Invicta Informant

Have you or anyone else in the BRM team had any further news concerning this?

Show Flyer has now been produced.

The venue for the club's January 2023 Show has been formally booked and flyers have been ordered. The provisional listings of attendees for the Exhibition can be found here: https://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/erithmrs/exhibit_january.html

It has been a while since I (or anyone else) has reported on this thread. The 'regular season' of the Premier League has concluded with the play-offs due to take place at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin on Monday 13th June. 1st place Jonny Clayton will play 4th place Joe Cullen, while 2nd place Michael van Gerwen will play 3rd place James Wade. Van Gerwen recently announced that he will be having surgery on his dart throwing arm to deal with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. He will therefore miss the World Cup of Darts due to take place between 16th and 19th June. Winners in the Players Championship events thus far this year are Luke Humphries, Peter Wright, Joe Cullen, Damon Heta, Jim Williams, Gerwyn Price, Michael van Gerwen, Danny Jansen, Ryan Searle, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Nathan Aspinall, and Michael Smith. Meanwhile, winners in the European Tour events are Gerwyn Price, Michael van Gerwen, Luke Humphries, and Michael Smith. Upcoming tournaments on ITV4 are the US Darts Masters on 3rd & 4th June at Madison Square Garden and the Nordic Darts Masters on 10th & 11th June at Forum Copenhagen.

The British Touring Car Championship is back this weekend at Thruxton. Coverage is on ITV4. Plus there is the Indy 500, MotoGP from Mugello, and the Nürburgring 24 Hours. There was meant to be two races in the World Touring Car Cup at the Nürburgring before the 24 Hour Race but following a number of tyre failures (Goodyear are the tyre supplier to the series) in practice and qualifying, the races were cancelled on safety grounds. There also was a ceremony at Mugello where MotoGP retired Valentino Rossi's No. 46 (akin to the NHL retiring Wayne Gretzky's No. 99 across the league).

I certainly would not mind helping out with the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway and/or the Kent & East Sussex Railway in some way. However, as with many other people, work and family commitments must come first. Plus some of the things that I do with my model railway club also take up a fair amount of my free time, especially producing the quarterly in-house magazine for the rest of the members (something that I have been doing since 2013). I also feel that some people volunteer at certain preserved railways because of that railway's higher profile status, even though there might be another railway closer to home that is desperately short of volunteers.

I went down for the RH&DR's 95th Anniversary Steam & Diesel Gala Weekend on Thursday 12th and came back on Monday 16th. Boy, it was a busy weekend, especially on Saturday. They had every available carriage in service and they still run out of room on some trains. The weather was glorious on Saturday which I think attracted more day trippers to the area. Also, there are three places (at the time of writing) where you can get model railway related bits and pieces in Hythe (all in the High Street). Applej-Ax, Hythe Sweets & Kent Model Exchange, and Train Stop in the Malthouse Arcade (only open on Fridays and Saturdays). P.S. perhaps the title of this thread can be amended to that of a general one about the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway?

Just a reminder, that this event is happening this coming weekend.

The British Touring Car Championship is back this weekend at Brands Hatch. Coverage is on ITV4.

Just a reminder that the RH&DR's 95th Anniversary Steam & Diesel Gala Weekend is next weekend, 14th & 15th May 2022, plus overnight running is scheduled between Hythe and New Romney.

I don't know why it is, but there are certain pieces of music that I would describe as classical that are never played on Classic FM. Particularly from De Wolfe Music that I remember from Monty Python or from Nugus/Martin Productions documentaries that were narrated by Robert Powell.

