Photograph courtesy of Bita Mills
Hailing from the north of England as I do, I’m somewhat empathic when it comes to the working class person, being one myself. Therefore I was interested to learn about the new game that has been created by Leeds Steampunk Market organisers.
According to Jo Burgoyne-Neal – the LSM head honcho – Coffee Jousting came about because the winner of the October 2014 tea duelling contest asked to be part of the Lincoln Tea Duelling finals. However, because the match hadn’t been registered with the VSS who are the original creators of Tea Duelling, the winner wasn’t permitted to participate. At LSM, they found it all a bit too serious and I’m inclined to agree. If we strip the bare bones of steampunk back, we’re a bunch of people strolling around in funny hats being extra nice to one another. It’s not a serious event that requires policing or any form of legislation, so why are strict rules being put in place for a bonkers game where people are essentially dunking biscuits against one another?
It could be because the people who invented it want it to have these rules and that’s up to them. It’s entirely possible that this stemmed from such issues as a certain American author proclaiming himself “World Tea Duelling Champion” without considering the implications or consequences for such a title. Having never entered a UK Tea Duelling contest it’s hard to see how a person can deem themselves better than anyone else in the World. Although it’s worked for Baseball for over a hundred years. For anyone about to leave a comment about the World Series being named after the New York World newspaper, that’s been a disproved theory which you’re welcome to read here: Why is the Baseball Championship called the World Series? It would seem that the Americans were in fact as egotistical as the name suggests.
Getting back to the Coffee Jousting and when Jo and Si heard about the bad news from VSS, they decided that they’d take away the seriousness that has seemingly befallen Tea Duelling and introduced Coffee Jousting. The rules are pretty much the opposite of Tea Duelling in every way, even down to dunking one’s biscuit in the other person’s coffee. Below are the rules which shall be replicated on their own page:
- We have coffee not tea
- No milk to be added as it will affect the temperature
- Served in mugs not cups and saucers
- Biscuit to be used is the very delicate”Nice” biscuits
- Biscuit is to be dunked in your opponent’s mug, not your own
- Held for count of 3 not 5
- No chairs to sit on – you remain standing