Herr Wolfgang Ritter, Honest Lawyer

[Fab]

the title should say it all and be enough of a challenge in itself.

I apologize if this challenge does not follow the proper requirement in terms of specific place and judges - but with what my ife is at the moment, it is hard to do otherwise.




I, Fabrice Cognot, the Lion of Dijon, Bearer of the Hat of Awesomeness, of de Taille et d'Estoc hereby challenge Mr Wolfgang Ritter, Galaktischer Gigaherrscher, Honest Lawyer, member of Zornhau e.V..


Weapons shall be similar longsword simulators of either weighted shinai type, or Nylon swords provided both combattants weare adequate protection.

Judges shall be chosen among present experienced instructors or figureheads of HEMA at the time and place the fight is to be fought.

The fight shall take place next time we meet in the course of an HEMA event, time and schedule permitting, or if the time, place and equipment (including filming equipment) seems proper enough and if at least three eperienced instructors or HEMA figureheads are present, none of them being from our respective groups.

The fight shall start with a flourish. If the judges agree to it, they may also judge the flourish and therefore award one point to that fighter who performed the best and most martially pelasant levée or Parat.


We shall fight until seventeen good hits or good techniques leading to martial superiority have been delivered (for example, a successful grapping technique not pushed to the painful end), or until one of the fighters acknowledges the victory of his opponent.

After a valid hit or valid technique has been performed, both fighters shall take three large paces back and wait for the judge's call to start the fight again.

Both fighters are considered honourable enough to acknowledge when they have been hit and when their opponent takes the upper hand in a single tactical situation.

The main role of the judges is to ensure the safety of the fighters and to provide their own vision should both fighters disagree on a confusing situation. Their role is also to count points, one point being awarded for a successful valid hit (none for double hits).

No technique is banned provided it can be found in, or implied by, historical sources - but safety remains the first concern of all.


If Mr Ritter has something to add to these rules, let him do so.

[Wolfgang Ritter]

Dear Mr Cognot, Lion of Dijon, Bearer of the Hat of Awesomeness, of de Taille et d'Estoc

I, Wolfgang Ritter, Honest Lawyer and Galaktischer Gigaherrscher, of Zornhau certainly accept your martial challenge with utmost joy and respect.

I have nothing more to add to the rules you proposed, as they represent exactly the way a challenge should be fought, providing good martial skill, form and manners.

Therefore I count the days to our next meeting, where the challenge will be fought!

Huzzah!

[Fab]

I had to edit my challenge to adress your titles properly.

[Wolfgang Ritter]

I had to edit my challenge to adress your titles properly.

And properly you did!
Now we have to find a date...

[Wolfgang Ritter]

It is my pleasure to announce that it took a long time - almost a year - but we succeded to fulfill our oaths for martial challenge on the last sunday in Dijon!

We chosed steel blunts with (I'd say) appropriate but rather small armour.
The fight was judged by Scott Brown and Riman Vucajnk and filmed by Mr. Jericho, the official event dokumentarist - a big thank you to all three of them.
The result was a very just draw with 3 : 3 hits.

Thanks to my mate Fabrice, it was a pleasure to fight!

[Fab]

It was indeed a pleasure, although it took me some time to get my good fencing started - for which I apologise.

Mr Jericho will be working on the vids, and I'll let you all know when they're online.


Many thanks to the judges, M Brown and Mr Vucajnk, and of course to Mr Ritter, Honest Lawyer of all.


Due to time cosntraints we only fought to the best of five - whih was enough in my opinion, fighting with steel swords.


I hope the High Marshall of Martial Challenges will not blame us for this change

[Fab]

Thanks to the diligent efforts of Mr Jericho, here is the video :

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdbifn_dijon-2010-martialchallenge-fabrice_sport


It is obvious to me that I only get my 'game' running in the few final exchanges - apologies to Wolfgang for being so slow to start.

[Wolfgang Ritter]

Well we both had a slooow start....please give my regards to Mr. Jericho and Laure for making (and uploading) the video.