The new season of the British Touring Car Championship starts this weekend at Donington Park. One key thing that has been introduced this season is a hybrid system made by Cosworth. The old success ballast system is no longer being used. Instead TOCA (the series organiser) will cut the hybrid boost available to the drivers depending on where they finish. The entry list for the season stands at 29 cars. Ash Sutton (defending champion), Dan Cammish, Ollie Jackson and Sam Osborne racing for Motorbase Ford. Tom Chilton, Tom Ingram, Jack Butel and Dan Lloyd racing for Excelr8 Hyundai. Rory Butcher and Ricky Collard (son of Rob) racing for Speedworks Toyota. Stephen Jelley, Colin Turkington and Jake Hill racing for WSR BMW. Dan Rowbottom and Gordon Shedden racing for Dynamics Honda. Jason Plato (in his last season), Josh Cook and Jade Edwards racing for BTC Honda. Aiden Moffat and Dexter Patterson racing for Laser Tools Racing Infiniti. Bobby Thompson, Nicolas Hamilton (brother of Lewis), Jack Goff and Aron Taylor-Smith racing for Team Hard Cupra, who are also running a Infiniti for Rick Parfitt Jr. Adam Morgan and George Gamble racing for Ciceley BMW. Ash Hand and Michael Crees racing for Power Maxed Vauxhall.

Sometimes having a VPN (Virtual Private Network) switched on can stop a user accessing certain websites or web pages. It turns out that certain IP addresses used by VPNs are blocked by certain websites as they can be, and indeed have been, used for nefarious purposes (such hacking, fraud, etc.).

Over the week just gone, we had the inaugural World Darts Federation (WDF) World Championship at Lakeside Country Club, Surrey, which was broadcast on Quest and Eurosport. I barely even notice it was on and did not know most of the participants. Unlike the previous editions of the BDO World Championships, the official title of the event did not contain the word 'Professional' in the title, used new trophies (rather than the old BDO ones), and the final was played as best of 11 sets (first to 6) rather than best of 13 sets (first to 7). The event was won by Northern Ireland's Neil Duff (who did not have a Wikipedia page before winning the final) beating Frenchman Thibault Tricole 6 sets to 5. Also in the Women's Event, 18-year-old Beau Greaves beat Kirsty Hutchinson 4 sets to 0 in the final to become the youngest winner of a senior world darts championship (there are world youth championships in both the PDC and WDF). Michael van Gerwen I believe is still the youngest winner of a senior darts Major, that being the World Masters in 2006 when he was only 17.

Another very good show indeed. Thank you to everyone involved. I would say it was about as busy as it was pre-Covid. It was even heaving in some places, especially in front of Deadmans Lane, Rossiter Rise, Hooper's Aggregates, Redbridge Wharf and Copenhagen Fields. It was also nice to meet some acquaintances that I have not seen since early 2020.

The Erith Model Railway Society held its AGM on Thursday 17th March. This was the club's first AGM since 2019 as Covid had forced cancellation for those scheduled for 2020 and 2021. The club's Committee remains unchanged and consists of: Alan Bone - Chairman. Paul Plummer - Exhibition Manager. Clive Simpson - Secretary. Stan Monger-Godfrey - Treasurer. David Bone - Committee Member. Michael Chipperfield - Committee Member. Janet Jackson - Committee Member. Ever since the clubrooms have reopened at the end of July 2021, attendance on club nights has gradually increased over the weeks. Presently between 20 something and 30 something members attend club nights every Wednesday evening. New members are always welcome. We suggest that anybody interested in joining the club visits our clubrooms in Belvedere on a couple of Wednesdays (between 6:30pm and 9:00pm) just to get to know the members and the feel of the place before taking the plunge and signing-up. So any railway modellers, railway enthusiasts or modellers in general, regardless of skill, in South East London and North West Kent who are interested to joining a friendly and active club (which is turning 60 in 2022), please do not hesitate to get in contact with us. https://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/erithmrs/

I have spoken to Alan Bone and he has provided me with more details. Traders due to attend are Colin Penn (pre-enjoyed trains, accessories, diecast vehicles, etc.), Clive Tennyswood (pre-enjoyed model railways, accessories, etc.), Railway Book Library & Ephemera (pre-enjoyed books and other bits & pieces), and the Rother Valley Railway 'Orient Express' Shop & Museum (at the Robertsbridge Junction station site). Layouts due to attend are Bletchinghurst (OO), Scrapworth End (OO), Hucknall St. Mary (N), Jayare Junction (N), Crumbling Edge (N), six 'medium' sized layouts from the West Sussex N Gauge Society, a 10ft by 6ft O Gauge or Gauge 1 layout, a Somerset & Dorset themed layout (I will chase up on more details), and another OO gauge layout (I will try to find out more). I have also uploaded a copy of the flyer.

