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OP
OP
Deleted member 2463
if it was 113m Peter would still be at the club too
OP
OP
Deleted member 2463
all results into IFPA
Thanks everyone. Had a brilliant weekend with you all and really appreciate all the effort that went into organising such fun tournaments. Much appreciated Neil J McRae, Matthew Vince, Sarah Vince, Nick Hamill, Diane Bush and everyone else who helped! Amazing play by @RuyLopez and Anton - and really enjoyed playing with all of you. So many great players, and great people all around
My score on JY was 13M, I'm guessing it was finger trouble by whoever was entering the results on the computer. That said I probably wasn't that far off getting the other 100M which is certainly possibly with the wizard mode..!
are " you in awe " of this guy ?Thanks everyone. Had a brilliant weekend with you all and really appreciate all the effort that went into organising such fun tournaments. Much appreciated Neil J McRae, Matthew Vince, Sarah Vince, Nick Hamill, Diane Bush and everyone else who helped! Amazing play by @RuyLopez and Anton - and really enjoyed playing with all of you. So many great players, and great people all around
well you should be ,after sunday's tournament ! so stoked for you to win Yuen @Jackpot , especially with all your family with you at Pinball Republic , must've made it extra special , very well played . The qualifying games I played with Sam Chief were such a laugh , really enjoyed the whole weekend and it was a special surprise to see Tony Molloy @mission65 on the sunday , Tony ,you're such a fantastic story teller you need to get on the Chinwag with @Gonzo
Lecari
Site Supporter
Thanks to everyone involved for organising this weekend - David and I had a fantastic time! Great to see everyone, and such a fun atmosphere throughout the event. I especially enjoyed the suspense of the strikes tournament on Saturday evening!
We were supposed to be going to visit my parents on Sunday afternoon but that had to be cancelled when David got into the finals... I guess men will do anything to avoid seeing their inlaws
Hopefully we'll be back on Thursday night for the league meet, stay tuned!
We were supposed to be going to visit my parents on Sunday afternoon but that had to be cancelled when David got into the finals... I guess men will do anything to avoid seeing their inlaws
Hopefully we'll be back on Thursday night for the league meet, stay tuned!
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OP
OP
Deleted member 2463
Something is definitely wrong there Neil. If AIQ is really that unpopular feel free to sell it me 
I would also like to echo the thanks to everyone that made it such and fantastic weekend. Ethan and I both had a great time.
I would also like to echo the thanks to everyone that made it such and fantastic weekend. Ethan and I both had a great time.
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Pinball Republic Weekender – May 14th/15th 2022 Tournaments report (part 1)
The UKs largest pinball club celebrated its rebranding to Pinball Republic with a tournament extravaganza last weekend, with a plethora of the UKs top pinball players in attendance.
7 of the UK top 10 players took part, and 13 of the top 20 - with an array of other top contenders and talents from across the country travelling for this major test of flipper skills, endurance and mental fortitude.
Some of the in-form players to watch – Nick “Stormy” Marshall (aka “the Terminator”) – winner of a ridiculous 5 out of the last 6 pinball events he had attended since Dec 2021; Rich “the Hammer” Mallett – former UK number 1, and current UK number 5, fresh off a recent major UK tournament win at the Domino Arcade; the reigning Pinball Republic League champion Stan “the Man” Simpson (UK rank 8), and of course the UK number 3 Matt Vince – the reigning UK pinball league champion, multiple time PBR league winner and perennial major tournament threat. In truth with such a deep field of players present, many players would have had designs on a trophy.
The weekend consisted of 3 tournaments across 2 days, with over 40 competitors in each.
Tournament 1 – Target Matchplay (34 points to win, 4-2-1-0 point format)
Matt Vince raced to an expected early lead, alongside the talented David Tucker, the veteran Stan Simpson and the sharp shooting Chris Poyntz. On the flip side, Nick Marshall, exhausted after a 4 hour drive to the venue was uncharacteristically off to a terrible start, having coming 4th twice in the first 3 rounds. In round 6, Nick was paired by the Swiss system in Matchplay with future pinball star, 6 year old Daniel Vince, who was on a similar point level to him. “That’s how I roll.” quipped Nick, as he gratefully accepted the 4 points on his favourite Game on Thrones which kickstarted his climb back up the table.
