Dice took centre stage as we sought to randomize a fight sequence with 6 combatants.

 Using old school D&D dice each person was allotted their fight, who they had to strike, when they had to attack and where the attack had to land. After a shaky start the experience of those present soon began to shine through as a plausible fight was constructed with players darting in, out and across the field making thier hits count. A variety of weapons where available seeing gladius fight rapier and mortuary sword go against a hand an a half made for some interesting techiques as people sought to fight in accurate styles.

All in all a great end to the season's training with a fun and sweaty finish. The fight was filmed and we hope to create a a montage of it shortly.

After a swift warmup fun was had by all as we practiced the hip throw and leg sweep. Similar to ogoshi and ashe-gake in judo the throws differ only in their final stages as we seek to lower one another to the ground without injury and under control. After some interesting intepretations we all managed to get one another to ground without any broken limbs or strains. The we moved onto somebasic rapier work developing through stationery use of the weapon to simple forward and backward movements.

A short break later and we reconviened in two distinct groups. One continued training with the rapier adding more complex movement to the use of the rapiers, the other prepared for Sherborne working through a pickpocketing sequence involving five people.

The sequence for Sherborne was done to record for next week as most sequences are now recorded with notes rather than relying just upon hand written notes from week to week, this has saved a lot of time and misunderstanding when continuing from week to the next.

Something a little different today after the standard warm up and competency technique, this time a quick revision of napping after one went down very well at Chedworth last weekend.

Thr group was broken into four attackers and one defender. Then using the stage combat methodologies already well known among the members we defended against a series of attacks as the defender walked through the middle of the group, then repeated the walk with a counter attack. After this was done a series of exercises took us through from staticly defending against a series of known attacks through to a semi free moving defence and counter attack against the four opponents. A selection of weapons mixed things up with mortair, rapiers and hand and a half swords all being used at the same time.

The object of the exercise was to help members as they script fights; making them seem to move more naturally and ebb and flow with a little more grace.

All in all the exercises achieved their goals and we all went to McDonalds on a high afterwards.

This week's training was given over almost entirely to preparing for Chedworth, the final details of the slave revolt scene where worked  through after the usual warmups and basic competency training. The basics this week where chosen completely at random by Alisa and Meriel.

The preparations went well with us finally getting the revolt blocked out and fully rehearsed ready for the show this weekend.

As ever a coffee was enjoyed by all at McDonalds afterwards.

After a warm up and a review of the stage combat doctrines around pugilism the group was split into two halves. Those attending Chedworth and those unable to make it this time.

The new piece for Chedworth was blocked out by John, rehearsed by all and filmed by Paul for final prep next week. Fungus and Mark continued with the gladius basics, experimenting with three differing ways to do the 5's, movement and timing.

The new Chedworth scene has allowed us to give an increasingly diverse role to women in the group when portraying periods that were more traditionally male dominated societies which has been great fun for all involved and shown just  how fantastically some of the women who do not want to be gladiators can actually fight; there where a couple of bruised men at the end of training yesterday!

Afterwards McDonalds was the haunt of the evening as ever.

 Training this week was given over to preparations for the Lulworth Castle event. Concentrating on Fiore this week to build the event for Lulworth it was soon obvious to all that Fiore's dagger drills will be able to easily move across to the other disciplines within the society. Swapping out medieval daggers for gladii, clubs and other assorted weapons.

Time was spent looking at and combining the following plays.

First Master, first play, second play and 9th play.

Second Master, 3rd play and 3rd Master 7th play.

It only took a few goes before people started to add their own variations to the movements taught by Fiore to great effect as peope where thrown, kicked, twisted and stabbed across the stage.

Afterwards everyone went across to the new look McDonalds for a coffee.

As with all middle of the season training we have the occasional simple session ending in a coffee or two at McDonalds or similar, this weeks training was one of those.

We spent some time re-examining the principles of being thrown, how to throw safely andfall to the ground. After a short break we broke out the practice daggers, examined our dagger drills one and two in preparation for next week Fiore heavy training session in preparation for Lulworth and to help create a general inventory of techniques for those attending other shows later.

The coffee turned out to be a bust as teh McDonalds across the road was having a refit, so we went back to a members house for coffee and biscuits intead!

Training had a few people missing this week as they took part in the RSC (Random Salad Company) production of Fifth Elephant in the New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth. Those that attended are going to be partnering one another at Chedworth Roman Villa as gladiators, so time was spent on a quick warm and and then concentraing on putting together and recording their gladiatorial fights. All of which came on leaps and bounds and looked excellent.

It was all hands to the pumps as the preperations for the Peterborough drew to a close with the dressed rehearsals. Armoured in currently unfamiliar and clean equipment lots of water was drunk as people felt a lot hotter than the gladiator gear makes you feel and fights where tweaked as the range of motion was good was a little less than in normal loose, training equipment.

Special thanks should go to Ben and Meriel for helping us newbies into the equipment and making sure we where properly dressed.

The general feeling is that through everyone's hard work the first proper medieval event at Peterborough this year should be a reasonable success for a new style of event for us.

Training continued today with emphasis being given to the medieval event at Peterborough in a fortnights time. Guard, stance, sword and dagger drills being the order of the day. Some of us wore finished gambeson's and coats of plate for the first time and discovered they do not move as well as T-shirt and jeans! Unsurprisingly!

Next week will be the full dressed rehearsals!

 After the usual warm ups we moved through the two main pieces repeated at each training for a little while now. 1805 cutlass drill and the medieval guard form that Paulhas developed. Repeating these at each training session has started to have see them become ingrained in our minds saving us considerable time and effort as we prepare for their relevant shows as well as helping to limber up the limbs through their application.

After training we made our way through the basic 5's for the weeks chosen basic competancy piece. Although familiar to everyone on the room it was felt high time to give them a dust off as we seek to prepare for Peterborough's medieval festival at the end of the month.

With two new members joining us for this week we spent some extra time going through our sword and dagger drills, however given their veteran status in the livig history world they had them 'sussed' within moments and soon started to ad lib and come up with variations on the theme.

Some time was spent with some of the members learning quater staff techniques based on the stav techniques one of our member's has learnt.

 Training for Peterborough saw Steve and Paul come up with another phrase for their 'wager by battle' fights with John and Graham adding a slightly shorter phrase to their sequence.

As ever, McDonalds was visited after training to undo all the good we had done during the training session.

As ever after training

As with last week the training was dominated by preparations for the Lulworth pirate event.

A dressed rehearsal this time showed that most of the costume was ready and presented no real issues to the fights or their presentation. Jane's direction helped us iron out a few remaining issues and smartened things up considerably, we should hopefully remember most of the help come the day.

Next week see's preparations begin in earnest for the Peterborough event next month.

Training was mostly given over to preparations for Lulworth's pirate event this coming bank holiday.

Cutting it a it fine we managed to get the press gang, cutlass drills and prize fight all worked out and rehearsed in their entirity a few times each. A couple of 'Corporal Jones'  moments for a few of our number in the cutlass drills should lead to some good comic antics at the event for the aidience and members alike.

This was the groups first real attempt at involving a director from the Collingwood RSC, which showed dividends almost immediately as the acting game as brought under a strong spotlight, as opposed to the wind swept candle of our own previous efforts. So our thanks to Jane for this immediately useful involvement.

Today gave us all a new opportunity to embarrass ourselves as we spent some time examining the art of manly fighting, pugilism. With milling, fancy foot work and a couple of cracked knuckles the group was given a tour de force of  how to move, bob and weave like a gentleman pugilist of the 19th Century. With some members feeling slightly more than foolish we moved through the basics of the fighting style and what the theories of much of the movementand ended with a very short fight sequence each that, while rough round the edgesdue to their hurried nature, gave us all an idea of what could be achieved with a little more effort and a swift little phrase each.

In addition we built again, upon the dagger drills learnt previously, this time with a strong emphasis on being able to produce a coherent stage fight at the end. Within 30 minutes each the groups came back with a swift, violent looking and interesting sequence.

The recent emphasis on unarmed combat and dagger drills is starting to pay dividends as we are starting to move more competantly and swiftly, quickly moving from one drill to another. This should all come together for the pirate fighting at Lulworth and for the medieval dagger drill display at Peterborough.

Some time was given to explinaing what is planned for Lulworth and Peterborough.

Next week there is no training as the theatre is being used for a play. However the week after and in the run up to the Lulworth Pirates event can all members that have said they are attending the event ensure that they are able to make training or let Steve know if you are unable.

As ever, McDonald's saw us for coffee and some food afterwards.

As ever the sessions started with a thorough warmup from Alisa with some addition back stretches as so many of us are suffering from stuff backs through old age and job related injuries. This time the warmups were a little more rigorous with the  introduction of 'rats and rabbits' and the old favourite, wrist wrestling.

After recovery from the warmup we moved through some unarmed techniques that ended in locks or throws to add to the inventory of techiques available for use when scripting the up and coming fights for the Lulworth Pirate event. The current setup will mean that a lot of the action will happen in crowded areas with a few swords being used and a lot of knives, wooden belay pins and anything else that is to hand. So hand to hand combat was the order of the day.

Resuming the training after the break saw us adding further techniques to our growing lists as Pete Cartwright took us all through some unarmed defences against the dagger that were based upon Fire's work. The techniques when turned into their stage combat equivalents looked very lethal.

Finaly, the group went off into pairs and came back, after 15 minutes, with three techniques each from the plethora we had all been shown earlier. Done with full blooded commitment and some very realistic acting from some, each group performed in front of the rest of the society. The session ended with a discussion on costume measurements and armour requirements for the coming season.

As ever, McDonald's saw us all come and undo the hard work from before with coffee, ice cream and some burgers.