The gates of the Gulf Coast International Jousting Championships opened at 6 p.m. one Friday in January at a 4,500-seat arena 13 miles outside Pensacola, Florida. Some of the spectators were dressed in leather doublets and velvet gowns; some wore jeans and cowboy hats or American-flag-patterned do-rags. Most seemed to have come out of idle curiosity rather than any previous knowledge of the sport. “From what I hear, the combat’s going to be smackin’,” a man named Paul Johnson told me, punching his knuckles together. He estimated he had seen the movie “A Knight’s Tale” a couple dozen times, and he hoped this event would measure up. He leaned over to a man in front of him. “When they ride in, are they going to be hitting really hard?” he asked....
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