We’re happy to announce Martin Buckley to become club’s fifth Hema Ireland certified instructor!
Martin passed his practical assessment in January teaching a class in longsword (his weapon of choice) under the watchful eyes of Hema Ireland certified assessors which along with the documentation provided made him an official instructor certified by Hema Ireland.
Martin has been already helping out as an assistant instructor during many of our club’s recruitment courses and events as he’s already working through his apprenticeship term towards becoming a Blademaster Instructor
Martin’s main focus lies in German Longsword but he recently started working (with great deal of success) on military sabre as well. He participated in all of last year’s IHFL (Irish Historical Fencing League) longsword tournaments finishing the league on 7th place and i’m sure he aspires to go much higher this year!
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We wish him good luck and all the best in the 2019 season!
Let’s kick off the new historical fencing season with Cork Blademasters!
We’re going straight into action with our Meyer Diagram Challenge starting today on the 1st of Jan 2019! It is a daily cutting practice that everyone can do from the comfort of their own home, all that is required is to have a weapon (or a simulator) that can be used for this purpose! Train with us for 30 consecutive days in order to become a better fencer! This is an excellent conditioning for everyone interested in starting HEMA in 2019!
Meanwhile we’re launching our new season recruitment starting with a free Open Day session on Monday 7th of Jan 2019! If you are interested but not yet ready to commit to our 10 weeks course yet then check this out! It’s a free longsword class where you can learn the fencing fundamentals as well as a few longsword specific moves.
One week later we’ll launch our main recruiting event – 10 weeks long German Longsword Course that will start on Monday 14th of Jan 2018 @ Mahon Community Centre 8PM! This introductory historical fencing course is obligatory for all new members who wants to move onto the Scholar rank and start participating in the club activities!
There’s more to come! All 2019 seminars, tournaments and workshops will be announced soon! We’ll be very active locally in Cork as well as outside in Limerick and Waterford where we’ll work on incubating new fencing groups! We’ll work with Hema Ireland as well as IHFL (Irish Historical Fencing League) to bring more quality events and tournaments into Irish Hema scene this year!
Last but not least we’ll be expanding our own crew with new instructors and L3 gradings this year! More weapons, more fencing styles and more classes will become available for everyone who want to start their martial artist career in historical fencing!
Still have questions? Contact us and we’ll get back to you in no time!
Galway Longsword Open Steel Tournament that took place on the 17th of Nov 2018 in Galway hosted by Exiles Galway was the last leg of this year’s Irish Historical Fencing League.
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With great pleasure we’d like to congratulate the winners:
Sam Gassmann of Goats Head Historical Fencing – Gold
Andrzej Rozycki of Cork Blademasters – Silver
Luke Lee of Cork Blademasters – Bronze
Technical Prize: Piotr Szymanski of Leitrim Longswords
Best Newcomer Prize: Fionntan Murphy of ISHC (Irish School of Historical Combat)
IHFL League winner of 2018: Andrzej Rozycki of Cork Blademasters
Videos from eliminations phase are now available on our official YouTube Channel:
Big Thanks to our League sponsors who funded awesome prizes for the winners:
1st place: Gold Medal, Pair of Sparing Gloves, 50 EUR PBT voucher, 50 GBP Hema Shop voucher, 15% Aureus voucher, SPES gift pack, 30 EUR Halfswording.com voucher, Free entry ticket to one of the Wessex League longsword tournaments in 2019
2nd place: Silver Medal, 50 GBP HEMA Shop voucher, 12.5% Aureus voucher, SPES gift pack, 20 EUR Halfswording.com voucher
Technical Prize – Free entry to one of IHFL 2019 tournament
League Champion prize – 300$ gift voucher for a custom feder from Black Horse Blades!
Results of the tournament have been submitted to HEMA Ratings Website and the Irish Historical Fencing League 2018 Results can be seen on the HEMA Ireland Website.
