Carronade Show Report 2015.

Paul,Dave,Michael and I attended the Carronade show at Falkirk,this week-end,and it was terrific!!
As usual we went up on Friday,and came back on Sunday,staying at the Bean Cross Travel Lodge.
The show had a very high standard of demo. games,plus traders,selling everything from books to terrain,we are led to believe that this year the attendance was over 700 souls through the door-a tribute to the organisers!
We were pleasantly surprised when,at the end of the day,we were presented with"Best Demonstration Game" trophy-we are delighted,to say the least!!
Our aim at the outset was to engage as many people as possible,and we achieved that goal-at times we couldn't keep up with enquiries and questions from all ages and "gamers","collectors","modellers" etc-it was great........................

This is how the hall looked when we set up our game on Friday afternoon-this was one of two halls for traders and Gamers,plus there was an upstairs room for the bring and buy,plus another for Sci-fi gamers,between the two halls was a corridor packed with even more traders!! and a cafe serving hot and cold food-what more could you want?

This is the hall when we arrived to start the game at about 9.30am-it was "buzzing"

Paul and Dave showing one of the "characters" of wargaming from Durham,Conrad Cairns,our set-up-he was interested because he too was putting on a 54mm game-PLANCENOIT 1815.Conrad's game was one of 3 Napoleonic games,but of course there were other games spanning the whole spectrum ie ACW,7YW,Modern,Medieval,and a magnificent Ancients game of the battle of the Hydaspes(Alexander vs Porus) played on a SAND TABLE!!

Here's Mike telling some old bloke,who knew nothing of wargaming, about tactics etc.!!
Of course it's C.S.Grant,who very kindly signed a couple of books that Michael had bought-he's a real gent,and stayed to talk about our game for a while.

The "boys" in their fetching "Geranium Red" shirts!!-we got as many comments about the shirts as we did about the game-people were queuing up to get their photo taken beside us!!

Here's just two of the many!!-these two guys were brilliant,chatted to us for ages,showing real interest-good to meet you two,keep in touch!

A general view of the hall,with games and traders in full swing-can you spot the "geranium Red" shirt of Paul coming towards the camera-well you could hardly miss him!!!

Who is that strange gentleman with the professional looking camera and video camera?
Is it the Lone Ranger?of course not,it's Wayne Bollands from Wargames Illustrated-hurrah!!
We are now world famous and can command an exorbitant fee for any future shows that we attend(NOT!)-Wayne showed a lot of interest in our game,and we might just appear in a future issue-another hurrah!!

I promised these two young gentlemen,Brandon and Zack,that I would put them in this blog,after they joined in our game,and with tremendous(lucky?) dice throws,saved Dave and I from defeat at the hands of Paul and Michael,well done lads,see you next year?

Back at the hotel with the trophies!!-we don't really know what we are supposed to do with the large one,which needs to be engraved,but no doubt someone from Carronade will inform us!!
A huge thank-you to everyone who came over and introduced themselves to us,and who came over for a chat etc,and of course to the organisers and everyone who made us feel welcome-roll on next year!!