reviews

Hedgeways – A New Game Kickstarter!

Earlier this year I reviewed the wonderful Sproutword Game from Sprout and Gherkin and it’s been a popular game for me and my son. I was really excited to get the chance to look at the new game Hedgeways and to tell you about the new kickstarter.

Hedgeways – The Game

Hedgeways is such a simple game at first impression. You place your coloured hedges down and match them up. The idea is to enclose a piece of land which then gives you points. The person who has enclosed the most land at the end of the game is the winner.

However, it’s not so simple as it sounds. Yes, it’s easy to play but there are strategies which you learn along the way. Each person starts with four hedges from a cloth back picked at random. You can lay 1 to 3 of these hedges and then replenish your hand to four again from the bag. As you play you learn to think ahead as well as thinking of ways of stopping your opponent from getting land.

What Do You Get?

Hedgeways arrives in a small wooden box which is easy to carry around with you. It’s sturdy and pretty and will last for many years. Inside the box is a cloth bag with 52 hedges made from sustainable wood and painted with precision. That’s one of the main things I love about Sprout and Gherkin games, they are so pretty, sustainable and just a joy to play with.

How to get a Copy of Hedgeways

Currently, the production of Hedgeways is dependant on a Kickstarter. They are almost at their goal but have just a few days to go. You can back them with a donation like I did, or pledge to buy a copy of the first batch of Hedgeways, with a numbered signed copy for just £26.

It would make an excellent Christmas present!

Check out the Kickstarter page for a great video and loads more details about this lovely game.

Sproutword, a review

by Anne Sweet Leave a Comment

We love board games in our house, and were thrilled to be sent a copy of Sproutword. It’s not so much as board game as it doesn’t have a board, any table will do. It is a fun, compact game that’s fun for all the family.

So, what is Sproutword? You can find out all about it on the website but as I was kindly sent a copy to review I’d like to tell you what I think about it.

Sproutword, The Word Strategy Game

Sproutword was invented by two eccentric Brits, Ian “Sprout” Neville and Dan “Gherkin” Richter.

Living in Dorset the natural beauty of the area was the inspiration of their colours for the game.

Stage One: Choose your colour

Western Sunset Pink,
Salcombe Sand Yellow,
Chalk Meadow Green,
or Dorset Sky Blue.

The little bags of letters are so delightful, it’s hard to choose. The next step is to decide who goes first and this is done by taking a letter from the bag and the the one with the lowest in the alphabet goes first. I did this with my son and he got A I got Z !

Then you select letters from your bag. If there is just two playing then you have 8 letters each, three players have 7 and four players get 6 each.

This is where the fun begins. Player one makes a word using any player’s letters. As the object of the game is to own the Sproutword, then it’s best to use as many of your own letters as possible.

Sproutword

The Sproutword is the longest word with more of one player’s colour in it than any other player. It’s not always the longest words, because sometime these words can have too many of other players colours in them.

This is from the game I played with my son. As you can see there are two 6 letter words, but one of them is a mixture of colours (vanity) and the other is all yellow (rescue.) In this case rescue is the sprout word and yellow is winning.

After the first player takes their turn they replenish the number of tiles used from their bag. Everyone’s tiles are always on display as any of the players can use them. If you use another player’s tiles, though, they cannot replenish until after they have taken their next turn.

I played the game with my son for about 40 minutes but once he put down the word Requesting (10 letters) I found it difficult to take back the lead and he ended up winning.

As you can see, some of the words have changed. That’s because you can change a word on your turn so long as it’s as long as, or longer than the existing word and does not displace any other word. Any players removed from play are put back in their owners colour bag and are not in use until drawn again.

The Game Ends when any player has no letters to replenish with. If the player has some letters in their bag they must replenish as fully as they can. The winner is the controller of the Sproutword.

Our Verdict

We really enjoyed this game. It’s fun and easy to learn, but the mastering of the game is harder. Sharing each other’s tiles adds a depth to the game and it can become competitive. If you spot that your opponent can make a word you can use their letters which stumps them.

