After unpacking we went back outside and sat on a bench in the small park area across
the road from our hotel, overlooking the South Bay. We sat for a while in the warm
June sunshine and both fell in love with the place. My lips quivered as I tried so
desperately not to utter those immortal words "I told you so."
Now let' s reel back a week or so. Visiting North Yorkshire presented many
opportunities to meet friends and visit places of interest. I particularly wanted to visit
Chris Parcell and his new location for Old Penny Memories in Bridlington, and I also
wanted to see the Scarborough Fair Collection. There were also a few friends it would
have been nice to see, but having already been warned that "we won't be wasting our
time on old slot machines, old fairground rubbish or steam engines ..... " there was no
way I was going to get away it! So I conceded that to do just one of the things on my
long list would be better than nothing.
It was agreed that we would spend a day in Bridlington so that I could see Chris.
I had arranged to meet him at his arcade on the Wednesday, but before we got that far,
we (or rather I) was treated to an added bonus, purely by accident. We were strolling
along the seafront on the Tuesday evening, and by chance noticed a couple of Bryans
allwins just inside the entrance of one of the arcades. We of course ventured inside
and found a total of seven Bryans allwins, scattered amongst the modem machines.
Most of the all wins were Elevenses, but there was also a Ten Cup and a Gapwin.
Of particular interest was a group of three Bryans machines at the entrance to the
arcade (although not visible from outside). They were one of the aforementioned
Elevenses, a Bullion and a Payrarnid. The Payrarnid caught my attention immediately,
as it was a Showman' s version, which are pretty rare. However, this particular
machine was housed in a non-standard case; one that I've never encountered before.
Unlike the standard Showman' s case, this one didn ' t have a bottom cash compartment.
I inspected the machine as well as I could without looking suspicious, but as far as I
could tell, the case hadn't been 'chopped' at some point in its past and appeared to
have been built that way.
All of the Bryans machines were on 2p play, so we naturally changed-up a couple
of pound ' s worth and had some playtime. The machines were quite generous and I
even did quite well on the Bullion, so we had plenty of 2ps left over to throw in the
pushers. I'm not really a fan of modem arcades, particularly pushers, but they are very
addictive aren't they? So much so that we had to change up another couple of quid .
So we had a good hour or so of traditional seaside entertainment. The Bryans
machines can be found in Shaw's arcade on Scarborough seafront, so if you're up that
way, take a look.
The following day we ventured down to Bridlington. We found the arcade easily,
and whilst Chris and I chatted, Sharron wandered-off to look at the shops. Chris has a
great collection of machines, in a very well presented arcade. I won ' t go into any
detail here, as Stuart gave a full report of Old Penny Memories in the last issue of the
magazine. Suffice to say, it was good to see Chris on his home turf, as I generally only
get to see him at the Coventry auction and on one occasion when he came down to see
me at Brighton.
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