It was a good tournament with yet another experimental ruleset that worked out for some but not for all – continuous sparring with light hits being counted until the ‘killing’ blow happened which stopped the exchange. Another related issue seemed to be with only 2 referees which wasn’t really enough to cover all striking angles so the main judge had to take all the pressure and decide on the final scoring alone which wasn’t the ideal experience for fencers.
All in all Blademasters did very well, getting bronze and silver as well as the overall league prize, we’ve passed all feedback to the organizers so we are looking forward to see the improvements for the next year’s League!
The Horned Crown – Third Leg of the Irish Historical Fencing League (IHFL) took place on Sat 1st of Sept 2018 in Wexford, hosted by Goats Head Historical Fencing!
First, we’d like to congratulate all winners of the 3rd leg of IHFL:
Jack Gassman (Goats Head Historical Fencing) – Gold
Sam Gassman (Goats Head Historical Fencing) – Silver
Brian Moloney (Cork Blademasters) – Bronze
Technical Prize: Jack Gassman (Goats Head Historical Fencing)
Best Newcomer Prize: Karl Sassenberg (Cork Blademasters)
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You can check more photos from the event on the IHFL Page:
Results of the tournament have been submitted to HEMA Ratings Website and the Irish Historical Fencing League 2018 Results can be seen on the HEMA Ireland Website.
It was an intense tournament with an experimental ruleset (highly weighed targets and the ability to chain attacks) which forced us to adapt our tactics during the fight but it was well worth it as four Blademasters went into the eliminations bringing home one Bronze medal won by Brian in an exciting match against Joe!
4th and the last Leg of the IHFL will take place in Galway on the 17th of November 2018!
Sun 02/09/2018 – Longsword Training
Mon 03/09/2018 – German Longsword Course 7/10
Wed 05/09/2018 – Longsword Training
Thu 06/09/2018 – Sabre Training
Sat 08/09/2018 – Military Sabre Seminar
Sun 09/09/2018 – Sabre Training
Mon 10/09/2018 – German Longsword Course 8/10
Wed 12/09/2018 – German Longsword Course 9/10
Thu 13/09/2018 – Ringen Training
Sun 16/09/2018 – Longsword Training
Mon 17/09/2018 – German Longsword Course 10/10
Wed 19/09/2018 – Sidesword & Dagger Training
Thu 20/09/2018 – Coached Sparring: Longsword
Sun 23/09/2018 – Longsword Training
Mon 24/09/2018 – Open Day: Longsword
Wed 26/09/2018 – Coached Sparring: Sabre
Thu 27/09/2018 – Sabre Training
Sat 29/09/2018 – Synthetic Sabre Tournament
Sun 30/09/2018 – Fight Night: Blademasters League
Or click here to see our Schedule Page (bookmark it!)
On the 14th of July 2018 Cork Blademasters have participated in the 2nd leg of the Irish Historical Fencing League 2018: Clash of the Towers – Open Steel Longsword Tournament hosted by Dublin Hema Club.
We’re happy to announce the results and congratulate to the winners of the 2nd leg of IHFL:
Sam Gassman (Artes Certaminis) – Gold
Andrzej Rozycki (Cork Blademasters) – Silver
Joseph Hooton (Cork Blademasters) – Bronze
Technical Prize: Andrzej Rozycki (Cork Blademasters)
Best Newbie Prize: Aaron Meehan (Medieval Combat Group)
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You can check the more photos from the event on the IHFL Page:
Newbie Prize – prize for the highest scoring tournament newbie (for people who are starting their first tournament with us): SPES Gear
Technical Prize – free entry for the next IHFL tournament!
Results of the tournament have been submitted to HEMA Ratings Website and the Irish Historical Fencing League 2018 Results can be seen on the HEMA Ireland Website.
2nd leg of the IHFL ran very smoothly thanks to perfect organization by the crew from Dublin Hema Club, we had a few tournament newbies who fenced very well even against League veteran’s so big congratulations to them for standing on their own!
