Wessex League and Albion Cup are run by a committee of HEMA practitioners that come from a wide range of clubs across the UK. The core team includes our Committee that oversees all of our activities and several dedicated volunteers who support on particular specialist areas. Team members are sometimes involved in either Wessex, Albion or both.
Each year, we are joined by representatives from our Host Clubs who join the committee for the year they are hosting, and participate in planning and running the both the events they host and the other Wessex League events for the year.
Core Team
Jamie MacIver (He/Him)
Committee Member
Organises: Wessex League
Jamie has been involved in running the Wessex League since 2018, first as a Host Club rep and then from 2019 as part of the core committee. He has also competed every year in Wessex League and Albion Cup since they started.
Jamie has been doing HEMA since 2014, focusing on the longsword by Philippo Vadi. He teaches at the London Historical Fencing Club where he was one of the founding members, as well as regularly at national and international events. He also competes regularly at international competitions, including Dutch Lions Cup, Swordfish, and the European Games.
Emilia Skirmuntt (She/Her)
Committee Member
Organises: Wessex League & Albion Cup
Emilia joined both the Wessex League and Albion Cup committees and in 2019, and has competed every year since its inception.
Emilia is the head instructor for the Oxford chapter of The School of the Sword. She has trained how to hit people with swords and other objects for the last 20 years. During that time she has studied multiple weapons, systems, and in multiple different clubs, starting in Poland and then moving to London and Oxford. She has won medals in both women as well as open competitions both in the UK and abroad, fighting with longsword, rapier, rapier and dagger, saber, sidesword, and sidesword and buckler. She was also voted best technical fencer of By the Sword 2019. Emilia travelled around Europe leading workshops and seminars and was one of the representatives for the UK and Ireland HEMA team in the European Games taking place in Minsk in 2019.
Jon Middleton (He/Him)
Committee Member
Organises: Wessex League & Albion Cup
Jonathan Middleton is one of the founders of the Wessex League and has seen it grow from its inception in 2017 to a thriving fixture of the UK HEMA scene. He loves the community spirit that drives the Wessex events – collaboration and mutual support, alongside competition which is fierce, but honest and good hearted. Jon has been practicing HEMA since 2009, first in Exeter with IDC, then in London where he trained with various clubs and was a founding member of Waterloo Sparring Group. He now teaches at Wivenhoe HEMA, a club he started in 2021 after moving back to his native Essex
Nick Laing (He/Him)
Committee Member
Organises: Wessex League & Albion Cup
Nick, begrudgingly dubbed as the Wessex King of Safety due to his firm belief that a liberal application of thermoplastic makes everything better when it comes to sword points, has been studying the blade for ten years. For the majority of this vast stretch of time, Nick has been the cofounder and lead instructor of Cardiff’s Edel Fencing Academy, a queer run factory for the creation of eager and delightful tournament fencers that focuses on a strange combination of the teachings of Joachim Meyer and modern fencing. Nick has been competing in the Wessex League since its inception, has been involved in the organisation of events since 2018 and has yet to miss a leg… he thinks.(edited)
Pat Lawton (He/Him)
Committee Member
Organises: Wessex League & Albion Cup
Patrick joined the first the Albion then Wessex teams in 2022. He has been fencing with London Historical Fencing Club since 2018, and is currently the co-chair, as well as one of the organisers of London HEMA Open. He fences primarily Fiore’s Longsword, and with experience across a variety of disciplines.
Pedro San Miguel (He/Him)
Committee Member
Organises: Wessex League & Albion Cup
Pedro San Miguel is an instructor and fencer based in the UK. He joined The Wessex League as a competitor in its founding year, and has since participated in every iteration, earning 6 league championships and numerous individual event wins. In 2021 he was invited to join the organising committee, where he continues to work with his colleagues and fellow competitors on making The Wessex League the leading HEMA sporting league in the UK and beyond.
Perth Ophaswongse
Marketing Manager
Organises: Wessex League & Albion Cup
Perth runs the Wessex & Albion facebook pages and keeps the world fed with regular updates about what we’re doing. He spends most events going form piste to piste taking photos to prove that swords look as cool as they feel. As a result, no photo exists of Perth as he is incapable of walking to the other side of the camera.
