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Tourjours a L’attaque! R.I.P. Nigel Poole

 Mark Clarke just emailed the following….. “Nigel’s funeral went well today with a good number of people in attendance.  A beautiful sunny day in the Forest of Dean was perfect to say our final farewells. Nigel was 61 and passed away due to a hereditary condition. He had served in the Somerset Light Infantry,  having…

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 Mark Clarke just emailed the following…..

“Nigel’s funeral went well today with a good number of people in attendance.  A beautiful sunny day in the Forest of Dean was perfect to say our final farewells. Nigel was 61 and passed away due to a hereditary condition. He had served in the Somerset Light Infantry,  having enlisted in early 70s. Indeed, he was wounded in Northern Ireland during course of duty. Lots of jobs in civvy street followed along with his involvement with the Territorial Army. A  few humorous anecdotes r.e . his gaming approach in the eulogy made people smile. The service started with Eva Cassidy, followed by hymns and readings. The final  song was Let’s do the Time Warp Again from Rocky Horror Show. Roses placed on coffin at the end gave a real sense of a life well-lived. He leaves a wife, sister and father. RIP Nigel.”

The West Country Boys will be presenting a special prize in honour of Nigel in August. Our Tercio will also be remembering Nigel with a special prize for the most aggressive Commander at Virtus  in December. We will all really miss him and I would be glad for any rememberances the readership may have of the great character that we have lost from our community.

Michael

4 responses to “Tourjours a L’attaque! R.I.P. Nigel Poole”

  1. Mark Clarke Avatar
    Mark Clarke

    Q: “Hi Nigel, how are your dice going?”
    A: “CRAP!”
    (Spins on military heels and walks away to smoke a fag and contemplate…. )

    Q: “Hi Nigel, Your opponent is dug in; uphill in difficult terrain; and it’s raining”… “It’s looking really tricky”… “What’s your plan”… “A gentlemanly draw and doubles all round at the bar?”

    (A pause of one nanosecond ensues)….

    A: “I intend to attack!”

    Q: “Hi Nigel, it’s competition time again! Have you brought the usual overwhelming hordes to rush the centre, roll up the wings and generally smite all of your opponents….”

    A: “Well, errrm…. No!”… “All drilled troops of a good quality… and not many of them too” (long reflective pause) … “I MAY… have to be a bit more careful this time!” lol

    A really lovely chap. RIP Nigel

    Mark Clarke

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  2. Mark Fry Avatar
    Mark Fry

    One of my lasting memories of Nigel was from a Cardiff LaDG event when we were playing against each other – I had an Early Imperial Roman and Nigel had … well I think it was some sort of early Saxon.
    As the set up progressed I was faced with hordes and hordes of indistinct, brightly coloured, gloss painted plastic figures (the resemblance to Night of the Living Dead was uncanny). There was no differentiation between any of the troop types – in fact even Nigel was struggling to work out which were the elite nobles (or were they Huscarls?) and which ones were mediocre or ordinary – so in the end I had a pack of yellow sticky post-it notes in my bag and we both wrote out what was what on each note and stuck it information side up to the underside of each unit.
    The game then progressed in true Nigel style … a fast moving wall of the shambling masses, rapidly approached my much smaller Roman force, threatening to engulf them. Had I been able to form square it might have looked a lot like a Colonial game. Needless to say soon my Legionaries were surrounded by enemy corpses and the game was finally won by Roman but at a huge cost. It was as always a hugely fun game and I saw the same army a few years later at another event and Nigel still had the same post-it notes attached to them!

    A real character – Nigel will be missed (although for any list checker – like me – the arrival of Nigel’s list, often written in biro on a scrap of paper would require you to sit down with a stiff drink ahead of reviewing it).

    I hope that the Saxon Zombie Horde will go to a good home – post-it notes and all.

    Mark

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  3. Andy Gilbert Avatar
    Andy Gilbert

    Very sad to hear of Nigel’s passing. I played him many times over the years and my last was at Virtus a few years ago. He played with some sort of Indian Army and it had a mass of grey plastic (unpainted) elephants and not much else that was recognisable (or painted) and all on curly cardboard bases – he just swarmed forward with it like a battering ram. I’ll always remember his comment when I killed one elephant with a LI Javelinman and he seemed so surprised – “where is that in the rules? They’re only lights – how can that happen?” Characters like him are what this hobby is about.

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    1. redcaer1690 Avatar
      redcaer1690

      Hi Andy,
      Great to have your comments! You are right of course, the great thing about LADG is that many of the old DBM veterans are still about- older but still just about mobile! Nigel was infamous for his gloss green based Saxon army of course. You literally didn’t know who was elite ( most) , who was impetuous and even which way they were facing!
      Dino too was a great sudden loss- I literally had tears in my eyes when I knew his dry humour was lost to us. His gag about letting Keith’s tyres down was a legend!
      If ever you want to sent some pics in, you’d be great to have as a contributor!
      Stay safe
      Mike

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