Computer wiz's alter ego: Sir Lance-a-Lot

Hear ye, hear ye! If thou hast a fondness for the olde worlde, get thee to Cooks Creek this Saturday for an afternoon of fun and frolic inspired by all things medieval.

'Tis time for A Day of Knights, the fourth biennial Medieval Festival and feast, taking place on the grounds of the most beauteous Immaculate Conception Church and grotto.

Thou wilt encounter fair maidens, gallant gents, minstrels and merchants, and costumed revellers who will entertain thee with swordplay, archery, equestrian events and a live chess game tournament.

There will be early music in the cathedral and an ale garden, as well as medieval games, a puppet show and a petting zoo for the wee ones.

Hark! Dost thou hear the pounding hooves of galloping horses and smell the sweaty leather over yonder?

'Tis Shawn Morrow, a Winnipeg computer wizard who will be at the festival to realize his midsummer knight's dream.

The 44-year-old father of five and his trusty steed, Starbuck, will compete in their first-ever, full-contact jousting match.

Wherefore?

"The knight stuff is cool, but it's the old-school jousting I've always been interested in," sayeth Morrow, who hath got a $10,000 suit of armour, custom-built by a marine reservist in New Jersey.

"I look at it as an old extreme sport."

Verily, it is so. Jousting, a favourite form of entertainment during the Middle Ages, provided a venue for knights to practise various forms of combat and to retain their skills in peaceful times.

A joust is defined as a fight between mounted knights who gallop toward each other with 11-foot-long wooden lances pointed at each other's shields. Points are awarded for breaking the lance tip on the opposing knight's body -- two points for a helmet hit, one point for a shoulder or shield.

Methinks someone might go flying. Yea?

"In some leagues you get an extra point if someone gets unhorsed, but that's not the goal," sayeth Morrow, whose armour adds 82 pounds to his 195-pound frame. The lance weighs adds another six pounds. (Alas, poor Starbuck!)

"The goal is to get good, clean hits. It's kind of like with hockey; body checking is part of it, but you all get up at the end to shake hands."

Morrow will be joined in the arena by members of the Society of Tilt and Lance Cavalry, a Calgary jousting troop. Springfield Polo Club members will also be on hand to demonstrate their equestrian skills.

The family-friendly Medieval Festival, which attracted around 1,000 merrymakers to Cooks Creek in 2008, is a fundraiser for The Church of the Immaculate Conception -- or Cathedral of the Prairies, as it is known by locals. Built in the 1930s by Ukrainian missionary and Oblate priest Father Philip Ruh, the ornate, Byzantine-style church features nine round domes, said to represent the nine ranks of angels.

The festival centres around The Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, the massive cave-like structure built beside the church in 1954 to pay homage to the Lourdes area of France.

"Immaculate Conception is both a national and a historic site, so it's very special architecturally," says festival organizer Gary Senft. "It's a very big church and we're a very small parish, so there's a real motivation for us to do these things.

"Curiously, the priest who built it himself encouraged plays and events on the site to help raise funds to maintain it back in the '30s, so it's sort of a tradition."

Proceeds from past festivals have raised around $40,000 toward the upkeep of the church, he says.

Let us go thither, perchance to dance and make merry -- mayhap to see Morrow unhorsed.

The Medieval Festival runs Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. (the evening feast is sold out). Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12, available at the gate or at www.immaculate.ca.

Cooks Creek is located about 45 minutes from Winnipeg, five kilometres east of the east gate of Birds Hill Park, at the corner of Zora Road and Highway 212.

carolin.vesely@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 23, 2010 D6