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It's Swavesey time, for the last time! 11-13th July 2025

You can probably turn up earlier than 11am, a lot of people arrive Friday afternoon and evening to set up but I recall getting there earlier on Saturday before the pub opens, @Pinballsurgery can confirm?
 
Pub’ open from 11 on Friday as the room needs clearing out and cleaning. If you turn up earlier you can come to mine for a cuppa.
 
Another awesome Swavesey! Thank you so much to Mark for organising, hugely appreciated, Martin for running the comp, Diane for aceing the raffle, for all those who kept the games running,and the pub for hosting. Sad it's the last one, but glad to have experienced it these last few years. Great to catch up with people, and play some fun, social pinball
 
It’s been a great weekend of pinball in a laid back setting for the last time ever! Huge thanks to @Pinballsurgery for organising and @PinballNews for running a great fun comp. We even managed a session of late night pool which @Clive and I managed to win!
An unfortunate combination of mis-communication led to a late night 40 min trek back to our hotel despite suggesttion of pausing and waiting 10 mins for an £8 uber which would have got us back in half the time.
Hopeful this won’t be the last pinball news cup comp as who knows could feature elsewhere
 
Huge thanks to Mark and all the staff at the pub for another laid back Swavesey weekender.

Thanks to all the machine donators, fixers and players who make the weekend what it is.

Thanks to Martin for running the competition.

A big thank you from me to all who donated raffle prizes and all you lovely folk who bought them all.

Total raised after an extra donation that popped into my PayPal account was £1630.30.
Absolutely amazing 🤩

Sad it’s the last one but hugely enjoyable.
 
Great event put on by mark and everyone involved always a pleasure to be involved and be able to give a little to support uk pinball

Managed to get a whistle stop pass by and get about an hour or so at the show today great to see so many regular faces and new ones sorry I dident manage to speak to everyone but I will catch up with everyone properly at pinfest

And some great feedback on ninja eclipse lots of positives for another first game from a new company

Those who win any of the vouchers please message or email me to sort

Any questions on pinball drop me a message we’re always happy to help the team is expanding over the next few weeks so some new faces will probably be joining me at pinfest next month
 
Diane B said:
Huge thanks to Mark and all the staff at the pub for another laid back Swavesey weekender.

Thanks to all the machine donators, fixers and players who make the weekend what it is.

Thanks to Martin for running the competition.

A big thank you from me to all who donated raffle prizes and all you lovely folk who bought them all.

Total raised after an extra donation that popped into my PayPal account was £1630.30.
Absolutely amazing 🤩

Sad it’s the last one but hugely enjoyable.
Click to expand...
You were amazing Diane, all down to your hard work.😓
 
David retro said:
Great event put on by mark and everyone involved always a pleasure to be involved and be able to give a little to support uk pinball

Managed to get a whistle stop pass by and get about an hour or so at the show today great to see so many regular faces and new ones sorry I dident manage to speak to everyone but I will catch up with everyone properly at pinfest

And some great feedback on ninja eclipse lots of positives for another first game from a new company

Those who win any of the vouchers please message or email me to sort

Any questions on pinball drop me a message we’re always happy to help the team is expanding over the next few weeks so some new faces will probably be joining me at pinfest next month
Click to expand...
Thank you for your sponsorship and machine loan David, it meant a lot that you found time to swing by to see us 👍
 
For 19 years you have made a place for us lot to go to, raised a lot for good causes and always done so with good grace and a cheery smile. It's been an honour to support the show.
A huge thank you and also to Sue for putting up with us.
Now, about the Swavesey invitational...
 
When I got into pinball COVID hit the UK before I was aware of the community side of pinball so I was only able to attend the previous four.

But it's become a highlight of my year. It's a testament to the UK pinball community that are willing to travel from all corners of the country to play a handful of pinball machines at a local pub.