From my own perspective it seems that the overall level of fencing has improved compared to last year’s tournaments so the IHFL goal has been reached! We are producing more new fencers and increasing quality of our fencing year after year!
3rd Leg of the IHFL will take place in Wexford on the 1st of September 2018 so let’s get ready!
Blademasters Cup – Cork Leg of the Irish Historical Fencing League for 2018 is now over and we’re already preparing for the Dublin Leg in July!
Congratulations to the winners (all from Cork Blademasters): Brian Moloney who took gold, Andrzej Rozycki silver and Joseph Hooton who took bronze and the technical prize! Tournament Newbie Award went to Nuno Valverde!
Newbie Prize – prize for the highest scoring tournament newbie (for people who are starting their first tournament with us): SPES Gear
Technical Prize – free entry for the next IHFL tournament!
Results of the tournament have been submitted to HEMA Ratings Website and the Irish Historical Fencing League 2018 Results can be seen on the HEMA Ireland Website.
On a more personal note i’d like to say that the Survivability Rules introduced from 2018 in all Cork Blademasters tournaments have produced some excellent fencing and we are very happy with replacing an outdated concept of right-of-way/afterblow in the favor of more martial and realistic approach.
With great pleasure I’d like to invite everyone to come and watch Blademasters Cup 2018 – Open Steel Longsword Tournament and the first leg of the Irish Historical Fencing League 2018!
Let’s celebrate Historical European Martial Arts together tomorrow! Our event will take place at Little Island Sports Centre, Cork from 11am onwards and all spectactors are welcome!
Below are the up to date results of our 2017 Blademasters League:
Blademasters League Score Table – STEEL
Name
no of Bouts
Wins
Losses
Draws
Points total
Michael N
44
29
14
1
544
Joe H
46
30
15
1
430
Andrzej R
39
20
17
2
416
Rob L
35
15
16
4
264
Martin B
30
15
12
3
261
Brian M
21
18
3
0
224
Simon H
26
12
13
1
184
Riley L
23
10
12
1
170
Callum O’C
18
8
9
1
149
Maithiu M
12
3
9
0
71
Chris B
7
3
4
0
70
Grzegorz K
9
4
5
0
60
Mattia B
9
4
5
0
55
Edu M
10
1
7
2
42
George T
5
2
3
0
41
Peter M
10
0
10
0
41
Brian L
8
0
8
0
36
Paul D
4
2
2
0
32
Elliott M
4
2
2
0
30
Daniel O’D
4
1
3
0
20
James E
4
0
4
0
17
Congratulations to Michael Nolan – Champion of Blademasters League from 2016 who successfully defended his title in 2017 becoming an overall League winner for 2 years in a row!
Michael has also achieved a third place in 2017 IHFL (Irish Historical Fencing League, you can see this year’s IHFL results >>here<<) despite fighting in only 3 out of 4 IHFL tournaments.
As a winner of our internal club League he will receive a free entry ticket to next year’s Feile na Gaiscigh 2018. Well done!
All videos of our 2017 Blademasters League are available below:
As the last leg of the IHFL – Galway Longsword Open ’26 Commandments’ Tournament has come to an end it’s time for a quick review of the 2017 League!
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But first, the results of the Galway Leg – congratulations to Adrian Szlapka from Leitrim Longswords for taking the gold, Joe Hooton and Andrzej Rozycki both from Cork Blademasters for taking respectively silver and bronze! Check out the tournament videos below!
As for this year’s IHFL i’m proud to say that we as an Irish HEMA have achieved again our goal – the fencing level has improved a lot and there have been lots of new fencers joining our league both from Ireland as well as abroad. This is great as it shows that our small league is becoming more recognizable in the world of HEMA and our fencing standards are already on an international level! Next year I’m hoping for even more fighters, more weapons and more clubs being involved as well as more cooperation between our neighbours from the other side of the Celtic Sea! We have proven it already many many times over – the more fencers you fight the better your fencing will become! Bring it on 2018 IHFL!
For now, let’s enjoy the videos from the Galway tournament below:
