My first ever buhurt tournament was fighting at Castleton in April 2025 with about 2 weeks notice after someone in the club was injured, so I got to use most of their kit as well as their place on the team. It was a fun day but most of my experience was being bent over in a kit with a limited range of mobility. It was still a great experience for my first proper Buhurt but I left with a couple of regrets, not getting a clean take down, I did manage to take down one person with help of a teammate, but in doing so also took out said teammate (sorry Alex!). My second regret sounds a bit peverse but I managed to survive the tournament without taking any big hits, and after two of my teammates got concussions in the tournament it was a worry that would I still want to do the sport if I took a big hit, it feels like one of those things you only know once you get hit (foreshadowing?).

With that in mind I was eager for Passage of Arms (PoA) in August, I already had armour on order, and a lot more notice in advance. PoA has duelling and buhurt, I was signed up for longsword so was focusing a lot in training with longsword duels and getting lots of lovely bruises. Unfortunately I found out though, that my armour was being delayed and would not be ready for Passage of Arms (in fact still not ready as of writing), this is common though with the sport getting more popular it's a lot of extra orders for popular armourers. Luckily for me I had a teammate roughly the similar shape who was happy to lend me his armour. I was also fortunate enough that another ISCA chapter (The Somerset Barons) was also fighting at PoA so we got to do a lot of armour training and duelling practice.

At this point I should also acknowledge all the support I was getting from my club, not in just training and borrowing gear but also with great advice and repairs, the sport makes you learn a lot of new skills outside of just how to hurt people and learning from those more experienced helps a lot.

So finally on to Passage. It's a two day event with duelling and meatgrinder (exactly what it sounds like) on day one and buhurts and more meatgrinder on day two. After a light breakfast and a final evacuation of the bowels I got armoured up ready to spend the next 8 or so hours encased in steel. Longsword duels are first up, my first opponent a giant from Invicta called Greg, squaring up my thought is mainly "How am I supposed to hit his head, it's in the sky!", however being 5'9 I know that in the sport I count as one of the smaller ones in the sport so something to get used to. Luckily for me Greg's guard leaves him open to hand shots and I take full advantage to snipe the gauntlets when I can, I do later find out I give him a hematoma on his thumb from one of those strikes, and before you feel sorry for him he hits me in the forearm hard enough that edges of armour dig into me and give me a big bruise. Greg also does HEMA so was way more experienced with duels than me, Greg manages to take the victory but it was still a close fight.

The rest of the duels are close contests too, lots of hitting the gauntlets and I manage to even do a flashy dodge. Swinging swords around takes a lot of energy and even though the duels are relatively short, getting arm stamina is very important. I don't manage to make it out of the group stage for the duels, but the day isn't done… Onto the meatgrinder!

The name is appropriate. A huge field used for jousting, stick in every willing fighter and to the fight. By this time the arm hit from the biggest Greg in the duels (a lot of big Gregs around that day) had managed to make it painful to grip with my left hand, so I opted to fight with a mace. They made us fight four gruelling rounds, small teams of 3/4, then half the field fighting, and finally a free for all, by the end of it I am feeling ground out, mainly because I was introduced to the ground every time, if a lesson is to be learned it's look behind you after I was blindsided multiple times. No more fighting for me that day though.

On to day 2, with copius amount of ice, my arm is feeling better and can grip things. Buhurt day has come and yesterdays meatgrinder is a small taste of what's in store for me today. 3 vs 3 fights with a sub, we come with a plan to tire them out in the first round and in the second we sub in our big Callum to knock em all down. We get armour checked by the marshals and my helmet doesn't have enough neck protection for them to be happy with, another lesson to get more people to check your armour. I have a spare helmet though so swap it out. I manage to get it changed quick but the sight I return to isn't great, Callum is backed into a corner facing 2 fighters, the rest of field is on the floor. Callum is a hard man to take down though so it's a bit of a stalemate, however a time out with them a man up would be a round loss for us, so a key Buhurt skill was used, and that was shouting very loudly at your teammate, the helmets are big earmuffs so shouting is critical to get people to hear. We just need Callum to take down one guy to get a draw, and with a heroic effort he manages to take down one guy until the round times out.

The next two rounds go quicker in comparison, we have a takedown beast in the form of Piotr and in both rounds we manage to take them down quickly. Unfortunately team injuries mean that the rest of the day it's Piotr and I fighting against the world.

The buhurt community is quite friendly though so for our fights teams agreed to do 2 vs 2 fights. We face an Invicta squad but get beaten, the lack of substitutes between rounds really takes effect, especially when we fight 2 fresh fighters each round. We have a mixed bag in the rest of the fights, losing 2-1 to our neighbours Draig (Wales), but managing to beat ACG 2-0 after. In the fight with Draig I do take a surprise hit in the elbow from their giant with a halberd, so quick discovery that no I don't want to get hit by that again, but I definitely want to keep on fighting.

With our results we qualify for the finals, but first another meatgrinder, this time it's a series of mass battles before a final free for all, in the final free for all I manage to get my first clean takedown of the day, quickly followed by being tackled from behind. And then we are in the finals, the only non Invicta team to make it through. It's a gruelling match, and it's tough for opponents too. We discover that the 2 vs 2 agreement with Invicta was supposed to actually be no subs from them to keep it fair, very much appreciated.

It's hard to remember the exact order, we draw a round, we lose a round, and we win a round, I manage to get a solo takedown but it felt more like opponent slipped a bit, and I follow that by somehow being taken down from a guy stuck in the corner, but I took his gauntlet down with me. So going into round 4, and at this stage pretty damn tired, I get my fighter against the list. With me facing this fighter I don't know whats behind me (seems familiar), and then the next thing I know I'm kicked in the leg and on the floor with my leg hurting pretty bad, bad enough that the fight is stopped. Lesson again being look behind you, around the 4th time I've been totally blindsided and this time it cost my patella which decided to go from looking like O to >.

So I definitely took a big hit, and I got a couple of clean takedowns. Objectives complete. This is an absolute win in my book....

While my patella was taking a tour around my knee I was given the magic green kazoo of pain relief, this is after being mostly stripped down and some fashionable slits made on my pants, very appreciative for the first responders and one did manage to re-locate my patella back home. I was left on a makeshift stretcher, I got to know this stretcher and the lovely people from St Johns ambulance for the next 5 cold hours, as St Johns forgot their ambulance, so I got to learn new skills like peeing in a bottle while horizontal. Ambulances are like buses and by the time the ambulance came so did a second, so I had my choice of ambulances to take me to A&E where I was for another 5 hours. Glenn from Invicta was kind enough to drive me from the hospital back to my car and even though I was in pain, a little bit incoherent from mixed sleep and most definitely sore from the weekend, all I was thinking about was how much I'm looking forward to the next one. Turns out I can take a big hit, bring on the next one! (not on the knee please)

Passage Of Arms 2025 - A New Fighters View

Heritage Shield 2025