There is no adding up of scores, it really is whoever is control of the Sproutword throughout the game. You can write down words that have changed, and keep track of which ones are the longest, but you don’t have to.

tiles and bags and words made in a four player game.

The bags of tiles come in a cardboard box that’s easy to carry around so a great holiday game. The tiles are made from sustainable European forests and the colours are really pretty.

You can play along with the makers of Sproutword on their Social Media channels. More rules can be found on Youtube.

Play along on Instagram or have a go on Facebook or even Twitter

Sproutword can be purchased from their online shop for £19.99

What do you think? Fancy a game?

Brightening Birthdays from Gamely Games.

by Anne Sweet 1 Comment

It’s times like these that brings the good out in some people and what could be better than bringing a smile to a child’s face? During the lockdown so many kids have had their birthday parties cancelled and have had to stay home with their family. But it doesn’t mean they can’t have fun. A Brighton business that makes Children’s games has been brightening up their birthdays by sending them fun games and cards.

brightening birthdays, games being ready to send

Gamely Games

We are already big fans of Gamely Games, you can read some of our reviews, like Jibbergiggle and The Pretender.

The games are printed on cards and come in handy boxes, they are simple, easy to learn but loads of fun. On the Gamely Games Facebook Page They have been giving away hundreds of games along with birthday cards to those children who have been celebrating their birthday during lockdown. They’ll be opening their requests for further lockdown birthdays soon.

They have also launched two local initiatives.

Sending out £600 of games to be given to 48 low-income families in Brighton & Hove through the CHOMP project Working with Brighton & Hove council to get £800 of games to 64 families in emergency accommodation.
And we have been making financial donations too. Since we first founded our company in 2015 we have been committed to giving at least 10% of profits to charitable causes and recently we have been directing this giving to charities that are working to help the most vulnerable people through the pandemic:
We’ve donated £1,000 to the National Emergencies Trust (NET) Covid-19 Emergency Appeal (doubled to £2,000 by The Big Give)
We’ve donated £1,000 to Give Directly’s International Response, distributing cash to hard-hit families in extreme poverty.
As a company we feel very lucky to still be operating during such a challenging time and we are keen to spread as much joy as possible. We’ve actually seen sales soar since the lockdown began as laughter and fun (which our games provide) has become even more precious. We’ve also loved hearing that people are using our games to connect with those they can’t see in person – our games Soundiculous and Frozen Unicorns work particularly well on Zoom and other video chats and it’s wonderful to think these games are helping people enjoy moments of laughter and lightness when the current situation sometimes feels so dark.

Saying No To Dragons

I’d already heard of Gamely Games when I saw Hazel appear on Dragon’s Den. I was surprised that she turned down an offer. But, it was obvious that the company was going to do well anyway with such exciting and new ideas coming all the time. The ethics of the company has proven to be much more than making a fortune. I hope they continue to go from strength to strength.

Check out all their games on the website and don’t forget to check out their Facebook page to see what they are up to next.

Photos on this page are all courtesy of Hazel from Gamely Games and I’ve received no payment for this post, I’m just helping to share the joy.

Hazel and her kids brightening birthdays — Hazel and her Children

Lights on Earth – Photowall Review and Discount Code

by Anne Sweet 1 Comment

The lovely people at Photowall offered me a gift in return for my honest review along with a special discount code for my readers.

Lights on Earth

As my son’s room is in dire need of something to brighten the walls I thought I’d give him the choice of what to have. A photowall would have been fantastic, but I wouldn’t be able to get one up anytime soon so we decided on a nice poster.

At Photowall the choice is amazing, you can have wallpapers. designer murals, posters, canvas’ or framed prints. You can even choose a photo or picture of your own.

The designs are amazing and there is so much choice, animals, food and drink, maps, sports, astronomy and so much more.

I had a feeling that my son would go for Astronomy, he has a real fascination with space.

