Having suffered one of the most windy and miserable Easters that we can remember I am pleased to note that our seaside arcades actually did pretty well, all things considered. The two largest venues have both benefitted from refurbishments over the winter and all have had a significant injection of new equipment. The biggest investment was a set of huge Radio Controlled Trucks which we have installed in the arcade in Burnham on Sea and it all combined to making us the place to go over the weekend, supported by our superb team of FEC staff as well ! On the High street trading has also been strong. Much of this has been driven by a significant injection of Category B3 equipment from BluePrint and now that we are at what we believe to be an optimum level we are focussing our attention on addressing our Category C estate. Category C machines will (I hope) be one of the winners in this year’s Triennial review of stakes and prizes on UK gaming machines. We are reasonably confident that both the regulator (the Gambling Commission) and the Department of Culture Media and Sport will support an increase in prizes on Category C machines up to £100 which will give us the ability to offer much better and more exciting games for players who enjoy these machines. Lastly, as many of you know we support a charity called CHIPs who provide specially built powered wheelchairs for children? On June 7th we are holding our very first dual Golf and Clay pigeon tournaments. Entry for a team of four for either event is £80 per person, and all proceeds will go to CHIPs. Fancy yourself as mean golfer, or as ‘Dead Eyed Dick’ then why not come along. You can come as a team of four for either event, or come as a single player and we will squad you up for either tournament. If you would like to join us then email Amanda Blundell at ab@praesepeplc.com and she will send you an entry form.