Thanks Carlton. Its basically a soak method that I followed from here
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/how...r-plated-items because I was losing silver plating with my previous method of using light elbow grease. Now it did take several soaks with all new material but it did work. Combination of near boiling water, several tablespoons of baking soda and a pinch of salt with trophy being in contact with a good size piece of aluminium foil. The website makes note to say that the boiling water may break weak contact points such as solder areas so thats something to be cautious about.