User Bio

Cartoon supplied by The Scottish Sun.
Stephen Gough playing his "Snake~opoly" game in prison.
I am the Creator of a board game formerly known as Snake~opoly. A name change has been suggested by Ian Beveridge, our technical advisor, for operational reasons and subsequent games will now be called "Snake Opx" for short. The "X" symbolizing the blocking of our use of the "Opoly" suffix. I follow celebrities who are on an extraordinary journey in their lives and design old fashioned board games around them. My first subject was the Naked Rambler Stephen Gough in October 2012. His game was based on his July 2012 release from HM Prison Perth and follows his route south to the relative safety of the English Border. Unfortunately for myself and Stephen Gough, at the very last moment, the Scottish Prison Service decided to transfer Mr Gough away from HM Prison Kilmarnock and back to HM Prison Saughton and release him in Edinburgh on October 5th 2012. Mr Gough finally crossed the English Border on the East Side of Scotland on October 9th 2012, with the help of the Snake Opx logistics unit, instead of the West Coast, as previously arranged, thereby making Stephen Gough's Snake~opoly Game 2012, designed to finish in Gretna, obsolete.

With work already commenced on two new games; "Alex Salmond's 2014 - Road to Independence Day" & "Donna D'Errico's 2013 - Quest for Noah's Lost Ark", there is now no time to go back and redesign "Stephen Gough's Snake~opoly 2012 - Escape to Freedom". Sorry Stephen!, but two completed, original "HMP Perth to Gretna" Snake~opoly games have been sent to his family in Eastleigh.

My hopes and dreams, as well as Stephen Gough's, are summed up with these words from George Bernard Shaw;
"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations." The End.

Snake Opx is a not for profit venture and is not available in any shops. Snake Opx is designed to be passed on to the families of the Celebrities who are being followed and included in the Snake Opx games.

The application for the original name "Snake~opoly" as a registered trademark at the Intellectual Property Office in Cardiff was challenged in a form TM7a "Notice of threatened opposition" by English solicitors Gill Jennings & Every LLP on behalf of Hasbro, Inc. 1027 Mewport Avenue, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, 02862 United States of America. The Snake~opoly trademark application has now regrettably been withdrawn.

Snake Opx games are invented on a boy - girl, boy - girl basis. eg, Stephen Gough 2012, Donna D'Errico 2013, Alex Salmond 2014, Monica Menez 2015, etc, etc, etc. The object of joining up with Vimeo.com is to eventually film the Snake Opx Celebrities sitting around a table playing with their own Snake Opx games while at the same time, chatting with them on their hopes and dreams for the future and what they have learned from the past. Snake Opx games usually take about one half hour to complete from beginning to end, depending on how many squares are on the board. Stephen Gough's game has 72 squares but Alex Salmond's game has 81 squares and his game board layout resembles a Scottish Saltire Flag. Snake Opx games follow on from the concept of the 2,000 year old Indian Snakes and Arrows game called "Leela". An explanation about "Leela" is available in one of the website links below this page.

My ultimate hopes and dreams will have to wait for now!! I have some experience in the Movie business having been a driver, on Film location, for British Actresses Kristin Scott Thomas and Flora Montgomery among other clients. My experience in graphic designs prior to Snake Opx has been confined in the past to creating multi-coloured pie charts in the shape of Rolls Royce aircraft engines for time and motion studies on how to set up, provision and clean Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747s and Airbus a330s at Heathrow Airport on a project (unpaid) for Virgin Atlantic Cabin Presentation in the year 2000.