tournament will differ from previous events in several ways: For the first time, professional medieval harpists Wryd Medieval Music from Australia will be providing music for the event. The popular Medieval Archery Competitions and Displays will now have their own dedicated archery range where even more archery events will be held, including 'have a go' public participation. And Armoured Foot Combat, which has been a popular display in the past, will now be an actual competition as Harcourt Park hosts the inaugural Pacific Cup which features full contact armoured combat.

One of the most dramatic changes from previous Harcourt Park tournaments is that the joust will now be done in strict 14th century style.

Jouster Rod Walker of Australia jousts against the quintain in his new 14th century armour
(photo by Michelle Walker)

According to tournament organizer Callum Forbes:

"All the jousters will be wearing only 14th century armour and costume for this event. Previously this event, like many others, was open to the wider medieval period (e.g. late 13th century through to the 16th century). This created an anachronism, as historically this never happened, but, in the interests of being inclusive to all, I decided to allow this.

"However, in recent years we have seen the development of period specific events (e.g. mostly 15th Century ‘historical jousts’), and there are now enough of these events worldwide to cater for people who do later period jousting. So, I feel the time is now right to limit my own events to an earlier period. For this year’s jousting, only armour and costume that was used from the period 1350 to 1400 is allowed in the joust.

"Note, this is for the joust only. Other foot and equestrian based events still allow the wider range of armour and costume to be worn." – Callum Forbes

Callum Forbes is not only a tournament organizer, he is also a competitive jouster. However, he does not compete in the Harcourt Park joust for a couple of reasons. First, because it is highly impractical for overseas jousters to bring their own horses, he generously loans his jousting horses to be ridden by the visiting jousters.  And second, he is simply too busy running the tournament each year to be able to compete as well.

Callum Forbes (photo by Stacey Baker)

When asked what led him to focus on the 14th century style of jousting for Harcourt Park 2015, Callum responded:

"I have always loved the 14th century and have always wanted to run my events as 14th century ones, and now is the right time to narrow our event’s focus. There are a lot of very good jousters out there who joust exclusively in 14th century armour and costume who are now excluded from many events which were previously ‘open’ but are now limited to 15th or 16th century armours. I wanted to balance the scales a bit and give the 14th century guys and girls a place of their own to play.

"All the big events that I run in New Zealand from now on will be 14th Century ones, and my goal is to make New Zealand the home of the 14th Century joust!" – Callum Forbes

Jousters from around the world have either dusted off or created new sets of 14th century style armour and clothing in order to compete in this year's Harcourt Park joust. Jouster and armourer Rod Walker of Full Tilt, also known from the tv show Full Metal Jousting, has done a great job of creating photo documentation (with commentary alongside certain photographs) of his process of research and development for his new 14th Century kit. A couple of photographs of the finished armour and accessories are shown below.  To see the complete set of photographs and commentary, check out Rod's "14thC Harness and Clothing" photo album.

Rod Walker displays his new 14th century armour and accoutrements both standing and mounted (photos by Michelle Walker)

In addition to Rod Walker(who has competed in all but one Harcourt Park Tournament), other jousters who will be competing this year are:

• Gunnar Cederberg from Sweden, who will be competing at Harcourt Park for the first time
• Anders Fernstedt from Sweden, who will be competing at Harcourt Park for the FIFTH time
• Sarah Hay from Australia
• John King of New Zealand
• Andrew McKinnon from Australia
• Vikki Subritzky of New Zealand
• L Dale Walter from the USA, who will be competing at Harcourt Park for the first time

However, one person that Callum was hoping would someday joust in one of his tournaments will not be there. This year's Grail of Chivalry joust will be dedicated to the memory of Callum's friend, Paul Kirk.

"Paul Kirk was one of the major players in the New Zealand medieval re-enactment scene from the mid 90’s, and he trained with Order of the Boar for a number of years in the mid 2000’s with the intention of becoming a jouster. Unfortunately, a change in employment circumstances forced him to relocate elsewhere in New Zealand. However, before this happened he was able to compete in the mounted skill-at arms at Harcourt Park 2005.

"In the year prior to his death, he was travelling regularly four hours a weekend to train with the Order of the Boar’s foot combat team that studies Western Martial Arts – particularly Fiore. He was planning to resume his joust training with us as well, with the intention to joust at our next big international event in early 2016.