This is the picture he chose, Lights on Earth by David C. Miller and I love that you can see the Northern Lights.

Our Review

The Little Man was very please with his picture which came on a canvas print and with a smoked ash hanger. You can also choose to have a print without a white border.

I thought The Little Man would have chosen to have the poster above his bed, but he thought it would be better on the opposite wall so he could see it when he woke up as he lies facing this way.

I think he made the right decision and it looks great.

The quality of the poster is really good and it looks fabulous in the frame. The Little Man is very happy and so am I.

Discount from Photowall

I’d definitely be happy to buy from Photowall again and when it comes around to decorating my bedroom after the work has been done, I’d really consider a mural. I’d love a bookshelf wall, especially as I’m having to get rid of two of my bookshelves to make way for my lift. It would be nice to have a city skyline, or a beach view though. I think it would probably take a day or two to choose.

What do you think? Would you choose a mural or a poster, a print or a canvas? If there is anything you’d fancy from the website Photowall have offered a special discount code ‘raisiebay2021’ which will give you 25% off for as many time as you use it for a month.

The Red Shoes – Matthew Bourne

by Anne Sweet 6 Comments

I am a big fan of ballet and an even bigger fan of Matthew Bourne. The Red Shoes is the third of his performances that I’ve seen. I paid for my own tickets although being in a wheelchair it does mean I get to sit in a specific box for disabled users and I also get to take a carer with me for free.

You are not allowed to take pictures of the performance but you can see them for a while on the Birmingham Hippodrome site This post may contain spoilers, but nothing compares to watching the dancers perform.

The Red Shoes

The Red Shoes originates from a fairy tale from Hans Christian Anderson in 1845. It’s a dark story based on vanity of the main character.

In 1948 a film was directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger with the same name. During the film was a fifteen minute ballet based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale. The film was widely acclaimed and won many awards.

Of the three Matthew Bourne perfomances I’ve seen so far, I think The Red Shoes stays closer to the original plot of the film. The main character, Vicky, is chosen to play the main part in the ballet and we see the the ballet as envisioned by the director, Lermontov who has feelings for her. He has a box in which he shows how he would like the performance to be done, and when we see the actual ballet, it has the same box like stage setting.

Vicky is in love with composer Julian Craster, who is passionate about his music and gets upset that he is not getting the credit he deserves from the jealous Lermontov.

The Red Shoe’s ballet is performed beautifully and Vicky gets her taste of the fame that could be hers. But in the end she is forced to choose a life with the man she loves instead and they move away to london to be together. Here we see her performing in some less classier shows and her relationship with Julian is falling apart. At the same time we see Lermontov longing for the girl he has lost.

Eventually, torn between the chance of dancing fame and being with her lover Vicky leaves to be with Lermontov. But she is not happy and her choice leads her to a very similar demise as the dancer in The Red Shoes.

Matthew Bourne

Romeo + Juliet was set in an asylum, Cinderella was set in the blitz of WWII, but the Red Shoes is most closely related to the original story. We do still see a fair bit of the novelty you come to expect of Matthew. The bathers in San Francisco were a lot of fun, as were the acts in the less classier London shows. You certainly get a bit off a shock when the Egyptian dancers appear. There are also some strange goings on during the upper class parties. It was certainly a little confusing at times. When the ballet within the ballet had finished I was almost convinced that the story was over, despite knowing there was more to come.

The scene changes were both elaborate, fantastic and at times confusing. There was a huge curtain on stage which showed the different circumstances of both Vicky and Julian and the lamenting Lermontov. During the final scenes we see the screen twirl around and around which I believe represented the many performances Vicky performed after leaving Julian and achieving her fame.

The ending is shocking and sad, and I guess a lesson is learnt, just as Hans Christian Anderson would predict in his somewhat gruesome fairy tales. And of course, the red shoes were finally removed.

I would encourage anyone to see a Matthew Bourne Ballet, if not for the stirring music, the stunning dancing or the original storytelling, you will be left with a feeling of being a part of something very special.

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