Now that's Pinball! Pinhaus Flip Frenzy social and tournament report - 29th Jan 2022
Sudbury welcomed 20 avid pinballers from around the country to the inaugural Pinhaus Flip Frenzy social and tournament. The participants were a great mix of new players making their IFPA tournament debuts – alongside experienced top players who travelled far and wide to take part in the fun.
A warm welcome to Lee Parkin, Dave (
@Dave Playman ) Ashton, James Reed (
@MajesticPinball) Steven Dale (
@Doggard), Gareth Shiells (
@Spandangler) and Paul Wollard (
@PAX). How would they fare against the mighty
@Matt Vince (UK rank 2), the wily
@robotgreg (ranked 6), and the trickery of Tim Thornton
@yellowreggae (17) amongst others? Could the popular and improving David Bowery rise to the top holding home court advantage?
The 9 games in the tournament were Roadshow, Fish Tales, Jurassic Park (Data East), Black Rose, TMNT, TXSector, Monster Bash, Theatre of Magic and Pinball Magic.
Matt Vince, Greg Mott and Ian Walmsley quickly raced to 5-0 starts. The first key matchup was Mott vs Walmsley on Black Rose – Greg took the win to remain undefeated and Matt joined him at 6-0. Matt then came up against the mystery box skills of Dan Lewell on Matt's own game – Monster Bash. To that point, Dan had played 5 games and his record was sitting at 1 win, 4 losses – however, against all odds he gave Matt the first of only 3 losses on the day. Soon after it did not get any easier for Dan, playing the still undefeated Greg Mott (7-0). Dan was unfazed and promptly beat Greg on JP, and the “Giant Killer” Dan moniker was born.
At the other end of the table, it had been a rough start to competitive pinball for Lee Parkin, despite some decent play dropping to 0-5 and joining Ben Leigh who also had a slow start at 0-5. Parkin steeled himself over lunch and promptly returned to win a remarkable 10 of his remaining 13 games to finish joint 7th overall and finish 10-8.
Meanwhile Yuen Aw (UK number 18) started to find form and reeled off 11 straight wins to move to 12-1 overall and joint top with Vince and Mott. He then ran into Matt Vince with a top of the table showdown on Pinball Magic. Matt held his nerve in a close game to stay in first. Aw continued to play quickly to try and challenge for top spot which he held very briefly – he then ran into none other than Dan Lewell on RoadShow. Could lightning strike again? The answer – YES. Dan completed his beatdown on the top 3 by winning the game with relative ease.
As time expired in the frenzy there was one final showdown between Mott and Aw on Black Rose to determine who would finish in the top two. Greg won, meaning there was a 3 way win tie for most wins between Mott, Vince and Aw and a playoff on Theatre was needed to see who would go straight through to the final. (Congrats to Greg who won an astonishing 90 percent of his Flip Frenzy games.)
In the playoff Aw and Mott went through after a rare below-par game from Vince, so the semi-final playoff on Fish Tales for a place in the final would be Vince – joining Walmsley, Thornton and Bowery who had all played very well all day to separate themselves from the chasing pack and secure Top 6 playoff places.
The semi-final was epic – Matt Vince looked to have done enough with 100M after three balls, but Ian stepped up and overtook him on the last ball when a phenomenal effort to book his finals spot. Surely it would be Vince and Walmsley in the final with Tim and David far behind - but “Third Ball” Thornton had other ideas, under extreme pressure powering through to pass Matt's score. (NB - this nickname refers to Tim's pinball play only)
In game 1 of the finals, Ian won a close game on Pinball Magic using his nudging skills and shot accuracy, with Greg 2nd, Tim 3rd and Yuen 4th. TMNT was selected second, and despite another strong performance from Ian, Yuen managed to sneak the win using the final bonus collect and both multiballs. Going into the last game, Ian was first on 6 points, Yuen on 4, Greg 3 and Tim 1. With the TXSector music pumping and filling the house, Ian put on another brilliant display of control and poise to take down his first ever tournament win which was very well deserved. Congratulations to Ian!
Another Aw/Mott showdown ensued to settle second place on RoadShow – this time Yuen was the winner to take second, meaning Greg finished third and Tim with an excellent return to tournament form in 4th.
All of the new players played really well in their first tournaments – I should also mention James Reed and Matt Peck who played really well to end up Joint 7th and 10th respectively. (As well as Lee - Joint 7th, already mentioned above)
Can I end by thanking our gracious hosts once again for an incredible day. Tournament Director Claire and David ran a flawless and fun tournament and I would heartily recommend Pinhaus Flip Frenzys to everyone able to travel there in the future!