Hello, and welcome back to the Walsall GUKPT sponsored by BlueSquare.com. Initially, I wondered if I'd even be writing this message, as when Day 1A drew to a close, I found out that I'd left my lights on all day thus leaving me with a dead battery. Why my lights would be on in the first place is beyond me seeing as I arrived in daylight, so I ultimately decided that someone must have broken into my car just to turn my lights on. Ahem.
Nevertheless, I required assistance which came in a number of forms. First I found some jump leads courtesy of Pete Leper, but for some reason they didn't work with his car. Then I asked
Sam Trickett to help, and he duly drove his car round but couldn't seem to find his battery. Next up was
James Akenhead, who drove up next door. "Have you ever jumped a car?" I asked. "Nah," he replied. "Shit, me neither, what do we do?" "Dunno."
Whilst James fiddled around his bonnet looking for the battery (honestly, I bet neither of us could wire a plug either), I searched for someone who had 'the look' (which pretty much cancels out any poker player under the age of 25) and found aid in
Darren Grosvenor (click the link and tell me if you agree he looks like a 'car person'). With James and I inexperienced in getting our hands dirty, Darren showed us where to connect the leads, and so eventually we got it going.
After Darren raced back inside, James and I were still confused. "Do I need to leave the engine on before we remove the leads?" I asked James. "Not sure, I don't want to get electrocuted," he replied. "But won't the engine just stop if we take the leads out before the battery has had a chance to recharge," I continued. "Will it not just cut out at the traffic lights or something?"
In the end, us real men got the job done, and after taking off the leads, the engine restarted no problems and I was able to get back to Solihull, although frustratingly later than expected. I still have Peter's jump leads, but let's just pray the car works in the morning as I don't have another car to jump start it if it doesn't. Either way, if I'm not updating tomorrow, you'll know why - because I'm an idiot who left his lights on all day.
Many thanks to the peeps who helped get me home. You shall be receiving good reports from me, even when you do donkey moves.
Taking part in Day 1B will be regular circuit players
Sunny Chattha,
Marc Goodwin,
Jeff Kimber and
Alan Vinson as well as more local players
Ashfag Ahmed,
Des Jonas,
Ben Callinan and 'Mad Turk'
Yucel Eminoglu.
The end of chip counts from Day 1A were as follows:
Jerome Bradpiece 86050
Dan Carter 78500
Nick Gibson 72375
James Akenhead 72275
Joe Grech 67750
Martyn Cavanagh 63475
Arjanit Kondaj 57300
Michael Greco 54475
Robert Price 54150
Jeff Hemmerman 47800
Christopher peter Johnson 46400
Jim Reid 44150
Matthew Roberts 40875
Kevin Ho 40700
Darren Hickman 32450
Guy Steel 31225
Josh Tyler 31050
David Birtles 28825
Rob Reece 27675
Trevor Pearson 27050
Paul Ruddy 26300
Ben Vinson 25800
Trevor Reardon 25300
David Maudlin 18725
Andy Miles 16725
Andreas Hoivold 15525