Inside the weird world of jousting - the medieval sport that's trying to get into the Olympics

Sir Jasper — whose real name is Jeremy Richardson — has been jousting for the past 41 years. He now spends less time in A&E, which he says is because of his "wisdom and experience."

Richardson runs the Knights of Royal England, a jousting company that stages more than 60 competitions each year. Though unrelated to the English Heritage team, Richardson also believes the sport should be brought to the Olympics.

"It’s very physically demanding," Richardson explained. "There are a lot of skills."

One of the sport's toughest challenges is conditioning horses to “gallop down flat out at 30 mph against somebody with a lance pointed at them," he said.

After our brief chat, I was directed to the jousting arena — a rectangular field, flanked by two "Royal boxes," and families picnicking on a grassy mound — and await the show.

The show began with actors resembling Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (former tenants of Hever Castle) leading a procession from the front of the castle to the Jousting Arena.

The four riders: Sam of Hever, Sir Stephen of Porlock, Lord Ashley of Hampshire, and Sir Jasper, followed close behind.

The rotund Henry VIII took on the role of compère during the tournament. He announced different events and explained that the jousters would be divided into two teams: the Reds and Blues.

In between violent jousts, where lances splinter and riders are knocked off horses, various actors try to entertain the crowd with slapstick fighting. At random intervals the knights dismounted from their horses, brandishing swords. Meanwhile Mungo — a 14th-century hype man — encouraged the crowd to cheer.

The show felt less like a competition and more like a childish pantomime. At least, there wereoccasional moments of brutality to make t look like a real sport.

Historical purists, like Dominic Sewell, who runs Historic Equitation — a more earnest jousting company commissioned by English Heritage — takes exception to the more frivolous aspects of Sir Jasper's show.

"There is no King Arthur, there is no Black Knight, there’s no Sir Lancelot, there are no cheesy names," in the English Heritage tournaments, Sewell told me over the phone the day after the jousting tournament.

"What we’re trying to recreate historical jousting, which is a competitive sport," the 48-year-old added.

"There is a tension between us, I suppose. What they do is story-telling. It’s TV, like Game of Thrones," he said. "In no way is there any historical value or sportsmanship in it."

Back in Hever, Sir Jasper had gently warned me about the pomposity of the English Heritage Knights.

"Me and the people here have been jousting a lot longer than they have," Sir Jasper had said.

Sir Jasper explained that he and his knights were more concerned with entertainment than with historical accuracy, which is why they do not have "long, really boring shows."

However, he said that performing in one of the Knights of Royal England competitions also requires a high level of technical skill and physical strength.

Undoubtedly, the English Heritage knights have a more intense training regime.

Sewell trains his horses for four hours each morning, and spends two hours every afternoon perfecting his combat skills, he said.

To stay historically accurate, he has spent £30,000 on a suit of armour.

Though the sport is practiced across Europe, Russia, Australia, and in some US states, Sewell said there are only "about 16" jousters at his level.

The lack of high-level competition in the jousting world may be a problem for its international ambitions.

A sport needs to "be practised widely across the world" to be welcomed into the Olympics, according to the competition's website.

With this in mind, I asked Sewell how long he thinks it will take for jousting to be accepted by the Olympics.

"It’s going to be a long journey," he said. "It may not be Tokyo, or the next one, or the next one, but I want it to happen by the end of my lifetime.”