Scholar Victoria

Team Scholar Victoria at Swordplay 2026

Longsword
🥇 Daniel Pope

Sabre
🥇 Teavis McKenzie
🥈 Daniel Pope
🥉 Katie Livingston

Rapier
🥇 Travis McKenzie

OktoberFecht 2026 - Tickets Open Soon!

We hope you're sharpening those skills, because it's only 10 weeks until OktoberFecht 2026!

Tickets go live Saturday 1st August, 7pm AEST, so make sure you've hit GOING on the FB event so you don't miss announcements.

We've also just released our Draft Rules-on-a-Page so you know exactly what to expect.

This year we are running an exciting new setup with pools running on day 1, and elims and finals on day 2, with all fighters going through to A or B eliminations, so everyone has extra fights and a genuine shot at a podium finish. We'll also be running extended match times, giving you a fair chance to really test your skills against every opponent.

FB Event:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1DNcw8Aw7o/

Full event details on the SV website:
https://scholarvictoria.com/oktoberfecht-2026/

We can't wait to see you all there - who's ready to claim the OktoberFecht champion title?

Last year Mark Holgate of Black Armoury Australia was kind enough to send me a Wukusi feder for review.

I’ve had a chance to perform exhaustive testing in class, practice, and competition, and overall I’m impressed.

This is a great low price point feder that’s ideal as a first feder, club feder, or even a backup for experienced fencers. It has some interesting design features and is a welcome addition to the market.

Full review in the video.

Wukusi Feder Review For review only - private link

The dust settles on another week of Easter battles. 🐰🥚

Monday nights’s longsword class saw the epic tale of the Easter Bunny civil war, followed by the classic Bunny Battle at Thursday’s sabre class.

Thanks everyone for a great week of fencing 🤺

A well deserved centurion, this shows just a fraction of James’ experience as a mainstay of Melbourne HEMA.

Centurion Showcase: James Stallard
James has recorded over 100 competitive victories throughout his career. He is a fencer at Scholar Victoria.

Well done Ron! Also, totally claiming you as an SV member 😉

Centurion Showcase: Ronald Lee
Ronald has recorded over 100 competitive victories throughout his career. He is a fencer at Melbourne Messer Club and Scholar Victoria.

The Ides of March 2026 - Sabre Tournament has come to a close.

After a year off, the Ides returned with 40 competitors battling for the sabre championship. With an extended match format (perhaps slightly too extended) that gave fencers more matches and extra time and points in every match, the day ran to around 180 matches and roughly 2,300 exchanges. Plenty of action, plenty of drama, and some of the best HEMA sabre we’ve seen in a while.

Fencers fought through pools of 8, moving into 20 competitor A and B tier elimination brackets. As always, the day brought a mix of surprise upsets and the usual high-performance names working their way into the finals.

A Tier Final Standings

1st Place - Nelson McGuigan
2nd Place - Ronald Lee
3rd Place - Mark Morris
4th Place - Travis McKenzie

B Tier Final Standings

1st - James Xu
2nd - Adam Tate
3rd - Martin King
4th - Stuart Willis

Scholar Victoria would like to thank all of the competitors and supporters who made the event what it was. Competing in a tournament is never easy, and the conduct and spirit shown throughout the day were outstanding. We’re lucky to have such a strong community of fencers.

A special thank you to those who travelled from interstate to compete, including fencers from Fitzroy River College of Arms, Vanguard Swordsmanship Academy, and The Old Sword Club.

Huge thanks as well to our referees who trained beforehand and worked throughout the event. Right of way is no small task, and refereeing is often a high-pressure, thankless job. We appreciate you:

- Katherine Livingston
- Travis McKenzie
- Anthony Duong
- Jack Jones
- Ben Pope
- Justin K. Weaver (our reliable stand-by ref!)

And of course, the score tables that quietly keep the whole machine running, including:
- Aidan Warnakulasuriya
- Dayantha Warnakulasuriya
- Andrew Titter
- Jay Tan
- Justin Weaver
- Jordan Vargas

A very special thanks goes to Sophie Pope, who makes these tournaments possible by running things behind the scenes.

Additional thanks to Ben Pope, Katherine Livingston, Jordan Vargas, and Anthony Duong for helping with setup and the late-night cleanup after the competition.

To everyone who fenced, judged, refereed, scored, or simply supported the event, thank you. The Ides is an event run by fencers, for fencers, and it only works because of the community around it.

We hope to see you all back again next year.

See you at the next Ides of March. ⚔️