Scarby, Recapping the Home Game!

This year saw all Texas throwers, all the time, in the Women’s class at Scarborough Faire Highland Fling (held within the Scarborough Renaissance Festival grounds in Waxahachie, Texas). While the field may be small in size and number of throwers, it is big on heart and tradition.
Mark Cooper, the AD affectionately known as The Evil Games Master, hosts the Texas Caber challenge and has some of the best permanent standards for height events in the games.  Surrounded by the flair of a full blown Renaissance Faire these games share an active corner of the festival with the Jousting troupe and several well stocked pubs!

Texas spring is a tricky time of year weather-wise, ranging from swampy heat to brisk chill rain. Scarby, as these games are diminutively called, is generally held in late April, so this can be a real factor in the flow of the day and overall performance. The weather cut us a bit of a break by not raining on us this year, a real blessing considering the state of the grounds becomes roughly equivalent to tile floor covered in Vaseline in the rain.  While none of us landed in the muck this year, our own Sarah Densmore did manage to splinter a caber on the unforgiving turf. The good news being, there were more cabers to be had!

Throws started early, before the gates open, so we got to see a bit of the bind-the-scenes moments as the festival geared up for the day. With the smaller field the classes played a bit of trig space Jenga to ensure they weren’t throwing directly at one another, now that Texas is so full of record setting throwers it was a legitimate concern! This also means that at least light hammer was not an option for the day, though the other eight events were on the docket. First class judging was headed up by Drew Savage at these games, like so many Texas events, and came with a bit of that particular brand of highland games affection only a true lover of sarcasm can appreciate.  Prizes were, as always, Scottish crafted pieces, be they swords, daggers, mugs, or jewelry, they will earn a proud spot on the mantel.

For the majority of current female throwers in Texas this is our home festival, and Cooper was our first coach, so this game comes with a rich sense of nostalgia and homecoming for us. Always a pleasure to place well at “home”.  Though the shirts are guaranteed to be tacky it is a game worth attending to see where the Texas Women’s Gamers get their spunk and the start of their education in the games.

~ Brittney Boswell