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A 19-player camel derby game has been installed at Coral Island in the UK
Lancashire-based Roll-A-Ball has just installed a 19-player derby game into Coral Island in Blackpool, the largest of its kind in the world.
This follows a recent installation of a nine-player Camel Derby game, which went into Butlins in Bognor – the first new derby to go into a Butlins site in 18 years.
The derby game used to be as much part of the arcade scene as the penny pusher, and dates back to the 1920’s when American jockey George Tonner operated the first game on Blackpool Pleasure Beach.
However, the derby really became synonymous with the Elton name from the 60s onwards.
Elton Fabrications was formed by Arthur Helm, who developed the current derby game concept, together with his business partner Stuart Keane.
Elton Fabrications then became Elton Games, a mainstay of the industry that unfortunately ceased trading in 2012, before reappearing in a new format in Eastern Europe.
However, for the past four and a half years, three former Elton employees have been trading as Roll-A-Ball in the UK – supporting Elton games on site, with spares and servicing and actually manufacturing their own quality British product.
They are Carl Spencer, Dave Bridge and Anthony Brown.
“We firstly developed a small four-player version of the derby; aimed at the event market, it can be assembled on site in 20 minutes,” Mr Spencer said.
“Most of these we have sold to events companies in the UK but we had our first international order last Autumn, when we sent two over to the US.
“Our first coin-op derby was a bespoke theme which we installed in Europa Park - Germany, two years ago.
“The Coral Island installation was to replace an 18-player Elton Derby game, which was previously the biggest Derby that Elton had ever produced.
“There are around 300 old Elton games still in operation around the world and as I am the only remaining original Elton electronic engineer, I like to think I am the only person left who fully understands how they work.”
For more details about Roll-A-Ball and its services visit www.rollaball.co.uk.
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