Dave Clemmet and Tom Davidson.

I received the following e mail from Dave Clemmet and Tom Davidson this morning announcing their retirement from organising wargames shows in the North East of England. Both men took on the dubious pleasure of organising wargames shows in the North East of England from the early 1980's and through their hard work built up their Stockton shows into a must go to event. 

  Tom and Dave were always looking for new ways to sell wargaming. They provided a top quality painting competition, and excellent tombola with all the funds going to their local disabled persons organisations, they introduced low entry fees [ other shows take note ] and were always keen to invite groups who wanted to stage a new way to publicise wargaming. One of my favourites which I will always remember was the wonderful 54mm Historex Napoleonic wargame with hundreds of figures.

 Dave and Tom very kindly allowed two keen wargamers to stage games at their show, and their kindness helped create the Independent Wargames Group.

  These two men never spoke of or complained about their own personal battles and always were keen to be involved in growing the hobby. Wargaming is lucky to have individuals like Dave and Tom and again I would like to thank them for all their enthusiasm and hard work in promoting our hobby and also raising a lot of money for less fortunate individuals. Well done. 

'It is with a tinge of regret that Tom Davidson and I have decided to end our wargame show organising career and are thus closing our website – www.teesshows.co.uk – in the very near future.

We began our wargame show organising career with what we thought at the time (1981) would be a one off event. Models, Wargames and Boardgames 1981 was our way of celebrating the International Year of the Disabled Person but we were persuaded by a range of people to organise another show – and what followed is history.

Between 1981 and 2016 we organised 41 wargames shows staged in four different venues (3 in Stockton on Tees and 1 in Middlesbrough) – and between 1997 and 2006 we organised two shows per year. The proceeds of all 41 shows was donated to charity (the amount being in excess of £15,000) and while that was an important reason why we staged the shows it was not the only one – we wanted to promote the hobby that has given us so much pleasure over the years.

Our proudest moment came at our 2007 show – Parade Ground 2007 – when we were each presented with an engraved silver salver by the Durham Wargames Group and we have always been very grateful for this public recognition of our efforts. Photos of the presentation and of my salver are attached below.

We still intend to support the hobby that has given us so much pleasure – by attending as many shows as possible in our region for as long as we are able and supporting our favourite traders with our purchases.

Finally we would like to record our thanks to everyone who helped us to make our shows such an enjoyable experience for us over the years.

David & Tom'