Just uncovered ANOTHER old UK style stickfighter..... Singlestick veteran Mr D. Noble, originally from Glasgow, a former officer in a Scottish regiment, came third in the 1986 British National Singlesticks Championships!!! I have made contact and hope to hear more about these stickfighting championships from Mr Noble very soon! Louie
Hi Yoda.. He now lives in the Welsh Marshes I've mailed him and will pass on any info. His details are here.... http://www.duncannoble.co.uk/author.htm Louie
1986 British Singlestick Championships Mr Noble who won 3rd place in the 1986 British Singlestick Championships replied to my request for information on the event and details of his singlestick background. His reply may be of interest to members and I have posted it here, I hope to obtain more details in the near future Louie....... "Thank you for your email about singlestick fighting. I'm glad to hear that this most interesting exercise is going on under your care. For as a historian my interests are in sword fighting and I found sport fencing an unrealistic sport for the young and agile with little relationship to real sword play. In the early 80s I was in a fencing class run by Angela Goodall at Morley College, London. Angela and her husband Roy were stage fighting directors and when they ran a one week course on stage fighting I signed up. On the last day of the course they announced the championship and the dozen or so course students all fought in it. We used sabre fencing rules with masks, hits on the head allowed but no points. The winner was a young man who had never fenced before but was too fast to catch. Second came a 71 year old ex-RAF PT instructor. I, a heavy built student sabre fencer in my 50s, came third. The really good championship fencers came well behind. They could fence but not fight. My advantage I suppose was that as a boy in Glasgow I had boxed. Roy wanted to follow this up but I don't think anything came of it and shortly afterwards I retired and moved to Wales. I collect swords and keep my hand in with sabre work on horseback, using the old cavalry manuals. I have an article on singlesticks in with the editor of The Sword, The British Fencing Association newsletter, but I don't know when it is likely to be published. I'm interested to learn of these rules you use. Do you know where i can get copies of them? If I can tell you anything more, please get in touch. Mr D. Noble"
firstly Fascinating secondly Its kind of funny reading the same thing three times becauselouie posted it o two other groups.
Interesting stuff indeed. "British Singlestick Championships" seems a bit of a stretch though. It sounds very much like an in-house affair by a small group after a weeklong course.
British Championships! Yes, although I don't know if this event had some connection with Four singlestick championships that were held in Devon and Cornwall before 1985 and again in Plymouth in 1986.... Interesting to hear that the 1986 winner hadn't fenced and the really good championship fencers 'could fence but not fight' Louie