"Paul was a larger than life character whose purpose in life was to help others. He was also involved with martial arts, motor bikes and the Church. He was a highly fit individual who was struck down by a sudden brain aneurysm that killed him instantly. He was 41 years old, with two young daughters, a step-son and a fiancé. After his death, his help for others continued as he was also an organ donor. This enabled medical staff to save three lives using body parts donated by Paul." -- Callum Forbes

Paul Kirk (photo provided by Callum Forbes)

The Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament will be held February 21 - 22 in Harcourt Park off of Akatarawa Road, Upper Hutt, New Zealand 5018 (See map). For more information, check out the Order of the Boar website and the tournament's Facebook page. Buying your tickets in advance through Event Finder is recommended since it is faster and cheaper than buying your tickets at the gate.

Related articles:
Canadian Dale Gienow Wins New Zealand's “Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament”

Testing Spiral Cut Pine Lance Tips for the Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament 2015

A New Kind of Frangible Lance Tip: Spiral Cut Pine Tips

Informative Video of the 2013 "Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament"

Video from "Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament"

Testing Spiral Cut Pine Lance Tips for the Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament 2015

Part of the preparation for any tournament using frangible lances (i.e. lances that have a re-usable base and a tip that is designed to break upon sufficient impact then be replaced easily) is making sure that you have the proper strength tips for what you want to do. Here is video of several members of the Order of the Boar jousting troupe testing several different strengths of spiral cut pine tips to decide which will be used at the Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament 2015.

Preparing for Harcourt Park January 2015 (video by Callum Forbes)

The spiraling is cut deeper on some tips and not as deep on others creating tips that require weaker or stronger impacts in order to break. To learn more about spiral cut lance tips, click on the link to read the article written about them by Callum Forbes, the producer of the Harcourt Park Tournament.

Andrew McKinnon from Australia takes a hit at Harcourt Park 2013 showing the spiral cut pine tip fragmentation in action (photo by Andrew Turner/ATPhoto)

Callum Forbes, who is also the leader of the Order of the Boar, describes what is happening in the video:

"Testing the pine lance tips yesterday for the Harcourt Park 2015 World Invitational Jousting Tournament. The shock quintain gives great feedback and the strong tips were the best in terms of perceived impact. Unfortunately the best hit of the test – Monty and I using a strong tip – wasn't recorded, but I think the both the public and the jousters will be happy with these tips. They will break much harder in the joust as the impact force will at least be doubled because of the added force of the incoming horse and rider. 

It is always a tricky balance. The public wants to see big breaks.... Jousters want to feel the hits. I want to get the sweet spot that gives big breaks and satisfies the jousters. So these pine tips are the best of both worlds so far." – Callum Forbes

You can find more information about the joust on the Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament 2015 Facebook page or the page for the tournament on the Order of the Boar website. Tickets for the tournament are already for sale online through Event Finder.

Related articles:
A New Kind of Frangible Lance Tip: Spiral Cut Pine Tips

Canadian Dale Gienow Wins New Zealand's “Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament”

Informative Video of the 2013 "Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament"

Video from "Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament"

Informative Video of the 2013 "Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament"

Callum Forbes of the Order of the Boar, the troupe that produces the "Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament" every two years, put together this informative video of the 2013 Harcourt Park jousting tournament that took place in New Zealand this past February.

(video by Callum Forbes/Order of the Boar)

A New Kind of Frangible Lance Tip: Spiral Cut Pine Tips

The following article was written by Callum Forbes of the Order of the Boar:

At the “Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament” (in New Zealand), we tested new spiral cut pine tips in our lances instead of using the traditional length-wise cut balsa tips. Balsa is on a protected species list and is becoming more expensive. This adds significantly to the costs of jousting. Because of this we started looking for alternatives to balsa tips.

When I was in Belgium at "Hackaland 2011", Fred Piraux showed me a video of a tip design made of European ‘yellow pine’ which a wood-turning friend of his had suggested to him. Fred tested several prototypes which broke well on a static quintain and very kindly gave me a fragment of one as a sample to take back home. It is essentially a solid dowel with a spiral cut down most of its length with a router bit.

Pictures of Fred Piraux's spiral cut pine lance tips, intact(above) and broken(below)
(photos by Frederic Piraux)

Dave Smith, our announcer at all of our jousting events in New Zealand, built a rig to allow mass production of these tips and made several prototypes for me from pinus radiata, which is a widely used forestry timber in New Zealand. It is cheap and is also a renewable timber.

