The Weekly Warfare   Musings martial from across the SCA

Week 2 of the New Plan, and so far, three more for the records:

Mair’s Sickle fight 6: Gemina incisio contra geminam aversionem – Which inspires little commentary

Mair’s Sickle fight 7: Supera et infera incisio cum suis aversionibus – Which makes Wistric swear, SWEAR that he can decode the system, leaving him crouching over his computer like Richard Dreyfuss over a pile of mashed potatoes.

Mair’s Sickle fight 8: Binae incisiones contra earundem avarsiones – Where Wistric finally does make sense of it, not that he actually lets you in on the secret.  At least not in fight 8.  But here it is:

There are are only two guards.

“Left Shoulder” and “Middle” (“sickle toward enemy”, you could almost conceive of it as longpoint).  There is a sort of third guard,  the “position of lower incision”, formed like Middle but with the sickle downward.  No attacks start from here, though, only counter-attacks.  It serves as an invitation and counter-guard, but not as a platform to initiate action from.

The attacks (terminology and target) are consistent based on which foot is forward at the time of the blow (sometimes the guard starts with the right foot forward, but steps in with the left before striking.  So this is really the left foot forward guard).

Left Shoulder/Right foot: Plough up head from right
Left Shoulder/Left foot: Plough up Right arm

Middle/Left foot: Scratch head/neck (or left side, once)
Middle/Right foot: Scratch right arm or Plough up Neck or Head (or right foot, once)

There’s also the play where the attack comes from a left-handed Middle guard, with Left foot forward, and ploughs up the Left foot.  It’s the mirror of the Right-handed Middle, Right Foot, Ploughing up Right Foot.

The target then is basically arm, head/neck, or leg, and is dictated by measure.