Host Club Representatives
Exeter Sparring Group
Exeter Sparring Group was founded in 2017 as a sibling sparring circle to one of the UK’s oldest HEMA clubs, the Iron Door Collective. In January 2023, ESG came into new leadership and emerged as a club in its own right. Still with strong ties to its parent organisation, in the last year the club has gone on to define itself across the West Country as a diverse and welcoming training ground for all things related to competitive HEMA, including coaching and judge training. Aside from regular weekly training sessions, we now also host inter-club sparring days and workshops several times per year.
We currently have over 20 active members, for over half of whom Wessex League 2024 will represent their first time on the competition circuit.
Ben Luxa (He/Him)
My name is Ben Luxa and I started HEMA in 2018 with the Iron Door Collective in Exeter. I quickly found my passion for Liechtenauer (Lew) Longsword and progressed on to Exeter Sparring Group, where I learnt more about tournament fencing under my long-time mentor Michael Smallridge. My first experience of competition was in 2019 at the Wessex League.
In January 2023, I took on the role of Club Treasurer at ESG and started competing again. I am now a regular competitor on the UK tournament scene specialising in Liechtenauer longsword and I particularly enjoy the friendly yet challenging competitive atmosphere that the Wessex League offers.
Seb Tym (He/Him)
My name is Seb Tym and I started HEMA in 2021 with the Iron Door Collective in Exeter. In January 2023, I was elected President of Exeter Sparring Group and have since then taken a leading role in running the club, combining my passion for teaching with an extensive background in traditional taekwondo to help students develop their skills and to prepare them for competition.
My main interests within HEMA are British military sabre, German longsword, and mixed doctrine Verdadera Destreza, with special interests in the treatises of John Musgrave Waite, Johannes Liechtenauer (Lew), and (most recently) Manuel Antonio de Brea.
I have been competing, coaching, and staffing at Wessex League events since 2023, and I can’t wait to get to do it all again this year!
The School of the Sword Oxford
Founded in 2018, SotS Oxford is the third chapter of the School of the Sword. Training in Oxford City Centre, SotS Oxford specialises in Fiore Longsword, Dagger, and Unarmed, with an occasional dip into other Italian fencing traditions. The School of the Sword’s website can be found here: https://sword.school/.
Kristian Barlow (He/Him)
I started HEMA with SotS Oxford in October 2018, and have never looked back, becoming an instructor for the school last year. Mainly focussing on longsword at the start, I have now found a love of all things stabby, especially rapier & dagger. This will be my fifth year taking part in the Wessex League, and I can’t wait to be back on piste!
Charlotte Barlow (She/Her)
Hi I’m Charlotte. I started HEMA in 2018 as one of the first students of the new SotS Oxford. I mainly do longsword but I’m starting to branch into other weapons! Some of you may already know me as your friendly neighbourhood medic however, this year you’ll be seeing me on the piste at Wessex for the first time ever….please go gently on me!
Bath Historical Martial Arts
Bath Historical Martial Arts came into it’s current iteration in Late 2022*. Our primary area of study is German longsword, with a mix of influence from Joachim Meyer, The Von Danzig Manuscript, and common fencing. We also spend significant time on a rotation of other weapons, Including Capo Ferro’s rapier, mixed influence Sword and Buckler and the family of British military swordsmanship
Lyz Brown (She/Her)
I started HEMA with LHFC in 2018, training in Fiore’s longsword, American military sabre, and i.33 sword and buckler. After moving to Bristol in 2022 and training with AHF and BHMA, I have tried my hand at a lot of different weapons, but discovered my one true HEMA love is the mighty dussack.
I first competed in Wessex in 2019, thanks to kit generously loaned to my broke first-graduate-job noob self by the lovely folks of LHFC and the classic “three sabres in an umbrella stand” weapons tombola. Five years later, I’m glad to say I have all my own kit and swords and absolutely love competing in Wessex as much as I did the first time around. I’m really excited to be hosting a leg this year with BHMA and introducing sword pals from all over the place to lovely Avon and Somerset. Fight you soon!
Jack Edwards
My HEMA “career” began around 2017, when I first started training English backsword at the Wessex School of Arms. After that, I moved down to Plymouth, studying German longsword and eventually becoming the lead instructor of the local club. In 2022, I moved back up to Bristol, where I train with BHMA and help out with instruction, and also visit the AHF and other clubs when I can.
I’ve been poking my head up at Wessex since 2018, mostly competing in Sabre, and to show support My goal with Wessex this year is to encourage folks local to their events to attend, and help anyone with the courage to participate, particularly if they’re not part of a large club contingent, as I once did. If I’m not staffing or competing, feel free to ask me to act as your corner!
