Games night at Lee Rosy's

Games night at Lee Rosy's Tea Shop, 17 Broad Street, Hockley, NG1 3AJ

I love games. All sorts of games. Charades, Pictionary, Trumps, Twister, I love them all. But the problem, being only me, is actually playing any of them. It’s all very well hoarding a cupboard full of dice and counters, but one can’t bankrupt oneself when one’s scotty dog lands on one’s own Mayfair hotel. You see my dilemma?

So, over the years, I have strived and struggled to find a place where a number of people (any number, but more than two is usually desirable) got together and played board, card, and other games together. It has had less than complete success. You see, I’ve gone to many "games nights" before, in hopes of finding this highly sought after, yet elusive, hobby haven; and I have walked away from them with a diverse, and mostly inappropriate, range of mementos. These include a Disney Princesses glitter wristband, a cotton sports headband (this one also came with a fierce stitch, and the unwelcome reminder that I hate sport), and once, a neckband of a slightly, uh, blacker and more glossy material. With some metallic attachments. To my ankle.

So, last Thursday, ever so slightly cautious (I’d needed a key to get my ankle free), I clunked down the dim staircase to the basement of Lee Rosy's Tea, still with, let me maintain, an audacious determination to have some damned fun, and a fierce optimism based on the promising name attributed to this night: Gambling Lambs. Ho ho ho.

Into view emerged a motley of shady looking characters hunched together into the cubby space under the stairs, and the hesitant doubt in my mind ballooned slightly. Then I realised they were actually hunched around a low table, and their hands were full of small rectangular cards. This looked very promising. And then I noticed that one of them was wearing the face of Captain Hammer on his T-shirt. I felt like I’d found home.
After quick introductions and cake, I squeezed myself into the second round of the card game, which I’d never played before. It was called Fluxx, and this was my introduction to it: 

Board games at Lee Rosy's

- “OK, so what are the rules?”
- “Well… they change throughout the game play.”
- “Right... how do you win?”
- “Well… that changes too…”
- “OK. So… how do you play?”
- “Well… OK, so that varies.”
- “Right…”

It wasn’t really as confusing as it seemed. The rules do indeed change, and so does the goal, and the game play, and I was kinda lost by my second turn, but by the belly of Buddha, I was playing a game! With people! A fun game with camaraderie and competitive sniping! This is what I’d been searching for!

Glancing around the shadowy basement, I noticed battered packs of playing cards, and a table piled high with colourful cardboard boxes, and, I have to say, my pulse did start to race quite a bit. This was exciting stuff! It was like finding gold! Gold you can jump around on squares and do forfeits with!

So, I was now fully prepared for an evening of hardcore leisure activity.

After Fluxx, pairs of us got together, and launched into Articulate! If you’re not familiar with it, Articulate! is a game in which one person describes a word, and the other one guesses. Teamwork, this was called. My team won. By a lot. I am quite proud. Though not of everything, as you’ll see…

Clue for Iran:
- “Umm… it has a war going on… I think…”
- “Iraq?”
- “No, the other one!”
- “Afghanistan?”
- “No, the OTHER ONE!!”
- “…”
[Look, I’m ashamed of me too, OK?]

Marie Antoinette:
- “Oh! OH! OOH!! It’s in Doctor Who!! The ship! THE SHIP!!!”
- “Madame de Pompadour?”
- “FULL NAME!!!”
- “Um…?”~

Gibraltar:
- “It’s a really nice place to stay in… I think it’s in Africa… ”

Zinc:
- “It’s in batteries…”
- “…”
- “Um… ‘Everything but the kitchen…’?”
- “… sink?”
- “RIGHT! But not that!”
Much laughing and cursing team mates was had.

After we trashed the board and the other teams, the whole company got into a big circle, and played Werewolves… which I can only describe as a cross between Wink Murder, Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, and The Village. With a splash of Romeo and Juliet.

- “He’s been awfully quiet this game, he must be a werewolf.”
- “Diverting attention, eh? Sounds like werewolf talk to me.”
- “I heard him move when we were ‘sleeping’! He must be a werewolf!”
- “That’s some pretty sensitive hearing you got there. You know what else has good hearing?”

Lamentably, Werewolves took us, literally, into the night. And so, as the last villager died a bloody and teethful death, we stood up, stretch out our chair stiff limbs, and shuffled towards packing cards into elastic bands, and dice into boxes. There were exclamations of success and endeavour. Promises of next time, time being too slow, and more nights were bandied around abundantly.

I came away into the night rain exhausted, laughed out, but still eagerly jumping for September. Won’t you join me?

Lee Rosy's website


 

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