After a heady weekend of parties, pubs and car park shenanigans, we go through our highlights and experiences at The Game Fair 2026. Richard Negus found himself with the freedom of the fair, Richard Prideaux spoke to nearly everybody in attendance, Callum McInerney-Riley almost saved the day and George Browne had more costume changes than a pantomime dame.
CountrySlide is a podcast that looks at farming, conservation and life in the British countryside.You can contact us by email on: contact@countryslide.co.uk
Edited and Produced by Amy Green.
This transcript was generated using AI and may contain minor errors.
Richard Negus
I'm interested. What did your school report say about you?
Callum McInerney-Riley
I don't think any of it was particularly good. How do you say 'little [bleep]' professionally? Those words, whatever that is, were pretty much what was in my school report.
Richard Prideaux
Challenging.
Callum McInerney-Riley
You know, I bumped into my head—she was like my head of... not year, what is it? She was my form tutor, yeah. She was also a head of house.
Richard Negus
Yes.
Richard Prideaux
A school Callum went to.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Yeah, Gryffindor, mate. I bumped into her a long while afterwards, notorious for the behaviour that I had. She was also an English teacher, so I didn't really apply myself particularly at school. Then she asked me what I was doing now. If I could paint the picture when I told her I was a professional journalist—that was quite something. I was working in London as a professional journalist and she was like, 'Oh, really?' So, yeah.
Richard Prideaux
I didn't know Razzle had journalists.
Richard Negus
George, what is your... I mean, we had housemasters. What did your housemaster have in his mind's eye? What did he think the young George Browne was going to be?
George Browne
Imprisoned, I think, probably.
Richard Negus
Imprisoned.
George Browne
He was not my biggest fan, if I'm completely honest. And the feeling was mutual. We did not get on at all well. And so my singular lack of success so far in life would probably have come as no surprise to him whatsoever.
Richard Negus
What did they have you marked out as at school?
Richard Prideaux
Which—the bit I got kicked out of, or the bit I didn't get kicked out of?
Callum McInerney-Riley
I think the first one's a marker of success.
Richard Negus
I think the first one.
Richard Prideaux
Let's try the second. I remember my physics teacher, when I spectacularly failed my A2 level—or whatever they were called, because that was like the second half of it—just said I was a massive disappointment to him. Five years later, I saw him selling eco light bulbs at the village fete. So I don't know how that works. I don't know what his marker of success was, but I'm sure we both disappointed each other. With disappointment in mind, should we try and work out what actually happened at the Game Fair? We normally do a, 'Oh, who's coming to the Game Fair?' bit and then never mention it afterwards. I sort of lost track of where you all went at the Game Fair, but I know some things happened. So I think we need to do an after-action report here.
Callum McInerney-Riley
A blow by blow.
Richard Prideaux
If that's what happened, that's what happened.
Richard Negus
Yeah, I had no blowing.
Richard Prideaux
Never mind.
Richard Negus
Okay, the highlight for me on the Friday was that, rather than being perpetually at the GWCT stand like last year, Claire and I were let off the leash. We went out as a sort of normal couple, wandering around and taking it all in, and it was, in its way, a delight. You get stopped by loads of people and say, 'Oh, I haven't seen you for ages.' I think that's the best thing about the Game Fair: you catch up with people you haven't seen for a year, but they might have read your stuff or listened to what we do on this dark podcast of ours. You realise it's actually quite well worth it. We also did some proper journalism, interviewing people, which was quite cool. Then on Saturday I realised that Friday is a delight, but Saturday is just a really, really busy thing. We went to some posh drinks parties, which we were actually invited to.
Richard Prideaux
More on that later.
Richard Negus
And they were quite cool. I went to one up at the hall, which Callum was also invited to, but we'd gone by then. We'd actually left Charlie and his sidekick in a hot car because we said, 'You're not coming.' We'd been to the Schöffel drinks party before that and Charlie had tried to half-inch the beers that were on offer.
Richard Prideaux
Yes, I saw that.
Richard Negus
Yeah, he put them in a bag. So we vetoed him coming to The Field's drinks party up at the hall because that would have been a bit dangerous. If he'd actually started nicking things off the Earl of Hertford, that probably would have been career over. So that was it: delightful Friday, far too busy Saturday. I didn't buy anything inappropriate or silly that I got back and thought, 'What the hell does this thing even do?' In fact, the only thing I think I bought was an expensive sausage. It was a Herefordshire salami-type thing. The guys were down in the food area, they were a bit quiet and they'd clearly put all this effort into it. They gave me loads of samples and you feel...
Callum McInerney-Riley
I was going to say that you get sort of not guilted into it, but you do feel bad for some people.
Richard Negus
Yes, Callum, I did. You just think: you've put huge amounts of effort, love, passion and skill into this. Also, I'd spoken to George the day before about his plans to make sausages and I thought, I need an excuse not to have one of the sausages he's going to make. So I bought them from a professional rather than getting dysentery.
Callum McInerney-Riley
I got offered one of these sausages. This was the slightly warm one. No, that's a different sausage. This is George's signature slightly warm sausage.
George Browne
You'll be pleased to hear, Richard, that I managed to resist buying the sausage machine. So everyone's safe, despite our best efforts.
Richard Negus
We did have this image of George going back—because he was flying solo, weren't you, again?
George Browne
I was.
Richard Negus
And we will find out what happens when George flies solo in places without adult supervision. I had this image of him buying a sausage maker—every single thing that can turn meat into gristly stuff—and being covered in sausage skins, gristle and minced-up meat for the next six weeks as he starts experimenting with all this stuff.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Have you ever tried to make sausages?
George Browne
Yes, I have.
Callum McInerney-Riley
And tried how difficult it is to get it into that skin? The imagery of amateur sausage making is also how I feel I look in a white T-shirt: like someone's badly packed it in. Every time I see a woman in an ill-fitting white dress, all I think is, 'Amateur hour at the sausage factory.'
George Browne
I like the idea that sausage factories have an amateur hour when people can just turn up and have a go.
Richard Prideaux
Yeah, like an open mic night.
George Browne
Yeah.
Callum McInerney-Riley
You never know. GNVQ in sausage making.
Richard Prideaux
So, to tell the wider story of this, Callum, George, Amy and I have this inter-networking of adventures where we almost need to release a map. Like they used to do with certain books: you'd turn to the middle for the map and see where all these things were happening. We need to do that for the middle of Warwickshire.
George Browne
Or with sort of military moves.
Richard Prideaux
Yes, they used to do that in Sharpe novels. So just imagine that in your head. We're converging on a campsite somewhere near Evesham, which wasn't going well because it turns out Google Maps did an update that week and just sent everyone down stupid side roads. If you're listening to this and thinking, 'Yes, my Google Maps was stupid that week,' apparently it was a thing: it started randomly sending people down stupid routes, even though they were ten minutes longer. That's what we had all the way there, and I think you did as well.
George Browne
I did have exactly the same experience and I found myself thinking, I know I'm near the M4 because I can see signposts to it, but I don't seem to be able to get on it.
