First Annual Albion Cup Showcases Brains and Brawn

DORKING, UK – Albion Cup, a new multi-discipline tournament, wrapped up over the weekend of July 7th & 8th. The School of the Sword officially hosted the event with Fran Terminiello and Maria Makarova being the principle organizers. The event featured women’s longsword and women’s sword and buckler, the latter being an uncommon yet welcome category for most tournaments. It also offered rapier and dagger, open longsword, sabre, smallsword, and open sword and buckler.

Running such a large variety of weapons categories for a new tournament in its first year is ambitious to say the least. It requires a well organized schedule and time saving measures wherever possible. However, Fran Terminiello is no stranger to running HEMA events. She organizes the series of Wessex Leagues events for the United Kingdom. The depth of her experience helped the Albion Cup run smoothly for its maiden weekend.

It would be a disservice to the HEMA community to not acknowledge Maria Makarova’s contribution to the Albion Cup as well. Using Python, she wrote the tournament software application used by the event which kept track of match scores, time, and results. The application also calculated pool standings to determine which fighters would advance to eliminations. Maria’s software was indispensable, Fran said “we would not be able to pack such a tight schedule without it“. Maria designed the application to work offline, which makes the need for wi-fi obsolete, giving tournament organizers the freedom to host an event almost anywhere.

Not only was she a software superhero, but Maria also won the gold medal for women’s sword and buckler. Talk about brains and brawn! She defeated fellow Albion Cup organizer, Fran Terminello, who took silver in the category. The bronze medal went to Hanne Eik Pilskog, of Fekteklubben Frie Duellister.

Tosca Beuming, of De Zwaardkring, won the gold medal for women’s longsword with an 8-6 final score. Silver went to Emilia Skirmuntt, from School of the Sword, and bronze was claimed by Michela D’Orlando, of Ordine delle Lame Scaligere. This most recent bronze medal is number 21 for Michela, who always seems to be grinding away in the European tournament scene!

Women’s Longsword Medalists from left: Emilia Skirmuntt, Tosca Beuming, Michela D’Orlando. Photo credit: Richard Hughes

Women’s Sword & Buckler medalists from left: Hanne Eik Pilskog, Maria Makarova, Fran Terminiello. Photo credit: Richard Hughes