In Memoriam Mick Bensted
Mick Bensted, – 2014
Groups: Canterbury, Aescinga, Provincial, Danelaw
Mick joined the Canterbury group in 1985, and was one of the core members who established them as a solid line fighting unit who could hold their ground all day if they had to. Their introduction of very large centre-grip shields with bosses at the Denbigh event in 1988 took many by surprise, and caused a huge amount of consternation at a time when at least half of the combatants were using a shield little over 28 inches and held by two arm straps, an arrangement with more in common with C17th highland targes than a Viking shield. The vision of the weekend was of Tich trying to demonstrate his idea of how to get around them, which resulted in Tich hanging off the front of the shield by his wrists with his feet off the ground for at least 5 seconds while Mick dodged the flailing weapons and neatly filleted Tich without the shield moving an inch.
Mick was a keen combatant, and when combat competitions were introduced in the early 90s he found Pete Carss to be his nemesis - they regularly faced each other in the final at majors, and over the course of several years Mick came agonisingly close to winning the competition for the year, but couldn't tip the balance in his favour. In an attempt to improve his chances,Mick came up with a plan, and in the next season it delivered - he again faced Pete in the final at the training weekend, and in the first clash Mick pulled out a stunning shot which caught Pete entirely by surprise, and Mick was one up. Pete asked where that had come from - he'd never seen Mick throw that shot before. Mick's answer was that he'd spent the winter studying - he'd had all of the finals videotaped in the season before, and had watched all of them back repeatedly, in slow motion and with freeze frame, and had taken notes and done a statistical analysis of Pete's combat - "I know your combat style better than even you do - I know your favourite shots and combinations, how your body moves and gives away what's coming, and how to get you off balance and retreating".
"Oh", said Pete. "Plan B it is then..." - and immediately changed his combat style completely, delivering attacks that no-one had ever seen him use before, and immediately advancing on Mick at every opportunity when normally he was a calculating fighter who waited for an opening. Mick was flabbergasted, and quickly lost the remaining clashes. You could see he was incredibly annoyed, and disappointed, but he was also quietly impressed and humble enough to realise he had underestimated his opponent. He laughed about it later - and he laughed a lot, most of the time.
Mick was like that with everything he did - finding himself unemployed, he set up a market stall selling second hand video tapes and made a success of it, but gave it up because it was the same old films and the same old faces every day. He took up photography, spending thousands on top-end equipment and learning how to use it, entered competitions and won awards, and then sold it all and gave it up.
Mick decided that living history was the way forward for the society, but it needed people to get on and demonstrate what could be done - so he did it himself. Now a provincial member after a split in Aescinga, he set about building a camp for himself and his new family, and was awarded the society's Living History prize in 1995 and again in 1996. From then on, only groups were awarded the prize due to the scale and effort required to build a decent display, but Mick had achieved it on his own and set the standard for others to follow. He demonstrated a wide range of skills - making clothing and tablet weaving, cooking, weaving cloth on a warp-weighted loom, and all of the camp skills needed to support this.
Mick famously had a huge appetite to match his large frame. At a Denbigh event in 1988, lunch between the morning and afternoon battles was taken at the nearest pub, which had arranged a catering van in the car park in anticipation of a lot of hungry customers. Mick joined the queue, and came back to the table with two huge trays of chips, with half a chicken perched on top of each pile. As he laid them on the table, his wife reached for one of them, only to have her hand playfully slapped aside with a cry of "Get your own, I've only got two hands!" - and soon enough they were gone.
Mick was appointed to the High Council by Chris Robinson in 1992, and became Second-in-Command that summer. He stood down from the High Council in late 1993 for personal reasons.
Mick's influence on the combat field could be summed up in a single statement - "Shields are meant to be disposable items". At the Hastings event in 1990, Tony Sayer had put a huge amount of effort into making shields and shoes for members, and over 20 shields were delivered to happy customers at the event. These included kite shields for the Norman side, and lenticular round shields for the Saxon side, of which one was for Mick. In the first battle, Mick pulled out his axe, made a beeline for a Norman who he knew could take a hard hit, and cut a vertical slot about 10 inches long in his new Tony Sayer kite shield. The Norman decided two could play at that game - away went the flash sword, and out came a broad axe. A vertical slot appeared in Mick's new shield as well, so Mick cut a second into the kite shield. Another hit to Mick's and he changed direction with a horizontal cut to the Norman's shield, then another vertical slot appeared in his. A final horizontal cut to the Norman completed a neat square, and a window fell out of the shield leaving a now exposed arm behind. The shield had to be discarded. After the battle, both trudged back to Tony's tent and showed him the remains of the two shields - one with a square missing, and the other with four parallel slots cut in it straddling the boss and showing daylight through all of them. "Have you two been playing rough again?" asked Tony, in his best teacher's voice. "No, not us" they said in unison - "it must be a problem with the way you've curved the plywood". Tony was unconvinced, but swapped the shields for replacements. His next batch went from 12mm ply to 15mm, and the hessian facing was double thickness.
On another occasion, Mick took the field with his favourite axe, and set about the opposition in his usual style. When his opponent suggested he needed to drop the axe, he asked why - and was told to look at it. The blade of the axe had been bent into a U shape from the force of the blows, and having not noticed, Mick had continued to use it until the entire blade was wrapped back around the socket, and now looked more like a mace than an axe.
Outside of re-enactment, Mick was also a keen gamer, participated in LARP, and enjoyed airsoft. He was survived by his first wife Jane, and second wife Alison with whom he had two daughters.