New England Jousting Association

Contact (Balsa) Jousting Tournament Regulations

1 Individual Behaviour :
-Participants are expected to observe elementary courtesy rules towards opponents, judges and spectators.
-Teasing the opponent is encouraged but cannot interfere with jousting itself. Though all competitors are highly encouraged to " play the part " in interacting with the crowd interventions will be family attendance oriented. No alcohol will be ingested during the competition.
-All riders and squires are to show highest respect towards horses well being. No exception made. Lists Marshall has power to remove anybody from the field for his own, his mount?s or third party?s good.
-All participants are expected to wear period garb reflecting the period fitting their jousting style.
ALL competitors and mounts must participate in a qualification test on the day prior to competition (usually the day before or the morning of the Joust) .
Test will consist in a demonstration of basic horsemanship in walk, trop and canter while performing skill games and quintain runs. Horses will be tested during a non contact pass by crossing an armored opponent holding a lance. Test will be juged by a tournament official.

2 Material :
-Contact jousters will use their own armour.
-Lances will be provided by the host group. Lances are 7 feet of 1.25 inch pine dowel with a pvc connector to seat the balsa and the balsa insert is 3 feet long and split along it's length (exact splitting is pending). The lance may have a metal vamplate bolted 24" from the butt end of the lance. Counterweights may not be used.
-Any tack style may be used but no riding crop is allowed.
-The Lists Marchall's decision is final!

Armour Specifications
-A jouster should wear at least a 3/4 suit of steel plate armor.
the following specifications are the suggested minimum.
Helms - minimum 16 gauge, with a locking visor and a 1/2" maximum eye opening
Gorget - min. 18 gauge
Breast Plate - min. 18 gauge
OR long sleeved maille over a heavy gambeson. Some sort of rigid body protection is still strongly suggested. May only use a shield.
Back Plate - min. 18 gauge
Elbow and Knee Cops - min. 18 gauge
Vambraces, Rearbraces, and Cuisses - min. 18 gauge
Pauldron, left side - min. 18 gauge
Gauntlets - no specs given
Brayette- no specs given

-Required target areas - All target areas must have a minimum size of 12" tall by 12" wide
Grand Guard and Buff - min. 16 gauge
Grand Guards must be mounted to the breast plate, cover the left armpit.

Wooden targe - targe min. 1/2" thick
Targe must be mounted to the breast plate or shoulder and cover the left armpit.

Wooden shield - shield min. 1/2" thick
Shield must be carried on the left arm and should cover half the rider while sitting in the saddle. Participants may use flexible body armour like mail, leather or flexible coat of plates behind a shield.

-Equipement is controled by the List Marshall. Armour style only has to respect historical tradition regarding a period ranged from Middle Ages to Rennaissance (Mail+Shield to Plate Armour)

3 Protocol :
-Competitors are split in groups. Groups, riding order and schedule is published on the stable board.
-When scheduled, each group will show up in the arena.
-Groups will be assigned a STAND BY AREA according to their group?s lances color (RED/BLUE).
-All participants are individually introduced to the audience.
-Riders can bring their own banner and or national flag.
-Lists Marshall will call for the joust and everyone makes it back to the STAND BY AREA.
-When called contestants are to ride to their end of the lists to be handed their lance.
-Squires hand the lances over, the riders signal ready by lifting their lance and wait for the Marshall's signal to lay on.
-After the pass, one hands the lance to the arming squire who presents it to the judge for scoring and rides back to his corner to get the next lance.
-No items or weapons will be thrown at squires and ground crew. Everything is to be fair handed.

4 Mounts :
-Any rider or mount will be refused participation in the competition if security is put at risk or the mount is shying off consistently.
-Exclusion from the tournament DOES NOT entitle in any manner for financial claim.
-Competitors not known to the hosting group are encouraged to send a demo tape when doubting about equipment or riding abilities.
-It is the rider?s decision to take part to a riding competition after getting clearance from tournament authorities. He is also to evaluate his mount. Veterinary staff should be available.
-Participants are urged to display great respect towards the mounts. Should a pair encounter difficulties to safely participate, it is Marshall?s duty to remove a horse and/or his rider from the arena.

5 JOUSTING :
-When both opponents are ready, Lists Marshall gives clearance to lay-on.
-Counter lists are in use to guide mounts along the whole lists length.
-Riders can keep control of the reins at al time.
-Knights joust passing left-to-left.
-Strikes are to be targeted at the opponent's target area. Strikes are delivered with the lance point.
-Should a jouster?s lance glance off the legal striking zone and strike and illegal target zone of his opponent he will still be awarded the appropriate points, as the strike was delivered with the lance point on a legal strike zone. Should a jouster?s lance glance off the legal strike zone and strike his opponent mount, he will STILL be penalized.
-Should a knight be disqualified or unable to continue in a match because of injury or other causes this will be seen as a forfeit with his opponent wining the match. If the competition formula requires points gain, any jouster deprived from opponent will be credited of the average score gained in his matches of the day or he may ask a fellow competitor to ride against him and allow him the lances he was forfeit. Only the deprived jousters points will count toward the competition.
-Should a knight experience any problems with his equipment that prevents him from jousting safely the match he will be given 2 minutes to fix the problem or forfeit the match.
-Any knight unhorsed during a match will be given 5 minutes to re-mount once he is on his feet and continue the match

-Scoring:
Each competitor will be awarded the following points :
1 point for a touch to his opponents target area (shield, targe or grande guard) with the point of his lance
3 points for a lance broken in half due to a good hit with the lance point to his opponents target area.
5 points for a lance shattered (broken into 3 or more pieces) due to a good hit to his opponents target area with the point of his lance.
There will be no extra points awarded for the unhorsing of an opponent.
-Penalties
-3 points for striking an opponant in an illegal target area with the point of the lance with initial contact
-5 points for acts that show disrespect or disregard for mounts while jousting. ie. Using your reins to recoup from an unhorsing, or excessive rough handling of a horse.(Judge's discresion)
-5 points for acts that show disrespect or disregard for an opponent, field officials, or spectators while jousting or unsafe practices in the list or on the field, including using profanity.(Judge's discresion)
-10 points will be deducted for a glancing strike that hits a horse.
-10 points for striking an opponant's head with the point of the lance at initial contact
-Strike an opponants horse with the point of the lance with initial contact - Disqualified
A knight's total score for a match is the combined total of points awarded for every unpenalized pass, minus the combined total of deducted points for offences. Simply: total points of match - penalties = score for a match

FORGIVENESS
A knight can give a forgiveness call by raising his lance and deliberately not hitting his opponent for several reasons...
i.e. : head of opponent's mount in the way, loss of a balsa insert...
The decision to re-run that pass belongs to the Lists Marashall.
The rider giving a forgiveness call should still make ready to get hit on that pass in case his opponent didn't see the raising of the lance.

JUDGES
Offences: As we cannot cover every situation the Field Marshal's decisions are final.
Each match is judged by a Lists Marshall, assisted by at least two Hit Judges.

LISTS MARSHALL :
- Controls armors, lances, mounts and riders in the last minutes prior to a match
- Calls the competitors
- Enforce the lists protocole
- Gives the "Lay on !" signal on each pass
- Assess penalties he sees or he's reported by judges
- Is responsible for score keeping

CONTACT (Hit) JUDGES:
- position about 3/4 deep along the lists
- observe the coming knight's legal target zone
- signal validity of the hit to the Lists Marshall
- signal penalties to Lists Marshall

LISTS GROUND CREW
Jousters can come in the lists with their own Personal Squire to take care of the mount or their material if need be. The organization will provide two Arming Squires in charge of handling lances exclusively, informing the knight with occurring events at the other end of the field and 2 Lists Squires in charge of removing all wood and steel pieces of the lists in between the passes.
Will also be available : 1 Herald to inform the crowd, first aid assistants like red cross and a tournament secretary standing by the Lists Marshall.

6 Winner
The winner of the Joust is the rider who gets the most points during the Tournament.
In the event of a tie, a 3 lances match will determine the winner, if still a tie... well we'll have two winners and not enough balsa :)))))))) !


The quidelines for skill games will be posted soon.


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