(Ant and his lovely wife Alex 2023)
For the non-LARPers (the short version):
Ant Preece lives in the North East of England and started a prop making business with the support of his wonderful wife, Alex, in 2017 and they are both thoroughly enjoying themselves. Ant started live roleplaying as a young lad with his family in 1994 - his background is construction, catering and event management. In 2020 he signed up at the Northern school of Art to train as a model maker
For the LARPers (the long version - you should know better than to ask for a back story!):
Ant started Larping with his big brother Rob when he was 10 years old in the Bears faction at The Lorien Trust, before moving to the Fir Cruthen faction at Curious Pastimes in 1996. The reason for going on about LARP so much - around 2002 (i will get shot if that year isnt correct!) Alexandra who is now Ant's long suffering wife came to events and this hobby is how the couple met.
Ant took on responsibility as part of the command team for the Fir Cruthen in 2007, a position he continues to hold, and has worked hard to serve the faction and Curious Pastimes over the years. It is very important to him that he continues to contribute to the most excellent community to which he belongs. The Fir Cruthen faction is very much Ant's second family.
After leaving school Ant started a law degree, but soon realised he preferred working with his hands and went to work for his fathers business as a builder working across the midlands, because his father owned the business Ant was able to try out all of the trades and finally settled on becoming a qualified electrician after completing two years at college.
Unfortunately Ant's father was taken ill around 2009 and around the time he was starting to take over the business he was faced with having to either dive in with two feet or get a job with another company - this was one of those life decisions that at the time is serious, but in later years he would come to realise was pivotal in the direction his life would take. At this time Ant was offered a full time position at Davenport house shooting estate in Shropshire and he decided to gamble and change his path!
For a few years Ant changed his little part time weekend job into his full time life - working his way up on the estate, doing a stint as under gamekeeper (he also has a qualification in countryside management), bar manager and eventually as the overall manager. In 2016 however, another of those pivotal moments occurred when the business owners retired and closed down the business - after a lot of long talks with Alex the couple decided to uproot themselves, moving to Newcastle in the North East and pursuing a dream of working for themselves and making money from the hobby they loved.
Ant and Alex were married in 2010. Together they started crewing CP faction events and attending different types of games. They crewed at Dumnonni in Devon, and the ‘Alone’ Alien style events run by Mandala, once in the former nuclear bunker at Drakelow Tunnels. They went to Germany in 2014 to attend Conquest of Mythodea with Cabots Company and Ant was lucky enough to go again in 2015. These events were a game changer and got him thinking about how to make money from his hobby so he could spend more time exploring and enjoying events. In 2016 Ant started what would become LARP Supplies in the spare room of his flat, and began test trading at Curious Pastimes in 2017. The business began attending conventions and the LARP awards, and his business and events he ran have been nominated in several categories over the last few years.
Everything was going well until 2020, when things got difficult for everyone. His last event before lockdown was a banquet he ran in the amazing setting of ‘Carmoa’, a fantasy pirate game written and run by the lovely Thea Dowler and her brilliant team. Then, events were cancelled, but LARP Supplies was fortunate to continue to do business as the LARP community rallied around to support each other.
Ant made the most of the down time and began a degree in model making at the Northern School of Art, Alma Mata of Ridley Scott, which, at the time of writing he is just about to complete. Since we’ve all been allowed out to play again, he's been to another ‘Alone’ event run by Flowstate at Leicester prison, and the ‘Jacobite’ parlour larps run by Mark and Nicole at the iconic Treowen Manor. He, is looking forward to attending the Gritlands post apocalyptic events being run by Andy, Ben, Kate and Matt.
He is now a regular playing and trading at Curious Pastimes, Empire, Carmoa and Ragnarok, as well as the conventions - What’s Your Game held in Gloucester, and LARPCon near Leicester. The LARP trading community has been wonderfully welcoming and supportive and Ant has made a lot of new friends and learnt a hell of a lot since starting out in 2017!
As a sideline in 2019 Ant started The Bare Bones Tavern, with his business partner Wayne, travelling all over the UK providing a mobile tavern for events large and small (because running a business, doing a degree and running a faction wasn't enough!)
Ant is looking forward to more adventures soon!
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