Grand Tantrix BBQ

Ok so I have the tiles, I play online, against phantomes, ghosts, presences with strange names, a fluffy toy, several anonymous faces, and someone I recognise. Then out of the blue I get an invite to go to a tantrix BBQ. After scrabbling to check diaries etc, I find I'm free so I say yes. I'm going to a party, where I've never met anyone before, and yet I already know most of them.

	The author (Malcolm, rear right) playing hard.

So we drive down to the party (I've persuaded my partner to come along - she's a tantrix addict as well so it wasn't hard). And we knock on the door, Rick opens the door and we do a slight double take. I'm thinking - have I got the right address? [he looks nothing like his picture - ed], He's thinking - have these people come for the BBQ? We introduce ourselves and very quickly get in to the swing of things, within minutes we're all chatting together over tables, and floors covered with black hexagonal tiles. The whole day is fun, playing the game is fun, but it's easier to chat than it is online and it's easier to find out what people are really like.

After an hour or two things are hotting up, Rick is playing a game involving 2 sets of tiles. I make a mistake and take a tile from someone elses tile bag so I'm accidentally playing with 2 sets of tiles. I was lucky, the tile I pulled (number 7) was already in my hand, so it was easy to sort out. Mid afternoon Rick calls time, (at least time to eat). So the tantrix pauses and I have 2 or 3 of Rick's excellent burgers (cooked to perfection - well done Rick). In the break Steven draws the short straw and spends a good 40 minutes talking about all sorts of tantrix matters. But he gets let off the hook by playing a timed game, of course he can't work out the timer, so we play with a trusty mechanical chess clock, with a reasurring ticking that adds to the pressure of playing a champion. I was hoping for a time penalty default, it got close, but alas Steven blocked my inadequate line and the game was lost.

At this point we remember the other party we're meant to be at and have to say our goodbyes to the tantrix household, leaving them to watch the WTTC in cinemascope while we had to explain to disbelieving hosts what we'd spent our afternoon doing. "Tantric sex?" they say in shocked voices. "Isn't that like waiting for an emergency plumber? you stay up all night and nobody comes . . ."