This year 20 armoured and ready to fight ladies entered the list across the weekend.
Not only did they demonstrate ALL forms of HMB categories to the public, they did a mass battle practice and 9vs9 fights and even experimented with the new 2vs2 category.
#shefights, and she fights well!
We can safely say that some real talent is rising in the United Kingdom, the ladies fought alongside each other but also represented their own clubs.
”Along with Swords of Cygnus we had Hellions of Armoured Combat Gloucester provisioning buhurt and 2v2 teams.
However, in all we had fighters from other U.K clubs including The Glasgow Sword Breakers, Deil’s Claymores, Invicta, White Company and Northern Wolves.” says Jo Booth, one of the main organisers of the tournament at Fantasy Forest.
”The organisation had its difficulties, but a lot of that was to do with covid regulations and maintaining safety.
We have strong women’s captains in the U.K who can prepare their teams for events which is very helpful.
But most importantly my own team took on different roles and used their expertise to support me.”
Of course we hope that in the future many countries will be able to join or make a tournament of their own, Jo gave some insight into how she organised Fantasy Forest.
”I take an entirely personal approach in organising Fantasy Forest.
I make an assessment of all the fighters we have in the U.K. and tailor each category to provide platforms for each woman to challenge herself within the sport.
For example, the triathlon category is not exercised anywhere at any tournament until Battle of the Nations.
I want U.K duelists to not only be invited to triathlon at the world championships but to experience the pressure of the category in competition.
The Mass battles category included practice on the Saturday, a training seminar on the Sunday and then a rematch.
Again this is entirely structured to facilitate growth and learning.
All of the categories I chose have specific reasons and goals behind them with each fighter of the U.K in mind, and the variation gives newer fighters to find their place in HMB.”
The future goal for Fantasy Forest is to attract more international teams and create a solid base for females to fight.
Nikki Beeftink, Communication officer
