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I'm now in my 50th year, and to 'celebrate' I'll be attempting to get through 50 bouts in a single day at the Walpurgis Sparathon, Sunday 27th April, 2014.  Fifty at Fifty, see.  Had a nice ring to it.  Notice I didn't say that I'm going to win any of them.

The event is being held at the Kokoro Academy in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.  It's a full day of sparring in historical European martial arts - longsword, broadsword/sabre, sword and buckler.  The fights are with synthetic or rebated steel weapons, are at full speed and power, and with no technique restrictions (meaning that grappling and striking are allowed).  In other words, they're quite demanding. If you've never seen this sort of thing before, this is as good a place as any to start: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLt0mA23MDE

I am of course far too old for this nonsense, but I'll be facing this challenge to raise funds for the Pilgrim Bandits (pilgrimbandits.org).  The Pilgrim Bandits was established by a small group of Special Forces veterans in 2007 to help and inspire severely wounded servicemen to live with purpose, not least by pushing them into physically and mentally demanding situations that they would not have dreamed possible: climbing mountains, jumping from aircraft, running races, trekking across inhospitable terrain. Their motto is 'always a little further', and they don't do sympathy.

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