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@Ben-P i'll post here as well)
Stewart underlines credentials while Aw falls back to Earth
League report 19th May 2022
A weary group of pinballers laboured on a hot and humid evening in Croydon after a fun, but heavy week of Pinballing and tournaments at Pinball Republic. Some quick playing games like Gigi and Skateball were selected to keep the evening short. Without
Matthew Vince present, winner of the first two league meets of the season, a new weekly winner would be crowned. The man to step forward? New UK number 20 Anton Stewart (Skateball 517K, Iron Maiden 164M), winner of the prestigious Saturday night Strikes tournament at PBR. Combo King has clearly always possessed the skills, but does have the temperament to continue to rise into UK Pinball’s elite bracket? On current evidence one would have to say yes – 2nd place in the London Pinball league and 1st in the strikes tournament with a host of top class players, now backed up straight away with a strong weekly league win.
Neil “BOOOOM” McRae inevitably took an excellent 2nd place (Pinball Champ 11M) but it was a very tight battle between him, Stan Simpson (who came third) and James McElhatton in fourth. The experienced Simpson always seems to save his best efforts for the playoffs and winning time – not minding too much about his finishing position each week as long as he is in the top few. McElhatton continues to improve and seems to have his eyes set on a return to the playoffs this season.
It was a very happy 25th anniversary for Diane and Clive Bush pinball wise, as they received just what any pinball couple would ask for as a gift – two finishes in the top 8 (Diane 5th, and Clive 8th). This time it was Clive with the big Metallica game (135M) but Diane will be delighted to again be back near the top of the table after a couple of torrid weeks.
The Swaff, buoyed by his own final appearance over the weekend came a superb 6th – he aptly came top on Pinball Champ with 13M. And in 7th – came the Dark Horse James Reed. Making his PBR league debut this season - James is one to keep an eye on. 5th and 7th in 2 visits so far, he certainly knows his way around a pinball and seems likely to claim a playoff place.
In contrast, Yuen Aw (Dirty Harry - 1 Billion, Quiksilver 1.2M), came crashing back down to Earth after his Sunday tournament win coming joint 10th after being undone by Metallica and Iron Maiden. Just a few days after duelling the likes of Matt Vince and Rich Mallett in high stakes playoff matches, he found himself being heckled by the likes of John Boffin. John himself had one of his rare good days (also joint 10th alongside Ben Pike), and he impressed with a top score of 1069 on Gigi and 300K on Harlem. Nice work from the Boff – you’d have to say that he is becoming a better player now than his playing partner Leigh. Can Ben strike back in coming weeks? Or will he have to retire from singles and exclusively play split-flipper with Thomas Evrenos? Pinball fans around the UK are baying for more Leighvrenos action…
Nick Hamill (14th) and Conrad Chambers (18th) are two others who will also quickly want to forget Thursday’s performance, and David Bowery (16th) also will be less pleased about making the top 16 this time out, given there were only
24 players. He’ll hopefully be back for another go soon alongside Claire Lickman (22nd). And I’m sure Charlie who propped up the table this time will do better next week!