We tested two spiral cut tip designs late last year. One had a deeper cut and one a shallower cut. Both broke very well on tests against our ‘shock’ quintain, but when I had them tested with me as the target, people had trouble getting a good shattering effect with the shallower cut ones. So I commissioned Dave to make 200 of the deeper cut tips for our “Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament” last February.

Tournament Tip showing the form of the spirals. We paint all of our tips in one of two colours to make judging easier and also to make the tip the same colour as the colours we use on our lances so that they are not so obvious as inserts to the public.(photo by Callum Forbes)

Because the pine tip weighs 3 – 4 times as much as a balsa equivalent and because it is more rigid, you have to hit more accurately than balsa to get them to shatter correctly. By this I mean you have to hit square on. With balsa, because it flexes a bit more then pine, you can hit at a bit of an angle and still get a good shattering effect. With pine tips, the problem is that it is easier for the lance to deflect off the target at an unpredictable angle. By encouraging people to hit more accurately (i.e., square on), this risk is mitigated to some extent.

During the actual joust, when people hit hard and accurately, we had spectacular breaks that were louder than balsa. We also got multiple fragmentation, and the fragments flew further into the air (and into the crowd!) than balsa.

Andrew McKinnon from Australia takes a hit at "Harcourt Park 2013" showing tip fragmentation in action(photo by Andrew Turner/ATPhoto)

In hindsight, the tips were cut too deeply, and although they hit harder than balsa, a few people thought they were a bit too easy. We also had a teething issue in that our timber supplier sent us dowels in 2 diameters – 30mm and 32mm – and the 30mm dowels were a little too easy to break. But when introducing something new into the joust, it pays to err on the side of caution. Regardless, everybody thought the new tips were a major step forward.

We did test some prototype shallower cut tips at the tournament in front of the public as a demonstration. They broke very well, and the riders felt the impact a lot more. So the consensus is that we use these tips at future international events like "Harcourt Park", and we plan to use them at our next big international tournament which is planned for February 2014 at another location in New Zealand.

Overall these tips were a great success as I wanted a tip that broke harder than balsa without the splintering that you get from balsa tips. Because people are cutting the balsa length-wise (although I have also recently seen this done with pine) the balsa tip splinters into sharp shards. However, with the spiral cut, the pine tips break blunt so there is no chance of a splinter entering an eye slit or finding a weak spot in armour.

You can see the blunt ends left on both the broken piece and the remaining portion of the lance tip after the spiral cut pine tip broke off of Sarah Hay's lance during this rare tip to tip hit.
(photo by Andrew Turner/ATPhoto)

From the cost point-of-view, the spiral cut pine tips also worked out as being a bit cheaper than the last batch of balsa we brought.

I would like to acknowledge Frederic Piraux from Belgium as the designer of these tips, and my manufacturer Dave Smith of Dannevirke, New Zealand for making our local prototypes and production tips.

Callum Forbes
Order of the Boar, New Zealand
www.jousting.co.nz

You can see more pictures, video and information about the “Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament” in the following articles:

Canadian Dale Gienow Wins New Zealand's “Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament”

Video from "Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament"

Random Pic: Tip to Tip Hit

Sarah Hay's lance tip flies off just after a tip to tip hit
(photo by Andrew Turner/ATPhoto)

"Tip to Tip hits in the joust are very rare and up until Harcourt Park I can only ever recall 2 or 3 occuring over the past 10 years of modern sports jousting in NZ. But at Harcourt Park last month we had 4. This one was between Sarah Hay and an unknown opponent. Here you can see Sarah's tip breaking just after the hit. A good jouster can still follow through and deliver a good hit to his or her opponent." -- Callum Forbes

This picture was taken at the "Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament" which was organized by Callum Forbes and the Order of the Boar.

Canadian Dale Gienow Wins New Zealand's “Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament”

This past weekend, February 16 - 17, Dale Gienow of Canada won the prestigious Grail of Chivalry at the “Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament” in Upper Hutt, New Zealand. The Grail of Chivalry is awarded to the competitor who does the best overall in three competitions of jousting skill – mounted skill at arms (MSA), mounted melee and the tilt (which is what most people think of when they think of jousting).

Dale Gienow(left) tilts against Simon Tennant(right) at Harcourt Park 2013
(photo by Andrew Turner/ATPhoto)

It was an especially impressive feat since Dale had to overcome several obstacles just getting to the tournament.

According to Dale:

“Rough start getting to New Zealand... was supposed to get there on Monday to train with the other international joust competitors, but a wicked Toronto snowstorm made it impossible to travel. Managed a flight at the 11th hour and made it on Friday – the day before the tournament. Unfortunately, the airline lost my armour and it didn't actually arrive (thank-you Helen!) until 1 hour before I was set to joust. Though I had no time to train in armour, "Buck" helped to carry me through the event (thank-you John [John King, one of the other competitors], for a great horse). My win was that much sweeter for all the aggravation prior.

Callum Forbes put on an amazing event, and I'm still in awe of how he manages to run such a large crew, so smoothly. The competition was fierce and I barely managed the win. Yay Canada! The horses were awesome and the ground crew great... especially Michelle Walker, who runs a very tight ship!” – Dale Gienow

Michelle Walker (photo from Rod Walker's camera*)

Although Dale won the overall competition, he did not actually win the tilt, the portion of the tournament that most people think of as the actual jousting. That was won by Australian jouster Sarah Hay riding another of John King's horses named “Nugget”. Sarah is the current Australian Jousting Champion and is probably the best female competitive jouster in the world.

Sarah Hay riding Nugget in the tilt (photo by KL)

Sarah is certainly one of the most active women in the world of competitive jousting having competed successfully not only in her home country of Australia and its neighbor New Zealand, but also in Belgium, France, Poland, Denmark and the USA. She has actually won international jousting competitions in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Sarah placed second in the overall Harcourt Park 2013 tournament, barely missing first place because of being eliminated early on in the mounted melee portion of the tournament.

When asked about her experiences at Harcourt Park, Sarah responded:

“Harcourt Park is a very special event, and it was a privilege for me to ride there again. Callum Forbes runs a highly organised, professional event, and the setting, Harcourt Park, is absolutely magnificent. The riders this year were a really cohesive group who were generous with their praise to anyone who rode well. My thanks to all the competitors whose positivity, sense of fun and adventure and skill in the lysts made Harcourt Park so memorable.

My personal thanks goes to John King for providing my wonderful steed for the weekend ‘Nugget’. I’d also like to recognise the ground crew and squires who are absolutely essential to a smoothly run jousting tournament, especially Rosemary and Tony for all the help they gave me in preparing Nugget for each ride and helping me armour up.

There is a lovely feeling in the crowd at the Harcourt Park event. They really get excited about the joust, and it does make a difference to be cheered on... especially when we get the end of the competition and points are tight! My sincere thanks to Callum for putting on such a quality event. I can safely say that my recent week in New Zealand has been a highlight of my life.” – Sarah Hay

Anders Fernstedt(left) jousts Sarah Hay(right) at Harcourt Park 2013
(photo by Maarten Holl)

This year Swedish jouster Anders Fernstedt made his third appearance at Harcourt Park and placed third overall. Anders rode tournament organizer Callum Forbes' personal jousting horse Monty. Anders began riding with the Swedish Royal Cavalry in 1980. He later became involved with the jousting troupe Celeres Nordica and has been jousting internationally since 2005.

Anders Fernstedt at Harcourt Park 2013
(photo by KL)

Finishing in fourth place was the popular Belgian jouster Frederic Piraux who rode another of Callum Forbes' horses, PJ. Frederic created the “International Jousting League” probably the largest organization of competitive jousters in the world. He was also the winner of the previous “Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament” which was held in 2011. Sadly, this will be Fred's last year of competitive jousting. He is planning to retire after competing one last time in all of his favorite tournaments.

Frederic Piraux(left) jousts Simon Tennant(right) at Harcourt Park 2013
(photo by Andrew Turner/ATPhoto)

In addition to the Grail of Chivalry competition for experienced jousters, there was also an inaugural competition for the Chalice of Courage – a competition for less experienced jousters. New Zealander John King won first place by virtue of being the only novice jouster capable of completing the entire competition. This was not as easy as it might sound since he ended up tilting against more experienced jousters who took the place of the withdrawn novices in order to allow the competition to continue. John rode his horse Cabby on the first day of competition and his main horse Buck on the second day.

John King on his horse Cabby(photo by Linda King)

John also managed to win the mounted skill-at-arms (MSA) competition. And ended the mounted melee in an exciting three way fight to the finish with Dale Gienow and Anders Fernstedt, managing to defeat both of the more experienced jousters.

