'Jousters around the world aim to get to this tournament'

As the Royal Armouries Museum gets ready to celebrate 25 years of its annual International Jousting Tournament at the weekend, competitor Mike Collin is preparing at his farm in Derbyshire.

Top jousters from Germany, the USA and the UK will compete in the four-day tournament, attempting to strike opponents with a 10-foot lance at speeds of up to 30mph (48km/h).

Mr Collin will be representing the UK alongside Emma Pearn, with the pair hoping to build upon their successful partnership after winning a tournament at the Leeds museum in August 2024.

"The tournament this Easter weekend at the Royal Armouries is a world-renowned joust that jousters around the world are aiming to get to," Mr Collin says.

"So to be a part of it alone is insane, but to win it for me would mean a lot."

The pair will face German duo Bernd Joachim Voigt and Stephan Weiss, and American challengers Vince Todd and Kyle Van Dolah-Evans.

Mr Collin has also won the UK's other big tournament at Arundel Castle in Sussex and competed internationally.

He says jousting is growing in popularity, with an international following.

"America has a huge jousting scene, Norway has a growing scene, Holland, Scandinavia, Australia are all growing," he says.

"There's even an Ashes tournament for jousting that's been going for six years.

"We won the 'Smashes', as it's called, back in 2023 and then it's just gone over to Australia, and they narrowly won this time around."

Mr Collin will be competing in the Royal Armouries tournament for the fourth time.

He began jousting 12 years ago after meeting Mark Atkinson, who supplies horses to the Royal Armouries.

Working with Atkinson at his stables, Mr Collin - who is also an actor - started stunt riding and trick riding, which led to him taking part in display shows at the Armouries.

He says he soon moved from "string mail jousting, which is where all the armour is plastic or very pantomime", to real armour.

"What we do now is a sport, and we're trying to score points on each other," he says.

"My armour weighs about 45kg so it's like having an 11-year-old on your shoulders.

"If it's cold, armour saps all the heat out of you. If it's hot it heats you up like a stove.

"I've had heatstroke in it about three or four times. The sun reflects off your armour back in your face so you end up quite sunburnt as well."

Weather is not the only danger posed by a sport involving 10-foot lances, but Mr Collin says it is about training to avoid causing any damage.

"Accidents do happen, like with any sport," he says.

"You train yourself to be able to avoid risk. You want people to aim the lance quite high, so if it does miss it hits thin air and not anything solid like a person."

Some jousters have armour specially made to replicate what they have seen in history books, but Mr Collin says his is what is known as an Italian composite.

"I've always been interested in history, so every time I get into the armour and get to meet new people, I learn interesting things about medieval history," he says.

Now Mr Collin and Ms Pearn want to create an official jousting league, to encourage more people to try the sport.

There is a certainly an audience for it, he says, and the Royal Armouries is expecting thousands of fans at the purpose-built jousting arena this weekend.

"We're trying to create a modern, centralised, affiliated sport, to raise the profile and get more competitions going," he says.

"We're trying to open it up to more people because quite a lot of jousts here are invitation only."

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