With almost a year under my belt in August, I had a number of ‘firsts’ tucked under my belt. But a very special one took place that month: the first jointly-held North Sound Sergeantry Trials & Sable Rose Tournaments.
Highlights
Beneath the late summer sun, three baronies and a royal company came together to support each others’ endeavors.
- The grounds were in Aquaterra’s territory and the autocrats were Aquaterrans.
- Madrone fielded candidates for their sergeantry. (Aquaterra’s potential candidate became very ill the weekend of testing.)
- Wyewood, which is starting up it’s own sergeantry program, came to watch.
- The Royal Company of the Sable Rose recently lost their site where they regularly hold their tournament; in a show of goodwill and support, Aquaterra offered the use of the sergeantry site on the second day.
My friend from Spokane spent the weekend at the event running around with me. He was an amazingly good sport about it all.
- Especially with the persona luncheon. We really wasn’t sure what would happen, so he played my Norse woman’s thrall so he wouldn’t have to talk. (And no, the collar isn’t his nor did he wear it all day.)
He also counted this as his first SCA event.
- A long time ago, somewhere in the Midwest, he was brought out to an event by a family– and it was, to put it politely, a very bad experience. With the NSST&SRT being such a stark contrast, he’s no longer putting stock in the old misadventure.
I was delighted to see how many people were kind and encouraging to him. He took home a number of heartfelt souvenirs.
- Watching the sergeantry trials is actually pretty cool, especially during the marshaling segment. You get to see things that are either rare or shouldn’t occur in combat.
- Case in point: I saw a shield kick!
- We hadn’t planned on it, but we got into the potluck feast.
- Thank goodness we brought all those apples for the luncheon.
Our community is really fortunate to have a group like the Sable Rose that is not only focused on skill but on entertainment.
- I imagine it made a good impression for Her Excellency’s motorcycle club friends, who came out on Sunday.
- And who doesn’t want to help make dramatic death scenes?
Low Points
I probably would have personally enjoyed the Sable Rose equestrian portion more if I was down in the stands rather than photographing.
- I know there are people interested in helping out, but I’m struggling with teaching people how to take quality images and the general OCD-control issue.
With this happening so close to a number of other summer events, it took me near forever and a day to go through the 2000+ photos and some-odd videos.- Either due to presumptions, voices not carrying, or some other reason, the element of ‘entertainment’ about the Sable Rose Pas d’armes Rapier Tourney wasn’t clearly understood or known by everyone.
- I know I didn’t clearly hear an explanation about what it was, and i had to rely mostly on information my friends had told me prior.
I understand that those of the Ladies’ Berfrois were the judges and thus the focus, but the rest of the audience deserves a low-down (especially since we had non-SCA guests).
- I didn’t get to spend as much time actually hanging out with my Spokanite friend as I would’ve liked.
Lessons Learned
The announcer box is a great and simultaneously horrible place to get photos of an arena from.
- Photo wise, this could be rectified with a lens that can back out far as well as zoom in a lot. My two lenses currently do one or the other.
- I need to investigate a better microphone option or attachment when recording video.
- And avoid talking when I’m filming.
Laying Arrondi 