BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:17@wessexleague.org DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250913T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250914T180000 DTSTAMP:20250912T131331Z URL:https://wessexleague.org/events/wessex-league-2025-colchester/ SUMMARY:Wessex League 2025 - Colchester DESCRIPTION:This year at Wessex we will be ensuring parity in Open and Wome n's+ tournaments - if we run an Open\, we will run a Women's+ in the same weapon. As a result we are no longer running beginners tournaments and the re have been major schedule changes from previous years that will affect b oth Opens and Women's+ events. We have also made some small changes to swo rd rules to codify decisions made last year and have further changes plann ed in 2026 so please read the below carefully even if you have been to Wes sex League before. \n\nWe have had to be creative with the schedule to al low for a full set of 8 events\, half of which also have A/B skill divisio ns. Many W+ events run at the same time as an open\, with two rounds of po ols. The purpose of this is to allow people to enter both the open and Wom en's+ if they are eligible\, and we will arrange it so that their pools in each event run at different times. All Women's+ tournaments have had enou gh spaces allocated to them to allow for large tournaments if there is int erest. If you are thinking of entering a Women's+ event\, please try to bo ok within 2 weeks of tickets going on sale. After 2 weeks we will look at the remaining spaces and the waiting list for the opens that run at the sa me time and may remove empty pools from the Women's+ events to create spot s for the corresponding open\, so we expect more waiting list tickets to b e released than previous years.\n\nIf you miss out on an open ticket\, ple ase make sure to join the waiting list here as we expect there to a higher chance this year of waiting list tickets being released because of this c hange.\nSkill Divisions\nEach tournament will have skill divisions where p ossible within the numbers of attendees and the schedule. Participants wil l be divided into each tournament based upon their HEMA Rating shortly bef ore the event. Those without a public HEMA rating will be placed to the be st of our abilities.  Simply sign up for the tournament and you will late r be placed in the appropriate event.  In future events\, medalists from earlier league events this year will also be placed into the the A divisio n regardless of rating. The league points for A and B are the same\, but y ou cannot win a league medal if you have not reached a quarter final in th e A division for the weapon or an undivisioned tournament. Anyone with eno ugh points to be considered for a medal will be placed in A for the final event.\n\nWe will be running  the following competitions:\n\n Open Longs word (A &\; B)\n Open Rapier &\; Dagger (A &\; B)\n Open Sabre (A &\; B)\n Open Sword &\; Buckler (No division)\n Women's+ Longsw ord (A &\; B)\n Women's+ Rapier &\; Dagger (No division)\n Women's + Sword &\; Buckler (A&\;B if over 30 participants)\n Women's + Sa bre (A&\;B if over 30 participants)\n\nIf 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 tour naments you are interested in\, and then filling out the waiting list form here. If Women's+ events are not sold out 2 weeks after tickets go on sal e\, we will make more spots available in the opens\n\nNote: Where opens an d women's+ events run alongside each other\, participants in both tourname nts will be placed in a Womens'+ pool that does not conflict with their op en pool. However\, this is not possible for Women's+ Rapier &\; Dagger and Open Sword &\; Buckler\, and you cannot participate in both of thes e events.\n\n \;\n\nSchedule\n\nPlease note that to accommodate the ch anges all finals for every tournament on the day will be at run at the end \n\n\nVenue &\; Travel:\nUniversity of Essex Sports Centre\, CO4 3SQ – free parking all weekend on campus. \nCampus taxi drop-off: north & \; south entrances\; follow signs to “Sports Centre”.\n Uber\, and loc al cabs run across Colchester &\; Wivenhoe. \nGetting to the competitio n venue:\nBy Train to Colchester (Main) – fast Greater Anglia services f rom London Liverpool Street in ±1 hour. From the station it’s ~3 miles to campus: hop on bus 51/87 (every 15 min) or grab a taxi (10-15 min).  \ nWivenhoe – handy if you’re coming from the Clacton/Walton coast\; 2 m iles to the Sports Centre: 8-min bus (route 51) or 5-min taxi\; walkable i n about 40 min along the river path. \nBy Car: \nLeave the A12 at the A133 Colchester/Wivenhoe exit and follow signs to “University of Essex”. \ nCampus multistorey &\; surface car parks sit 1-4 min from the hall and are free after 18:00 on weekdays and all weekend.\n\nSocials\nFriday soci al: Black Buoy\, Black Buoy Hill\, Wivenhoe – 5 min by taxi or one stop on the Colchester–Clacton line from Colchester station\, or Walton line from Colchester Town. \nSaturday social: The Castle Inn\, 92 High St\, Col chester – kitchen open till 21:30\; broad food options nearby. \nClosest car parks Car park Post-code On-foot to the pub NCP High Street CO1 1LU 1 –2 min (just behind the pub) St Mary’s Multi-storey CO3 3AA 3–4 min via footbridge over Head St Osborne St NCP CO2 7DT ~9 min straight up Quee n St/Head St Britannia Long-Stay CO2 7EF 8-10 min through St Botolph’s P riory\n\nMeals and refreshments:\nWe recommend bringing food with you. Whi le the campus has some food venues it is not clear if they will be fully o pen on the weekend\, and there are limited alternative options nearby. The re is a large Tesco 5 minutes drive/30 minutes walk from the venue.\n\nPiz za\, tea\, coffee and biscuits will be provided for staff only. Anyone sta ffing at any point over the weekend may help themselves at any time.\nRule s &\; Equipment\nPlease be sure to read the tournament rules and minimu m required equipment requirements. It is your responsibility to make sure you have the correct equipment for the event - if you do not have sufficie nt or appropriate equipment you will not be allowed to fence in the tourna ment. If you are missing particular items please contact us and we may be able to arrange something to be borrowed.