TPF Gutted
With no sign of a buyer, either
There will be no quick reprieve for The Playing Fields. Despite the interests of former Spectrum R-Type developer David Wainwright, currently Manager of Hi2's games business in Oxford, the infamous TPF basement was gutted earlier this month by two burly fellas from the repo company. Across two days the pair removed the bar contents, furniture and countless hi-spec PCs and servers and transported them away in - what we're reliably informed was - a very old Transit van. The fate of the servers hosting The Playing Fields' website is currently unknown. Although David Wainwright posted prolifically to a thread on the topic of re-establishing TPF, when we caught up with him last night, he admitted that he had "nothing planned at present." "[Hi2 is] looking at a number of dotcom fire sales and TPF is one of them." After courting former members of staff about their previous positions and serious financial discussion, Wainwright - calling himself 'rtype' on the hastily-erected TPFAlumni.com web-forums - appeared to lose interest, having initially responded to a comment about how the business should have been run. Wainwright admitted that he knows relatively little, asking, "seriously, how many staff does it need?" amongst other things. Eventually, having spoken to former staff members Manuel Boissiere and Geoff Richards, Wainwright stopped commenting, and between what he told us and the physical gutting of the venue, we doubt The Playing Fields will be up and running under Hi2's direction any time soon. Related Feature - The Playing Fields closes its doors