Joyce's Column: April

Before I give you more chat from the recent Irish Show 2 ladies in our industry are both sporting milestone birthdays this month, Susan Feery of Irish Gaming celebrated her 60th and Lisa Lambert of NSM celebrates her 50th, and I am sure that you with me would like to wish them both a Happy Birthday and hope they both enjoy/enjoyed their celebrations.

Now for further chat from the recent Irish Show:

It was great to see all the raffle prizes were claimed, and especially the ones that Carnaby Gaming Machines Derek Lynch and E-Service’s Paul Scott won, besides the main prizes they both won large Disney toys donated by Whitehouse Leisure. Derek won Minnie Mouse and Paul won Tigger, and both of them went to 3 years old children. Derek’s went to Erin his Granddaughter and Paul’s went to Lottie his daughter who was 3 on the weekend after the show. You can see from the 2 photos here that the 2 girls were delighted with their toys.

Philip Foggy kindly played Mine Host following the raffle to myself, Andy Thompson, Gary and Gloria Newman and Dave Whately, and Philip insisted on being in the chair when the bill came which was very generous of him and we all appreciated his kind deed. I have promised both Philip and Andy that I will go and visit them in Northern Ireland later this year, and they both said you have promised us this before and not been, so I will make a special effort boys to get over later this year and enjoy some time and craic with you.

It was great to see Joost van Egeraat of Cennox at the show, I had not seen Joost for about 6 years, he left the industry to work elsewhere but like us all once you are in you are in and you don’t run blood in your veins you run industry through them, and 99 times out of 100 when you do leave you return to it.

Jim McCann was another welcome visitor and a friend of mind who had not been at the show for many years, in fact I think it was either the last one at the Green Isle or the first one at the Red Cow that he attended. Jim looked well and was full of chat and says he will come again next year and hopes to bring Anita his wife (another friend of mine) with him. The photo shows Jim and myself together.

Cummins Allison’s Paul Clay was another visitor, Paul always used to be an exhibitor with Cummins Allison at the Irish Shows but one they amalgamated with their new overseas company they haven’t exhibited since, but it was great to see you at the show Paul.

Paying their 1st visit to the Irish Show were Sterling Amusements John Marriott, Pas Petruccio of Game Coin and Jason McDonald, they did actually spend some time at the show but I think that Temple Bars takings would be well up at the end of their 2 day visit!!

Many thanks to GeWeTe’s Mark Edmundson and Robert Clarke for such a great Wednesday evening, and the private lounge of the hotel’s 4th floor was lovely and tranquil, and we were joined by Electrocoin’s John A Stergides and Jacob O’Hare, John left the lounge before we did but we met up with him again in the hotel restaurant/bar, and the evening due to Robert Clarke and Jacob O’Hare turned into great fun and laughter, in fact I have never laughed so much in a long time. Poor Jacob was not too sure whether Robert was gay or not (Robert played the part so well) and in the end Jacob left before us and went and well and truly locked himself in his room. Robert Clarke gay -           NEVER.  I would also like to say thanks again to both Mark and Robert for helping with my luggage on the hotel shuttle bus and at the airport, as I was struggling due to damaged Tendon in my biceps and a shoulder injury, such gents you both are.

Jacob and I were on the same Ryanair flight back to Manchester, and Jacob had travelled out with just hand luggage but at Ryanair at Dublin Airport they decided his luggage was not hand luggage it was hold luggage and charged him 76 euros to put it in the hold. According to Jacob the cost wasn’t the main problem it was that he had to wait at Manchester Airport for his luggage, and he was desperate to catch a train to Cleveleys his home town, and spend a couple of hours there before driving down to Cardiff. He was staying overnight in Cardiff then travelling back to go on a week’s skiing holiday to Austria with his mum, just hope you made it OK Jacob.

Now we have a photo of someone’s feet in rather bright trainers, and this person that owns them is the last one I would have thought of would wear something so bright, can you guess who it is or do you already know? These actually belong to John A Stergides, and I must admit they were quite a surprise to me, as usually our John is more conventional with colour, but have to admit he did look very trendy in them.

Enka Nonis of Embed was on the Bandai Namco stand and she had been travelling to numerous places before she landed up at the Irish Show, and decided that she would use the local launderette just down the road from the hotel. All seemed to be going to plan until she came to take her clothes from the machine, imagine her surprise to find them full of chocolate. Apparently someone before her had used the machine and left some chocolate in it, so the poor girl had to sit whilst the machine did another wash, and thankfully this time when the cycle ended her clothes were fine.

To end the Irish Show report just to say thanks to James Illingworth who sent me a WhatsApp stating that he thought I did a cracking job at the show, thanks James good to know you thought that even after I searched you out to buy raffle tickets

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24 April 2025

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