Poyntz hit a rough patch and began to fall out of contention and Vince stalled as he was nearing the finish line - but Tucker continued firing out the strong games and established a lead at the top with Simpson close behind. Meanwhile Rich Mallett had stayed within striking distance with some fine play. In round 12, the top group was on Twilight Zone (Tucker, Mallett, Simpson and Vince) – If the leader David Tucker could win, the tournament was his. Dave promptly put up a massive and hugely impressive 515 million on ball 1 – with Rich the closest on only 155M it looked all over. But the Hammer had other ideas. On ball 2 he played like a man possessed, hitting jackpot after jackpot and had 475M by the end of his ball to make it very interesting, especially after Tucks drained almost immediately on his own ball 2. Rich was not done yet - he piled on the pressure on ball 3 and finished on a brilliant 767M. Tucker needed over 200M to take the tournament – he managed to start Powerball mania and nearly got there – but finished around 80M short in a valiant effort. On to round 13!
Somehow the irrepressible Nick Marshall had recovered all the way back to join Tucks, Mallett, and Simpson in the final game on Iron Man. Rich continued his inspired play and hit Do or Die on his 2nd ball for a colossal 35M additional points to take his score to 70M. Astonishingly, the flamboyant Hammer then walked off in triumph in a mic-drop moment, intentionally letting his ball drain despite the job not yet being done. However despite the best efforts of the others, they could not catch Rich’s score.
In the words of the winner Rich:
"The TZ game was magical, I felt possessed with an unstoppable force throughout balls 2 and 3 , it's hard to describe how that feels. For the Iron Man game, when i got the do or die shot on ball 2 , i walked away from the machine and let the ball drain - I hadnt planned it, it was something that happened in the moment, it felt so good to do that even though it might have felt a bit disrespectful to my opponents, that was never my intention."
The finish to this tournament was remarkable, one of the most dramatic endings you will see in a matchplay event.
WINNER OF THE TARGET MATCHPLAY – RICH MALLETT
2nd - David Tucker
3rd - Rayne Passmore (kudos for a very strong finish and his best major tournament result ever)
4th - Stan Simpson
Part 2 of the PBR tournament recaps will follow in due course, do drop a like or comment if you enjoyed reading!
The UKs largest pinball club celebrated its rebranding to Pinball Republic with a tournament extravaganza last weekend, with a plethora of the UKs top pinball players in attendance.
7 of the UK top 10 players took part, and 13 of the top 20 - with an array of other top contenders and talents from across the country travelling for this major test of flipper skills, endurance and mental fortitude.
Some of the in-form players to watch – Nick “Stormy” Marshall (aka “the Terminator”) – winner of a ridiculous 5 out of the last 6 pinball events he had attended since Dec 2021; Rich “the Hammer” Mallett – former UK number 1, and current UK number 5, fresh off a recent major UK tournament win at the Domino Arcade; the reigning Pinball Republic League champion Stan “the Man” Simpson (UK rank 8), and of course the UK number 3 Matt Vince – the reigning UK pinball league champion, multiple time PBR league winner and perennial major tournament threat. In truth with such a deep field of players present, many players would have had designs on a trophy.
The weekend consisted of 3 tournaments across 2 days, with over 40 competitors in each.
Tournament 1 – Target Matchplay (34 points to win, 4-2-1-0 point format)
Matt Vince raced to an expected early lead, alongside the talented David Tucker, the veteran Stan Simpson and the sharp shooting Chris Poyntz. On the flip side, Nick Marshall, exhausted after a 4 hour drive to the venue was uncharacteristically off to a terrible start, having coming 4th twice in the first 3 rounds. In round 6, Nick was paired by the Swiss system in Matchplay with future pinball star, 6 year old Daniel Vince, who was on a similar point level to him. “That’s how I roll.” quipped Nick, as he gratefully accepted the 4 points on his favourite Game on Thrones which kickstarted his climb back up the table.
Poyntz hit a rough patch and began to fall out of contention and Vince stalled as he was nearing the finish line - but Tucker continued firing out the strong games and established a lead at the top with Simpson close behind. Meanwhile Rich Mallett had stayed within striking distance with some fine play. In round 12, the top group was on Twilight Zone (Tucker, Mallett, Simpson and Vince) – If the leader David Tucker could win, the tournament was his. Dave promptly put up a massive and hugely impressive 515 million on ball 1 – with Rich the closest on only 155M it looked all over. But the Hammer had other ideas. On ball 2 he played like a man possessed, hitting jackpot after jackpot and had 475M by the end of his ball to make it very interesting, especially after Tucks drained almost immediately on his own ball 2. Rich was not done yet - he piled on the pressure on ball 3 and finished on a brilliant 767M. Tucker needed over 200M to take the tournament – he managed to start Powerball mania and nearly got there – but finished around 80M short in a valiant effort. On to round 13!
