Singlestick

Singlestick, also known as cudgels, refers to both a martial art that uses a wooden stick as well as the weapon used in the art. It began as a way of training sailors in the use of swords such as the saber or the cutlass. Canne de combat, a French form of stick fighting, is similar to singlestick play, but is more a method of self-defense with a walking stick.

Weapon

The singlestick itself is a slender, round wooden rod, traditionally of ash, with a basket hilt. Singlesticks are typically around 36 inches (91 cm) in length and 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter and thicker at one end than the other. It bears approximately the same relationship to the backsword as the foil to the small sword in being a sporting version of the weapon for safe practice.

The original form of the singlestick was the waster, which appeared in the 16th century and was merely a wooden sword used in practice for the backsword (see sabre), and of the same general shape. By the first quarter of the 17th century wasters had become simple clubs known as cudgels with the addition of a sword guard. When the basket hilt came into general use about twenty five years later, a wicker one was added to the singlestick, replacing the heavy metal hilt of the backsword. The guards, cuts and parries in singlestick play were at first identical with those of backsword play, no thrusts being allowed (see Fencing).

Cudgel (horse)

Cudgel (1914–1941) was an American two-time Champion Thoroughbred racehorse.

Owned by J. K. L. Ross and trained by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee H. Guy Bedwell, Cudgel is probably best remembered for his win in the 1919 Havre de Grace Handicap in which he defeated two future Hall of Fame inductees, Exterminator and Sir Barton.

Cudgel raced at age three in 1917. He finished eleventh in the Kentucky Derby but showed some of his developing abilities when he finished second in the Latonia Derby. Frequently ridden by Earl Sande as well as Johnny Loftus, at age four Cudgel was the dominant older horse of 1918. The next year, despite a long layoff between May and August as a result of an injury, he came back to share Champion Older Horse honors with Sun Briar.

After retiring from racing, Cudgel stood at stud Ross's Yarrow Brae Stud near Laurel, Maryland. A successful sire, among his best, daughter Fluvanna was the 1923 American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly and his son, Froth Blower, won the 1931 King's Plate, Canada's most prestigious race.