Ten minutes or so later, the herald stood in the center of the grounds and once again loudly announced the event to the nobles and commoners in the stands:
"Caerleon versus Cornwall City, second event: jousting."
Jousting, formally known as a mounted lance duel, was one of the most classic events in a knightly tournament.
It took place in a dedicated jousting arena, with two lanes separated by a fence.
Each lane had three sections: an acceleration stretch, a charging stretch, and a deceleration stretch, which served as the other rider's starting stretch.
To protect the contestants' lives, the stretch where their warhorses were allowed to charge was generally only fifty to one hundred meters long.
The two contestants faced each other, each occupying a lane, holding a lance in their right hand and guiding their horse with their left.
Once the contest began, both riders started from their opponent's deceleration stretch, circled toward their own acceleration stretch, then charged toward the finish.
As they passed each other, they leveled their specially made tournament lances and thrust at their opponent's breastplate, helmet, or shoulder-mounted shield in the lane to their left.
Their direction of travel was therefore angled away from the direction of their lance tips, minimizing the force of impact to protect the knights' lives as much as possible.
After all, this was a tournament. No one could be allowed to die.
In actual combat, however, a knight whose lance tip did not point in the direction of his charge simply had not mastered the necessary skills.
Jousting had no limit on the number of rounds, and victory was determined by points:
A hit to the opponent's breastplate or shoulder shield counted as a "valid strike" and earned one point.
A hit to the opponent's helmet, or knocking