Richard Prideaux
We got to the campsite and George was already there. I want to paint a picture for you, listeners. In the corner of the campsite, with caravans on either side, there was a five-metre bell tent—one of those big canvas campaign tents—with a moustached man sitting in front of it wearing a pink shearer's vest, shorts and flip-flops. There's an image of that for patrons only, but it was a strong way to start the weekend. It went downhill from there, really, didn't it?
George Browne
I think it went uphill. Certainly I got smarter.
Richard Prideaux
You did. But you also had to put real clothes on when we went to the pub that night. The pub at the campsite was a bit [bleep], so we went off to a better pub. Are we going to give away the location of this—the best pub?
George Browne
No, because I would like us to be able to camp there next year, instead of the campsite that we were at.
Richard Prideaux
So let's go for the descriptors instead. In the village, most of the roofs were thatched. What's the thing—you'll know this, Negus—with the animals on the top? What are they called?
Richard Negus
Do you know what? I don't know the precise thing. I think Chris Dodson told me they were something like 'icons'. I think that's the term they use for them.
Richard Prideaux
That would make sense, wouldn't it?
Richard Negus
He has told me some of the bizarre things that he's been asked by thatched house owners to put on, one of which was a ballerina of all things.
Richard Prideaux
Producer in the notes, Amy has just said they are called finials, apparently.
Richard Negus
He's from Huntingdonshire, so that's probably how they pronounce it.
Richard Prideaux
So: evening sun, walking across the village square, church bells going, thatched roofs everywhere, walking up towards the 15th-century pub with Morris dancing happening in the tithe barn next to it. We walked through the orchard to the outdoor dining area, opened the menu and it said, 'We make our own cider and we've won many awards for our pies.' Inside, there was a folk music session happening. The staff could not have been nicer; I think they're possibly the nicest human beings on Earth. We went for supper with Avian and his wife. I think I was happier that evening than I have been all year—although, for about two-thirds of this year so far, I have been dying.
Richard Negus
I was going to say: for a year in which you nearly lost your leg and the doctors turned round and said, 'We might save the leg,' let's be perfectly honest, anything after that is probably coming up Milhouse. So, what was your highlight of the Game Fair, George? Flying solo.
George Browne
It was a bit of a strange Game Fair for me because, in most of the other years I've been there, I've been tied to a stand and never really able to explore properly. Last year I wasn't, but I literally turned up for a podcast recording and then naffed off again. So, this year, what were my highlights? For the Guns on Pegs podcast, I interviewed Carlo Beretta, who is next in line to the Beretta business. His dad is running it at the moment and he was there representing Beretta for the company's 500th anniversary—which is an astonishingly long time for anything to have been going.
Richard Negus
Am I right in saying it's the oldest family-owned company in Europe?
George Browne
It would certainly be up there. There aren't many companies that have been going for that long, are there? That was really interesting, and he was a consummate professional. We then did our Guns on Pegs live show, which was the one I've enjoyed most out of all the live shows we've done: standing room only in the Game Fair Theatre. Then, on Saturday night, I attended the Beretta dinner up at the house. The invitation said formal evening dress, which I interpreted as black tie—but it turned out that very few other people had done so. I would say maybe 10 per cent of the people there were in black tie, and I was one of them. It was all very fun. It was wonderful walking up from the park where the showground is, up the steps into the very formal garden, with the string quartet playing and everybody having champagne and cocktails. I did have a sort of mental soundtrack.
Callum McInerney-Riley
I don't think they had a hosepipe ban in that garden, did they?
Richard Negus
No. It was lush, wasn't it? When we went into The Field's drinks do on the Friday, there was—I assume, because they were holding hands—a gay couple in front of us. From the back, one of these chaps looked exactly like Jeff Goldblum. As you walked up, various members of the Ragley Hall household staff welcomed and ushered you, because apparently you can't walk in a straight line without someone pointing out that you've got to carry on walking in a straight line to get to the house. I said to one of them, 'Did you see? That was Jeff Goldblum.' He went, 'Was it?' I said, 'It's definitely Jeff Goldblum.' He goes, 'I didn't know he was gay.' I thought: I have now started a rumour that Jeff Goldblum is gay, courtesy of a crap joke to a chap who works at Ragley Hall. Sorry, Jeff.
Richard Prideaux
Yeah, if it was at Goodwood or something like that, it would be more expected because there are all sorts of random celebrities hiding away in corners of the house. A friend of mine was at the Revival at Goodwood and went off into the house to try and find a quiet room to fart in. He stepped out of the corridor into this room and there was Keanu Reeves, sitting on a sofa. He didn't know whether to hold it in, carry on, or just nod and back out.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Please tell me you just crop-dusted him and left. He's a good man, is Keanu. Don't crop-dust Keanu.
Richard Prideaux
Sorry, Nigel, I've just shared the story of when you accidentally farted on Keanu Reeves.
George Browne
All of that was very fun, but I think the most fun was Friday, when we were biffing around the showground, chatting to people, looking at stuff and completing our bingo cards.
Richard Prideaux
I did a pink T-shirt that said 'Hello Cows' on it. I think we need to address the bingo card. We didn't get into trouble with it, but I scattered quite a few shooting-world celebrities across it who didn't know about it. I've since had a lot of messages from people saying, 'What is this [bleep] bingo card and why is my name on it?' We also started giving them out to stallholders. I know for a fact that the bizarrely present—and no one quite knows why—Restore Britain stand were given a Countryslide bingo card and they were playing, although it may have been one of the forestry people who sent me a photo of that. We infected the show and people were saying, 'What's this T-shirt thing?' Hamish from Gilly said on the first day, 'Oh, I've had a couple of your people here.' By the end of Saturday, he said, 'I've had a lot of your people here,' and there was a sort of loaded emphasis on 'a lot of your people'. I don't know quite what he meant by that. We don't own them.
Richard Negus
We don't own them. We're not responsible for them. I was particularly pleased not only with the number of T-shirts I saw, but with the queues outside Hugo Campbell-Hill's place, the Game Glutton.
Richard Prideaux
Yes.
Richard Negus
For the Game Fair, there seemed to be a distinct lack of people selling game. You observed that, George, didn't you? Why did you think that was?
George Browne
Well, this is conjecture and hearsay rather than anything concrete, but I think the costs are incredibly high. They may take a fee as well. There aren't actually that many game suppliers set up to do shows. Quite often, I think people use the Game Fair as a stepping stone to other things in their business. If you think of the likes of Cai ap Bryn and those sorts of people, they will have done the Game Fair many years ago. It's a way of making a bit of a name for yourself, then moving your business on so you don't have to give a big chunk of your takings to whoever happens to be running the show.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Yeah, I think the costs for a stand were crazy, but if you weren't selling cheesy chips for ten quid and were actually selling quality food, I would have thought you'd have done quite well.
Richard Prideaux
Looking at Hugo and what the Game Glutton did, he went through 744 pheasants and 60 partridges over three days—which is a substantial amount of bird flesh.
Callum McInerney-Riley
We should explain what he was doing. On the breakfast menu was a pluck muffin. That was delicious; I had one and it was fantastic. Then he was doing pheasant in something like a wrap, with lettuce, a delicious sauce and lots of pickles. It looked amazing. I didn't get to eat one, but everybody else said it was fantastic. So, yeah, that's what Hugo was doing.
