Charge onto the battle field

IF another lockdown has got you looking for ways to get active and stay social, you might want to consider joining a unique Bendigo sporting club.

Swordcraft is a medieval live action battle game that sees players fight for glory with realistic but safe weapons, according to Bendigo chapter president Simon Vincent.

“It’s a touch based medieval re-enactment group where we use fake foam and latex weapons, but all of the other equipment we use is real, and we run around and beat each other up for a couple of hours on a weeknight just to relieve the stress of the work week,” he said.

“I like to refer to it as football for nerds.”

Although battles look like they’re plucked straight from a medieval movie set, Mr Vincent said the physical nature of the game is very much real.

“It is physically exhausting,” he said. “It’s two hours of off and on high intensity exercise so there’s lots of running and moving around, being mobile and engaging other players so it’s quite an intense workout.”

Mr Vincent started the Bendigo chapter eight years ago after moving to the region and becoming tired of the commute he had to make to Melbourne where the nearest games were played.

“It’s becoming much more popular nowadays,” he said.

“It’s still quite a closed market of people but we get everyone from tradies to police officers to stay-at-home mums to teachers, people from all walks of life pick up live action role play.

“We do generally have an increased number of players start to rock up during winter. It’s a high intensity sport and it gets a bit overwhelming in our Australian summers.”

Mr Vincent said the growing interest in the game was hard to maintain during COVID-19 lockdowns and the group is now offering people to come try their first night of battle for free.

For more information or to get involved visit the Swordcraft Bendigo Facebook group.