Staff fight

Then Martin went on the attack for real, swinging the club with speed and skill, and Mr Ward began a slow retreat, sometimes nimbly avoiding the blows, occasionally blocking the club with his staff.
Martin’s face reddened with fury as, thwarted again and again, he increased the pace of his attack. The sounds of thwacks and cracks of wood against wood rose to a crescendo.
When the Spook finally launched his own counterattack, it was so fast that I could hardly credit it, even though I’d already seen it in my vision.
With the end of his staff, he rapped Martin across the wrist to send the club spinning out of his hand into the long grass. When the gamekeeper went after it, the Spook used the base of his staff to prod him in the stomach and drive the air from his lungs. The man gasped and collapsed onto his knees.

BW C6