I have wanted to post this for a while, but I'll just scratch the itch by posting it here on BGG down instead.
I was over my sister's in Cambridge for Christmas, and hadn't bought Christmas presents for my nephews yet. I knew what to get my godson and the eldest nephew, but I had problems with the 11-year old. Also, as my usual habit, I had brought some games to play, but I had made a serious mistake in the selection - I hadn't accounted for the whole family to participate in games, just the three nephews, so I hadn't thought ot bringing Cash'n'Guns, which my sister reprimanded me for. And then the youngest asked "You did bring Ricochet Robots, right? That's the sweetest game ever!". I saw it coming. I had to buy both, one for my nephew and one for the whole family. A couple of years ago (maybe more than a couple, time flies by so fast these days) there had been two board game stores in central Cambridge; Lingard's Games and one more. I used to browse them when I was over in Cambridge, it was at the time when board game shops were small and when information (for me) was scarce, and I had to shop by gut feeling (fun time, I have to admit). Anyway, none of those shops were left. Lingard's had closed down, the other I couldn't find. cambridgeonline.co.uk gave nothing except Games Workshop. Shit. When walking towards Grafton, I stumbled upon Forbidden Planet that carried some Settlers, Carc and Munchkin and a few more (Game of Thrones, some Warcraft). Damn. I asked the clerk for other stores, she knew no shop carrying board games. I tried Toys'r'Us in the Beehive, hoping that they might have at least Ticket to Ride or Niagara or something, but no. They claimed having "hundreds of board games". They had exactly none. (OK, they had hundreds of quiz games and kid dexterity games, but where the hell was Arbos or Bausack?) I ended up walking to Games Workshop as a last resort, asking them for advice. They told me WH Smiths might have some, but then they seemed to catch on what I had in mind, and mentioned a shop ten minutes walk from there, called Inner Sanctum. The name seemed promising… and it was. I learned from the clerks at Inner Sanctum why the shop didn't show up on cambridgeonline or a google search for Cambridge and Boardgames; they had opened just this year. 'Cozy' isn't the word I'd use to describe Inner Sanctum, and I've seen nicer board game shops in my days, and after my diligent search it felt like heaven on Earth for me. It was a simple, big room, with board games along the wall and tables with chairs in the middle. And the selection of games… they had virtually all games that I have in my collection and consider as "really good". Oh yes, they had Ricochet Robots. They had Cash'n'Guns. They had Chicago Express. They had some of my favourite games that I never had seen in other shops. The clerks were nice and you could tell they knew their business. I can only imagine gathering there for games, contrary to many other board game shops, one wall of Inner Sanctum was windows out to the street and the shop was all in white, very clear. I'd kill to have that shop in my town. Wanted to post my thanks for Inner Sanctum. Their pure existance made my Christmas. And as I only found them due to the GW shop, I figured perhaps there are other people out there not knowing of their existance, and they deserve better. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BGG Down" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/BGG_down?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