\n\nSword Changes\n\nThe followin g rules codify how Wessex League the "vibes based" sword check run prior t o 2024\, or make changes that either increase permitted swords or do not b lock swords used last year. Almost all swords that passed checks last year will pass this year\, although some swords may need to be tipped that wer en't previously. These rules will be changing from 2026 to further reduce swords that are too stiff.  We are giving a year grace period to allow pe ople to acquire new swords if necessary.\n\nMaximum flex on swords (measur ed by pushing the sword into a scale from the crossguard and taking the ma ximum reading):\nLongsword: 20kg (16kg in from 2026)\nSabre and Sword & \; Buckler: 14kg\nRapier: 12kg\n\nTip Area\nNo sword may have a tip area b elow 75mm2 (9mm bullet case\, Sigi Standard Longsword)\, with a preferred tip size over 120mm2 (greater than .323 bullet case\, or Regenyei Standard rolled tip). Swords with plastic tips may be up to 1cm longer than the no rmal allowed sword length maximum to allow for the extra material in the t ip.\n\nNote: please check your sword before coming\, in particular sabres\ , sideswords and arming swords as many of these have smaller tips. Many sm aller tips (e.g. heat shrink end caps) can also come below this minimum. W e will have tipping supplies present but you must tip your sword at least 45 minutes before you are fencing to allow the plastic to set. PCL thermop lastic (recommended brand: Whitemorph or Colourmorph by Thermoworx) remain s our preferred method for tipping\, see this article for best practice on tipping: https://historicalfencingresearch.com/2025/06/13/common-thermopl astic-tip-failures-and-how-to-avoid-them/\n\nSword Length\nSwords for Swor d &\; Buckler may be up to 95cm in length. This reflects the changes in the market since the rules were first written as many sidesword providers do not offer swords within our original permitted lengths.\n\nSword Mass: \nThe maximum mass for longsword is reduced to 1700g\nThe minimum mass for sabre is reduced to 750g\n\nWomen's+ Tournament Entries\nThe women’s ca tegory in HEMA tournaments was originally created to provide meaningful ch allenges for women. The ultimate aim of providing them has been to: allow fencers to test their skills in a situation without routine physical disad vantages\; 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 fro m participating in HEMA.\n\nWhile the primary intent in the past has been to support women\, we recognise that many of considerations above apply eq ually to many non-binary fencers as well. Therefore\, this tournament is o pen to:\n  a) Women (for the avoidance of doubt: cis or trans)\n  b) Any non-binary fencers who feel the issues above also apply to them\, and tha t their presence in the tournament wouldn’t detract from the aims in reg ards to women\n\nWe recognise that there are a wide range of non-binary ge nders\, and not all of them will feel comfortable participating in the wom en’s tournament. It is entirely up to the fencer in question whether the y think the Women's+ is suitable for them. The Open tournaments are all op en to any gender. \nVolunteering:\nIf you would like to volunteer but hav en't signed up\, there may still be opportunities depending on how many vo lunteers we have. Please fill out the Volunteering details below and email at wessexleague@gmail.com so that we can apply the discount after the fac t.\n\n Competitors who would like to help us as volunteers receive a free lunch and a discount on your ticket \n This year we are offering one fr ee tournament entry for volunteers\n Volunteers also get early booking fo r each event\n If you have received a volunteer code\, please use it at c heckout\n ONLY volunteering as an official\, without participating in any tournaments – FREE of charge. We will pay up to £75 towards your tra vel costs and will provide lunch on a day of volunteering.\n\nCost to atte nd: \n• ONLY volunteering as an official\, without participating in a ny tournaments – FREE of charge.\n\n £35 per open competition entry\ n £30 Women's+ tournaments\n\nDisclaimer: By registering you agree to th e following statement:\n\n“I understand that whilst every care will be t aken to give safe instruction\, I accept full responsibility and consider myself fit to participate\, and that there are inherent risks with competi tive martial arts. I will follow instructions by judging staff and tournam ent organisers\, be respectful of my fellow competitors\, and use equipmen t in good condition with no known flaws. I have answered all questions cor rectly and all medical and health considerations are noted below.”\n\nHo w we use your data: Your will be used primarily for managing our events\, and for research into safety at HEMA tournaments.  By registering you agr ee to share the data from your matches with HEMA Ratings and HEMA Scorecar d\,. We cannot accept your registration if you do not agree to this as the se are necessary to run the event. Your results will also be posted on our website. We record injury data as part of understanding and managing risk across our events. Anonymised data (including injury data) may be shared with researchers for specific projects\, but we will not share your name o r other details\, and your data will never be used for marketing purposes outside of informing you of our own events. For a more detailed descriptio n see our privacy page.\n\nIf you don't want to appear in HEMA Ratings\, y ou can contact HEMA Ratings directly and ask for your record to be anonymi sed. Your data will still be submitted\, but it will not appear in any pub lic page. If your HEMA rating is anonymised\, please email us about whethe r you feel Tier A or Tier B is more appropriate for you in any of the tour naments you have registered for.\nIf a tournament doesn't appear in the li st below it means it is sold out. 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. 2 weeks after booking opens we will be reviewing W+ spaces a nd may expand opens if there are free pistes. LOCATION:Essex Sport Arena\, University of Essex (Colchester)\, Essex Sport Arena\, University of Essex Wivenhoe Park\, Colchester\, CO4 3SQ \, Unite d Kingdom X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Essex Sport Arena\, Univers ity of Essex Wivenhoe Park\, Colchester\, CO4 3SQ \, United Kingdom;X-APPL E-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Essex Sport Arena\, University of Essex (Colchester): geo:0,0 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250330T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR