Many thanks to everyone; game presenters, traders and visitors that came and worked to make 2024 show the best attended Hammerhead ever. We ran out of wristbands just after lunch and were giving out marked game tickets instead, which together counted to 1838! It did feel incredibly busy and this total does include all the participation game presenters, traders as well as visitors. The use of the additional blue toilet block outside building did take the pressure off the internal facilities and proved essential with the very high number of predominately male attendees.
There were 62 participation games, six more than the previous year and 46 traders in attendance which I feel gave a good balance between playing games and shopping for gaming products. All the table top sales slots sold out in record time with the online booking. Wargames Illustrated ran their very popular painting competition to which there were 99 entries across all the various categories, and again Hammerhead provided a home for the 20th DBA North Cup competition this year on larger boards!
This years Hammerhead figure, Duke of Monmouth proved so popular that these were all gone by late morning. So sincere apologies to all those that missed out on the day- I have already scheduled a new production run of ‘Monmouths’ and these will be available from the Kallistra website in a couple of weeks. In response to numerous requests, we will also make all the other 10 Hammerhead figures from previous years available to purchase at the token price of £1 plus postage.
Members of the Forest Outlaws were again given the mission to seek out 3 games to which prizes were allocated. Every game presented at Hammerhead deserves a prize and the random game presenters draw is a small way of saying thank you for their contribution to the success of the show. The 3 games selected by the ‘Outlaws’ for prizes this year were:
Best Constructed Game: ‘Aliens: Operation Blue Devil’ by Yorkshire Renegades
Best Visually Appealing Game: ‘Conquistador’ by Like a Stone Wall group
Best Overall Game: ‘Bounty Hunters’ by Chesterfield Open Gaming Society
A total of £225 of vouchers or ‘Letters of Marque’ were exchanged for cash at the entrance desk by traders as a result of the game players and game presenters prize draw. This has traditionally been financed by the sale of the Hammerhead figures and is a small gesture of thanks to all the traders for their continued support.
Sally has been organising Hammerhead for more than 10 years now after taking over from Dave Wise and the C.O.G.S team. She could not have done this without the continued and vital support from The Forest Outlaws Gaming Club, other members of the Kerrison family and Newark Showground staff. A very sincere thank you to everyone who helped to make ‘Hammerhead a celebration of our hobby’.
Hammerhead 2025 is due to take place on 1st March!
Written by Paul K