When asked about his experience at Harcourt Park, John answered:

“This is the second time I have attended Harcourt Park and I felt much more relaxed. I had spent a couple of days at Callum's place helping sort out horses for the international riders and just getting our horses ready for the tournament. It took a couple of days for the Guild of the Hawk team – Rosemary Hassan, Vikki Subritzky and myself – to travel to the tournament with our 8 horses. I had a relaxed attitude and was out to enjoy myself. This was Cabby's first joust show and I was just testing her out. She settled in really well and I was trilled with her performance. ” – John King

Fortunately, Rod Walker, famous from the “Full Metal Jousting” tv show, was not injured when fellow Australian jouster Andrew McKinnon managed to break his lance against Rod's helm during one of their matches on the first day of jousting.

“Andrew McKinnon puts it right on my nose ;-) Funny bugger.” – Rod Walker

Rod Walker(left) gets a lance to the face from Andrew McKinnon(right)
(photo by Sarah Hay using Rod Walker's camera*)

Unfortunately, Rod hit his knee against the tilt during the first day of jousting and injured it again during the mounted melee on the morning of the second day of the tourney. After the second injury, he chose to withdraw from the competition. Rod was actually in the lead at the end of the 1st day, so it was not an easy decision to make.

“It was a great event, and it was a really hard decision to pull out knowing I had a good lead.” – Rod Walker

A surprising thing about this tournament was the number of tip to tip lance hits. These kind of hits are usually extremely rare, but there were four of them during this tournament. A photographer managed to capture a picture an instant before Sarah Hay and Frederic Piraux smashed their tips together.

Sarah Hay(left) and Frederic Piraux(right) about to hit their lances tip to tip
(photo by Mark Dinsbury)

Although the tournament organizer, Callum Forbes of “The Order of the Boar”, was trying out a new style of frangible lance tip[more about that in a future article], it is unlikely that the new tips had anything to do with the increase in tip to tip hits.

In addition to the jousting tournament, the Harcourt Park event also included a Battle of the Nations(BotN) style ground combat display and competition, an archery display and competition and various living history displays. You can find out more about Callum Forbes and “The Order of the Boar” on their website. They are planning for the next “Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament” to take place in the year 2015.

Many of the jousters and ground crew responsible for putting on the tournament.
(photo from Rod Walker's camera*)

List of the Winners at Harcourt Park 2013:

Grail of Chivalry:
1st – Dale Gienow (Canada)
2nd – Sarah Hay (Australia)
3rd – Anders Fernstedt (Sweden)
4th – Frederic Piraux (Belgium)

Chalice of Courage(for novice jousters):
1st – John King (New Zealand)
No other places were given for the Chalice of Courage as none of the other novice competitors managed to complete the competition.

Winner of the tilt – Sarah Hay

Winner of the mounted melee – John King

Winner of the mounted skill-at-arms competition – John King

John King, Sarah Hay, Dale Gienow and Anders Fernstedt – winners at Harcourt Park 2013 
(photo by Linda King)

Photo Albums of Harcourt Park 2013
– Andrew Turner/ATPhoto
– KL Photography


News articles that mention the “Harcourt Park 2013 World Invitational Jousting Tournament”:
1-10-13 CNN Travel: World's most extreme sport? The modern renaissance of jousting

1-17-13 Wellington Scoop: Jousting in Upper Hutt named by CNN as one of world’s top six locations

1-23-13 Upper Hutt Leader: Serious jousting event goes global

2-15-13 The Dominion Post: Battles ahead in medieval sport

2-17-13 Stuff.co.nz: Joust so you know, armour-plated sheilas do it too

2-19-13 The Dominion Post: Joust another day at the office

2-20-13 Upper Hutt Leader: Nations jostle for position in ancient action


*Although these pictures came from Rod Walker's camera, he was usually not the one taking the pictures. He simply handed the camera to whomever was available to take pictures, thus it is impossible to know exactly who took which pictures.

Promotional Video for “Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament”

The “Harcourt Park World Invitational Jousting Tournament” will take place February 16 - 17 in Harcourt Park, Upper Hutt, New Zealand.

(video posted by Callum Forbes)

Also, Callum Forbes, the organizer of the event will be doing a live radio interview with Justin du Fresne on Wellington's 'NewsTalk ZB' at 9:40am on Saturday, February 16.[correction: The interview was this morning Saturday, February 9.]

You can find out more about the event on its website.