Well I've just come back from a great weekend up in Sheffield with a wallet that is lighter and many carrier bags of lead which are somewhat heavier. We got back in one piece despite one of the back wheels on the car making some really weird noises all the way there and all the way back. As is tradition now after booking into the hotel and having a wee dram or two, it was off to Fat Jacks for some long awaited food, (shock, horror they take the Deep South blueberry pie ice cream off the menu.) Back in the hotel we then spent the rest of the evening playing Risk ion the hotel lobby, (at least I think it was Risk but I can't be sure Julian seemed to be playing diplomacy.)

Saturday morning after breakfast we loaded up Julian's car with the armies and had a pleasant five-minute drive to The Octagon. (Most of us did any way; Gerry and Adrian had to walk because Gerry couldn't drive due to the fact that the copious amounts of falling down juice he'd drunk the night before didn't agree with him this particular morning.) After a quick scout around I had to go up to the competition room the write the orders for our Napoleonic team, what a master plan it was as well. Then the serious business of converting money to lead began in ernest. Also available was the new Rapid Fire Supplement on Arnheim this is a super publication and well worth buying if you're into that sort of thing. Meanwhile, back in the competition room, our Danish napoleonic army was having a few problems. Despite doing their best to confuse the French enemy by wearing French uniforms, Henry's right flank collapsed, the objective on the left, which Russall was holding ended up disputed and they eventually lost by 52 points to 148 points (It must have been bad rolls on the dice because it couldn't have been my master plan could it?). After some more shopping in the afternoon we made our way back to the hotel and spent an hour or so examining the day's purchases. In the evening it was back down to Fat Jack's to see the unusual sight of Gerry drinking orange juice through a pink straw none the less, (poor fellow didn't want to start on anything harder tonight because he had a long night ahead of him.) Back at the hotel we played a game of Dark Warrior followed by a couple of games of Nuclear War, (the last game ending with everyone wiped out.)

The next day we checked out after breakfast and made our way back to the Octagon. Having brought the Rapid Fire Arnhiem Supplement the days before I just had to buy some of the new SHQ British Paras to go with it. Gerry and Adrian then let us all down by winning the DBM game thus cheating us out of a clean sweep; (we also lost the renaissance game yesterday afternoon.) After squeezing the last few pence out of our wallets we made our way back home after a very enjoyable weekend.

This is the fourth time I have been to the Triples and the number of teams taking part in the competition seems to be dwindling, so is it perhaps about time they changed the rules that are used?

RWY