Albion Cup 2025

Dates and Location:

• • Main Event: 14-15 June 2025

• • General Booking Opens: Friday, February 14th at 10 pm

• • General Booking Closes: Sunday, May 18th at 6 pm

• • Venue: Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre, Marlow, SL7 1RR

• • Website: https://www.bishamabbeynsc.co.uk/nsc/

• • Women’s+ Longsword, Single Rapier, Sabre:
    • • Eligibility: Women and non-binary fencers who feel it is suitable for them (see the bottom of this page for a full explanation: https://wessexleague.org/rules/tournament-rules/)
      • A/B Split: If the Women’s+ tournaments are sufficient large (40+) and there is an obvious ratings divide we may also run A/B tournaments for these categories
      • If a fencer prefers to be placed in Category A rather than Category B, they can indicate this preference on the booking form. However, we will only move fencers to Category A if they are on the borderline and there are still available spots in Category A.
  • We may publish some information about where we except to split tournaments in to A/B but this can change up until the day due to drop outs affecting the borderline. 

As well as competitions, there will be a dedicated large sparring and warm-up area available throughout both days. We only ask that sparring stops during the finals for each tournament.

Refund Policy:

• • Refunds are available for any (or no) reason up until General Booking closes (May 18th) – simply email us and we will refund the booking. Refunds may take a few days to process, especially if it is close to the event.
  • Transfers are available at any time. You may arrange to give your spot to anyone you like. If you paid in full or they are eligible for the same discount as you, then you may simply arrange payment between each other. If you had a discounted ticket that they are not entitled to they must also pay us the difference in ticket price.
  • Late Refunds are available if you are suffering from an infectious disease. We would rather attendees not come in these situations!
  • If you are staffing we will also refund you in full if you must drop out of a tournament (e.g. for injury) but are still attending to staff. In this situation you will also be entitled to the full volunteer expenses.

In all cases, simply email us to arrange the relevant refund. Please try to give us as much warning as possible as managing late refunds takes a lot of effort and in the run up to the event we are very busy with final preparations to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Equipment and Rules:

• • Bring-Your-Own-Weapon: For all tournaments. Your sword will need to be checked against our requirements before the tournament: please give your sword to the sword-checking team at least 1 hour before your competition

• • Tournament Rules and Equipment Requirements: Please be sure to read the tournament rules and minimum required equipment requirements. It is your responsibility to make sure you have the correct equipment for the event – if you do not have sufficient or appropriate equipment you will not be allowed to fence in the tournament. 
  • Borrowing Equipment: Contact organizers for potential arrangements and we may be able to support

Accommodation:

• • On-site Twin Rooms (+2 quad rooms): £100 per person for 2 nights (Friday/Saturday – breakfast included), limited availability.

• • Booking: First come, first served. Booking using this form is for one place in a twin room rather than a whole room. If you are planning to share with someone, please ensure they also book/you make a separate room booking on their behalf. Both note your preferred room mate when booking, otherwise you will be randomly assigned.
    

• • Double rooms or longer stays are also available from Bisham Abbey directly at a slightly higher rate.  There are other accommodation options in Marlow and the surrounding area.
    

Meals and Refreshments:

• • On-site Cafe: Provides meals, drinks, and snacks.

• • Friday Social: Local pub, details TBA.

• • Breakfast Included: For on-site accommodation.

• • Saturday Social: Details TBA.

Volunteer Opportunities:

• • Benefits:
  • You will get Albion Cup 2025 t-shirt
  • You will get one free tournament entry
  • Lunch (in the form of pizza) will be provided
  • You will get at most 2 staffing shifts per day, aiming for a maximum of 3 overall
  • In exchange we ask that you book a maximum of 2 open tournaments if attending both days, or 1 if attending only 1 day

• • Types of Work: Indicate preferred tasks in questionnaire.

• • Purely Volunteering: Officiating only, travel costs reimbursed (up to £80), lunch provided.

Merchandise:

This year we are offering possibility to buy Albion Cup merchandise in a form of t-shirts. You can pre-order both at the ticket booking page and collect them at the tournament.

Pre-order your tournament merchandise by May 1st, 2025 to guarantee on-time delivery! Orders cannot be placed after this date.

HEMA Gear and Weapons Vendors:

We are excited to host HEMA vendors this year. Limited spaces for stalls are available for the entire tournament weekend (14-15 June 2025). To secure your spot contact us on wessexleague@gmail.com

If you are interested in sponsoring our tournament and providing prizes for the winners please contact us!

Cost to attend: 

• ONLY volunteering as an official, without participating in any tournaments – FREE of charge.

• £40 per open competition entry
• £35 for women’s+ tournaments

Disclaimer: By registering you agree to the following statement:

“I understand that whilst every care will be taken to give safe instruction, I accept full responsibility and consider myself fit to participate. I have answered all questions correctly and all medical and health considerations are noted below.”

How we use your data: We will only use your personal data for managing our events. By registering you agree to share the data from your matches with HEMA Ratings and HEMA Scorecard,. We cannot accept your registration if you do not agree to this as these are necessary to run the event. Your results will also be posted on our website.

We may share or publish anonymous and/or aggregate data based on your personal data through our research partners (Historical Fencing Research Ltd). We will only share or publish data where the individual cannot be directly identified from the dataset. This is primarily to aid safety and other essential research. Examples include:

• Statistics on swords or equipment in use at our events
• Reports on injuries at our event

If you don’t want to appear in HEMA Ratings, you can contact HEMA Ratings directly and ask for your record to be anonymised. Your data will still be submitted, but it will not appear in any public page.

Our full privacy policy can be found here: https://wessexleague.org/about/gdpr/

If you missed out on a tournament please sign up to the waiting list by clicking here. If anyone drops out we will contact you.