So, Andy, you recently jousted at the World Championships in Sydney, how did it feel
to go to the other side the world and compete against the Australians? I hear one of them is the current World Champion
Yeah, Phil Leach is a brilliant jouster
and a worthy world champion. It's fantastic. Fantastic opportunities are given
to me by the Royal Armouries, so this year as well as going to Australia in Sydney
jousting, going to Poland and going to France to joust and take the sort of
Royal Armouries flag around the world has been fantastic. As with Sydney
Australia, well I'd say in some ways it is once-in-a-lifetime. There have been some
joursters over there who've been jousting since the early 90s. A chap called Rod Walker
who is known as a world-renowned Jouster and so to have the world champion Rod
Walker and young jousters like Cliff there was a superb opportunity to kind
of see where I am in world jousting - I found out I was at the top... over those
two days. I think the Australians are coming back at Easter to
joust here. I know Phil is, and I know he'll be keen to to get his revenge so
it's all good fun. So you're used to jousting all over the world but how does the experience of jousting
so far away from home compare to competing on home turf? I think jousting away from the Royal
Armouries tiltyard is a blessed relief because when you're
at home, of course everyone wants you to do well. You're representing Yorkshire, the
Royal Armouries, England and so there's a lot of pressure and being the host as
well you're thinking about bazillion other things. When I go to Australia or
France or wherever I am jousting I'm given a horse, I'm told to go that way
I take a big stick and I hit people. Jousting away from home is much much
easier because you don't have all that paraphernalia going on, you can really
focus on the job and I'm very good at just hitting people. So how do you prepare for a joust on the other side of the world?
The Royal Armories has given me a fantastic foundation to be able to joust
on different horses, in different climates and different venues and so
having now, this, 2018 will be my 25th year of representing the Royal Armouries
one way or another jousting and so you'd think I'd get it about right by now and I
have so things generally don't faze me too much so preparation is just making
sure I've packed everything including a toothbrush and and getting the right
flight. As for the rest of it, it's just strapping that armour on, getting astride
a horse, getting the horse down the other end at 30 miles an hour hitting a
bloke in the middle it's not difficult really.
So with the rise of programs like
Game of Thrones, medieval sports like jousting are growing in popularity
what's it like to be at the center of an evolving sport, do you notice the change?
I'm very lucky - I've seen jousting evolve over the last 25 30 years and it
couldn't have made greater strides. When I first saw jousting it was what we
would refer to today as string belt Hollywood jousting, very exciting,great skill
level but it wasn't history. Now with some of the people doing stuff in Europe
America and Australia and their attention to detail means that we're
using now generally solid lances with very vicious ends on because
we're wearing the right armour. A lot of the chaps now are riding the right
horses Destrier stallions or Spanish breeding so not only as the sport got
harder and more intense but the imagery that the visitor comes to see is nearer
reality so when we joust now and certainly some of the guys again as I
say in Europe are doing extraordinary things. So as a sportsman it's a lot more
fun and not more pressure but for visitor and audiences it's an
extraordinary thing to see history come alive.
Jousting isn't just a rising sport, it requires skill, strength, agility. How long do you think before we're seeing
athletes jousting at the Olympics? People often ask about jousting in the Olympics
and it's certainly been in the news. My personal views on it? It's a bit like
other sports for example karate is a new sport coming to the Olympics but it's
taken them 30 years because there's all these different associations. Getting one
association and one time it's very difficult the same with jousting there
are lots of different forms of jousting and different associations. As far as
it being a sport that should be in the Olympics, well yeah you do need to be a
superb Horseman, you do need to have great hand-eye coordination, the fitter
you are, the quicker your reactions, the better you are likely to be so all
the things needed to be an Olympic sport should be there and certainly the
colour, the speed and the excitement of watching it is exactly the same as
Formula 1, it's beautiful and stunning and exhilarating so there's lots of
reasons it should be in the Olympics I don't think it'll happen in my lifetime
OK, so if not the Olympics, what's next for Andy Deane?
What's next for Andy Deane, well I said about 2011 that was my last joust and I'm
still going. I think the next thing is 2020. There is extraordinary tournament
called the Field of Cloth of Gold put on by Henry VIII and Frances I
and it was the biggest tournament the world had ever seen and if we can
recreate that, in a perfect world, I'd like to be a part of that and get all
those jousters that I've talked about from all those different sort of
fraternities to come together for the biggest, most stunning tournament the
world has ever seen in the 20th or 21st century. That's what I'd like: the Royal
Armouries at the center of the greatest tournament modern man has ever seen.