Somehow the irrepressible Nick Marshall had recovered all the way back to join Tucks, Mallett, and Simpson in the final game on Iron Man. Rich continued his inspired play and hit Do or Die on his 2nd ball for a colossal 35M additional points to take his score to 70M. Astonishingly, the flamboyant Hammer then walked off in triumph in a mic-drop moment, intentionally letting his ball drain despite the job not yet being done. However despite the best efforts of the others, they could not catch Rich’s score.
In the words of the winner Rich:
"The TZ game was magical, I felt possessed with an unstoppable force throughout balls 2 and 3 , it's hard to describe how that feels. For the Iron Man game, when i got the do or die shot on ball 2 , i walked away from the machine and let the ball drain - I hadnt planned it, it was something that happened in the moment, it felt so good to do that even though it might have felt a bit disrespectful to my opponents, that was never my intention."
The finish to this tournament was remarkable, one of the most dramatic endings you will see in a matchplay event.
WINNER OF THE TARGET MATCHPLAY – RICH MALLETT
2nd - David Tucker
3rd - Rayne Passmore (kudos for a very strong finish and his best major tournament result ever)
4th - Stan Simpson
Part 2 of the PBR tournament recaps will follow in due course, do drop a like or comment if you enjoyed reading!
Nice one Yuen! - a great writeup as always and look forward to part two. Saturday was I think the most fun I've had at a tournament to date. A long day, but the great atmosphere and moments like the Iron Man Mic drop (I wondered what the hell was going on when that happened he he) kept me going (that and the Pizza and beers!)
Cheers to the Pinball Republic organisers and helpers!
Cheers to the Pinball Republic organisers and helpers!
Another brilliant weekend of pinball. Thanks to all those involved in organising and running the event and to everyone who turned up on both days to make it such an enjoyable experience. It was great fun playing, and a pleasure to watch some of the top players showing how it should be done.
Great write up too, @Jackpot
The photos I took are now on FlickR - links below (both link to the same place, but sometimes people have issues with one or the other link):
Link 1
Link 2
Here's a selection of a few of them (higher resolution versions are on FlickR). I tried to get photos of most people, so apologies if I've missed anyone!
Great write up too, @Jackpot
The photos I took are now on FlickR - links below (both link to the same place, but sometimes people have issues with one or the other link):
Link 1
Link 2
Here's a selection of a few of them (higher resolution versions are on FlickR). I tried to get photos of most people, so apologies if I've missed anyone!
Thanks for taking these Conrad!
Lecari
Site Supporter
I hadn't played Black Rose before Claire and yes I was swimming like crazy to get away from that shark and only just made it safely back to shore , it really got me going that video modeThanks so much for the photos Conrad. Some great moments captured there!
You can tell @RuyLopez was trying to swim for shore in those Black Rose photos, just from the expressionsI hope he made it!
Pinball Republic Weekender – May 14th/15th 2022 Tournaments report part 2
Tournament 2 – Fair Strikes
This was an interesting format that a fair few players had not tried before – 7 strikes per player available, with 2 assigned for a 4th place, 1 strike given to 2nd and 3rd and the winner of each 4 player match escaping with zero strikes.
Once more Matt “the Machine” Vince was among the early leaders, with Tim Thornton and Michael Mattsson also setting the pace. Anton “Combo King” Stewart (so named due to his complete flow play style) , Clive Bush and Stan Simpson also started strong, with Classics Master Keith Burden joining the party after reeling off 4 wins out of 5. Thornton and Mattsson began to fade, and after some intense battles throughout the tournament, just 5 players were left: Matt Vince, Clive Bush, Anton Stewart, Keith Burden and Stan Simpson.
In round 10, Vince eliminated Bush in an excellent 5th place, while Keith was knocked out by Stan and Anton on Indy 500.
The next round was on Godzilla between Simpson, Vince and Anton Stewart. Matt took first to book a place in the final 2, and Anton had to recover from a poor first ball to come back and defeat Stan, with Dave Fowler leading the cheers from the sidelines. This left just Matt and Anton to duke it out on NineBall for the tournament win.
Previously at the dinner break, Matt had stitched up the mild-mannered Anton by telling him he could have an extra slice of pizza, and then telling him to take the last 3 slices which he duly did. Vince then loudly announced to everyone that Anton had finished all the pizza to groans from the room…
This pizza gate embarrassment fuelled Anton to get his revenge. Matt started the final on NineBall with a brilliant 500K on ball 1. Undeterred, Stewart responded with a massive 650K of his own! Anton finished his ball 2 with 800K and Matt as first player was just unable to reach this total and make Anton play again, ending with a score of about 750K and meaning that the exhausted but brilliant Combo King Stewart who almost wanted to go home but just couldn’t stop winning finished as champion and recorded his first major tournament win.
It's worth calling out some additional excellent performances from a few players:
Tony Greenwood with an impressive 10th place, Dennis Osborne who played great to finish joint 12th, and Claire Lickman who has improved immensely – she finished a very creditable joint 16th.
Anton wanted to pass on thanks to Tony Greenwood and Gene Aw as well as Dave Fowler for the support, and when asked to give one final quote to describe his experience, he said: “I just wanted Neil to be proud of me.”
WINNER OF THE FAIR STRIKES TOURNAMENT – ANTON STEWART
2nd - Matt Vince
3rd - Stan Simpson
4th - Keith Burden
Tournament 2 – Fair Strikes
This was an interesting format that a fair few players had not tried before – 7 strikes per player available, with 2 assigned for a 4th place, 1 strike given to 2nd and 3rd and the winner of each 4 player match escaping with zero strikes.
Once more Matt “the Machine” Vince was among the early leaders, with Tim Thornton and Michael Mattsson also setting the pace. Anton “Combo King” Stewart (so named due to his complete flow play style) , Clive Bush and Stan Simpson also started strong, with Classics Master Keith Burden joining the party after reeling off 4 wins out of 5. Thornton and Mattsson began to fade, and after some intense battles throughout the tournament, just 5 players were left: Matt Vince, Clive Bush, Anton Stewart, Keith Burden and Stan Simpson.
In round 10, Vince eliminated Bush in an excellent 5th place, while Keith was knocked out by Stan and Anton on Indy 500.
The next round was on Godzilla between Simpson, Vince and Anton Stewart. Matt took first to book a place in the final 2, and Anton had to recover from a poor first ball to come back and defeat Stan, with Dave Fowler leading the cheers from the sidelines. This left just Matt and Anton to duke it out on NineBall for the tournament win.
Previously at the dinner break, Matt had stitched up the mild-mannered Anton by telling him he could have an extra slice of pizza, and then telling him to take the last 3 slices which he duly did. Vince then loudly announced to everyone that Anton had finished all the pizza to groans from the room…
This pizza gate embarrassment fuelled Anton to get his revenge. Matt started the final on NineBall with a brilliant 500K on ball 1. Undeterred, Stewart responded with a massive 650K of his own! Anton finished his ball 2 with 800K and Matt as first player was just unable to reach this total and make Anton play again, ending with a score of about 750K and meaning that the exhausted but brilliant Combo King Stewart who almost wanted to go home but just couldn’t stop winning finished as champion and recorded his first major tournament win.
It's worth calling out some additional excellent performances from a few players:
Tony Greenwood with an impressive 10th place, Dennis Osborne who played great to finish joint 12th, and Claire Lickman who has improved immensely – she finished a very creditable joint 16th.
Anton wanted to pass on thanks to Tony Greenwood and Gene Aw as well as Dave Fowler for the support, and when asked to give one final quote to describe his experience, he said: “I just wanted Neil to be proud of me.”
WINNER OF THE FAIR STRIKES TOURNAMENT – ANTON STEWART
2nd - Matt Vince
3rd - Stan Simpson
4th - Keith Burden
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Pinball Republic Weekender – May 14th/15th 2022 Tournaments report part 3
Tournament 3 – Best of Blind
The Pinball Republic Launch weekend continued with a final tournament on Sunday May 15th.
In this competition the players were handed scoresheets listing 20 pinballs inside the club. Participants had to select 15 of these to play, eliminating 5, and would gain points on each depending on how highly they ranked on each machine they played. There was some strategy involved here as those playing the most popular choices would also find it slightly harder to score highly due to the increased competition. The top 16 players overall would qualify for the playoffs rounds, consisting of head to head best of 3 matches on random machines at the club.
With 45 entrants, getting into the top 16 would be tricky, but at the end of the day some familiar names were at the top of the leaderboard – in ranking order:
(Note – unfortunately I don’t have too many details on many of the playoff games, so can only report on the detail I know)
Round of 16
Rich continued his strong play, taking out Rayne 2-0 with wins on Future Spa and Indy 500.
Yuen had a tough first round battle against Nick Hamill (Nineball 2M). A terrible game on Full Throttle in Gm1 by both players left Nick only needing 2M on ball 3 to beat Yuen’s 6M target. He started a race, cradled up nicely on the right flipper with multiple adjacent shots lit to take Game 1 – and promptly brick drained to leave him just short on 5M. A lucky escape for Aw. TNA was game two, and Hamill played strongly, with 1.1M – pressing his advantage after Aw left him two locked balls for an additional Multiball. 1-1 and the decider was on Galaxy, which Aw managed to win with an okay score of 240K.
Robot Greg who had played much better on Sunday (top scores of Batman Forever 1.4 Billion, Creech 169M) lived up to his name by defeating David Tucker 2-0, with the final win of course on Robot.
David Bowery had a rude awakening to the playoffs with his first game on Game of Thrones vs Matt Vince (Galaxy 687K). Playing second, the score on Ball 3 with one ball left was Matt 1.1Billion, David 7M. Welcome to the big leagues Bowery(!) Some words of advice from my brother Gene seem appropriate at this juncture: “You can’t just play Roadshow and Fish Tales all day…” Gm2 on Farfalla did not treat David kindly either but in any case he should be proud of his exploits and 13th place finish.
Neil McRae came back to win 2-1 against the ever dangerous David Fowler (953M Roadshow). After dropping the first game on Black Rose, Neil was forced to win on Roadshow (not his favourite game!) and Pinball Champ which he duly did to advance to the last 8.
Peter Blakemore came through a tricky match against Sam McCourt (top score on Harlem earlier – 519K as well as FutureSpa 387K) 2-1 with wins on Pinball Champ and 9ball – with Sam taking Gm2 on Spirit.
Graham Swaffield, who had had a very poor day on Saturday given his ability upset the skilful Chris Poyntz (Dirty Harry 659M, Whirlwind new Grand Champ score of 24M) 2-0, coming through on Quiksilver and a close game on Nineball to also move on.
Brad Attwood had a tough Match against Clive Bush. Clive won the first on Iron Man, Brad came storming back on White Water and the match rested on the Walking Dead result. Clive had over 60M with a strong effort – and Brad was setup for the comeback, but his left ramp shot unluckily jumped out and down the outlane which gave Clive the upset win.
Quarter Finals
Match 1 was number 1 seed Rich Mallett in red hot form vs Yuen Aw – who in contrast had played terribly on Saturday, finishing a very disappointing joint 20th and 21st in the two tournaments. White Water was game 1 – Aw put up 90M by ball 2. Both players started Multiball but could not claim any jackpots. Fortunately for Aw, Rich did not have a big game and fell just short of the target. Game 2 was on Iron Maiden. Yuen managed a strong 150M ball one with Trooper and 2X playfield, as well as a couple of modes. Rich needed to make up a large 180M deficit on ball 3 to win, but clearly he was capable of doing so. He started Mummy MB and had trooper MB ready, but narrowly misjudged a dead bounce which grazed the flipper meaning Yuen advanced to the semis. A great weekend for the Hammer overall in any case and he now moves up to number 4 in the UK rankings.
Match 2 was UK number 3 Matt Vince vs UK number 6 Greg Mott – in both games Matt played superbly, with over a million on Beat the Clock and 1.2 Billion on Batman Forever which was enough to book his final four place.
Match 3 saw Neil McRae take on Peter Blakemore. Peter took game one on Iron Maiden with Neil fighting back on Tommy to tie it up. The decider was on Godzilla and in a very close battle, Peter took it as Neil was unable to hit the right ramp a couple of times when muiltiball was ready.
There was an excellent battle in match 4 – the Swaff vs Clive Bush. Graham posted over 300M on Godzilla to take game 1; Clive struck back with his own huge 20M+ personal best on Scared Stiff. In the final match on ACDC, both players again played well but it was Swaffield “playing like a boss” according to Rich with 2 multiballs on his second ball that triumphed to move on to the Semis.
Semi Finals
Aw vs Vince – Gm1 on Circus Voltaire was a high quality game – Matt posted a stellar 36M, leaving Aw on just 7M and with a lot to do with just 1 ball left. In possibly his best ball of the day, Aw managed to hit his final Highwire MB lock, adding Ringmaster Frenzy and Juggler MB to chase down the target. Game 2 was on Gigi, which neither player was particularly happy about at this stage of the competition. Yuen went first and was pleased with a score of 655 – Matt just beat this with 662! The decider was on Robot – neither played well but Yuen managed to hit the robot bridge and some pop up targets, but unluckily this did not register for Matt when he tried to do the same, meaning Yuen fortunately moved on to the finals.
Swaffield vs Blakemore was another tense affair. Graham started with a convincing win on QuikSilver which Peter immediately reversed with a strong game on Corvette. The decider on Game of Thrones was a torrid affair with neither player able to get anything going during any of the three balls. Swaffield, playing first was only able to set a target of 34M. Peter did not need much to overtake this and started Martell mode in single ball play, but drained out shy of the target.
Final
Few may have predicted an Aw vs Swaffield playoff final but game 1 commenced on Earthshaker, and Aw took a narrow one 3M to 2M, dialling in the fault line side ramp even though he was unable to score a jackpot during multiball. Game 2 was a little bit more one sided – Aw started a few modes, hit some ramps and was surprised to find himself on 10M at the end of ball 2 which was enough to secure the win.
BEST OF BLIND TOURNAMENT WINNER – YUEN AW
2nd – Graham Swaffield – many congratulations on his first ever major tournament final
3rd – Peter Blakemore
4th – Matt Vince
Thanks to those of you who have been reading along – appreciate it is a bit long(!) A final thank you once again to the organisers for an amazing weekend of Pinball and all their hard work. Roll on the next one!
Tournament 3 – Best of Blind
The Pinball Republic Launch weekend continued with a final tournament on Sunday May 15th.
In this competition the players were handed scoresheets listing 20 pinballs inside the club. Participants had to select 15 of these to play, eliminating 5, and would gain points on each depending on how highly they ranked on each machine they played. There was some strategy involved here as those playing the most popular choices would also find it slightly harder to score highly due to the increased competition. The top 16 players overall would qualify for the playoffs rounds, consisting of head to head best of 3 matches on random machines at the club.
With 45 entrants, getting into the top 16 would be tricky, but at the end of the day some familiar names were at the top of the leaderboard – in ranking order:
- Rich Mallett
- Brad Attwood
- Neil McRae
- David Tucker
- Matt Vince
- Peter Blakemore
- Chris Poyntz
- Yuen Aw
- Nick Hamill
- Graham Swaffield
- Greg Mott
- Sam McCourt
- David Bowery
- David Fowler
- James Fowler
- Clive Bush
(Note – unfortunately I don’t have too many details on many of the playoff games, so can only report on the detail I know)
Round of 16
Rich continued his strong play, taking out Rayne 2-0 with wins on Future Spa and Indy 500.
Yuen had a tough first round battle against Nick Hamill (Nineball 2M). A terrible game on Full Throttle in Gm1 by both players left Nick only needing 2M on ball 3 to beat Yuen’s 6M target. He started a race, cradled up nicely on the right flipper with multiple adjacent shots lit to take Game 1 – and promptly brick drained to leave him just short on 5M. A lucky escape for Aw. TNA was game two, and Hamill played strongly, with 1.1M – pressing his advantage after Aw left him two locked balls for an additional Multiball. 1-1 and the decider was on Galaxy, which Aw managed to win with an okay score of 240K.
Robot Greg who had played much better on Sunday (top scores of Batman Forever 1.4 Billion, Creech 169M) lived up to his name by defeating David Tucker 2-0, with the final win of course on Robot.
David Bowery had a rude awakening to the playoffs with his first game on Game of Thrones vs Matt Vince (Galaxy 687K). Playing second, the score on Ball 3 with one ball left was Matt 1.1Billion, David 7M. Welcome to the big leagues Bowery(!) Some words of advice from my brother Gene seem appropriate at this juncture: “You can’t just play Roadshow and Fish Tales all day…” Gm2 on Farfalla did not treat David kindly either but in any case he should be proud of his exploits and 13th place finish.
Neil McRae came back to win 2-1 against the ever dangerous David Fowler (953M Roadshow). After dropping the first game on Black Rose, Neil was forced to win on Roadshow (not his favourite game!) and Pinball Champ which he duly did to advance to the last 8.
