Oyster Fayre 2008 This years Oyster Fayre was held over the weekend of the 7th and 8th of June. The fayre is one of the largest medieval fayre’s held in Europe and makes a wonderful backdrop for the Aisle O’var backswording Clubbe’s first English Country Backswording tournament final of 2008. The Oyster fayre cup was won last year by Steve ‘The Bulldog’ Williams who is the current UK Shin Kicking champion who had, himself fought through qualifying rounds to earn the right to defend his title. Running up to Oyster Fayre the AOBC holds qualifying rounds in English Country Backswording to find the best 8 crack cudgel players to fight in the final. This year’s line up was…. Steve ‘The Bulldog’ Williams Tina ‘Long Meg’ Holland Barry Voice Jack ‘Wolfsbane’ Reynolds Tom Reynolds Jim Kindratiuk Tony ‘The Spider’ Mager Steve ‘The Surgeon’ Scurfield All champions in their own right. The weekend got off to a wet start with persistent rain on the Saturday which the 8 finalists fought through with great vigour and determination despite the tournament arena becoming increasingly muddy, testing their fighting skills to the limit. Regardless of the rain there was a good audience who cheered on their favourite champions with the traditional rousing English chant of ‘BLOOD, BLOOD, BLOOD!’ To watch a video of the final click here The first round fights were hard and fast but at the end of the day only 4 winners could go through to the semi finals on Sunday morning. Sunday brought the sun out and helped to dry up the tournament ring giving the four finalists a surer footing to fight for the cup. After the mornings 2 bouts the line up for the grand final in the afternoon was… Fighting for bronze Jack ‘Wolfsbane’ Reynolds V’s Barry Voice Fighting for the Oyster Fayre cup Tony ‘The Spider’ Mager V’s Tom Reynolds The bronze medal contest saw a fine display of form, skill and speed with the cudgel from both players. Eventually though the bronze medal went deservedly to Jack ‘Wolfsbane’ Reynolds. And for those who doubt that these chaps mean to win, take a look at these photo’s. This is not re-enactment this is a hard sport for hardy folk! From the left: Jack, Tony and Tom The Final was fought in front of a huge crowd of spectators who literally roared with excitement as the two champions fought it out for the Gold medal and Silver medal positions. Both fighters fought with passion and treated the cheering crowd to an amazing display of cudgel play. In the end though there can be only one winner. The Silver medal position went to Tom Reynolds, however the glory of winning the Oyster Fayre Cup and becoming champion of the fayre 2008 went to Tony ‘The Spider’ Mager. After the tournament Tony was asked how he felt about winning to which he said, holding his new baby daughter Freya in one arm and the cup in the other “ I now have two trophy’s to be proud of!” Tony ‘The Spider’ Mager Oyster Fayre Cup Winner 2008 www.oysterfayre.co.uk
