The Skill-at-Arms Tournament was previously known as the Squires Tournament. The title being changed to more accurately reflect the fact that we have many more Knights, Lords and Ladies who prefer to enter this competition.

There are three Skill-at-Arms Tournaments daily. All participants must provide their own horse and those items listed in the required equipment section of the tournament rules. All riders must complete the on-line application form and be accepted to compete.

All riders will compete in each of the three tournaments daily. At other times participants can ride around the Festival in costume to add colour to the event.

Those riders selected to ride in the Grand Parades are required to muster, in appropriate dress, at the west side of the Castle by 10:40 am and 2:40 pm daily. They will ride with the Siege Armies then proceed to the Grand Arena. The exact format and timings for the Tournaments will be posted on this section of the website and emailed directly to all registered and accepted riders.

Competitors must be prepared to take part in the three Tournaments as listed below.

(See 'tournament rules' for full details of each game).

1st Tournament

Cabbage Cutting - better known as 'The Turks Head'. Cabbages to be cleanly cut - at the gallop.

Individual Pegging with Sword - wooden pegs taken from the ground at the gallop with a sword.

Two Oranges & Peg - each orange (at head height) to be sliced in half and the peg lifted from the ground with a sword. Requires co-ordination, suppleness and a good eye. Speed is essential.

2nd Tournament

Quintain - a shield on a pivotting arm must be struck with a lance at speed and with aggression. If this is not done, the sack is likely to swing round and strike the rider.

Throwing Spears - to be thrown over-arm at the gallop. Hitting the target may be easy but hitting the centre for full marks is not.

Tentpegging - supposedly Alexander the Great started this sport by training his cavalry to pin elephants' toenails to the ground. We have to make do with 3 inch wooden pegs. Pegs must be taken at the gallop on the end of a lance.

3rd Tournament

Skill-at-Arms Course - here the rider is tested with a variety of weapons. Firstly the bladders must be stabbed with a dagger as the rider jumps. The dagger must then be discarded into the bucket provided and a sword picked up for the purpose of running the two dummies through the heart. The sword is left in the last heart and a lance is picked up. An attempt should then be made to collect the two rings (at rider's head height) on the lance, followed by the taking of a peg from the ground. The hole in the rings is 2.5 inches wide. This trains the rider to find the weak spots in his opponent's armour.

Trophies and Prizes

There will be a bronze cast trophy awarded for highest overall score of the three day tournament.

There will be a bronze cast trophy awarded for the highest daily score of all the three days.

A prize will be awarded for each daily winner.

The trophies awarded, which are pictured to the left, are given to the winners to keep. A copy of the trophies will be held at the Castle and will be engraved with each year's winners names.