Peter Blakemore came through a tricky match against Sam McCourt (top score on Harlem earlier – 519K as well as FutureSpa 387K) 2-1 with wins on Pinball Champ and 9ball – with Sam taking Gm2 on Spirit.
Graham Swaffield, who had had a very poor day on Saturday given his ability upset the skilful Chris Poyntz (Dirty Harry 659M, Whirlwind new Grand Champ score of 24M) 2-0, coming through on Quiksilver and a close game on Nineball to also move on.
Brad Attwood had a tough Match against Clive Bush. Clive won the first on Iron Man, Brad came storming back on White Water and the match rested on the Walking Dead result. Clive had over 60M with a strong effort – and Brad was setup for the comeback, but his left ramp shot unluckily jumped out and down the outlane which gave Clive the upset win.
Quarter Finals
Match 1 was number 1 seed Rich Mallett in red hot form vs Yuen Aw – who in contrast had played terribly on Saturday, finishing a very disappointing joint 20th and 21st in the two tournaments. White Water was game 1 – Aw put up 90M by ball 2. Both players started Multiball but could not claim any jackpots. Fortunately for Aw, Rich did not have a big game and fell just short of the target. Game 2 was on Iron Maiden. Yuen managed a strong 150M ball one with Trooper and 2X playfield, as well as a couple of modes. Rich needed to make up a large 180M deficit on ball 3 to win, but clearly he was capable of doing so. He started Mummy MB and had trooper MB ready, but narrowly misjudged a dead bounce which grazed the flipper meaning Yuen advanced to the semis. A great weekend for the Hammer overall in any case and he now moves up to number 4 in the UK rankings.
Match 2 was UK number 3 Matt Vince vs UK number 6 Greg Mott – in both games Matt played superbly, with over a million on Beat the Clock and 1.2 Billion on Batman Forever which was enough to book his final four place.
Match 3 saw Neil McRae take on Peter Blakemore. Peter took game one on Iron Maiden with Neil fighting back on Tommy to tie it up. The decider was on Godzilla and in a very close battle, Peter took it as Neil was unable to hit the right ramp a couple of times when muiltiball was ready.
There was an excellent battle in match 4 – the Swaff vs Clive Bush. Graham posted over 300M on Godzilla to take game 1; Clive struck back with his own huge 20M+ personal best on Scared Stiff. In the final match on ACDC, both players again played well but it was Swaffield “playing like a boss” according to Rich with 2 multiballs on his second ball that triumphed to move on to the Semis.
Semi Finals
Aw vs Vince – Gm1 on Circus Voltaire was a high quality game – Matt posted a stellar 36M, leaving Aw on just 7M and with a lot to do with just 1 ball left. In possibly his best ball of the day, Aw managed to hit his final Highwire MB lock, adding Ringmaster Frenzy and Juggler MB to chase down the target. Game 2 was on Gigi, which neither player was particularly happy about at this stage of the competition. Yuen went first and was pleased with a score of 655 – Matt just beat this with 662! The decider was on Robot – neither played well but Yuen managed to hit the robot bridge and some pop up targets, but unluckily this did not register for Matt when he tried to do the same, meaning Yuen fortunately moved on to the finals.
Swaffield vs Blakemore was another tense affair. Graham started with a convincing win on QuikSilver which Peter immediately reversed with a strong game on Corvette. The decider on Game of Thrones was a torrid affair with neither player able to get anything going during any of the three balls. Swaffield, playing first was only able to set a target of 34M. Peter did not need much to overtake this and started Martell mode in single ball play, but drained out shy of the target.
Final
Few may have predicted an Aw vs Swaffield playoff final but game 1 commenced on Earthshaker, and Aw took a narrow one 3M to 2M, dialling in the fault line side ramp even though he was unable to score a jackpot during multiball. Game 2 was a little bit more one sided – Aw started a few modes, hit some ramps and was surprised to find himself on 10M at the end of ball 2 which was enough to secure the win.
BEST OF BLIND TOURNAMENT WINNER – YUEN AW
2nd – Graham Swaffield – many congratulations on his first ever major tournament final
3rd – Peter Blakemore
4th – Matt Vince
Thanks to those of you who have been reading along – appreciate it is a bit long(!) A final thank you once again to the organisers for an amazing weekend of Pinball and all their hard work. Roll on the next one!
Thanks for your awsome writeups Yuen ! very creative and professional journalism and congratulations once again for your fantastic win on Sunday , very well played
