BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:7@wessexleague.org DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20231021T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20231022T180000 DTSTAMP:20230915T113836Z URL:https://wessexleague.org/events/wessex-league-2023-taunton/ SUMMARY:Wessex League 2023 - Taunton DESCRIPTION:Booking opens Friday September 8th at 12pm and closes Friday Oc tober 13th at 6pm\nThe UK's only HEMA Tournament League continues with the second leg of the year hosted by Taunton Longsword Association. Founded i n 2004 and based in Taunton\, TLA specialises in the two-handed longsword focusing on the German Tradition Liechtenauer tradition\, with occasional dips into other systems and weapons.\nWe will be running 8 competitions (4 Open\, 2 women's &\; 2 beginners)\n\n Open Longsword\n Open Rapier & amp\; Dagger\n Open Sabre\n Open Sword &\; Buckler\n Women's+ Longsw ord\n Women's+ Sabre\n Beginners' Longsword\n Beginners' Sabre\n\nIf yo u miss out on tickets for a particular tournament there is a waiting list which we will offer tickets to as and when they drop out. We recommend reg istering for any other tournaments you are interested in\, and then fillin g out this form: Waiting List\n\nNote: The beginners and women's tourname nts run alongside each other with opposite weapons\, and you cannot compet e in two events running at the same time\, so please take care when bookin g not to choose the two that clash. Please see below for entry criteria.\n \n \;\n\nBe aware we have a shorter than usual day on Saturday and a m uch changed time-table compared to other events - please review carefully. \n\n\nVenue:\n\n\nCastle School\, Wellington Road\, Taunton TA1 5AU  : h ttps://maps.app.goo.gl/99hF3SzWAYiwx4kr7\n\n\nMeals and refreshments:\nThe re is a large Tesco about 10 mins walk away from Castle School\, the town centre is another 15 mins on from that. Pizza will be provided for all vol unteers. \n\nFriday Social\n\nThe Plough Inn\, 75 Station Rd\, Taunton TA 1 1PB\n\nSaturday Social:\n\nDeckhouse\, 3-6 Cheapside\, Taunton TA1 3LG\n Rules &\; Equipment\nPlease be sure to read the tournament rules and mi nimum required equipment requirements. It is your responsibility to make s ure you have the correct equipment for the event - if you do not have suff icient or appropriate equipment you will not be allowed to fence in the to urnament. If you are missing particular items please contact us and we may be able to arrange something to be borrowed.\n\nWomen's+ Tournament Entri es\nThe women’s category in HEMA tournaments was originally created to p rovide meaningful challenges for women. The ultimate aim of providing them has been to: allow fencers to test their skills in a situation without ro utine physical disadvantages\; understand their progress relative to their peers year on year\; give greater access to tournaments to an under-repre sented gender in our sport\; ensure people realise that their gender does not prevent them from participating in HEMA.\n\nWhile the primary intent i n the past has been to support women\, we recognise that many of considera tions above apply equally to many non-binary fencers as well. Therefore\, this tournament is open to:\n  a) Women (for the avoidance of doubt: cis or trans)\n  b) Any non-binary fencers who feel the issues above also app ly to them\, and that their presence in the tournament wouldn’t detract from the aims in regards to women\n\nWe recognise that there are a wide ra nge of non-binary genders\, and not all of them will feel comfortable part icipating in the women’s tournament. It is entirely up to the fencer in question whether they think the Women's+ is suitable for them. The Open to urnaments are all open to any gender. \n\nBeginners' Tournament Entries\n \n\nWhen Wessex was first created\, there was a limited competitive scene in the UK\, and most of the competitors were relatively new.  Every year we have seen a higher standard of fencing from our regulars and more peopl e come from further away to participate in our events. This is fantastic\, but has meant that it is harder for new fencers who have never competed t o join in with the event and participate. For this reason we have decided to include 2 small beginners tournaments this year.\n\nThe beginners' tour naments are open to any gender. While we are not putting strict rules on " beginners"\, as a rule of thumb if you have less than 2 years HEMA experie nce and have never made it out of the pools\, the beginners should be perf ect for you. Some fencers may still consider themselves a beginner even af ter this point - if you are unsure\, speak to your instructor or the Wesse x team.\n\nIf you are a regular competitor\, instructor\, and/or have mult iple years of martial arts &\; HEMA experience\, likely the Opens are a better fit for you.\n\nYou may not book both the beginner tournament and the open tournaments of the same weapon. You may book the women's tournam ents and the beginners' tournaments of the same weapon\, as long as you ar e not booking two tournaments running at the same time.\nVolunteering:\n\n Competitors who would like to help us as volunteers receive a free lunch and a discount on your ticket \n Please state what kind of work you are interested in in the following questionnaire. \n After deciding on the n umber of shifts please use the following discount code before checkout - V OLUNTEER5 for 1 shift and £5 discount\, VOLUNTEER10 for 2 shifts and £10 discount\, VOLUNTEER15 for 3+ shifts and £15 discount.   \n ONLY vol unteering as an official\, without participating in any tournaments – F REE of charge. We will pay up to £50 towards your travel costs and will provide lunch on a day of volunteering.\n\nCost to attend: \n• ONLY v olunteering as an official\, without participating in any tournaments –  FREE of charge.\n\n £25 per open competition entry\n £20 for beginn ers'/women's+ tournaments\n\nDisclaimer: By registering you agree to the f ollowing statement:\n\n“I understand that whilst every care will be take n to give safe instruction\, I accept full responsibility and consider mys elf fit to participate. I have answered all questions correctly and all me dical and health considerations are noted below.”\n\nHow we use your dat a: We will only use your data for managing our events. By registering you agree to share the data from your matches with HEMA Ratings and HEMA Score card\,. 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.\n\nIf you don't want to appear in HEMA Ratings\, you can cont act HEMA Ratings directly and ask for your record to be anonymised. Your d ata will still be submitted\, but it will not appear in any public page.\n \nIf an event says N/A it is sold out - please fill out this form to go on the waiting list: Taunton Waiting List\n \; LOCATION:Castle School\, The Castle School\, Wellington Road\, Taunton\, TA 1 5AU\, United Kingdom X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=The Castle School\, Welling ton Road\, Taunton\, TA1 5AU\, United Kingdom;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=C astle School:geo:0,0 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20230326T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR