Southend Wargames Club

 Sunday 6th June 2010 at Hylands House, Chelmsford, CM2 8WQ

Entrance Charges: Adults - £3.60; Children Under 16 (Accompanied) - Free; Concessions £2.60.

No additional charge to enter "Essex Eagle"

SHOW REPORT IN BRIEF

Now some of the dust has settled, we would like to thank everyone who attended for their support. Generally, the comments we have received have been positive and everyone seems to have enjoyed themselves. We had over 300 people through the door and the house seemed fairly crowded for most of the time. The excellent re-enactors of HM's 44th Regimnent of Foot put on a splendid display of drill and musketry and were instrumental in attracting the attention of members of the public who were enjoying a stroll in Hylands Park.

The games all attracted plenty of questions and some of the junior visitors got to play Warhammer and then examine what historical games we had to offer - Warhammer does a good job of getting youngsters into the hobby and we older players must try to keep that interest alive for the future of the hobby. There was a nice mixture of periods and scales and some excellent terrain on display. Since there were no prizes and we have no wish to disjoint any noses, I won't pick out any games for particular mention but the standard was very high, keeping Essex (and part of Hertfordshire ) at the forefront of the hobby.

We would particularly like to thank the traders who supported us. For them it was unknown territory and we hope the time and effort they spent coming to the show was sufficiently rewarding to make the trip worthwhile. I managed to speak to a few before loading up the tables we borrowed from my village hall and hurrying to get them back on time. The general impression I received was that they enjoyed the atmosphere and ambiance and that they had at least covered costs.

We shall be discusing holding another show next year with our co-hosts - Essex Warriors and South East Essex Military Society (to both of whom we offer our thanks for all the help they gave) - and will notify everyone of what transpires. Some of our early thoughts are to add a Bring & Buy and expand the area to include the first floor at Hylands.

In the next few days, my colleague Andy Culham will be adding some pictures of the show for your delectation and we invite comments from anyone who cares to make them.

Mike Oliver, Secretary - Southend Wargames Club

If you'd like to see some excellent pictures of the show - all the games and trade stands - follow this link: http://ilovewargameing.21.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?p=44140#44140.

Our thanks to Joe of the "ilovewargameing" website for permission to direct you to his pictures. From our point of view, there is one significant error in the credits for the games: the game credited to Canvey was in fact Southend's but we're good friends with the guys from Canvey, so no great harm done.