The Chancer magazine evolved from the performance group ‘A Bunch of Chancers’ (or vice-versa – we’re a bit hazy on that.)What we can say though quite a few people were involved in the performances it was in the main Joe Duggan and Gregory McCartney that were responsible for the magazine. One of us, presumably came up with the name. The intention was to create something opposite to what we thought was the rather comfortable and self-congratulatory local poetry scene at the time through the creation of a rather bad-tempered magazine supported by poetry performances in front of people who were by no means always sympathetic to us. This issue was our third effort and was notable for being our first properly printed issue and the first one we received funding for. The first two issues were photocopied and stapled together. The design (or lack of design) is mainly because we used MS Publisher 97 (or maybe 98) to create it and also because we only vaguely knew what we were doing. Considering the issue itself from an Abridged perspective is difficult. The Chancer was a product of its times but we feel it could stand up in terms of content with the many online poetry literary publications that we see these days. It’s not the Abridged but it wasn’t intended to be. The Abridged however grew out of it and shares the same spirit. In fact the original Abridged poem (from which we took the name) is in this issue as is ‘I’d Step Into The Light If I Could Take The Darkness With Me’ (a title better than its poem) which became Abridged 0 – 12. At any rate we give you Issue Three of The Chancer. Many have done similar since, some better, many worse but not with the same dark humour. Thanks to all who were involved. Abridged wouldn’t be as it is without you. In fact it wouldn’t exist at all. You can read it below: