London knights joust on Lime e-bikes in Halloween rematch

As of 7:43 a.m. ET, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026

Horses are hard to come by in east London, so the knights brought e-bikes.

Two men in helmets, chain mail and cloaks charged at each other with striped poles on rented Lime e-bikes in London Fields, Hackney, on Saturday. It was a Halloween rematch of a duel that went viral earlier in October, the Evening Standard and BBC News reported.

Actor Cameron Carnegie-Brown, who jousts as Camtholomew the First, faced artist Jack Carden again. After several rounds, Carnegie-Brown was declared the winner, the Standard reported. Crowds, many in Halloween costumes, chanted "joust, joust, joust."

"Horses are quite hard to source in London, so we thought we'd go for lime bikes and bring it into the 21st Century," Tommy Moore, a 28-year-old content creator involved in the event, told the BBC.

"Ram and hope for the best"

Carnegie-Brown described the moment before a charge to BBC London. "You have this moment where you put the visor down and you're suddenly very alone," he said. "The second you start pedalling, you forget it all - just ram and hope for the best."

He called the joust a British "performance art." "The bikes, they're very London. The armour is extremely British," he said.

Carden, shouting through a megaphone, thanked the crowd for coming to "Lime bike jousting two," the Standard reported. "This is the most viewed joust of the modern era," he said.

Lime is not amused

After the first duel, Lime said its bikes "are designed for getting around the city, not for jousting." "While we appreciate the medieval spirit, safety must always come first," the company said, and it discouraged anyone from trying similar events.

This time, the organizers said crowd safety was their "biggest priority," the BBC reported. They marked out an action zone, a dead zone and a spectator area, brought in stewards and had health professionals on hand. They shared the location two hours ahead with people who had RSVP'd, a list capped at 5,000. Hackney Council said it had not given permission for the event, according to the BBC.

A "legitimate" joust?

Andy Deane, captain of the Royal Armouries jousting team in Leeds, called it "absolutely a legitimate form of jousting" for people who cannot afford a horse, the Standard reported.

The rematch raised more than £1,000, to be split among charities including a mental health charity, a women's charity and children's charities, the Standard said.

"It makes you feel alive," Carnegie-Brown said, "and I think the audience feel that as well."