For the journey to Salute this year I thought I would travel with the Scrivens family. After a quick stop to get some sandwiches, I drove to Tring station. As I pulled up in the car park I saw Henry, Jon and Sue on the platform. After a trip to the ticket office and a quick post graduate course in buying train tickets I joined them. The train soon arrived just a few minutes late and we were on our way.

When we arrived at Euston we parted company with Sue who was off to the Public Records Office to do a bit of family history research. The rest of us headed down the tube and made our way towards Olympia. While waiting for a connection at Earls Court station it wasn't hard to guess there was a wargames show on, there were lots of wargamie looking types about including the familiar face of Tring member Andrew Murrall.

We arrived at Olympia around 11:00 am. Henry and Jon went through the Que Busters entrance while I had to go through the other entrance which took only fractionally longer to get in. I didn't buy a Que Busters badge this year, one reason I have in the past is because it was cheaper than paying at the door, this wasn't so this year.

Once inside it was time to start exploring. This year Salute was on three floors of the Olympia 2 complex. In the basement you had the bring and buy, (once again run by the lads from SELWG,) trade stands and demo games. On the ground floor which is were the entrance was there were more traders and games, and on the first floor more of the same plus there were various re-enactors putting or displays some of which I fear might of been a little to realistic as I did hear an announcement for a first aider to go to the re-enactment area.

One of the things that was noticeable this year was the extra tables and chairs that had been dotted around the place, it certainly made it easier to find a seat when you wanted to take the weight of that enormous rucksack of lead off your back and rest those weary feet.

At around 1:00 pm. a few Tring members met near the first floor restaurant for a celebratory drink, five of us had birthdays within a couple of weeks either side of Salute. Graham, Richard and Ken on the Behind The Lines stand somehow got wind of this and felt a little left out as they couldn't leave the stand. So we sent Sherpa Squigs down with some cans.

One thing about being a Tring member and going to a show is that you always get lists from other members that can't make it. At Salute this year I was going to say I got off lightly in that respect, but I think I'll change that to say I only had three, (they didn't feel light.) One I couldn't get for Ian Ransome, one for Chrls Bignal that was fairly easy, and Walters. Having gone to the Skytrex stand and found they didn't have what he wanted there then followed an hour-long text message conversation to try and clear up what exactly he wanted instead. At one point I even showed the woman on the Skytrex stand a message and she couldn't make head nor tail of it either. We got there in the end, though as it turns out he sent the wrong code.

There were some very fine looking games on show this year. One thing I have noticed since my return to wargaming about eleven years ago is the quality of the terrain found on the games. Having been a railway modeller in a previous life when I first came back to wargaming most of the terrain around was quite basic. It has gradually improved and over the past few years has began to rival that found at model railway fairs. One game in particular I would like to mention in that respect was SSWG's 20mm WWII Pripyat Marshes game. The marshy terrain really looked the part they had used a lot of clear resin to get that wet look. I don't think it could have been finished that long, because if you stood by the table to long you started to get high on the smell of the resin. That said it still looked a damn fine game.

After another circuit of the show we purchased some new terrain for the club which included some ploughed fields and some new hills. It was getting late in the day by now and when we herd the announcement for the Warlords to assist the public to leave the building we thought it must he time to go. But we still had to wait for Jon to finish his Buffy the Vampire Slayer Game.

Henry, Jon and I made our way to New Oxford Street and Forbidden Planet where we were meeting up with Sue. We got there about two minutes before it closed. After a short sharp look around it was time to make tracks again, Henry, Sue and Jon headed off towards Planet Hollywood for a meal and I went down the tube to start my journey home.

Well thats Salute over for another year and once again it was an improvement over last year, which can't be bad.

RWY

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