Invicta Informant

Thank you to everyone who attended over the weekend. It is very much appreciated. Attendance was better than I thought it would be. We were slightly up on the Saturday from last year, but up significantly on the Sunday from last year (who says the hobby is in decline). Feedback has been mostly positive. Bachmann, who attended for the first time, were impressed. One thing I might suggest to those coming by car in the future, is to make 'Warley'-style plans, i.e. park at a railway station car park en route and then catch the train to Longfield itself (don't forget we do have a shuttle bus running between the venue and the station). We will need to look at other parking options going forward. Being dealt a curveball on the Friday before the Exhibition, as previously mentioned in this thread, did not help at all, and I was fearful of the effects that would have had. The two trophies we award went to Scarlington (by Nick Skelton and the NoEL Group of Railway Modellers - Scarborough) and to Cato Inferno (by Laurie Calvert). Please don't hesitate to share any photos, video, feedback, constructive criticism, etc. of the Exhibition on this thread, and I shall pass on your comments to Paul, the Exhibition Manager.

Michael van Gerwen wins the Dutch Darts Masters 8 legs to 6 over Luke Littler. This coming weekend, there is the Masters at Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes. Coverage on ITV. Players ranked 9th to 24th in the Order of Merit start in the first round and the winners then play the top 8 in the second round. Chris Dobey is the defending champion of this event. Draw bracket: (1) Luke Humphries (ENG) Vs (16) Stephen Bunting (ENG)/(17) Ross Smith (ENG) (8) Peter Wright (SCO) Vs (9) Jonny Clayton (WAL)/(24) Krzysztof Ratajski (POL) (4) Nathan Aspinall (ENG) Vs (13) Dirk van Duijvenbode (NED)/(20) Ryan Searle (ENG) (5) Gerwyn Price (WAL) Vs (12) Joe Cullen (ENG)/(21) Josh Rock (NIR) (2) Michael van Gerwen (NED) Vs (15) Chris Dobey (ENG)/(18) Andrew Gilding (ENG) (7) Danny Noppert (NED) Vs (10) Dave Chisnall (ENG)/(23) Martin Schindler (GER) (3) Michael Smith (ENG) Vs (14) Dimitri Van den Bergh (BEL)/(19) James Wade (ENG) (6) Rob Cross (ENG) Vs (11) Damon Heta (AUS)/(22) Gabriel Clemens (GER)

The Daytona 24 Hours was won by the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport driven by Dane Cameron, Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr and Josef Newgarden. The winning margin was 2.112 seconds from the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing driven by Jack Aitken, Tom Blomqvist and Pipo Derani. Jenson Button finished third in the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura that he shared with Louis Delétraz, Colton Herta and Jordan Taylor. The top five overall finished on the lead lap. The next round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship is the Sebring 12 Hours on 16th March, where Lamborghini's new SC63 car should make its debut in the series. The WEC season starts with the Qatar 1,812km on 2nd March.

Setting up has gone pretty well this evening. Unfortunately the Academy only told this afternoon (Friday) that we cannot use the tennis courts for parking. From what I was told, they had installed new heat pumps under the tennis courts and subsequently they cannot take the weight of parked vehicles. So due to things beyond our control, we now have even less car parking space than we did in previous years, and we did not have enough space even then.

There is also the Daytona 24 Hours this weekend too.

I have done a rough guide to the car parking arrangements at the venue. The public can park in the main car park and, when that gets filled up, the tennis courts. And then the pavement area in front of the main entrance. I very much doubt we will be able to use the field behind the school like we did last year on the Saturday. Blue badge holders will be instructed to park diagonally to try and maximise the number of cars parked as possible. I shall be out car marshalling in the mornings into the early afternoon, along with another club member and members of a local scout group.

Aging demographic? I was elected to the Committee of my club when I was in my late 20s in 2018 and in 2023 I was elected Secretary. My Dad, who is not into model railways, has found the mainstream media coverage of all this so-called doom and gloom for the hobby very patronising and belittling. Young and young-ish people are around in this hobby and are very much actively involved. The Chatham & District MRC has, from what I have heard, had quite influx of new young members post-Covid and they are back organising a show at Chatham Dockyard in July, and I am very much looking forward it.

Luke Littler did this en route to the final of the Bahrain Darts Masters:

Despite not winning a stage, Carlos Sainz Sr. wins the Dakar Rally at the age of 61. Sébastien Loeb, despite winning five stages, finished third.

Here are the match-ups for the Divisional Round (essentially the quarter-finals for the Super Bowl): Houston Texans (4) @ Baltimore Ravens (1) Kansas City Chiefs (3) @ Buffalo Bills (2) Green Bay Packers (7) @ San Francisco 49ers (1) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4) @ Detroit Lions (3) With Detroit's win over the LA Rams, the Miami Dolphins now hold the unwanted record of longest post-season drought, last winning in the Wild Card Round on 30th December 2000 against the Indianapolis Colts.

Their season starts at Donington Park on the weekend of 27th & 28th April, which feels a long way off. There is still the IMSA SportsCar Championship, which kicks off with the Daytona 24 Hours at the end of the month on the 27th & 28th.

And the last time the Detroit Lions won a Play-Off Game was 5th January 1992, where they beat the Dallas Cowboys 38-6 at the Pontiac Silverdome.

Elbow Lane is Stand No. 67 in the Sports Hall. Plant City is Stand No. 59 also in the Sports Hall. I shall look forward to seeing you folks in a few weeks.

The Show Guide has been finalised and is available to view or download. For those travelling from East Kent, there is planned engineering works between Rainham and Faversham on the weekend of the show and replacement buses will be running instead. Show Guide 2024.pdf

Erith MRS club member's layout Bletchinghurst, as previously mentioned, will be attending.

This perhaps?

Saw this recently on my YouTube 'Recommended' and I thought it was pretty interesting.

Week 18 NFL Results: Pittsburgh Steelers 17-10 Baltimore Ravens Chicago Bears 9-17 Green Bay Packers Kansas City Chiefs 13-12 Los Angeles Chargers Denver Broncos 14-27 Las Vegas Raiders Philadelphia Eagles 10-27 New York Giants Los Angeles Rams 21-20 San Francisco 49ers Dallas Cowboys 38-10 Washington Commanders Seattle Seahawks 21-20 Arizona Cardinals Atlanta Falcons 17-48 New Orleans Saints Jacksonville Jaguars 20-28 Tennessee Titans Minnesota Vikings 20-30 Detroit Lions Cleveland Browns 14-31 Cincinnati Bengals Tampa Bay Buccaneers 9-0 Carolina Panthers New York Jets 17-3 New England Patriots Houston Texans 23-19 Indianapolis Colts Buffalo Bills 21-14 Miami Dolphins Here are the match-ups for the Wildcard Round: Philadelphia Eagles (5) @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4) Green Bay Packers (7) @ Dallas Cowboys (2) Los Angeles Rams (6) @ Detroit Lions (3) Cleveland Browns (5) @ Houston Texans (4) Pittsburgh Steelers (7) @ Buffalo Bills (2) Miami Dolphins (6) @ Kansas City Chiefs (3) San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens will play the lowest remaining seed from their Conferences in the Divisional Round. As a Dolphins fan, I am very disappointed we didn't win the AFC East. Just for a laugh, I would love it if the Super Bowl was contested between Detroit and Cleveland, who have both infamously gone 0-16 (in 2008 and 2017 respectively). The Super Bowl is scheduled for 11th February at Allegiant Stadium (home of the Raiders).

Luke Humphries is the new World Champion (and World No. 1), with a 7 sets to 4 victory over Luke Littler (who is now 31st in the Order of Merit). Littler had a chance to go 5-2 up. The pair of them will be participating in the Premier League (broadcast on Sky Sports) along with Michael van Gerwen, Michael Smith, Nathan Aspinall, Gerwyn Price, Rob Cross, and Peter Wright. This commences on 1st February in Cardiff and concludes at London's O2 Arena on 23rd May. The next darts tournaments on TV are a couple of 'World Series' events on ITV4 from Bahrain on 18th & 19th January and from the Netherlands on 26th & 27th January. The Masters from Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes will take place between 2nd & 4th February, feature the top 24 players in the main Order of Merit, and be broadcast on ITV4.

One of motorsport's cult events, the Dakar Rally is due to start this week, concluding on 19th January. It is 46th edition of the event and the 5th to take place in Saudi Arabia. 2007 was the last time the event would actually reach Dakar (located in Senegal). Names I recognise that are competing in the Cars category include Nasser Al-Attiyah, Stéphane Peterhansel, Sébastien Loeb, Carlos Sainz Sr., Mattias Ekström, Giniel de Villiers, Romain Dumas, and Tim Coronel (whose co-driver will be his twin brother Tom).

Week 17 NFL Results: New York Jets 20-37 Cleveland Browns Los Angeles Chargers 9-16 Denver Broncos Cincinnati Bengals 17-25 Kansas City Chiefs Pittsburgh Steelers 30-23 Seattle Seahawks Las Vegas Raiders 20-23 Indianapolis Colts New England Patriots 21-27 Buffalo Bills Atlanta Falcons 17-37 Chicago Bears Miami Dolphins 19-56 Baltimore Ravens San Francisco 49ers 27-10 Washington Commanders Carolina Panthers 0-26 Jacksonville Jaguars Los Angeles Rams 26-25 New York Giants Arizona Cardinals 35-31 Philadelphia Eagles New Orleans Saints 23-13 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Tennessee Titans 3-26 Houston Texans Detroit Lions 19-20 Dallas Cowboys Green Bay Packers 33-10 Minnesota Vikings Denver Broncos, Cincinnati Bengals, Las Vegas Raiders, and Chicago Bears have been eliminated from post-season contention, while Kansas City Chiefs, Cleveland Browns, and Los Angeles Rams have secured theirs spots in the post-season. Baltimore and San Francisco have secured the No. 1 seed and first round play-off bye in the AFC and NFC respectively. The NFC South (aka Tank Division) and AFC South titles are still to be determined going into the final week, with Jacksonville, Indianapolis, and Houston from the AFC South all having the same 9-7 record. Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Green Bay, Minnesota, and Seattle still have a chance to make the post-season. Atlanta still has a remote chance, but they have to beat New Orleans and hope Tampa Bay loses to Carolina (whose owner, David Tepper, made the news for the wrong reasons, and was fined $300,000).

The World Championship Final is tonight (3rd January). May the best Luke win.

This is what the draw bracket now look like: (17) Chris Dobey (ENG) Vs (8) Rob Cross (ENG) Luke Littler (ENG) Vs (28) Brendan Dolan (NIR) (2) Michael van Gerwen (NED) Vs Scott Williams (ENG) (3) Luke Humphries (ENG) Vs (11) Dave Chisnall (ENG) The quarter-finalists are guaranteed £50,000.

He won the Indy 500 in 2003 and the CART World Series in 2000 and 2001. Also seen today (31st December) that Cale Yarborough, the NASCAR Cup Series Champion in 1976, 1977, and 1978, has passed away aged 84. He was also one of the participants in the infamous fight with Donnie & Bobby Allison at the end of 1979 Daytona 500, the first NASCAR race to be broadcast live on television in its entirety.

Visited the show today (Sat 30th), and it was a pretty good show. Quite a number of large scale (O gauge or bigger) exhibits, including a couple of live steam ones. Trade support was pretty decent as well. It was a nice easy-going bit of escapism, especially after the hectic run-up to Christmas. Would go again.