In Full Colour – The Colours Show Returns to the Fray in 2022

Colours – always a big show – has slipped from the calendar in recent years. What with reducing it to a one day show a few years back and then the whole ‘national shut down’ business plus – last year – the organisers pulled the show... well I for one did wonder if it was ever coming back and what it was going to be like on it’s return. Would it be triumphant? Well – it was certainly a good day out and with lots of changes. For the better!

A DAY AT THE RACES

The venue was located – as it had been for a decade or so – at the Newbury Racecourse but, in the last few years, that venue has had lots of upgrades. Parking is fabulous: capacious, easy and free plus the signage is superb: the light up sign saying “COLOURS 2022” on the side of the building could be seen from low orbit... Inside it was largely the same deal as previous years with three, well-appointed floors (with integral catering) and quite underwhelming lighting but – as an added bonus – it was free entry for gamers. Which is hard to argue with. Consequentially, the venue was suitably busy and traders I spoke to said they had a rather good day. That has to be excellent news!

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA

As I mentioned the lighting wasn’t great and the games – mostly on the top floor with a couple sprinkled on the middle one – were not well served by that. If you were lucky enough to have a game at a window you were mostly okay but – in all fairness to the organisers (Newbury & Reading Wargames Society) – this is a problem at many venues, large and small (no names...). There was a fair selection of games – almost twenty over the two floors (plus a competition area) – but, while it’s fair to say that there were no bad ones, there are none that I would have called ‘show stoppers’. Too Fat Lardies had a very nice looking Holding Oosterbeek game in 28mm using their own Chain of Command rules with a big splash of almost model railway layout quality scenery; there was a great To the Strongest ECW game;  Loughton Strikeforce did a very pretty (and rather large) Mordheim game in 28mm; Maidenhead Reapers did a nice Venice Canal game; WAR put on a tidy looking Battle of Adrianople with a great Gothic wagon defensive position; Devizes & District put on a fun looking Vietnam Skirmish; and the Grand Tactical Rules team put on a huge map based Invasion of Malta 1942 which was pretty impressive (as map games go).

GREATEST HITS

I’m very glad Colours is back. The show organisers took a very brave approach, ran a fine day and the venue has improved markedly since the earlier incarnations of the show’s tenure. The trade spread was very good with over 60 retailers and a Bring & Buy. I’m sure next year will be even better. 

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