The stakes were high on the weekend as Ballarat’s Phillip Leitch has proved his jousting prowess yet again at the inaugural World Jousting Championship
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On his horse Valiant, Mr Leitch’s skills placed him first against eight other competitors, kitted out in armour weighing up to 40 kilograms, at the St Ives Medieval Faire event, which occurred in Sydney.
Attracting competitors from as far away as Europe and Canada, he said the tournament on the weekend involved the most historically accurate style of jousting with solid lances instead of balsa wood.
While it can also be the most dangerous, he said the safety standards increase with the danger level and no one was really hurt apart from a few bruises.
“Competitors have to be at a higher level and have a proven history,” he said, adding that the protective equipment and set up of the field also change.
“Because with solid lance jousting, there are heavier pieces of timber flying around, there’s a solid fence between the horses for protection. Also, the horses have to wear head armour, which is not a requirement with balsa wood. At a higher level, armour has to be made out of spring steel. The helmet has to be locked onto the chest as well.”
A resident of Kryal Castle, the working knight was last year victorious at the Tournoi de Sainte Suzanne in France, and the Ohio International Jousting Tournament in 2015 making him the only jouster to have won in the three main forms of jousting at an international level.
“I’ve always been interested in history and middle age stories about knights and when I was older, I wanted to know what it felt like,” he said.
His jousting has taken him all over the world with television appearances on the History Channel’s ‘Full Metal Jousting’ series. He was rewarded for his weekend efforts with a replica sword modelled after the Wallace Collection in the museum in London. “It was an amazing high level production made by an Australian who is a world renowned armourer and weaponsmith living in Ballarat.”