Cavalier Show Report!

[Leon]

The second show of the year saw us off down to the Cavalier show in Tonbridge (Tunbridge?!) Wells.  As with all the southern shows, we travelled down the day before to stay with Dave's friend in Hemel Hempstead.  The weather was a bit grey on Saturday, but no rain, which was nice.

Sunday morning we dragged ourselves up at 5:15am, to be on the road by 5:30.  We'd decided to get on the road a bit earlier than last year, firstly to avoid any traffic on the M25, and also to get a good spot for unloading.  There's only 1 main entrance for the traders at this one, and it's up the side of the Angel Centre, on a footpath.  If you get there a bit late, the corner of the car park near the footpath gets full of vans and means carrying the stock that bit further.

Last year, the weather at this one was horrendous, with almost monsoon conditions.  It was only the second outing for the new show racking, and by the time we got it into the venue, it was soaking wet, the printed titles on the top of each rack had run and smudged, all the resin packaging was water-stained.  Ah, the fun!  This year was fairly bright, no rain, and almost a hint of sun on the way down.

We ended up arriving at 6:50, and the venue opened promptly at 7am.  We got straight in, started unloading and surprisingly had the stand up and finished by 8:30!  This gave Dave plenty of time to wander off and chat to the other traders, while I went and spoke to Keith Warren at Realistic Modelling about some more textures/grasses.  If you ever need some custom terrain doing, Keith's work is fantastic, and he's a really nice chap to boot.

The majority of the show is contained in the main sports hall, with the bring and buy and some display games in a separate room on the other side of the reception.  Some of the games were a bit out of the way, but there was good signage about.  

Main hall:





Bring and buy room, with display games:


A queue began to form as we got closer to 10, and when the public were allowed in, the show got off to a brisk start.  One guy in particular got himself a basket full of WW2 goodies, and came back later in the day for more!  That lot should keep him busy for a while!  As usual, a couple of Forum members were mooching about, but they never introduce themselves!  I did see Blaxkleric for a quick moment though.  

As lunch came and went, the show slowed quite noticeably.  There were still people about, but the sales slowed down, and I think Dave had a short nap at one point!  We did get chance to chat with Germy in the afternoon, as he took a break from the Zulu game his club were putting on.  I had a Forum related query for him, but that'll have to wait for now...  The afternoon continued slowly, quieter than last year, and stayed that way until it was time to pack up.

Dave had said when we got there that he wanted to be on the road before 4pm, to make sure we were through the Dartford tunnel and out of the way before the traffic hit.  A couple of years ago he didn't get away from the show until late, and ended up stuck in traffic for a couple of hours.  So we started breaking the stand down at about 2:30pm, and were pulling out of the car park by 3:50pm.  And luckily, this time, we got straight through Dartford, onto the M11 and off up the A1 towards home.

We got back at 9pm, just in time for a Chinese before I logged on to see some of the fantastic Painting Comp entries that have been posted!

So, the games:








































And three more members of Pendraken Auxiliaries!: