deck

hey there


there are, surely, few brands so thought of in the UK as Sports Direct is. they have, look you see, quite the formidable reputation. such attribution is, to be sure, most decidedly applicable to the ostensible owner and creator of the brand, one might suggest.

whilst many endeavour to do as much of their requisite shopping at the stores to show their impassioned enthusiasm for the brand there are one or two areas of daily life which some are not quite so ready to commit their loyalty to Sports Direct in respect of. one of the more visible, if not overt, of these is in deciding to select the brand in terms of any and all requirements one may have in regards of playing cards.

yes, i have. in the interests of having something to write about here i have explored the life one leads when one has taken ownership - no, custodian responsibility - of a deck of cards branded with the Sports Direct name. well, sort of. James was away on some sort of trip recently, and i got him these to take with in case he and his chums got that bored.

the bold, stark facts about Sports Direct branded playing cards are undoubtedly what you want to know. and so know you shall. 79p a packet is what one pays for them, oh, if only cigarettes were so wonderfully priced. this may seem cheap - a bargain of note, perhaps - but please note that you can get two decks for £1 from most of the more discerning branches of Poundland. also, and it was a while ago so i am not sure, you can get Titanic branded ones for 39p or maybe 69p off of Yorkshire Trading. it is a few years since i got them for Spiros so i am uncertain if that remains true.

despite possibly cheaper alternates available in other locations there is of course one advantage to this pricing. 79p is, after all, not a great deal of money to spend in order to buy into the much noted Sports Direct branded form of brand. it is, i would wager, one of the cheapest items you can obtain with this branding on.

the above reflects, or if you will fairly accurately shows, the predominant nature of these playing cards. whilst the backs of the cards carry the Sports Direct branding and a celebration of the various manufacturers they represent, the face of the cards - the business end - are pretty much conventional. exceptions to this of course exist, but we shall get to that just now.

could one describe playing cards as a sport? i am uncertain. many would suggest it relies more on fate, fortune, luck and chance than it does skill. to counter that i would say one would need the skills and abilities to recognize when fate, fortune luck and chance are with the hand they have been dealt.

the whole debate around which activities do and do not constitute as sport is controversial and, to be frank, boring. just get on with what you enjoy or are particularly good at, i say. leave defining it to those who get paid to do dictionaries and so forth.

it is just these three cards in the deck which carry the much vaunted Sports Direct branding on the face side of the card, or if you will be business end of the playing surface. whilst one might reasonably expect it to appear on the two Joker cards, the presence of it on the ace of spades is mildly interesting. one cannot but help wonder, if not speculate, if this was done out of some form of respect and appreciation for Motorhead. i would like to think so.

to briefly go back to the costing of buying into the brand of Sports Direct to the extent that you make a decision to use them for your playing card requirements, here's photographic evidence of what you can access at Yorkshire Trading.

now then. in truth, yes, either option here is 21p more than what you would pay at Sports Direct for their branded playing cards. but do consider the extras. for that 21p more you can either get a second deck and some most splendid dice or alternatively one pack of absolutely massive cards. the latter is tempting, of course, for those of us who so dearly loved Brucie doing Play Your Cards Right.

in returning to investiture in the Sports Direct brand, what are they like to play with? in truth i know not. whilst i took these pictures i of course shuffled and sorted them, but did not have a game as such. the texture and feel of them are somewhere between matte and gloss. normal and boring, maybe, but they give every sense that they would be perfectly suitable for a friendly game. i would suspect, however, that they do not meet the criteria for them professional, high powered, big money tournaments. or perhaps they indeed do, i do not know i am not really an expert on such.

and so there we have it. kind of. would i recommend that one purchase these Sports Direct playing cards? yes if you were looking to buy into the Sports Direct brand at a low cost, sort of quasi entry level stage i suppose. also yes if you were milling or otherwise loitering about the tills at Sports Direct, noticed them for sale, thought that maybe you would want, need or quite like them and off you go.

do i play a lot of cards myself? not really. the occasional game of 2s and 8s with my family would be about it from time to time. poker is ok from time to time, but in truth normally i find it's just easier for one to take their clothes off conventionally than it is to faff on with a game based on it.

would i describe myself as some sort of patron or unofficial ambassador for the Sports Direct brand? not particularly in any sort of (ahem) direct way. they tend not to stock or sell many clothes that fit me, although in fairness they are one of the few places that do my shoe size. that said, they do sell decent quality sports stuff for kids at a good price, hence me being there fairly often. well, a couple of times a year or so i suppose.

as usual, may fate shine upon me and for some reason this was of interest to someone somewhere!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!