OP
OP
We will be open from 11am tomorrow, apologies for the wrong time on the site
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Swavesey 2024 - June 28th - 30th
- Thread starter Pinballsurgery
- Start date
Ok, we will find something to do until then 
Herbies Diner! ! ! !Ok, we will find something to do until then
Thanks once again to Mark for organising the best pinball weekend going and for everyone too numerous to mention who brought tables and raffle prizes, ran the competition, sold the raffle tickets and all the other stuff that makes Swavesey such a great weekend for everyone who came. Only 362 days to go until the next one? 
Thanks Mark and all, great time but totally cream crackered now!!
Fantastic Swavesey!
As per usual not much pinball was played. I think I spent most of Friday evening and Saturday sitting in the beer garden having the best time with great people.
Thanks to those who brought games last minute, especially @Nick with Jackbot, when I did play pinball it was nearly almost Jackbot with Nick
A really wonderful time all round, probably the best event for the pinball community in the UK (sorry again @Big Phil
)
As per usual not much pinball was played. I think I spent most of Friday evening and Saturday sitting in the beer garden having the best time with great people.
Thanks to those who brought games last minute, especially @Nick with Jackbot, when I did play pinball it was nearly almost Jackbot with Nick
A really wonderful time all round, probably the best event for the pinball community in the UK (sorry again @Big Phil
)Great to meet you! Hope the journey from Carlisle was worthwhile... See you at NERG.
Another awesome Swavesey weekend. Huge thanks to @Pinballsurgery for putting on a great event, and to Martin for running the comp. Great selection of machines, thank you to everybody that donated.
Thanks to Diane and Vin for sorting all the raffle ticket sales, and to everybody else for making it a great, fun weekend.
Thanks to Diane and Vin for sorting all the raffle ticket sales, and to everybody else for making it a great, fun weekend.
Huge thanks to Mark for making this happen, the pub team for keeping us fed & boozed up, and of course everyone who brought a machine - special mention to MattV who moved no less than 4 (out of our total 14) !! Roll on next year 
Would like to echo the posts above and add my thanks to everyone who makes Swavesey happen. Another enjoyable relaxed weekend of pinball and socialising.
Thank you Mark, wicked weekend of fun, shame it was over so quickly.
Also want to add thanks to all those who donated and brought their pins, maybe not as busy as previous years but still hopefully a good amount raised for charity (which was pretty much 100% Diane X!)
Also want to add thanks to all those who donated and brought their pins, maybe not as busy as previous years but still hopefully a good amount raised for charity (which was pretty much 100% Diane X!)
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2011
- Messages
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OP
OP
Thank you all for your kind words, it was a great weekend and it falls on me (ahead of the usual better written and more detailed Pinball News coverage) to say a few words and give shout outs to those who made it possible.
First up the charity raffle took £725 and Andy threw his £30 winnings from the raffle into the pot taking it up to £755, however we can't call that the total at present as many folk from the forum through in using the online donation QR code, here it is again if you are feeling generous please mention 'pinball' in the comments.
When we get the certificate and final amount I'll post it up as usual but whatever we raise in the end for UKPIPs it's worth it, for those that were at the event and got to see the landlady Jodie with her little boy it's not an exaggeration to say that charity had a huge input into the little chap coming into the world, so thank you from Jo, Jodie, Arlo and all the many other folk and families who the charity supports. There's more here: https://ukpips.org.uk/ do read it if you have time as this is a cruel condition that attacks on several fronts simultaneously and is often diagnosed late on.
Right on with the acknowledgements and thanks, so in no particular order.....
I would like to give a big shout out the UK suppliers for their support of the event Phil at Pinball Heaven, Andy at Pinballmania and David at Retro Arcade Specialists, when we support them they support us, it's that simple and it does not happen in every hobby.
Then there are the folk who bring their tables, as no tables = no show these are the real stars
Black Hole care of Claire and David
James Bond 007 care of Phil
Jurassic Park Pro care of Thomas
Pulp Fiction care of Neil
Space Team care of Keith
Twilight Zone care of Simon R
Avengers - Infinity Quest care of Matt V
Transporter care of Simon H
Beatles care of Matt V
Deadpool care of Mark and Jim
Jackbot care of Nick
Plus Fish Tales & Roadshow which live at the pub and a few at my place that were played over the weekend.
Honorary mentions go out to Wayne, Phil D who were bringing tables before health issues fell on them or their families.