Richard Negus
I'm very pleased that one of our loyal listeners and patrons managed to maximise his top-quality product. That was really good. What was the most stupid thing you saw for sale at the Game Fair?
George Browne
I have an answer for that. Hang on a second. I can show you.
Richard Negus
Go. You bought it.
Richard Prideaux
Yes, there's physical evidence.
Richard Negus
Wonderful. Loyal listeners, George Browne is holding up... Have you become a Viking, or what is that?
George Browne
Yeah, it's my drinking horn. It's so big I can't get it in the screenshot.
Richard Negus
Wow. Yes.
Richard Prideaux
Should we get the jokes out of the way now? So he's got the horn.
Richard Negus
He's got the horn. Yeah, he's got one and it's in his hand. So George has actually bought one of the sillier things. Richard, what did you see that made you think, 'Who's going to buy that?'
Richard Prideaux
I didn't buy much myself because I was too busy doing other things, mostly getting free drinks and breaking into places. But there was the usual stuff where you thought, 'I have no idea who's going to buy that. Who's going to spend £700 on a waterproof that's about half as good as one in Cotswold Outdoor?' There was one guy I was trying to track down, and I never found him, which really bugged me: neurodiverse pyrography. I want to know what's neurodiverse. Is it an autistic or ADHD person? Is it jittery pyrography? I don't know what the neurodiverse bit is. Does Callum do neurodiverse marketing and photography?
George Browne
I will do if it gets me a few extra clients. I like to think that all of the pyrography is sort of half finished.
Richard Prideaux
He started it.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Got distracted by a squirrel outside.
Richard Negus
Because—is that a heron?
Richard Prideaux
Well, most of it's overshadowed by the shenanigans of Friday night for us, which didn't start until about nine or ten. Callum arrived having—because what did you do? You photographed Carlo Beretta and then came to The Field party. Is that it?
Callum McInerney-Riley
Yeah, so I'd come straight from the Holland & Holland Shooting Ground and that overran a little bit. Well, we didn't—it all just got a bit complicated. I didn't get to The Field party until... Negus was there an hour and I got there just after that, so it must have been about twenty to eight. I did my socialising, and the responsible thing would have been to find somewhere to go. But you said, 'I'm over the other side of the campsite.' I said, 'Yeah, I'm going to go there instead.' So I headed over to you. Tell them what happened from there.
Richard Prideaux
The preamble to this is that we went to four parties and successfully got into three of them. Guns on Pegs was full. We didn't make it into the main, big VIP one because a man kept saying, 'Yes, but you need a badge that says exactly this.' Then we went off to the [unclear] party instead, which had venison and chilli, so that was the best. Then we met you by the Portaloo toilets on the edge of the campsite.
Callum McInerney-Riley
All good friends do.
Richard Prideaux
Yeah. Then we decided Callum was going to come back to our campsite and we'd go up. We walked back to the car. Amy, as the incredibly sober designated driver, got in, put the key in the slot and watched it immediately eject again. If you've got one of these—basically, a car made in the last 15 years—they don't have proper keys any more. They have a key that will only work if it talks to the car, and ours decided to stop. So we're broken down, trapped in a field. A rescue plan emerged: George Browne was going to set off wearing a pith helmet, a bright pink shirt saying 'Hello Cows', shorts and a very large pair of Härkila boots. I'm just painting a picture here. With a canvas rucksack, I think, at that point? Yep. He was going to set off on the four-mile trek from the middle of the Game Fair to one of the gates at the edge. Callum was going to drive round to meet him, then go back to the campsite and get George's car. Now, I worked out that I could probably take the key apart, re-solder it with a lighter and put it back together again whilst drunk—which, yes, is incredibly impressive. I can hear you saying it, so thank you. Yes, it is impressive. And we got it started. Meanwhile, George, what happened at the gate?
George Browne
Yes, so I'd hiked my way across the site to the gate. Would we call them wrought iron? Probably not wrought iron, but big old ornamental gates, anyway. The security chap sitting next to them explained that they would only open upon the arrival of a car. I looked at the gates and thought, 'I don't think I'm getting through any of those gaps.' Then I saw a little rickety wicket fence between the gate and the wall, filling the gap. I thought, 'I'll get over that. It's only waist-high.' As he saw me scaling it, the chap on the chair said, 'Be careful.' I turned and gave him a withering look—which he would not have been able to see in the dark—and said, 'I've been climbing over fences since I was four years old. My dad's a farmer, I'll have you know.' I hopped over, whilst wearing a pith helmet, and landed with my foot on the kerbstone. I rolled my ankle, my sunglasses hit the floor and made an audible crack—which, for a horrible moment, I thought was my ankle going. I swore loudly, hit the floor and then had to hobble away and wait for Callum by the side of the road. I could have stayed more or less exactly where I was, but I felt I needed to hobble out of sight. I wasn't in the direct glare: exit stage left.
Richard Negus
You see, this slightly backs up Patrick Galbraith's piece in the Telegraph on Friday about how Britain's most illustrious outdoor event was going downhill because it's now surrounded by crime. From the tone of Patrick's article, they probably thought we were talking about the thefts that have gone on. But actually, perhaps it was referring to pith-hat-clad individuals doing amateurish breaking and entering at grand old stately homes.
George Browne
Breaking and exiting.
Richard Negus
Breaking and exiting. I mean, you are basically the complete opposite: 'I am breaking out of this great big palatial thing owned by a marquess.'
George Browne
That would confuse him, wouldn't it, that they wouldn't let me out.
Richard Negus
Yes, exactly. I've entered this place and you wouldn't let me out. 'Let me out—I'm a farmer's son.'
Richard Prideaux
This story kept having extra bits—like The Lord of the Rings had too many endings. We got back to the campsite and found out that George had lost half of his possessions in the fall. They had scattered away from him like when you kill a computer-game character and they drop all their loot. Or like Sonic: all the rings drop out, except for him it was vape batteries, I think, and very important.
George Browne
The vape batteries are the bits I was most worried about.
Richard Prideaux
The next morning, when we came back to the Game Fair through the same gate, he spotted them on the floor and stopped. If you were held up in the queues at the red gate on Saturday morning, that was almost certainly George Browne sending Amy out to pick up all the vape batteries while the tailbacks went as far as Evesham. We didn't really cover ourselves in glory on Friday night, but we survived against all odds. I feel like other people did it with more elegance.
Richard Negus
Because I'm a proper grown-up and was there with my wife and son, I stayed in a tiny little pub called Ye Olde Red Horse in Evesham. I know some listeners from that neck of the woods get very down on Evesham, but I thought it was a delightful little place. Rather wonderfully, on Saturday morning, when I got up to take the dog for a stroll, I went out towards Evesham Abbey. They've got two churches very close together, then it goes down to the River Avon and quite an elaborate park. The moment I walked across there, I was listening out for the dawn chorus and heard the ubiquitous wood pigeon, a collared dove and a peregrine falcon. Up at the top of Evesham Abbey, there was a pair of peregrine falcons shouting at one another. Underneath the abbey, it was quite literally littered with the heads of jackdaws and wood pigeons, where clearly they'd been doing their pest-control work: 'Governor, I'm a working conservationist.' It was rather wonderful. I was going, 'Wow, look, a peregrine falcon,' and some local chap in a Leeds United shirt came out and went, 'Have you seen them?' He goes, 'Yeah, they're common as [unclear], they are.' It was wonderful. So my dawn chorus was a wood pigeon, a collared dove and a peregrine falcon. It summed up the Game Fair for me: the eclecticism of it, the country writ large.
Callum McInerney-Riley
It's usually the people that are the eclectic mix, is it not?
Richard Negus
There is that, I have to say. That's where the success of the bingo card was, I think: the joy it gave. The bingo card added to the Game Fair almost as much as the pluck muffins Hugo Campbell-Hill provided. Without that, it would have been flat. I'm waiting for the sponsorship deal to come from that. They're also probably going to get George to do what he did over the gate as part of a main-arena demonstration. Gundogs, George...
Richard Prideaux
It's like Machinery Nation, with us demonstrating electric quad bikes and chainsaws and things. What we need is some sort of agility event where the editors of various rural media publications do an assault course wearing pith helmets.
George Browne
This is an idea I've spoken about before, I'm sure: the Game Fair Olympics. Have we not spoken about this on this very podcast? Do some welly wanging.
Richard Prideaux
The bale or the javelin?
Richard Negus
Oh, yes, we did—and a bit of dwile flonking. You are quite right: the highbrow games.
George Browne
And the editor's steeplechase. I reckon I fancy my chances in that one.
Richard Negus
Yes. And the final thing I think we'd all agree on, both for Guns on Pegs and Countryslide, is that it was very gratifying to meet so many of the people who listen to us and keep us coming back each week to do our respective podcasts. Like I say, George, you had a full house. We met so many of our guys out there and it was just lovely.
Callum McInerney-Riley
It was so good to put names to Twitter handles and faces to people you'd only spoken to on WhatsApp. It was great. Thank you to everyone who came, said hello and had a chat. It was really good.
Richard Negus
Excellent.
Callum McInerney-Riley
I had a moment of the sort of thing I used to do when I was much, much younger; now I usually have to be the responsible one. My plan was to go fishing on the river on Friday night, but you obviously need it to be light to cast a rod into the river. So when Prideaux broke down in the car, I waited for him for a long time.
Richard Prideaux
I don't like that definition.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Allegedly. I had a moment where I was like, 'I don't actually know where I'm sleeping tonight.'
Richard Prideaux
Oh yes.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Which was quite wild-boy. Part of me was like, 'This is the person I used to be, and I like it.' Since becoming a parent, you've got to be responsible for others, so you can't do stuff like that. But when you're your own person, I was like, 'I'll be all right. It's fine not to have a plan.' I ended up sleeping just behind George's tent in the middle of a campsite, at the expense of whoever owns it—which I didn't pay for because there wasn't any room. So, yeah, it was quite fun.
Richard Prideaux
You didn't try, to be fair. You just walked in, pitched your tent and walked out before they spotted you.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Yeah, they were closed in the morning anyway. So it is what it is.
Richard Prideaux
So, to round this off, what was the good, exciting, nice, positive thing you saw at the Game Fair?
Richard Negus
Pizza the Queen. I had no idea—it's a dachshund, apparently. Whose?
Richard Prideaux
Oh, you didn't know about this?
Richard Negus
I had no idea what Pizza the Queen was, but Charlie, my son—we were at the Schöffel drinks thing—and he suddenly went, 'Dad, Dad, can you take a photograph of me with this guy? He's really famous.' I looked over at this person, who had a small dachshund with him. He handed the dachshund to Charlie and made his whole two days, because this dog is apparently Pizza the Queen, who turns out to have 455,000 followers on Instagram. So that makes them very important. I realised that I am officially old because a dog is more important than me to my son.
Richard Prideaux
Maybe that's a given, really, isn't it? The dog's cuter, to be fair. George, what about you?
George Browne
I was very excited to confirm that the fishing village isn't actually mythical. I saw it in the distance. I still haven't actually been there, so it could still be a mirage.
Richard Prideaux
No.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Oh, did you not?
George Browne
No. In five years of going to the Game Fair, I've never once made it as far as the fishing village. So I'm still slightly uncertain as to whether it's a real place or not. But I have seen it now. It's...
Richard Prideaux
You only saw it because it was next to the press tent.
George Browne
Yes, exactly.
Callum McInerney-Riley
I'd say it was 20 per cent good. I went. It's always worth a visit, especially if you're tempted to buy a really expensive fly rod: you get to play with them, which is dangerous and fun in equal measure. Eventually, one day, you might have enough of a head injury to actually purchase one—or you might just be irresponsible enough. I mean, you seem to be quite irresponsible, buying a drinking horn.
George Browne
It was because I hadn't bought the sausage machine for £250. I felt I needed to do a little displacement retail activity.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Are you familiar with girl maths and boy maths? I think that's boy maths: because you didn't buy a sausage machine, spending £40 on a drinking horn is now basically free. That was good. Turrall's fly-fishing place was good as well. They let you tie your own flies, teach you how to do it, give you all the materials and guide you; they've got experts there. That is 100 per cent worth going to if you're into fly-fishing. Also, Steve McCracken Art—he paints all these fish.
Richard Prideaux
Just to clarify: does he do pictures of them, or does he go out and put paint on wildlife?
Callum McInerney-Riley
Pictures of them, I think. Graffitied trout. Well, I was talking to him about how I hadn't had anywhere to sleep the night before and it was a bit of a mad one. He said he'd rolled a yoga mat out on the stand, put an old jacket over himself and slept on the floor. I was like, 'Well, you win that one.' He truly is a full wild boy, and I quite like him.
George Browne
I've got a graffitied fish story, but I think it's probably not for the main show. I think it'll have to be in the extra bit next time I'm on because it's probably actionable.
Richard Prideaux
Yes.
Richard Negus
Richard, what was the exciting or good thing you saw?
Richard Prideaux
People. I got to see people I haven't seen for a year, or whom we only ever see at events or in passing. On Saturday night, while you were going home and George was pretending to be—I think he's more George Lazenby than Roger Moore—up at the big house, and Callum was cooking for 4,000 people by the look of it, we broke into the exhibitors' party. I spent a really good evening with people I hadn't seen for a long time, friends old and new. I've committed us, as a podcast, to quite a few things. Now I'm getting messages all over the place saying, 'Are we still on for that thing we discussed on Saturday night?' Which one was it? I don't know, because all these people seem to know and I don't. So, if I committed us to something else on Saturday night, let me know. The night ended with us drinking gin out of someone's drinking horn on the [bleep] stand. Yes, that was where we finished up. So: seeing people I haven't seen for a long time. Amy also bought one of those waxed-cotton skirts, which you'll no doubt be seeing in photos at some point.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Waxed cotton? I don't even know what one of those is. It's like a Barbour.
Richard Negus
You don't know, Callum, you're not going to wear one. Yeah.
Richard Prideaux
Right.
Callum McInerney-Riley
And there was somebody we were missing.
Richard Prideaux
Yes, an important person. I don't know how far we go into this, but one of our wider network of people, Glenn—who is on the bingo card—is a little bit poorly at the moment. He will be absolutely fine, I'm sure, but if everybody could have really good thoughts about our very good friend Glenn, that would be amazing, because he's a lovely person despite the way he acts.
