Scholar Victoria

10/04/2026

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 🤺

26/03/2026

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.

24/03/2026

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.

20/03/2026

A nice flèche attack from Victor to Jack during last week’s training.

Victor does a great job setting up distance with a movement into measure before launching his attack.

🤺

16/03/2026

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. ⚔️

10/03/2026

A setup for Meyer’s “inner” winding Zwerch

As always the key here is managing distance, while controlling the line of attack with blade position as you transition from zufechten to krieg distance.

07/03/2026

What’s delaying the latest video?

Yeah that makes editing tricky… 😵 😞

25/01/2026

Distance. Measure. Timing.

New YouTube video coming soon…

24/01/2026

Ides of March is back for our 7th Sabre event. Ticketing opens at 7pm tonight - 24th Jan (Melbourne Time).

This year expect longer bouts, larger pools, and significantly more time on the piste under our 19th century inspired ruleset.

The event will feature A and B tier finals, ensuring more meaningful matches, more medals on offer, and a genuine pathway to a podium finish for fencers at every stage of their development.

Numbers are limited so don't miss out!

Ticket link here: https://www.trybooking.com/DJAVD
Ticket link can also be found in the event description.

Send a message to learn more

11/01/2026

Great exchange between Daniel and Adi at our first open hall for 2026. Adi highlights great control of space and distance, and uses the point threat to maintain safety and make Daniel work extra hard for the touch.

06/01/2026

A late addition to last year’s tally! Justin joins the ranks of Scholar Victoria centurions!

Centurion Showcase: Justin Weaver
Justin has recorded over 100 competitive victories throughout his career. He is a fencer at The School of Historical Fencing and Scholar Victoria.