Experience of being a "pro" for a day

Northern Monkey · Post by **Northern Monkey** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:21 am

Well I am currently on jury service in one of London's satellite towns and, the courts not being very eager to do much round Easter, yesterday afternoon gave me the opportunity to do a tour of a tyical town centre full of the usual suspects in terms of chavvy chain pubs.

As someone who pretty much only plays in the City/ West End and at lunchtimes/ evenings/ weekends this was a bit of an eye opener and I now have a bit more empathy with some of the comments posted from time to time by the full time players on here:

1. The amount of money on offer: sheer concentration of Itboxes on offer makes for easy pickings eg Scrabble; Bully; Word Blox. For anyone with the skill and training to JP any other games I can see that extremely decent pickings would be there.

2. It is difficult to remain inconspicous when you walk into a cavernous Yates' wine lodge almost completely empty, look round for the machine and walk straight over and play it, drink pint (in my case as I am not a pro but treating myself to an afternoon out) empty coins and leave.

Anyway a thoroughlyenjoyable day out and financially rewarding to boot (supplemented by 5 GATWs on 2 different DOND Big Red AWPs

)

As an aside, whilst sat around the courts managed to piggy back onto a wifi and log on to FC on my pda- UP and the Cardinal, your signature bits at the bottom are bloody irritating to scroll through when using a handheld - show some consideration fellas

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:59 am

Good work Hornby - which satellite town are you in? Just checking it's not my hometown as I'm planning to raid that when down visiting family in April...! Will you be moving from EC4 to E14?

I do agree with you. I suspect I could make a modest (keyword) living if I jacked in my job now to play SWPs full-time - I'd need to become much more rigorous in playing over wide areas, investigating new venues, and focusing on playing a smaller number of games to a higher standard, and I'd also need a car, but I reckon I could probably do all of that. But it'd be a modest living at best for me. I nowadays suspect that some of the really top boys (e.g. INCA) must make pretty decent livings from it - kudos to them.

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:15 pm

nice one NM, it is always good to get an excuse to do an SWP safari. interesting to know that scrabble has not been spanked universally yet, as you know London is pretty well covered. i might get round to visiting various friends in backwaters if this is the case.

in other news, it sounds like you need to get a faster PDA

i'm back to ISTENEM these days so maybe i will scrap the other sues.

Northern Monkey · Post by **Northern Monkey** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:24 pm

Interestingly a certain VBob had visited just one of the machines on 3 January

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:32 pm

Northern Monkey wrote:Interestingly a certain VBob had visited just one of the machines on 3 January

the 'spoons by any chance?

fotherz · Post by **fotherz** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:19 pm

Which town?

donttellhimpike · Post by **donttellhimpike** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:36 pm

I expect Northern Monkey made a better fist of it than many of us would make of whatever he does in the real world for a day.

Come on the lads!!

Pike

Ted Hughes didn't have a clue.

roberto la vigna · Post by **roberto la vigna** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 5:26 pm

Northern Monkey wrote:Interestingly a certain VBob had visited just one of the machines on 3 January

*racks brains* no idea where this could be

Northern Monkey · Post by **Northern Monkey** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 6:37 pm

Back to the courts today and only time for a lunch hour dabble. As well as a shocking 99 scrabble board as reported in another thread, found another which was incapacitated last week with the target at 33 tiles and old school end game

Of more interest though was the unit in question had TGP. I missed this first time round due to various reasons but seem to recall a few of you liked this.

Should I go back and play it tomorrow?

If so any tips?

Should I be put off by the empty coke glass left on the machine?

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 6:48 pm

Northern Monkey wrote: Of more interest though was the unit in question had TGP. I missed this first time round due to various reasons but seem to recall a few of you liked this.

Should I go back and play it tomorrow?

Yes. Read the instructions carefully and you'll work out what's going on. You basically need to remember which questions you answer correctly, and how quickly you answered them.

Good find. I've found a couple of virgin 54s recently but haven't seen a virgin 55 anywhere.