Matt V gets a big shout for shifting four tables in a van he hired for the job, this year he gained a tail lift and serval extra hours on the road but sadly lost his usual air con
For Diane (and Vin in the parts where he had not disabled himself with a hangover) for the thankless task of running the raffle, tearing up hundreds of tickets and so on.
For those who donated prizes, I can't remember everyone who threw in but as usual Lee was a huge contributor along with many of the folk and sponsors above. I will forgive the cruel jibs about the superb 90's Robin Hood box set (which I threw in as part of my contribution) as some people have no taste and I'm trying to work out how to break the news of his lucky win to Dave the Taxman.
To Martin, another of the stalwarts who always turns up and runs the UK Cup, brings prizes, takes pictures, writes up the report, sets up digital distractions and so on, it must take it out of him as he dropped off in the main bar in front of the football on Saturday. Like those parrots whose feet tighten on the perch during slumber he drifted away bolt upright, so much so the bar staff and Greg had to check he was still with us on this mortal plane. He was alive as it turns out so we should see the Pinball News report in due course.
Speaking of the compo here are some pictures of the winners, Martin, Stan, Matt and Shawn, well done chaps! I managed to will all my first round games so this is a good opportunity to apologise to the poor souls that had to play with me as I promptly had the same three machines in the second round and nearly managed to come last on every one of them, luck is a fickle thing.
To everyone who turned up and supported 'this thing of ours', well done given the financial climate (still I'm sure whoever gets into No. 10 will have that sorted by the end of the year
), it's always rather humbling and lovely to see you all especially as there were some real treks involved (Carlisle in Nick's case and some place called Whales I believe was also mentioned by Poibug).
I was going to call time on this as the last Swavesey as when we started there was a bit of a dearth of events but now we are in the lucky position of being spoiled for choice (and there are a lot of folk that I'm sure deserve thanks for that as well), is appears that I do not have permission to stop at the moment and the simple bribery of Stan giving me a hat, Poibug for the 'interesting' beers and Keith's box of solenoids may persuade me to drag the wretched business on into it's 18th birthday.
What a wonderful bunch you all are,
Mark
First up the charity raffle took £725 and Andy threw his £30 winnings from the raffle into the pot taking it up to £755, however we can't call that the total at present as many folk from the forum through in using the online donation QR code, here it is again if you are feeling generous please mention 'pinball' in the comments.
When we get the certificate and final amount I'll post it up as usual but whatever we raise in the end for UKPIPs it's worth it, for those that were at the event and got to see the landlady Jodie with her little boy it's not an exaggeration to say that charity had a huge input into the little chap coming into the world, so thank you from Jo, Jodie, Arlo and all the many other folk and families who the charity supports. There's more here: https://ukpips.org.uk/ do read it if you have time as this is a cruel condition that attacks on several fronts simultaneously and is often diagnosed late on.
Right on with the acknowledgements and thanks, so in no particular order.....
I would like to give a big shout out the UK suppliers for their support of the event Phil at Pinball Heaven, Andy at Pinballmania and David at Retro Arcade Specialists, when we support them they support us, it's that simple and it does not happen in every hobby.
Then there are the folk who bring their tables, as no tables = no show these are the real stars
Black Hole care of Claire and David
James Bond 007 care of Phil
Jurassic Park Pro care of Thomas
Pulp Fiction care of Neil
Space Team care of Keith
Twilight Zone care of Simon R
Avengers - Infinity Quest care of Matt V
Transporter care of Simon H
Beatles care of Matt V
Deadpool care of Mark and Jim
Jackbot care of Nick
Plus Fish Tales & Roadshow which live at the pub and a few at my place that were played over the weekend.
Honorary mentions go out to Wayne, Phil D who were bringing tables before health issues fell on them or their families.
Matt V gets a big shout for shifting four tables in a van he hired for the job, this year he gained a tail lift and serval extra hours on the road but sadly lost his usual air con
For Diane (and Vin in the parts where he had not disabled himself with a hangover) for the thankless task of running the raffle, tearing up hundreds of tickets and so on.
For those who donated prizes, I can't remember everyone who threw in but as usual Lee was a huge contributor along with many of the folk and sponsors above. I will forgive the cruel jibs about the superb 90's Robin Hood box set (which I threw in as part of my contribution) as some people have no taste and I'm trying to work out how to break the news of his lucky win to Dave the Taxman.
To Martin, another of the stalwarts who always turns up and runs the UK Cup, brings prizes, takes pictures, writes up the report, sets up digital distractions and so on, it must take it out of him as he dropped off in the main bar in front of the football on Saturday. Like those parrots whose feet tighten on the perch during slumber he drifted away bolt upright, so much so the bar staff and Greg had to check he was still with us on this mortal plane. He was alive as it turns out so we should see the Pinball News report in due course.
Speaking of the compo here are some pictures of the winners, Martin, Stan, Matt and Shawn, well done chaps! I managed to will all my first round games so this is a good opportunity to apologise to the poor souls that had to play with me as I promptly had the same three machines in the second round and nearly managed to come last on every one of them, luck is a fickle thing.
To everyone who turned up and supported 'this thing of ours', well done given the financial climate (still I'm sure whoever gets into No. 10 will have that sorted by the end of the year
), it's always rather humbling and lovely to see you all especially as there were some real treks involved (Carlisle in Nick's case and some place called Whales I believe was also mentioned by Poibug).I was going to call time on this as the last Swavesey as when we started there was a bit of a dearth of events but now we are in the lucky position of being spoiled for choice (and there are a lot of folk that I'm sure deserve thanks for that as well), is appears that I do not have permission to stop at the moment and the simple bribery of Stan giving me a hat, Poibug for the 'interesting' beers and Keith's box of solenoids may persuade me to drag the wretched business on into it's 18th birthday.
What a wonderful bunch you all are,
Mark
A couple of folks were asking about the "backsaver" pin lift I was using to put the back legs on Space Team.
I can't taken any credit for the design which is copied from a design on Pinside
I did make the sides a bit longer than the original design for better stability - they are 15" long by 12" high.
I made mine from 3/4" ply as I had some lying around and used a bit of 3/8" ply to stiffen it up at the back. The handles came off a piece of BT exchange test equipment!
The jack is this one and the drill adapter is this one. A taller jack than 24" might be an advantage, but that one works fine for my tables, your mileage may be different.
Overall cost is about the same as one visit to the chiropractor!
I've just put Space team back up preparatory to replacing all the remaining decoupling capacitors and I see that it played 325 games over the weekend.
I can't taken any credit for the design which is copied from a design on Pinside
I did make the sides a bit longer than the original design for better stability - they are 15" long by 12" high.
I made mine from 3/4" ply as I had some lying around and used a bit of 3/8" ply to stiffen it up at the back. The handles came off a piece of BT exchange test equipment!
The jack is this one and the drill adapter is this one. A taller jack than 24" might be an advantage, but that one works fine for my tables, your mileage may be different.
Overall cost is about the same as one visit to the chiropractor!
I've just put Space team back up preparatory to replacing all the remaining decoupling capacitors and I see that it played 325 games over the weekend.
Oh no you don't. I think 20 is a nice round number.
Oh, and Phil D is Docker, not me.
I did an install and the guy said there's too many Phils in pinball. Personally I think the number of Phils should always be the current number +1
I thought that was the number of Pins, not number of Phils.
Just to add my thanks to ALL involved in putting on this truly unique pinball event. Unique in that whilst it's a pinball event, competitive pinball isn't the main focus - which is a good thing for me given my extremely short-lived participation in the comp! The only upside is that at least one of the people who beat me then went on to further victories, so the first round will be a distant memory (one can only hope)!! 
Seriously though, it was a very enjoyable weekend - great to catch up with people I've not seen for a while, and also to meet some new faces.
Sorry Mark, but I don't think people will allow you not to run it again next year, still at least then you won't have to get wound up sitting through some daft football match at the end of it all!
Already looking forward to next year!
Seriously though, it was a very enjoyable weekend - great to catch up with people I've not seen for a while, and also to meet some new faces.
Sorry Mark, but I don't think people will allow you not to run it again next year, still at least then you won't have to get wound up sitting through some daft football match at the end of it all!
Already looking forward to next year!
OP
OP
Fantastic result for the UKPIPs charity from this years Swavesey Pinball Weekend, read all about it here:
https://sites.google.com/site/swaveseypinball/home
Thanks to all who got involved and put in the money to support UKPIPs
https://sites.google.com/site/swaveseypinball/home
Thanks to all who got involved and put in the money to support UKPIPs
OP
OP
Thanks to Martin there is a rather spiffy article covering the weekend up on Pinball News: https://www.pinballnews.com/site/2024/07/07/swavesey-pinball-weekend-2/