ARTS AND CULTURE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

Shows a photograph of two knights dressed in full body armour jousting. They are both sat astride their horses and have just crossed jousts. In the background are two high rise buildings. Shows a photograph of two men on horseback. The one on the left is dressed in full body armour like a knight. The one on the right is dressed in medieval period costume. LEEDS CITY HERITAGE WEEKEND - ROYAL ARMOURIES IS JOUST THE TICKET

Photos: Courtesy of the Royal Armouries, Leeds. Roland Hancock grabbed his lance and headed down to the Easter Tournament at Leeds' Royal Armouries.

Three quarters of a ton of bad tempered warhorse, 80lbs of armour travelling at 30 miles per hour and an opponent ready to kebab you with a ten-foot pole. Welcome to the joust. Leeds Royal Armouries has been playing host to noble Knights and evil villains this Easter, eager to show the crowds their super sharp skills and steely nerves in the trials of medieval jousting. The heats are varied, from broadsword cabbage chopping, to pin point mounted spearing throwing to the inevitable mano a mano individual joust. The rules of the last event are as simple as they are brutal, gallop and hit your opponent with a big stick until hopefully he falls off his horse. Easy."Make no mistake, this is not choreographed, it’s an extreme sport and people do get hurt," says Leeds Royal Armouries marketing manager Debbie Jones. In fact, the only difference between today’s tournaments and the real thing is that the jousts are hollow. Cold comfort when one’s bearing down on you backed by a warhorse at full speed.Just before the Easter joust one of the Leeds Armouries’ riders broke his ribs after being unseated during a training session. If that doesn’t sound too bad, his replacement Andrew Bodley told me exactly how serious jousting injuries can be: "I rode for the Armouries for years before I ripped the tendons in my arm in a joust, I had to take two years off to make sure they healed properly, and this is my first tournament since". Ouch. Just think about the concept of jousting for a moment - it’s intentionally putting yourself in a car crash in a car eight feet from the ground with no air bag and no seat belt, every day until you get it right. So where do they find athletes skilled enough and mad enough to face the trials of the joust?" Anything you can do to think independently while riding a horse is what’s important", says Andrew, "we’re all professional horsemen, we’ve been training for between 15 and 20 years. The hardest thing is jousting in armour; even the least experienced of us have been riding with it for about six months. "We come from a variety of different horsey backgrounds. There’s an ex mounted policemen, an amateur jockey, even an ex mounted Royal Guardsman." And Andrew himself? "I grew up in Australia, where I learnt to ride while bush-bashing and chasing kangaroos." So that’s where you find people willing to joust for a living, chasing kangaroos in the bush.

Shows a photograph of a man dressed in armour. He is holding a large silver sword.

Photo: veteran Armouries jouster Andrew Bodley gets into the mood by posing with the 'sword of honour.' Photo by Roland Hancock.

Twelve of Europe’s best riders faced each other over the Easter weekend - two teams from the Armouries, Destrier from Holland (the current champions) and the Knights from Burgundy - in the Sword of Honour tournament. Andrew was confident of a win for the home team, "Destrier might have the sword at the moment, but we’ve got two strong teams this year and we’re going to take it back. We have a good mix of youth and experience which is what the best teams need." All the pressure of a European tournament, all the focus of athletes almost literally going to war, and there’s still the small matter of over a thousand fans to please. Jousting is more than just a sport, it’s historical theatre. "We’ve got eight horses out for each of the shows, and a host of flags, and all the ceremony of the medieval court to try and add as much colour and pomp to the event as we can," says Andrew.There aren’t many museums around that can offer the same heart pounding excitement while bringing the past to life. For example, Andrew jousts wearing a replica of a little known 17th century helmet, a design lost for hundreds of years. There’s no way it would get this much attention left to gather dust at the back of a museum vault and certainly no way it would be tested like it is during a punishing round of jousting. Just pity the poor head inside it.

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