I believe his name is Mark Collins.

I and many others would recognise one of The Railway Monthly presenters, Mark Found, from a few series he presented on what was then called Discovery Home & Leisure back in the 2000s, The Garden Railway, the two series of Supermodels, and the first series of Trainspotting.

I do know that at least three or four (maybe even five) of the layouts due to attend are Erith Model Railway Society (EMRS) club members' layouts. These are Bletchinghurst (OO gauge, loosely based on the Hawkhurst branch line), Scrapworth End (small DCC OO gauge), and another layout (but I don't know which one yet) from a member who has a few N gauge layouts for shows. Plus two others (Hucknall St. Mary and Jayare Junction) are on standby to fill any space if need be. Alan Bone, the EMRS Chairman, is from my understanding the Exhibition Manager for this show. I shall ask him for more details when I next see him at club night.

Will you be accepting pre-orders on your stand at the exhibition?

Over the weekend just gone we had the UK Open and a new TV Major winner in Dutchman Danny Noppert who defeated Michael Smith in a closely contested final 11 legs to 10. Defending champion James Wade lost out to promising Irish youngster Keane Barry in the quarter-finals. Wade was one of three players to achieve a nine-darter in the tournament along with José Justicia and Michael Smith. Seven players also achieved the maximum out (170 finish). All this has led to changes in the world rankings. Peter Wright is the new world No. 1, Gerwyn Price drops to No. 2, Wade is up to No. 3, Smith is up to No. 4, Michael van Gerwen drops to No. 5, and Noppert is up to No. 12. Apart from the ongoing Premier League Darts on Sky Sports, the next televised PDC tournament is the invitational 'World Series of Darts' event, the US Darts Masters on 3rd & 4th June at Madison Square Garden.

Nice to see a new race winner in MotoGP, especially coming from the Gresini Racing team who over the past few years having been running Aprilia's works team (now a in-house operation) and last year sadly saw the passing of their founder Fausto Gresini after two month battle with Covid. Also interesting to see Brad Binder's younger brother Darryn riding with the satellite Yamaha team (WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team) partnering Andrea Dovizioso, and Wayne Gardner's son Remy riding with the Tech3 KTM team.

Motorsport series starting this weekend are MotoGP at Losail, Qatar, and the Australian Supercars Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park (formerly Eastern Creek International Raceway).

One thing that helped the PDC (or the World Darts Council (WDC) as they initially called themselves) was the fact that America's and Canada's World Darts Federation (WDF) affiliates refused to sanction an effective world-wide ban on players that defected from the BDO because they thought what they were being asked to do was against their countries' constitutions. This allowed the WDC to invite 7 top American players for their first world championship. The WDC changed their name to the PDC in 1997 following a protracted and costly legal battle with the BDO which resulted in a Tomlin Order. This allowed players to choose which organisation to play for, while the WDC/PDC recognised the BDO as the UK governing body and the WDF as the world governing body. The defectors were Phil Taylor, Dennis Priestley, Rod Harrington, John Lowe, Alan Warriner, Eric Bristow, Jocky Wilson, Bob Anderson, Peter Evison, Jamie Harvey, Ritchie Gardner, Cliff Lazarenko, Kevin Spiolek, Keith Deller, Mike Gregory, and Chris Johns. However Gregory and Johns had a change of heart and jumped back to the BDO before the first WDC/PDC world championship. Their careers subsequently fizzled out and were both ostracised by the other defectors. For many years the WDC/PDC was effectively a 'closed shop'. The demise of the BDO has been drawn out over a number of years, but it all came to a head at the 2019 World Masters. This tournament saw a number of seeded players choosing not to play in protest of a change of the qualifying criteria. Other players who arrived found they were not registered because they were unaware of a new rule about registering online in advance. Players were also not told of the event's prize pool in advance (I still don't know if anyone got anything). This led to the tournament officials doing a redraw which apparently included fake names which could be substituted if a real player showed up. However this was all in breach of the WDF's rules and they demoted the BDO to 'associate member' status and refused to recognise BDO-run tournaments. The fact this debacle and their financial woes were being reported in Private Eye meant something was not right somewhere.