Wessex League 2024 – Exeter

General Booking opens October 5th at 10am and closes November 15th 6PM

Reminder: Volunteers, please don’t forget the discount code 

The finals for Wessex 2024 will take place in Exeter, hosted by Exeter Sparring Group

• Open Longsword A & B
• Open Rapier & Dagger
• Open Sabre
• Open Sword & Buckler
• Women’s+ Longsword
• Women’s+ Sword & Buckler
• Beginners’ Sword &Buckler

If you 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 registering for any other tournaments you are interested in, and then filling out the waiting list form here.

Venue:

St Luke’s Church of England School, Hart’s Ln, Exeter EX1 3RD

Meals and refreshments:

Friday Social

• TBC.

Saturday Social

• TBC

Tournament Rules

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. If you are missing particular items please contact us and we may be able to arrange something to be borrowed.

Open Longsword A & B
Open Longsword will be split into A and B divisions. We will be taking all Open Longsword entries and splitting them into two groups, based primarily on HEMA Ratings. In later events, past medallists of Longsword B will be put in Longsword A for the rest of the tournament season.

Women’s+ Tournament Entries
The women’s category in HEMA tournaments was originally created to provide meaningful challenges for women. The ultimate aim of providing them has been to: allow fencers to test their skills in a situation without routine physical disadvantages; understand their progress relative to their peers year on year; give greater access to tournaments to an under-represented gender in our sport; ensure people realise that their gender does not prevent them from participating in HEMA.

While the primary intent in the past has been to support women, we recognise that many of considerations above apply equally to many non-binary fencers as well. Therefore, this tournament is open to:
  a) Women (for the avoidance of doubt: cis or trans)
  b) Any non-binary fencers who feel the issues above also apply to them, and that their presence in the tournament wouldn’t detract from the aims in regards to women

We recognise that there are a wide range of non-binary genders, and not all of them will feel comfortable participating 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 tournaments are all open to any gender. 

Beginners’ Tournament Entries

The beginners’ tournaments are open to any gender. While we are not putting strict rules on “beginners”, these events are best for people who have never entered a major tournament and have less than 2 years experience. Some fencers may still consider themselves a beginner even after this point – if you are unsure, speak to your instructor or the Wessex team. The tournament is intended for people new to competition. If you are normally entering open tournaments, then you should not be entering the beginners even if it is a new weapon for you. However we recognise that some beginners may wish to also dip their toes into the opens, particularly with Longsword B. We’d suggest discussing this with your instructor or the Wessex committee before trying the open.

If you are a regular competitor, instructor, and/or have multiple years of martial arts & HEMA experience, please enter the Opens instead.

You may book the women’s+ tournaments and the beginners’ tournaments, as long as you are not booking two tournaments running at the same time. Note: The beginners and women’s+ sword & buckler tournaments run alongside each other so you must chose one or the other. This is unfortunate but unavoidable within the time and space constraints we have for running the event.

Volunteering:

Most volunteers will have already received details of early booking.

If you would like to volunteer but haven’t signed up, there may still be opportunities depending on how many volunteers we have. Please fill out the Volunteering details below and email at wessexleague@gmail.com so that we can apply the discount after the fact. We may not need additional volunteers, or only be aware of our needs on the day so this refund may come after the event.

• Competitors who would like to help us as volunteers receive a free lunch and a discount on your ticket 
• This year we are offering a £25 off your booking for for volunteers
• Volunteers also get early booking for each event
• If you have received a volunteer code, please use it at checkout
• ONLY volunteering as an official, without participating in any tournaments – FREE of charge. We will pay up to £50 towards your travel costs and will provide lunch on a day of volunteering.

Cost to attend: 

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

• £35 per open competition entry
• £30 for beginners’/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:
By necessity, we must process your data and share with certain third parties to run the event. We also share anonymous data for research purposes in some cases. By signing up, you agree to have your data processes as described in the Data Protection & Sharing part of our website: 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.