Armoured combat club runs first home tournament

An armoured combat club where teams of participants fight each other wearing full suits of armour is hosting its first home tournament.

Members of Armoured Combat Gloucester have organised the inaugural Severnside Clash, where they will take on teams from across the UK.

"Basically it's last team standing. We use a lot of judo throws, or we hit people until they go 'I don't want to play any more'," said women's team captain Dora.

The modern sport originated from Russia and Ukraine. Ukrainian blacksmiths still manufacture the majority of made-to-measure suits of armour that participants wear.

Dora said the Gloucester club has a wide variety of members, including engineers, doctors, nurses, university students and military veterans.

"I was recruited when a lady came up to me at a mosh pit in a music festival, and said I'd be good at it.

"We say it's no different injury-wise to other contact sports like rugby and MMA.

"The armour does a very good job of protecting us, and there's no higher rates of injury than other contact sports," she added.

Unlike re-enactment events, the sport has no fixed outcomes and the winners really are the last athletes standing.

Captain of the men's team, Kiran Emery, from Gloucester, said he was proud to bring the event to his home city.

"It started off as a discussion at a pub asking why we hadn't run a tournament here," he said.

Emery said his parents were always taking him to castles when he was younger, and he wanted to bring the sport to a city with a lot of history.

"You get to do the boyhood dream of getting in the suit of armour and go to fight people, the adrenaline is absolutely flying," he said.

Emery added that he was feeling confident that the home advantage would play well for his team.

"It's stressful running it, but we've been training hard," he said.

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