Joyce's Column: February

Before I follow up with more EAG chat I would like to offer belated Birthday Congratulations to Sega’s Adam Garrett who celebrated his ‘Life Begins at 40’ birthday at the end of January, I hope you enjoyed your day and had great celebrations. Another Birthday Congratulations this time to NSM’s Alex Kirby who celebrates his 50th on 28 February, and if I know you and your family there will certainly have been many celebrations for this and I am sure your dad Barry would be at the forefront of organising these, and the celebrations will probably go on for months!!

Now for EAG Catch-Up

First all I most apologise for two photos that were missing in my January chat column, number one was of Derek Lynch, Radical Shock and number two the award presented to the late Derek Horwood, well I am making amends and they are now included in this month’s chat column.

Ex Industry journalist Peter Rubin visited the show to meet up with me, and as always, we shared a bottle of champagne together and no need to tell you it was enjoyed the photo says it all. Peter enjoyed his time at the exhibition and caught up with some friends and he stayed for the tribute to Ron Vinson. 

Cosmic Leisure’s Amanda Austin had been in the wars having both her wrists in supports, she had broken both of them whilst ice skating in Stockholm and spent over 10 hours at the hospital in Stockholm, then of course on her return to the UK it was back to the hospital again.

Apparently, she used to be an excellent ice skater as a young girl, but Amanada you are still young but not a young girl but a young lady now and not have ice skated for such a longtime extra care was needed. Amanda says she has been well looked after during this ordeal and husband Martin has come to the forefront acting as her personal nurse, head cook and bottle washer and she says he’s made a great job of being a househusband. Hopefully Amanda you will soon be back with the full use of your hands but remember just to take it easy and no more ice skating.

E-Service's Alex Clokie (no she is not related to the owner Mike) told me they had experienced an excellent exhibition and had welcomed both old and new customers to their stand, and she felt this was due to the great range of reliable and quality products they offered themselves, but also the products they offered from both Innovative Technology and Hainsworth with which E-Services now have tied in with and it is working well. On a final note, from Alex, she felt that EAG had been and good exhibition and one a worthwhile attending. I have to say that their stand was always busy, and I had to wait around 30 minutes before I could actually get a quote from Alex, she was so busy.

At an evening event after the first day of the exhibition several guests gathered at Brew Dog in Canary Wharf to an event including darts which have made a great revival recently, the event was organised by Bob Rudd Leisure. Demonstrations were given by celebrity darts players and invited guests were invited to the oche to try their luck, and Inspired’s Tony Glanville decided he would try, and he got the name of ‘The Growler.’ Now why he got this name I don’t know, but maybe somebody or other could perhaps inform me of the reason?

Alan Walker received an award at the BACTA Awards event for his long- standing service to the industry, well done Alan. I met Alan some years ago through the late Roy Deeming and Alan was one of his customers and they enjoyed many a meal of fish and chips together on Brighton Pier., where Alan was based at the time with the noble Organisation. Congratulations Alan on your award and truly deserved, and of course we had to have a photo of the two of us together.

HC Terminals and Inspired Technology (ITL) shared a stand and with their recent collaboration between the two companies they offered a new entrant B3 cabinet Odyssey to the market offering both cost effective and high- performance solutions for both the AGC and Bingo Market. Odyssey has two new exclusive casino type games Devil Wilds Deluxe and Leaves of Fortune, plus still offering the popular Fluffy Favourites to a B3 cabinet for the first time ever, all the content on Odyssey is tried and tested and powered by ITL’s latest Orbital platform which has been in development for two years. HC Terminals Joe Hepworth was extremely upbeat about the product and had great visions for it and also stated they were very happy to step into the B3 market. The photo shows HC Terminals Joe Hepworth and ITL’s Eli Lucas and Chris Bower

ITL also offered on their stand Just The Ticket which allows the player to choose the amount they want to play, put their money in and receive a ticket out at once with no need for an app for it. Just The Ticket is a simple and easy to use machine, price competitive and is manufactured in the UK and will be a valuable boost to operators.

Great to see first time exhibitor Robobike at EAG, in fact this was only their second exhibition the first one being the British Motor Show. The brainchild of Simon Fox and Tom Clark, Robobike offers fun for all the family regardless of their abilities. It is designed, engineered and manufactured in the UK and offers both able-bodied players and disabled players in wheelchairs and motorised vehicles for the disabled a chance to be able to join in together. Robobike is a 4D motion motor bike simulator platform, where adults, children and disabled persons can compete against each other on the same game, so need for any disabled person be it a family member or friend to be left out, and have a coffee etc whilst the able- bodied family/friends play. Offering live leaderboards, venue versus venue competition, national and international tournaments plus many other forms of competitive entertainment with quarterly software updates, story-telling, digital content and community engagement etc. They are now also in the process of enhancing all three simulators adding some cutting- edge technology to the disabled simulator making it accessible for an even wider range of users. Good to see a caring and thoughtful company that takes disabled persons into consideration, offering a platform for every rider.

Reflex Gaming’s Mark Purdy was full of enthusiasm for their new game Big Game Fishing Community Catch, and from what I could see this game certainly had a great attraction many people were queuing up to play it. Unless of course Mark you really were the attraction, who knows!!

Sorry to hear that Dransfields Dave Wren took back more from EAG than he wanted, he ended up with a bout of Covid and was in bed for a few days, he is  back at work now and feeling much better, just take care Dave and stay well.

Now some very sad news of two industry people that passed away Mick Kennedy being number one, he passed away in December at his home in Cha Am, Thailand where he had lived for the past few years. Mick was a valued member of our industry for many years working at Cromptons, Harry Levy, Crown, Bandai Namco etc and was a loyal member of each company he worked at. Quite a character in his own way and one could say he came across until you got to know him as ‘Marmite’ you either loved or hated him, now I hate ‘Marmite’ but from the first time we met I loved Mick and had great rapport and respect for him and he with me. When it came to my charity event at shows he was always there to help me, he would sell people who normally wouldn’t buy raffle tickets to buy them, he just had this knack about him or maybe he was more forceful than me, he also acted as my MC at the Irish Show and loved doing this. Mick’s son Jay who lives in Brighton has his dad’s ashes and says come Summer he will arrange a place to scatter them. I for one will definitely try to make it and it would be nice if some other members from the trade attended too. When I have more details, I will let you know.

Brian Lavin is number two to have passed away, it was Andrew Murden that informed me about his passing. I first met Brian at the Scottish Show, he was the transport manager for BWB at the time and he carried on in the position of transport manager with Mazooma and Bell Fruit, delivering equipment for these companies the length and breadth of the UK, he was a popular chap with his other comrade lorry drivers he also paid a valuable part with the BACTA Bikers. Brian was what I call a salt of the earth person he was an amiable friendly person who would do anything for you if it was in his power, and I used to look forward his company at the cabaret at the Scottish Show and we enjoyed many a chat and the odd drink or two together, oh the good old days of this industry, at least we had them and enjoyed ourselves.

I think all of you that knew these two industry characters would extend sincere condolences to their families and friends, and may they both rest in peace.

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19 February 2026

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