"No, Mr Bond, I Expect You To (Roll The) Die!"

With the iconic music from the movies playing out of our smart speaker, we sat down last night to play the James Bond-themed Monopoly board.

For movement counters, Pete chose the Lotus Esprit (from The Spy Who Loved Me), Clare picked Rosa Klebb's dagger shoe (from From Russia With Love), I took Oddjob's bowler (from Goldfinger), and Rachel was the 007 logo/pistol.

Instead of properties, this set allowed players to buy up the various films in the Bond franchise, marked out on the board in chronological order, starting with Dr No just past 'Go' right round to No Time To Die and M16 being the two most valuable squares.

Oddly, this meant that - while the "utilities" were two variations of Q Branch - the "stations" (from the traditional game) were just whatever film came at that point, which felt a bit strange given the wide variety of signature vehicles associated with the character of Bond over the years.

While there were no special rules for this set, some effort was made to personalise it to Bond by having the houses and hotels as "safe houses" and "headquarters", and chance and community chest cards were "allies" and "enemies".

I started off poorly, never really recovered, and was the first to go out - bankrupted by my own wife.

After that there was a bit of a lull when it looked as though several people were on the verge of being knocked out, when suddenly the game got its second wind and a spate of house building ensued, upping the threat level enormously.

That's a lot of headquarters on the board!

There was definitely something in the air last night that meant everyone was slightly befuddled and possibly not bringing their a-game to the table, with a mixture of tactical errors and minor rules mistakes (such as forgetting whose turn it was or forgetting to take property cards when you made a purchase). 

Everyone was tired - and slightly distracted - for various reasons, meaning their minds weren't always focussed 100 per cent on the game. There was even a distinct lack of Bond-related punning, which with this franchise is always an open goal no matter the situation.

Nevertheless, the final three fought on heroically, with Rachel's property portfolio and cash reserves eventually being whittled down until it was just Pete and Clare remaining in a tense head-to-head showdown.

As 11 o'clock drew closer (now our official "end time"), Clare chose - in the dying seconds of the game - to concede to Pete, taking second place rather than sharing the glory of joint first.

She explained her reasoning on her Three Beautiful Things Substack today, and while it was good sportsmanship, I breathed a slight sigh of relief as it meant points-wise Clare only drew level with me, instead of sliding ahead of me (see table below).

Of course, she still, historically, has a game in hand on the rest of us (having missed our Scooby-Doo game, subbing in Nick in her stead).

Monopoly guru Pete continues, frustratingly, to pull away at the top of the table with another win, while Rachel's third place finish this week did little to help her close the gap on Clare and I.

In judging the theme of the evening, we all agreed that while the James Bond set was well made, when you dug down there were issues - from the plastic insert in the box not being geared to double as a bank to some of the 'property' names and cards being difficult to read at a glance.

Also Rachel's chosen token (the 007 logo) was so narrow that it was surprisingly hard to spot on the board when its thin edge was pointing towards her.