Orcs Nest owner Peter Wooding

A “DUNGEON Master” has come to the rescue of a board games shop after an appeal for help in the Extra and sister paper, the Camden New Journal

The host of a Dungeon’s and Dragons home game in Camden Town is making a statement in support of a claim by Orcs Nest in Earlham Street, Covent Garden.

The independent firm is taking on an insurance firm that refused to pay out despite the shop having to claim during the pandemic.

The insurance company had argued the reason the shop closed was that the government decided to introduce a lockdown and not because a “notifiable human disease” was found at the shop.

It meant the Orcs Nest had to find a customer who could prove they had Covid-19 and was in the store before the first lockdown in 2020.

Owner Peter Wooding said: “A customer has come forward after reading it in the New Journal, and they have confirmed that they visited my shop on a number of occasions in early 2020 and that they did have symptoms of Covid. They are prepared to give a statement to support my claim. The real crux of it is whether he will be able to prove he had Covid, as testing was so long ago.”

The Covid-19 customer lives in Camden Town and runs a D&D home game with other like-minded players. The fantasy table top role can last for several weeks and requires a host, known as a Dungeon Master, who plays as referee, story­teller and also controlling so-called “non-playable characters”.

The Orcs Nest, which opened in 1987, is one of hundreds of companies taking on insurance firms in the courts.