As always, our Sponsor, the Longs Peak Scottish-Irish Highland Festival and its personnel, were gracious hosts. We of the Alliance are proud to be a part of such an event. This year it attracted almost 70,000 people. The lovely town of Estes Park, Colorado, those picturesque Rocky Mountains, and the beautiful mule deer and elk that frequent the town and surrounding countryside, make this a splendid setting for the unique International Jousting Competition.

This year marked the fourth year the Alliance has presented this tournament. To date, we have had competitors form England, Canada, New Zealand, Germany and of course, from all across our United States of America. In 2001, we hope to add one or two new countries to the roster.

The Men's Tournament Jousting was won by Lloyd Clark, a veteran jouster from Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Women's jousting champion for the second year in a row was Cynthia Morrison of West Palm Beach, Florida. Both provided us with some exciting and tense moments. The highlight of this Tournament was most certainly the match between Lloyd Clark and the second place finisher, Steve Emmett, from Norco, California. Their first hit was an eye opener for everyone, as both Knights hit each other's shields so hard on the first pass that weaponry was lost, bodies were dislodged and Warhorses were slowed down dramatically from the impact. Every course these two made was hard hitting and exciting! It was electrifying! The audience responded very enthusiastically during this great match. And when the match was over, the spectators reacted with the same enthusiasm when these two Knights took off their helms, both grinning from ear to ear and shook hands. To me, this represents the essence of jousting. Hard hitting but with a great deal of respect beween competitors.

Not all is hearts and roses on the jousting field however. By its very nature, this sport is potentially dangerous, and no matter how much we try, injuries sometimes occur. Fortunately we have only had minor injuries to Knights, and to the credit of all competitors, we have never had a Warhorse injured during a tournament jousting match. Although we have had a perfect safety record for the previous three years at this event, it seems the law of averages has finally caught up with us. Two of our Members took trips to the hospital, one after being unhorsed with a minor concussion, the other with a lance to the thigh, which required several stitches. The only good thing about an injury is hindsight. By analyzing how and why an injury occurred, we do our best to eliminate the circumstances that led to the injury happening in the first place. But make no mistake about it, the sport of jousting will never be 100 percent safe, and it really wouldn't be as fascinating to us if it were.

So let's analyze these two incidents. The first came when Lloyd Clark delivered a strong blow to Mitch Machtan's shield. The shield came back into Mitch's helm. This blow to the head from the shield is what caused Mitch's concussion. This occurred before he hit the ground. These two men wanted to try a new type of shield that was covered with leather. Instead of Lloyd's lance tip veering off the shield, it embedded into the shield. This is a good reason why we won't be allowing any experimental equipment to be used in future tournament competition.

Our second injury occurred when Canadian competitor Marieanne Stilljer's lance hit Cynthia Morrison's shield and ricocheted downward. If Marieanne would have relaxed her grip there would have been no harm done. Instead, Marieanne's adrenalin took over. She held onto the lance until it exploded in her hand. As a result, Cynthia took a lance tip in the thigh, which took months to heal after the stitches were removed. All of us as competitors should and must learn to relax our grip in an instant. From now on a competitor must demonstrate during pre-tournament qualifications their ability to do this or they will not be allowed to joust in competition.

The field of competitors in attendance were mostly veterans, with a few rookies. Lloyd Clark began his career at Medieval Times, then went on to joust for a number of years at the Bristol Renaissance Faire. Cynthia Morrison came to train with the Alliance over three years ago. Before that she competed alongside the men in Scottish Highland Games, and was the first woman to be allowed to compete in these games in Scotland. Steve Emmett has been jousting with the Alliance for over five years. He has really come into his own recently and he is a true gentleman as well. Mitch and Matt Machtan both began their careers at the Bristol Faire, and both are very game on the field. Dustin Stephens and first year competitor, Jerry Gordon, both hail from the state of Texas and they were both a pleasure to work with. And boy can that Jerry hit the quintain! Andy Brotherton narrowly missed third place in the Men's Jousting. Andy did some nice work on and off the field. Marieanne Silljer drove all the way from Edmonton Alberta, Canada to joust. This was her first jousting competition.

The most important difference in this year's competition from past years was the real respect between competitors. No one felt they had to devastate or unhorse an opponent to win a match. More experienced Knights were taking it a little easier on the less experienced competitors and still accumulating points. In my opinion, this concept of jousting is crucial for the future growth of the sport.

And we can't forget our Warhorses, for without whom we'd look rather funny jousting. They all (well, almost all) handled themselves (and were handled) well. There's nothing like that feeling when Horse and Rider are working together in harmony.

May Chivalry Live On!

James Zoppe
Founder and Director
American Jousting Alliance

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