Richard Negus
Yeah, despite himself, he's lovely.
Callum McInerney-Riley
His sausage dog's lovely too.
Richard Negus
Yeah, I like his sausage dog. We've got the T-shirt, haven't we? Anyway, on that note: bye.
Richard Negus
I'm interested. What did your school report say about you?
Callum McInerney-Riley
I don't think any of it was particularly good. How do you say 'little [bleep]' professionally? Those words, whatever that is, were pretty much what was in my school report.
Richard Prideaux
Challenging.
Callum McInerney-Riley
You know, I bumped into my head—she was like my head of... not year, what is it? She was my form tutor, yeah. She was also a head of house.
Richard Negus
Yes.
Richard Prideaux
A school Callum went to.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Yeah, Gryffindor, mate. I bumped into her a long while afterwards, notorious for the behaviour that I had. She was also an English teacher, so I didn't really apply myself particularly at school. Then she asked me what I was doing now. If I could paint the picture when I told her I was a professional journalist—that was quite something. I was working in London as a professional journalist and she was like, 'Oh, really?' So, yeah.
Richard Prideaux
I didn't know Razzle had journalists.
Richard Negus
George, what is your... I mean, we had housemasters. What did your housemaster have in his mind's eye? What did he think the young George Browne was going to be?
George Browne
Imprisoned, I think, probably.
Richard Negus
Imprisoned.
George Browne
He was not my biggest fan, if I'm completely honest. And the feeling was mutual. We did not get on at all well. And so my singular lack of success so far in life would probably have come as no surprise to him whatsoever.
Richard Negus
What did they have you marked out as at school?
Richard Prideaux
Which—the bit I got kicked out of, or the bit I didn't get kicked out of?
Callum McInerney-Riley
I think the first one's a marker of success.
Richard Negus
I think the first one.
Richard Prideaux
Let's try the second. I remember my physics teacher, when I spectacularly failed my A2 level—or whatever they were called, because that was like the second half of it—just said I was a massive disappointment to him. Five years later, I saw him selling eco light bulbs at the village fete. So I don't know how that works. I don't know what his marker of success was, but I'm sure we both disappointed each other. With disappointment in mind, should we try and work out what actually happened at the Game Fair? We normally do a, 'Oh, who's coming to the Game Fair?' bit and then never mention it afterwards. I sort of lost track of where you all went at the Game Fair, but I know some things happened. So I think we need to do an after-action report here.
Callum McInerney-Riley
A blow by blow.
Richard Prideaux
If that's what happened, that's what happened.
Richard Negus
Yeah, I had no blowing.
Richard Prideaux
Never mind.
Richard Negus
Okay, the highlight for me on the Friday was that, rather than being perpetually at the GWCT stand like last year, Claire and I were let off the leash. We went out as a sort of normal couple, wandering around and taking it all in, and it was, in its way, a delight. You get stopped by loads of people and say, 'Oh, I haven't seen you for ages.' I think that's the best thing about the Game Fair: you catch up with people you haven't seen for a year, but they might have read your stuff or listened to what we do on this dark podcast of ours. You realise it's actually quite well worth it. We also did some proper journalism, interviewing people, which was quite cool. Then on Saturday I realised that Friday is a delight, but Saturday is just a really, really busy thing. We went to some posh drinks parties, which we were actually invited to.
Richard Prideaux
More on that later.
Richard Negus
And they were quite cool. I went to one up at the hall, which Callum was also invited to, but we'd gone by then. We'd actually left Charlie and his sidekick in a hot car because we said, 'You're not coming.' We'd been to the Schöffel drinks party before that and Charlie had tried to half-inch the beers that were on offer.
Richard Prideaux
Yes, I saw that.
Richard Negus
Yeah, he put them in a bag. So we vetoed him coming to The Field's drinks party up at the hall because that would have been a bit dangerous. If he'd actually started nicking things off the Earl of Hertford, that probably would have been career over. So that was it: delightful Friday, far too busy Saturday. I didn't buy anything inappropriate or silly that I got back and thought, 'What the hell does this thing even do?' In fact, the only thing I think I bought was an expensive sausage. It was a Herefordshire salami-type thing. The guys were down in the food area, they were a bit quiet and they'd clearly put all this effort into it. They gave me loads of samples and you feel...
Callum McInerney-Riley
I was going to say that you get sort of not guilted into it, but you do feel bad for some people.
Richard Negus
Yes, Callum, I did. You just think: you've put huge amounts of effort, love, passion and skill into this. Also, I'd spoken to George the day before about his plans to make sausages and I thought, I need an excuse not to have one of the sausages he's going to make. So I bought them from a professional rather than getting dysentery.
Callum McInerney-Riley
I got offered one of these sausages. This was the slightly warm one. No, that's a different sausage. This is George's signature slightly warm sausage.
George Browne
You'll be pleased to hear, Richard, that I managed to resist buying the sausage machine. So everyone's safe, despite our best efforts.
Richard Negus
We did have this image of George going back—because he was flying solo, weren't you, again?
George Browne
I was.
Richard Negus
And we will find out what happens when George flies solo in places without adult supervision. I had this image of him buying a sausage maker—every single thing that can turn meat into gristly stuff—and being covered in sausage skins, gristle and minced-up meat for the next six weeks as he starts experimenting with all this stuff.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Have you ever tried to make sausages?
George Browne
Yes, I have.
Callum McInerney-Riley
And tried how difficult it is to get it into that skin? The imagery of amateur sausage making is also how I feel I look in a white T-shirt: like someone's badly packed it in. Every time I see a woman in an ill-fitting white dress, all I think is, 'Amateur hour at the sausage factory.'
George Browne
I like the idea that sausage factories have an amateur hour when people can just turn up and have a go.
Richard Prideaux
Yeah, like an open mic night.
George Browne
Yeah.
Callum McInerney-Riley
You never know. GNVQ in sausage making.
Richard Prideaux
So, to tell the wider story of this, Callum, George, Amy and I have this inter-networking of adventures where we almost need to release a map. Like they used to do with certain books: you'd turn to the middle for the map and see where all these things were happening. We need to do that for the middle of Warwickshire.
George Browne
Or with sort of military moves.
Richard Prideaux
Yes, they used to do that in Sharpe novels. So just imagine that in your head. We're converging on a campsite somewhere near Evesham, which wasn't going well because it turns out Google Maps did an update that week and just sent everyone down stupid side roads. If you're listening to this and thinking, 'Yes, my Google Maps was stupid that week,' apparently it was a thing: it started randomly sending people down stupid routes, even though they were ten minutes longer. That's what we had all the way there, and I think you did as well.
George Browne
I did have exactly the same experience and I found myself thinking, I know I'm near the M4 because I can see signposts to it, but I don't seem to be able to get on it.
Richard Prideaux
We got to the campsite and George was already there. I want to paint a picture for you, listeners. In the corner of the campsite, with caravans on either side, there was a five-metre bell tent—one of those big canvas campaign tents—with a moustached man sitting in front of it wearing a pink shearer's vest, shorts and flip-flops. There's an image of that for patrons only, but it was a strong way to start the weekend. It went downhill from there, really, didn't it?
George Browne
I think it went uphill. Certainly I got smarter.
