Gorman - Dave Gorman vs. the rest of the world

DAVE GORMAN is an award-winning comedian, storyteller and writer. He has numerous TV writing credits and was part of the double BAFTA-winning team behind The Mrs Merton Show. His live shows have won many awards and he is the only performer to twice win the Jury Prize for Best One Person Show at Americas prestigious HBO US Comedy Arts Festival. He was the host of Genius for five series three on Radio 4 and two on BBC2. He has made numerous other appearances on TV and radio including Absolutely Fabulous, The Frank Skinner Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart where he has appeared both as a guest and as the shows resident statistician. His documentary film, America Unchained, won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the Austin Film Festival. He hosts a Sunday morning show on Absolute Radio. He enjoys cycling, darts, poker, photography and cryptic crosswords. His ambition is to one day become a team captain on Call My Bluff.

Remember when you were a kid, and you used to go round to a friends house to see if they were playing? Well, as adults were not supposed to do that. Which is a shame... because Dave Gorman likes playing. He REALLY likes games. So he knocked on the biggest door you could ever imagine - the internet - and asked 76,000 people if they fancied a game. This is the story of what happened next.

Dave was up for anything and everything. He played classics like Monopoly, Cluedo, dominoes and cribbage. He played many games hed never heard of before Khet, Kubb, Tikal or Smite, anyone? He played board games and card games, hes thrown sticks, balls, frisbees and darts.

From Croydon to Cardiff and from Liverpool to Lewes, Dave travelled the length and breadth of Britain meeting strangers in strange places their homes, at work, in the back rooms of pubs and getting some hardcore game action.

From casual players to serious game geeks, from the rank amateur to the world champion, Dave discovered a nation of gamers more than happy to welcome him into their midst. And spent a lot of time in pubs. It turns out were a competitive lot, us Brits. Not that he was keeping score...

No winks were tiddled in the making of this book.

Id like to thank Jake Lingwood, Charlie Brown, Ali Nightingale, Ed Griffiths and everyone at Ebury, especially the ladies and gents of Mondeoland. Rob Aslett, Cath Gagon, Dan Lloyd and all at Avalon, too: Ill be more likely to pick up the phone or answer your emails now.

Thanks to Matt Welton for his advice, guidance, encouragement and constancy and for reminding me that while its all just words its never just words. Both my Mum and David Smiedt read an early draft and offered useful insights for which I am hugely grateful. My wife, Beth, did likewise but also had to put up with my nocturnal writing habits. Thanks Beth: YLTMYYA.

But my biggest thanks must go to the many, many games players who made me so very welcome. There isnt space in this book to describe every game I played. But Im very grateful to all my hosts and opponents. Thank you.

Ive changed the names and some small, inconsequential details of three people. Twice this was done at their request. Once it was done as a courtesy.

Life is the name of the game,
And I wanna play the game with you.
Life can be terribly tame,
If you dont play the game with two.

Yeah, life is a go-as-you-please
And I need some place to go with you.
Life can be oh, such a tease,
If you dont play the game with two.

Okay, children, just stand back and let these people through.

The female voice wasnt raised but the clipped tones, honed no doubt by a few years in the classroom, easily cut through the thrum of commuters and the squeaking, grunting tube train doors.

Her charges: a crocodile of tiny, hand-holding infants boys and girls in matching bright blue sweatshirts obediently scrunched up to the wall as the tidal wave of suits, briefcases and backpacks surged past them.

Remember, these people are on their way to work, she continued, so they might be a bit grumpy.

It might have been a harsh lesson in reality for ones so young but the bald honesty of the statement brought a chuckle to my lips as I passed by. So I guess at least one of the crowd didnt look grumpy.

But then, this member of the crowd wasnt on his way to work. I was on my way to play a game. I was on my way to play Egyptian Laser Chess.

Having never played it before I didnt know what to expect from a game of Egyptian Laser Chess although for the record, I dislike chess, like lasers and am entirely neutral when it comes to Egyptians. Id never met my prospective opponent before either. In fact, I really wasnt sure what I was doing. Or why I was doing it. But I can tell you that like so many things in this modern world it had started with a tweet.