March 8. Day 67. Going soft

Remember that bit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the Black Knight insists that his increasingly horrific injuries are nothing but a scratch or a flesh wound? I'm more likely to insist a flesh wound is something akin to amputation. Fact is, I'm a bit  somewhat totally soft. I don't do pain but I admire those who do. If I'm soft, today I saw in action a group of people I could only describe as well hard. I called in at New Farm Park on my way to Nash Theatre and was somewhat surprised to see what I later found out to be a game of Jugger in action. It just appeared to be two teams going at each other with a variety of weapons. Clearly this was sport and not an assassination attempt but these guys and girls were going at it in a no-holds-barred fashion. I stopped and asked and was told it was based on a film The Salute of the Jugger and was huge in many parts of the world, especially Germany. The competitors playing today may well head off to the world camps in Germany in September, I was told. Now given I had only known about the sport for about 2.5 seconds at that stage I would hardly consider myself an expert but if commitment means anything these guys are good. One girl copped a weapon direct to her side. She fell but then insisted "I'm just winded" before getting up and carrying on. Like I said they are tough but good natured with it. The fighting was all on the field. As soon as it stopped they walked off together and I walked off to the theatre where the worst injury I was likely to get was a sore bum from sitting.