Richard Prideaux
You did. But you also had to put real clothes on when we went to the pub that night. The pub at the campsite was a bit [bleep], so we went off to a better pub. Are we going to give away the location of this—the best pub?
George Browne
No, because I would like us to be able to camp there next year, instead of the campsite that we were at.
Richard Prideaux
So let's go for the descriptors instead. In the village, most of the roofs were thatched. What's the thing—you'll know this, Negus—with the animals on the top? What are they called?
Richard Negus
Do you know what? I don't know the precise thing. I think Chris Dodson told me they were something like 'icons'. I think that's the term they use for them.
Richard Prideaux
That would make sense, wouldn't it?
Richard Negus
He has told me some of the bizarre things that he's been asked by thatched house owners to put on, one of which was a ballerina of all things.
Richard Prideaux
Producer in the notes, Amy has just said they are called finials, apparently.
Richard Negus
He's from Huntingdonshire, so that's probably how they pronounce it.
Richard Prideaux
So: evening sun, walking across the village square, church bells going, thatched roofs everywhere, walking up towards the 15th-century pub with Morris dancing happening in the tithe barn next to it. We walked through the orchard to the outdoor dining area, opened the menu and it said, 'We make our own cider and we've won many awards for our pies.' Inside, there was a folk music session happening. The staff could not have been nicer; I think they're possibly the nicest human beings on Earth. We went for supper with Avian and his wife. I think I was happier that evening than I have been all year—although, for about two-thirds of this year so far, I have been dying.
Richard Negus
I was going to say: for a year in which you nearly lost your leg and the doctors turned round and said, 'We might save the leg,' let's be perfectly honest, anything after that is probably coming up Milhouse. So, what was your highlight of the Game Fair, George? Flying solo.
George Browne
It was a bit of a strange Game Fair for me because, in most of the other years I've been there, I've been tied to a stand and never really able to explore properly. Last year I wasn't, but I literally turned up for a podcast recording and then naffed off again. So, this year, what were my highlights? For the Guns on Pegs podcast, I interviewed Carlo Beretta, who is next in line to the Beretta business. His dad is running it at the moment and he was there representing Beretta for the company's 500th anniversary—which is an astonishingly long time for anything to have been going.
Richard Negus
Am I right in saying it's the oldest family-owned company in Europe?
George Browne
It would certainly be up there. There aren't many companies that have been going for that long, are there? That was really interesting, and he was a consummate professional. We then did our Guns on Pegs live show, which was the one I've enjoyed most out of all the live shows we've done: standing room only in the Game Fair Theatre. Then, on Saturday night, I attended the Beretta dinner up at the house. The invitation said formal evening dress, which I interpreted as black tie—but it turned out that very few other people had done so. I would say maybe 10 per cent of the people there were in black tie, and I was one of them. It was all very fun. It was wonderful walking up from the park where the showground is, up the steps into the very formal garden, with the string quartet playing and everybody having champagne and cocktails. I did have a sort of mental soundtrack.
Callum McInerney-Riley
I don't think they had a hosepipe ban in that garden, did they?
Richard Negus
No. It was lush, wasn't it? When we went into The Field's drinks do on the Friday, there was—I assume, because they were holding hands—a gay couple in front of us. From the back, one of these chaps looked exactly like Jeff Goldblum. As you walked up, various members of the Ragley Hall household staff welcomed and ushered you, because apparently you can't walk in a straight line without someone pointing out that you've got to carry on walking in a straight line to get to the house. I said to one of them, 'Did you see? That was Jeff Goldblum.' He went, 'Was it?' I said, 'It's definitely Jeff Goldblum.' He goes, 'I didn't know he was gay.' I thought: I have now started a rumour that Jeff Goldblum is gay, courtesy of a crap joke to a chap who works at Ragley Hall. Sorry, Jeff.
Richard Prideaux
Yeah, if it was at Goodwood or something like that, it would be more expected because there are all sorts of random celebrities hiding away in corners of the house. A friend of mine was at the Revival at Goodwood and went off into the house to try and find a quiet room to fart in. He stepped out of the corridor into this room and there was Keanu Reeves, sitting on a sofa. He didn't know whether to hold it in, carry on, or just nod and back out.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Please tell me you just crop-dusted him and left. He's a good man, is Keanu. Don't crop-dust Keanu.
Richard Prideaux
Sorry, Nigel, I've just shared the story of when you accidentally farted on Keanu Reeves.
George Browne
All of that was very fun, but I think the most fun was Friday, when we were biffing around the showground, chatting to people, looking at stuff and completing our bingo cards.
Richard Prideaux
I did a pink T-shirt that said 'Hello Cows' on it. I think we need to address the bingo card. We didn't get into trouble with it, but I scattered quite a few shooting-world celebrities across it who didn't know about it. I've since had a lot of messages from people saying, 'What is this [bleep] bingo card and why is my name on it?' We also started giving them out to stallholders. I know for a fact that the bizarrely present—and no one quite knows why—Restore Britain stand were given a Countryslide bingo card and they were playing, although it may have been one of the forestry people who sent me a photo of that. We infected the show and people were saying, 'What's this T-shirt thing?' Hamish from Gilly said on the first day, 'Oh, I've had a couple of your people here.' By the end of Saturday, he said, 'I've had a lot of your people here,' and there was a sort of loaded emphasis on 'a lot of your people'. I don't know quite what he meant by that. We don't own them.
Richard Negus
We don't own them. We're not responsible for them. I was particularly pleased not only with the number of T-shirts I saw, but with the queues outside Hugo Campbell-Hill's place, the Game Glutton.
Richard Prideaux
Yes.
Richard Negus
For the Game Fair, there seemed to be a distinct lack of people selling game. You observed that, George, didn't you? Why did you think that was?
George Browne
Well, this is conjecture and hearsay rather than anything concrete, but I think the costs are incredibly high. They may take a fee as well. There aren't actually that many game suppliers set up to do shows. Quite often, I think people use the Game Fair as a stepping stone to other things in their business. If you think of the likes of Cai ap Bryn and those sorts of people, they will have done the Game Fair many years ago. It's a way of making a bit of a name for yourself, then moving your business on so you don't have to give a big chunk of your takings to whoever happens to be running the show.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Yeah, I think the costs for a stand were crazy, but if you weren't selling cheesy chips for ten quid and were actually selling quality food, I would have thought you'd have done quite well.
Richard Prideaux
Looking at Hugo and what the Game Glutton did, he went through 744 pheasants and 60 partridges over three days—which is a substantial amount of bird flesh.
Callum McInerney-Riley
We should explain what he was doing. On the breakfast menu was a pluck muffin. That was delicious; I had one and it was fantastic. Then he was doing pheasant in something like a wrap, with lettuce, a delicious sauce and lots of pickles. It looked amazing. I didn't get to eat one, but everybody else said it was fantastic. So, yeah, that's what Hugo was doing.
Richard Negus
I'm very pleased that one of our loyal listeners and patrons managed to maximise his top-quality product. That was really good. What was the most stupid thing you saw for sale at the Game Fair?
George Browne
I have an answer for that. Hang on a second. I can show you.
Richard Negus
Go. You bought it.
Richard Prideaux
Yes, there's physical evidence.
