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2024 UK Tournament Pinball AWards

J

Jackpot

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Sep 3, 2021
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London
2024 was a great year for the growing UK tournament pinball scene - I've decided to reflect on last year's events with a few of my own unofficial AWards:

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR:

The 2023 UK Rookie of the Year was DPOCK (Dan Pocklington) who has continued to rise the ranks and currently sits at 16th in the UK.

This year, the top Rookie award goes to...Emily Stokes! Cultivated from within the East Anglia Pinball Alliance (EAPA) - Emily has had a phenomenal year, improving rapidly and taking 2nd at the Pinfest Ladies in summer. She then absolutely crushed it on her first tournament expedition in Europe, topping her qualifying group at the Dutch Pinball Open which contained European tournament veterans like Archibald Lefevre and Artur Natorski. Emily ended 2024 at an impressive 52nd in the UK - watch out for much more from her in 2025!

In 2nd place was Simon Love - I'd write more about this gent but there are already tomes of text available on the internet about his pinball journey. In summary, he has played and practiced a lot, clearly loves the game and has gotten pretty decent already. He has been a great addition to our tournament pinball scene.
Nice one Simon.

In 3rd - Francois Kitching. Francois is improving quickly and has become a PBR league regular. He has already qualified for his first playoffs (PBR pingolf) - watch for further strides this year.

Note: these selections are based on 2024 IFPA Points - I have chosen to ignore up to one random tournament in the previous year and maintain rookie eligibility. (These are my AWards, after all)

I plan to post more awards in due course, hope this is of interest and some people enjoyed the read.
 
3 good shouts there Yuen, all 3 have come on massively this year and continue to improve. Have played them all this year and they all have a real enjoyment of the game, and play with a smile on their faces, whilst also providing a real challenge. I think they will all push on even more this year, and will be challenging in the later stages of tournaments.
 
Thanks, Yuen. I appreciate the shout out and also, your interest and advice around my play as the year has gone on. I’ve really enjoyed my first year of playing competitively and it was only really focussed from pinfest forward.

My target for this year is to make some finals, play at tournaments outside of PBR and break into the uk top 100.
 
The next AWard up is BEST UNDERDOG PERFORMANCE:

This is a much more subjective award, but for me five moments stand out…


1) WILL BEYNON winning at Pinball Office, In Jan 2024

Few would have expected Will just a few months into his pinball career to win a 45 person tournament loaded with EAPAs finest including Nathan and Dpock, as well as Greg Mott – but this is exactly what Will did in the very first tournament of the year.

Will played consistently all day, keeping calm as the big names kept dropping, then doing enough to win in a high pressure final against Nick Clark. Nick also posted his best tournament finish in second place, in an incredible start to 2024 which also saw the experienced Roy Smith knock out hometown favourites Pete Bennett and Nathan Garwood in back to back rounds.


2) ISAAC GRANBY and STEWART JUDSON qualify for PINFEST OPEN finals

The Pinfest Open is always a huge tournament, with 100+ players which include most of the Uks best. With the change to a 5 game card format, qualification was even tougher – and junior Isaac Granby and Stewart Judson both put in huge performances to secure their place in the playoff rounds. Both are capable players, but this was easily the best result of their careers. Sadly Isaac was unable to stay for the playoffs and continue his fairytale journey – can he repeat this feat next year?


3) MARTYN McDERMOTT qualifies for PINFEST CLASSIC finals

With only 16 qualifiers and over 100 competitors only the very best classics game performances would lead to playoff qualification, and the unassuming McDermott was not expecting to qualify, with a modest 66th at the EC Summer Sensation his best/highest WPPR earning tournament performance previously. But – against the odds he put together the game of his life with over 500K on Gorgar and claimed his place in the classics finals with style.


4) MICHAEL AW finishes 6th out of 39 players at PBR Classics

Okay, perhaps a biased pick but one I will certainly remember (Michael is only nine). He started this tournament on fire, taking 19 out of a possible 21 points in a group containing Greg Mott. He then followed this up with a maximum 21 points out of 21 in his next set of games – in a group with Matt Vince. At lunchtime he was co-leader of the tournament (which was quite difficult for me to comprehend) and eventually finished 4th in qualifying with a bye, finishing 6th in the end after a semi-final on Robot.


5) IAN CLARKE qualifies 12th out of 229 players at the Dutch Pinball Open Classics

Apparently dubbed “Milko” as he always delivers – Clarke certainly does when it comes to the classics. With an array of European Superstars in attendance, Clarkey smashed qualifying to take 12th spot out of over 200 players. He was very unfortunate to narrowly miss out on the last 16 on a Tiebreak on stream in the playoffs. Given his accomplishments and the fact he is now ranked 44th in the UK, he probably can’t be called an underdog for much longer.

I’ve probably missed quite a few (please feel free to share anything you think is worth highlighting) but these are some of the underdog moments that I personally remember from an exciting 2024.

Again, hope some enjoy the read – more to come…
 
To Paraphrase Scottie Pippen in apparently the 'greatest trashtalk in sports history' when talking about Karl 'The Mailman' Malone,

"I guess the Milkman doesnt deliver on
Sundays"

Unfortunately most pinball tournaments fall on Sundays for Clarkey, otherwise he'd be a beast.
 
Finally getting round to the next one - for MOST IMPROVED PLAYER.

