Most of us come up with ideas for inventions, or have hobbies we would like to develop into full-time occupations. But Phil Annets is one of the few to actually take the leap and pursue his idea into becoming reality, although he admits the economic downturn has played its part.

Mr Annets has a background in retail and was head of category management at food company McCormick in Haddenham, near Thame, before setting up his own consultancy advising companies such as Glaxo Smith Kline and Britvic Soft Drinks, often working as an interim category director selling to major retailers.

But in the recession business dwindled and he was faced with the choice of continuing at a much lower level, or branching out and developing a totally new product of his own.

“It was a challenging decision but in truth, one I had been considering for some time, and it was time that I needed.”

Mr Annets’ product was a new board game, Whirred Play, which he had devised up to five years earlier when he had developed a version to play with friends and family at Christmas.

Then, last December, he went to a party where he knew very few people and decided to play the game there. The response was good and he received a lot of valuable feedback which inspired him into full-time development.

The game focuses on the use of homophones — words that sound alike, but are spelt differently — such as rein and reign or bare and bear.

Players try and choose different spellings to progress around the board more quickly but also risk being pulled back by team mates.

Mr Annets said: “It is more than a game of chance and the whole family can play, as anyone has a chance of winning, including children.

“Obviously, they have to be able to spell but a child of eight or more should be fine and the more people that play, the better.”

Having devised the game fully, Mr Annets then set about finding suppliers and manufacturers to make up the different component parts of the game.

“I trawled the Internet to find people who could do the plastics and card, as well as printers, but I had to come up with a design for them.”

Eventually he employed Anstey Design in Hampshire, a start-up business, while he called on the services of Kenny Moore, who he knew through Abingdon Town Football Club, to produce the graphics, while plastics were provided by a Suffolk firm.

“It took a few months but eventually I was able to box it all up and at last I had a game.”

Mr Annets launched Whirred Play in front of scores of people at Brightwell-cum-Sotwell village hall last month, and it is now on sale at Boswells store in Oxford, as well as Pettits department store and KP Stationers in Wallingford, for £29.99.

So far he has kept numbers of games produced low but early sales have been encouraging and he will also be selling online through the webiste.

“Selling the first 50 will be at a loss, but I regard it as market research,” added Mr Annets.

Funding the project — which has cost about £2,500 to date — has come from savings, while his wife Caroline has a full-time job and has been very supportive.

He realises that if he wants to develop and market the game fully for nationwide retailing he will need to find a “five figure sum” and is keen to talk to potential investors.

Significantly, the board game is just part of Mr Annets’ concept for Whirred Play — Mr Annets has gone as far as developing it into a TV show format, complete with a musical score by Michael Gilfillan, a cousin of his.

“One of the selling points is the opportunity for viewer participation to play the game and win money.

“The same show could be repeated and viewer participation can continue as it is all about the mix of answers, which will be different.”

Once again, Mr Annets finds himself up against problems such as production companies not accepting unsolicited approaches.

Perhaps more fruitful has been his use of the TV show format in primary schools at Cholsey, RAF Benson and Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, where the educational aspects of Whirred Play can come to the fore in the classroom.

Mr Annets aims to have orders rolling in for Christmas, after which he will be attending the Toy Fair in London next January, where he hopes interest will continue to snowball.

o Contact: 07805 748933.

Web: www.whirredplay.com