Richard Negus
Wonderful. Loyal listeners, George Browne is holding up... Have you become a Viking, or what is that?
George Browne
Yeah, it's my drinking horn. It's so big I can't get it in the screenshot.
Richard Negus
Wow. Yes.
Richard Prideaux
Should we get the jokes out of the way now? So he's got the horn.
Richard Negus
He's got the horn. Yeah, he's got one and it's in his hand. So George has actually bought one of the sillier things. Richard, what did you see that made you think, 'Who's going to buy that?'
Richard Prideaux
I didn't buy much myself because I was too busy doing other things, mostly getting free drinks and breaking into places. But there was the usual stuff where you thought, 'I have no idea who's going to buy that. Who's going to spend £700 on a waterproof that's about half as good as one in Cotswold Outdoor?' There was one guy I was trying to track down, and I never found him, which really bugged me: neurodiverse pyrography. I want to know what's neurodiverse. Is it an autistic or ADHD person? Is it jittery pyrography? I don't know what the neurodiverse bit is. Does Callum do neurodiverse marketing and photography?
George Browne
I will do if it gets me a few extra clients. I like to think that all of the pyrography is sort of half finished.
Richard Prideaux
He started it.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Got distracted by a squirrel outside.
Richard Negus
Because—is that a heron?
Richard Prideaux
Well, most of it's overshadowed by the shenanigans of Friday night for us, which didn't start until about nine or ten. Callum arrived having—because what did you do? You photographed Carlo Beretta and then came to The Field party. Is that it?
Callum McInerney-Riley
Yeah, so I'd come straight from the Holland & Holland Shooting Ground and that overran a little bit. Well, we didn't—it all just got a bit complicated. I didn't get to The Field party until... Negus was there an hour and I got there just after that, so it must have been about twenty to eight. I did my socialising, and the responsible thing would have been to find somewhere to go. But you said, 'I'm over the other side of the campsite.' I said, 'Yeah, I'm going to go there instead.' So I headed over to you. Tell them what happened from there.
Richard Prideaux
The preamble to this is that we went to four parties and successfully got into three of them. Guns on Pegs was full. We didn't make it into the main, big VIP one because a man kept saying, 'Yes, but you need a badge that says exactly this.' Then we went off to the [unclear] party instead, which had venison and chilli, so that was the best. Then we met you by the Portaloo toilets on the edge of the campsite.
Callum McInerney-Riley
All good friends do.
Richard Prideaux
Yeah. Then we decided Callum was going to come back to our campsite and we'd go up. We walked back to the car. Amy, as the incredibly sober designated driver, got in, put the key in the slot and watched it immediately eject again. If you've got one of these—basically, a car made in the last 15 years—they don't have proper keys any more. They have a key that will only work if it talks to the car, and ours decided to stop. So we're broken down, trapped in a field. A rescue plan emerged: George Browne was going to set off wearing a pith helmet, a bright pink shirt saying 'Hello Cows', shorts and a very large pair of Härkila boots. I'm just painting a picture here. With a canvas rucksack, I think, at that point? Yep. He was going to set off on the four-mile trek from the middle of the Game Fair to one of the gates at the edge. Callum was going to drive round to meet him, then go back to the campsite and get George's car. Now, I worked out that I could probably take the key apart, re-solder it with a lighter and put it back together again whilst drunk—which, yes, is incredibly impressive. I can hear you saying it, so thank you. Yes, it is impressive. And we got it started. Meanwhile, George, what happened at the gate?
George Browne
Yes, so I'd hiked my way across the site to the gate. Would we call them wrought iron? Probably not wrought iron, but big old ornamental gates, anyway. The security chap sitting next to them explained that they would only open upon the arrival of a car. I looked at the gates and thought, 'I don't think I'm getting through any of those gaps.' Then I saw a little rickety wicket fence between the gate and the wall, filling the gap. I thought, 'I'll get over that. It's only waist-high.' As he saw me scaling it, the chap on the chair said, 'Be careful.' I turned and gave him a withering look—which he would not have been able to see in the dark—and said, 'I've been climbing over fences since I was four years old. My dad's a farmer, I'll have you know.' I hopped over, whilst wearing a pith helmet, and landed with my foot on the kerbstone. I rolled my ankle, my sunglasses hit the floor and made an audible crack—which, for a horrible moment, I thought was my ankle going. I swore loudly, hit the floor and then had to hobble away and wait for Callum by the side of the road. I could have stayed more or less exactly where I was, but I felt I needed to hobble out of sight. I wasn't in the direct glare: exit stage left.
Richard Negus
You see, this slightly backs up Patrick Galbraith's piece in the Telegraph on Friday about how Britain's most illustrious outdoor event was going downhill because it's now surrounded by crime. From the tone of Patrick's article, they probably thought we were talking about the thefts that have gone on. But actually, perhaps it was referring to pith-hat-clad individuals doing amateurish breaking and entering at grand old stately homes.
George Browne
Breaking and exiting.
Richard Negus
Breaking and exiting. I mean, you are basically the complete opposite: 'I am breaking out of this great big palatial thing owned by a marquess.'
George Browne
That would confuse him, wouldn't it, that they wouldn't let me out.
Richard Negus
Yes, exactly. I've entered this place and you wouldn't let me out. 'Let me out—I'm a farmer's son.'
Richard Prideaux
This story kept having extra bits—like The Lord of the Rings had too many endings. We got back to the campsite and found out that George had lost half of his possessions in the fall. They had scattered away from him like when you kill a computer-game character and they drop all their loot. Or like Sonic: all the rings drop out, except for him it was vape batteries, I think, and very important.
George Browne
The vape batteries are the bits I was most worried about.
Richard Prideaux
The next morning, when we came back to the Game Fair through the same gate, he spotted them on the floor and stopped. If you were held up in the queues at the red gate on Saturday morning, that was almost certainly George Browne sending Amy out to pick up all the vape batteries while the tailbacks went as far as Evesham. We didn't really cover ourselves in glory on Friday night, but we survived against all odds. I feel like other people did it with more elegance.
Richard Negus
Because I'm a proper grown-up and was there with my wife and son, I stayed in a tiny little pub called Ye Olde Red Horse in Evesham. I know some listeners from that neck of the woods get very down on Evesham, but I thought it was a delightful little place. Rather wonderfully, on Saturday morning, when I got up to take the dog for a stroll, I went out towards Evesham Abbey. They've got two churches very close together, then it goes down to the River Avon and quite an elaborate park. The moment I walked across there, I was listening out for the dawn chorus and heard the ubiquitous wood pigeon, a collared dove and a peregrine falcon. Up at the top of Evesham Abbey, there was a pair of peregrine falcons shouting at one another. Underneath the abbey, it was quite literally littered with the heads of jackdaws and wood pigeons, where clearly they'd been doing their pest-control work: 'Governor, I'm a working conservationist.' It was rather wonderful. I was going, 'Wow, look, a peregrine falcon,' and some local chap in a Leeds United shirt came out and went, 'Have you seen them?' He goes, 'Yeah, they're common as [unclear], they are.' It was wonderful. So my dawn chorus was a wood pigeon, a collared dove and a peregrine falcon. It summed up the Game Fair for me: the eclecticism of it, the country writ large.
Callum McInerney-Riley
It's usually the people that are the eclectic mix, is it not?
Richard Negus
There is that, I have to say. That's where the success of the bingo card was, I think: the joy it gave. The bingo card added to the Game Fair almost as much as the pluck muffins Hugo Campbell-Hill provided. Without that, it would have been flat. I'm waiting for the sponsorship deal to come from that. They're also probably going to get George to do what he did over the gate as part of a main-arena demonstration. Gundogs, George...
Richard Prideaux
It's like Machinery Nation, with us demonstrating electric quad bikes and chainsaws and things. What we need is some sort of agility event where the editors of various rural media publications do an assault course wearing pith helmets.
George Browne
This is an idea I've spoken about before, I'm sure: the Game Fair Olympics. Have we not spoken about this on this very podcast? Do some welly wanging.
Richard Prideaux
The bale or the javelin?
Richard Negus
Oh, yes, we did—and a bit of dwile flonking. You are quite right: the highbrow games.
George Browne
And the editor's steeplechase. I reckon I fancy my chances in that one.
Richard Negus
Yes. And the final thing I think we'd all agree on, both for Guns on Pegs and Countryslide, is that it was very gratifying to meet so many of the people who listen to us and keep us coming back each week to do our respective podcasts. Like I say, George, you had a full house. We met so many of our guys out there and it was just lovely.
Callum McInerney-Riley
It was so good to put names to Twitter handles and faces to people you'd only spoken to on WhatsApp. It was great. Thank you to everyone who came, said hello and had a chat. It was really good.
Richard Negus
Excellent.
Callum McInerney-Riley
I had a moment of the sort of thing I used to do when I was much, much younger; now I usually have to be the responsible one. My plan was to go fishing on the river on Friday night, but you obviously need it to be light to cast a rod into the river. So when Prideaux broke down in the car, I waited for him for a long time.
Richard Prideaux
I don't like that definition.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Allegedly. I had a moment where I was like, 'I don't actually know where I'm sleeping tonight.'
Richard Prideaux
Oh yes.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Which was quite wild-boy. Part of me was like, 'This is the person I used to be, and I like it.' Since becoming a parent, you've got to be responsible for others, so you can't do stuff like that. But when you're your own person, I was like, 'I'll be all right. It's fine not to have a plan.' I ended up sleeping just behind George's tent in the middle of a campsite, at the expense of whoever owns it—which I didn't pay for because there wasn't any room. So, yeah, it was quite fun.
Richard Prideaux
You didn't try, to be fair. You just walked in, pitched your tent and walked out before they spotted you.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Yeah, they were closed in the morning anyway. So it is what it is.
Richard Prideaux
So, to round this off, what was the good, exciting, nice, positive thing you saw at the Game Fair?
Richard Negus
Pizza the Queen. I had no idea—it's a dachshund, apparently. Whose?
Richard Prideaux
Oh, you didn't know about this?
Richard Negus
I had no idea what Pizza the Queen was, but Charlie, my son—we were at the Schöffel drinks thing—and he suddenly went, 'Dad, Dad, can you take a photograph of me with this guy? He's really famous.' I looked over at this person, who had a small dachshund with him. He handed the dachshund to Charlie and made his whole two days, because this dog is apparently Pizza the Queen, who turns out to have 455,000 followers on Instagram. So that makes them very important. I realised that I am officially old because a dog is more important than me to my son.
Richard Prideaux
Maybe that's a given, really, isn't it? The dog's cuter, to be fair. George, what about you?
George Browne
I was very excited to confirm that the fishing village isn't actually mythical. I saw it in the distance. I still haven't actually been there, so it could still be a mirage.
Richard Prideaux
No.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Oh, did you not?
George Browne
No. In five years of going to the Game Fair, I've never once made it as far as the fishing village. So I'm still slightly uncertain as to whether it's a real place or not. But I have seen it now. It's...
Richard Prideaux
You only saw it because it was next to the press tent.
George Browne
Yes, exactly.
Callum McInerney-Riley
I'd say it was 20 per cent good. I went. It's always worth a visit, especially if you're tempted to buy a really expensive fly rod: you get to play with them, which is dangerous and fun in equal measure. Eventually, one day, you might have enough of a head injury to actually purchase one—or you might just be irresponsible enough. I mean, you seem to be quite irresponsible, buying a drinking horn.
George Browne
It was because I hadn't bought the sausage machine for £250. I felt I needed to do a little displacement retail activity.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Are you familiar with girl maths and boy maths? I think that's boy maths: because you didn't buy a sausage machine, spending £40 on a drinking horn is now basically free. That was good. Turrall's fly-fishing place was good as well. They let you tie your own flies, teach you how to do it, give you all the materials and guide you; they've got experts there. That is 100 per cent worth going to if you're into fly-fishing. Also, Steve McCracken Art—he paints all these fish.
Richard Prideaux
Just to clarify: does he do pictures of them, or does he go out and put paint on wildlife?
Callum McInerney-Riley
Pictures of them, I think. Graffitied trout. Well, I was talking to him about how I hadn't had anywhere to sleep the night before and it was a bit of a mad one. He said he'd rolled a yoga mat out on the stand, put an old jacket over himself and slept on the floor. I was like, 'Well, you win that one.' He truly is a full wild boy, and I quite like him.
George Browne
I've got a graffitied fish story, but I think it's probably not for the main show. I think it'll have to be in the extra bit next time I'm on because it's probably actionable.
Richard Prideaux
Yes.
Richard Negus
Richard, what was the exciting or good thing you saw?
Richard Prideaux
People. I got to see people I haven't seen for a year, or whom we only ever see at events or in passing. On Saturday night, while you were going home and George was pretending to be—I think he's more George Lazenby than Roger Moore—up at the big house, and Callum was cooking for 4,000 people by the look of it, we broke into the exhibitors' party. I spent a really good evening with people I hadn't seen for a long time, friends old and new. I've committed us, as a podcast, to quite a few things. Now I'm getting messages all over the place saying, 'Are we still on for that thing we discussed on Saturday night?' Which one was it? I don't know, because all these people seem to know and I don't. So, if I committed us to something else on Saturday night, let me know. The night ended with us drinking gin out of someone's drinking horn on the [bleep] stand. Yes, that was where we finished up. So: seeing people I haven't seen for a long time. Amy also bought one of those waxed-cotton skirts, which you'll no doubt be seeing in photos at some point.
Callum McInerney-Riley
Waxed cotton? I don't even know what one of those is. It's like a Barbour.
Richard Negus
You don't know, Callum, you're not going to wear one. Yeah.
Richard Prideaux
Right.
Callum McInerney-Riley
And there was somebody we were missing.
Richard Prideaux
Yes, an important person. I don't know how far we go into this, but one of our wider network of people, Glenn—who is on the bingo card—is a little bit poorly at the moment. He will be absolutely fine, I'm sure, but if everybody could have really good thoughts about our very good friend Glenn, that would be amazing, because he's a lovely person despite the way he acts.
Richard Negus
Yeah, despite himself, he's lovely.
Callum McInerney-Riley
His sausage dog's lovely too.
Richard Negus
Yeah, I like his sausage dog. We've got the T-shirt, haven't we? Anyway, on that note: bye.