Lots of worthy potential winners here - but going to go with:

1) "The Main Event" Martyn Iles

No longer is Martyn just there to accompany Josh and flail around aimlessly. Mart took a sudden and large leap in 2024 and he is now a regular playoff contender. He has improved to the point where on a few occasions, Josh has had to watch and support his dad late into the playoff rounds, rather than only the other way around. The highlight of Martyn's pinball year was probably the big B finals win at the UK Open where he won each game to take down the big prize. Well done Martyn - appreciate all the effort you and Josh go to in supporting our UK tournament scene!

2) Dan Pike - another who has made a big leap in 2024 - since the rebirth of PBR, Dan has suddenly shown a new level of skill and consistency where he is almost always in the top few at PBRs Thursday night league. His impressive year was capped by a huge win in Dec at the PBR turkey Fry Up.

3) Claire "El Licko" Lickman / Steven Kielty

I couldn't choose here for spot three, so why not recognise both! The UKs answer to Leslie Ruckman from the US (El Rucko) - Claire has been a force in pinball in 2024, not only through her passion for the game and the great events she runs, but also playing and practicing as much as she can. She took a brilliant 2nd at the Yorkshire Pudding Matchplay and her 2024 highlight was the emotional Ladies comp win at Pinfest to win the £1000 first prize.

Steven has improved tremendously and I have seen first hand the quality of his control based game. He has put up some great performances in the northern league, has hit top 8 twice at Tilt and came third at the Yorkshire Pudding Matchplay. His UK open performances were also strong.

Great stuff Martyn, Dan, Claire and Steven!
 
Good list and commentary although I think it's harsh to say Martyn was 'flailing around aimlessly' before! He has always been a solid player but definetly has taken a step up this year.

Also you forget to add that he was one of the key members of The Dan Lewell Experience taking down the team tournament for the UK at DPO!
 
It's called creative license :) just some good natured ribbing to balance the plaudits for Mart.

The Dan Lewell Experience probably deserves it's own award!
 
Jackpot said:
1) "The Main Event" Martyn Iles
Click to expand...

Wow, must admit I didn't expect that, thanks and it does feel like I played less-badly more often last year - I suspect the ever-present "Josh in my ear" whilst playing has finally had an impact. Love your write-ups

Still can't quite believe the B Final, A Final all the way next year :) Oh, and INDiSC next week 😱

Genotime said:
Good list and commentary although I think it's harsh to say Martyn was 'flailing around aimlessly' before! He has always been a solid player but definetly has taken a step up this year.
Click to expand...

We've played together a few times, so you know full well I'm still prone to a good flailing ;)


Jackpot said:
It's called creative license :) just some good natured ribbing to balance the plaudits for Mart.

The Dan Lewell Experience probably deserves it's own award!
Click to expand...

My second win, and again not recognised by IFPA :(

The team tournament was such good fun, and of course, only made possible by the inspirational leadership of The Great Dan.
 
Jackpot said:
Finally getting round to the next one - for MOST IMPROVED PLAYER.

Lots of worthy potential winners here - but going to go with:

1) "The Main Event" Martyn Iles

No longer is Martyn just there to accompany Josh and flail around aimlessly. Mart took a sudden and large leap in 2024 and he is now a regular playoff contender. He has improved to the point where on a few occasions, Josh has had to watch and support his dad late into the playoff rounds, rather than only the other way around. The highlight of Martyn's pinball year was probably the big B finals win at the UK Open where he won each game to take down the big prize. Well done Martyn - appreciate all the effort you and Josh go to in supporting our UK tournament scene!

2) Dan Pike - another who has made a big leap in 2024 - since the rebirth of PBR, Dan has suddenly shown a new level of skill and consistency where he is almost always in the top few at PBRs Thursday night league. His impressive year was capped by a huge win in Dec at the PBR turkey Fry Up.

3) Claire "El Licko" Lickman / Steven Kielty

I couldn't choose here for spot three, so why not recognise both! The UKs answer to Leslie Ruckman from the US (El Rucko) - Claire has been a force in pinball in 2024, not only through her passion for the game and the great events she runs, but also playing and practicing as much as she can. She took a brilliant 2nd at the Yorkshire Pudding Matchplay and her 2024 highlight was the emotional Ladies comp win at Pinfest to win the £1000 first prize.

Steven has improved tremendously and I have seen first hand the quality of his control based game. He has put up some great performances in the northern league, has hit top 8 twice at Tilt and came third at the Yorkshire Pudding Matchplay. His UK open performances were also strong.

Great stuff Martyn, Dan, Claire and Steven!
Click to expand...
Martyn “the miracle” Isles.
As he has recently been affectionately known by the SWL “Vandal’s”…… 🤗😉
 
And now for the 2024 Player of the Year AWard...

Congratulations to Josh Iles! Josh had a tremendous year where he won 7 tournrableaments and his consistency improved significantly. At most of the biggest tournaments on the World and European stage it was Josh who performed best. In March he took an outstanding 6th place against 64 of Europe's best at the European Championship Series Finals in Sweden, which qualified him for the World Championships. He then travelled to California for IFPA19 and in an 80 player field containing the world's best, qualified a brilliant 19th, eventually finishing 28th as top Brit. At the European Championships in Poland - another huge performance from Josh, winning 14 of 15 matches in qualifying, finishing 14th out of 256 players overall.

Honorable mentions to Nathan Garwood who won 11 leagues and tournaments in 2024 including 2nd at Pinfest and 4th at DPO classics, rising to 9th in the UK; Will Jarvis who performed strongly at every tournament he played to storm into the UK top 10 in 8th, and Andy Foster who travelled to Yegpin and dominated the events, leading to a current world ranking of 55.
 
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