A huge thanks to Mark for all his hard work keeping Swavesey a regular fixture, as well as to Martin for running the UK Pinball Cup.
Also an honourable but big mention to Di for running the raffle this year, it's always so much fun and it sounds like a fair bit of money was made for charity 😍

Who's not to say we don't continue the tradition of turning up at a pub garden with a few pins? 😄
 
To Mark and everyone who made Swavesey possible, To all the peeps I met and talked to …. Thank you! 🙏🏻
I only managed 3 years.. once to realise I still needed pinball and two years of having the privilege of bringing machines. For me, pinballs should be played. I get my therapy from restoring them. To see them played as they should be is awesome 🤩
 
Epotech said:
For 19 years you have made a place for us lot to go to, raised a lot for good causes and always done so with good grace and a cheery smile. It's been an honour to support the show.
A huge thank you and also to Sue for putting up with us.
Now, about the Swavesey invitational...
Click to expand...
Always there to help, first in last out team member (it's a small team, but then its a small show) youre a diamond Phil 👍
 
Huge thanks to everyone who came over the weekend, as Stan predicted it was a hot one. Being Pinheads though we ended up with two gazebo's and several fans thanks to Simon and others so it was fun and tolerable.

Much was drunk and said over the weekend and people were very kind to me on Saturday with an unexpected presentation, so kind in fact I was unusually lost for words. It all rather caught up with me at the prize giving for Sunday's UK Pinball Cup when I was talking about Nigel, Dave and a few of the other friends who didn't make it through lifes qualifiers and are hopefully together having a beer in that great pinball hall in heaven (I imagine it to be like Valhalla without the horned helmets), Bless them all I miss them at this time of year when the shows roll round.

Speaking of the UK Pinball Cup (which was created in memory of Nigel Hill), it was fiercely fought for on Sunday and the eventual winners of the Retro Arcade Specialist prizes sponsored by David were in order of awesomeness:
Pete Bennett
David Bowery
Conrad Chambers
Dan Lewell
Martin excelled in the compo organisation as always and provided the cups from his own pocket once again (I forget to mention that bit of generosity every year), there will no doubt be a proper write up in Pinball News in due course.
The Cup has moved away from Swavesey once before in the past for a couple of years so I'm delighted to announce that it will relocate to it's new home at next years East Anglian Pinball Open held in Thetford next March (EAOPEN.CO.UK) so the competition will live on.

As you read above the work by Diane and Ailsa on the raffle let to in excess of £1600 being raised for Alzheimer's Research, this is a good thing we all did, one of many good things over the years and thanks to all the past and present folk who helped by sponsorship, machine loans and humping stuff about we have made a small difference to many charities. Well done, I can't think of many other hobbies where a loose affiliation of friends have flipped so much money into helping other people.

When I started this thing it was as a result of my involvement with Pinball Anon and Nick's initial UK Pinball Shows, there was no league activity in the East and I thought a friendly pocket show which fed my drinking and pinball hobbies that I could walk to would be a nice way to spend a summer weekend. It grew as did the friendship around it, all those years with only smiles and camaraderie 😃🥰🤗

Nowadays we have a flourishing scene, strong leagues, national shows and a far larger hobby, so reflecting on Swavesey I've had to face the fact that once again my organisation left a lot to be desired, slow food, a lackadaisical attitude and so on, so I've sacked myself 😉

To finish on a wave of clichés, I'm getting too old for this, it's been emotional, be awesome to one another and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!
(no one try to throw 'I'll be back' in there either!)

🤟🍻🎱
 
What a great weekend, many thanks Mark for putting it on all these years it's been an amazing run! Thanks also to the pub staff for putting up with us, and everyone who brought a game - in particular MattV who took no less than 4 away, what a machine 💪

I sincerely hope we can somehow continue to make something similar happen as I really enjoy this kind of laid back social event that isn't all about maximising WPPRs! :)
 
Pinballsurgery said:
Huge thanks to everyone who came over the weekend, as Stan predicted it was a hot one. Being Pinheads though we ended up with two gazebo's and several fans thanks to Simon and others so it was fun and tolerable.

Much was drunk and said over the weekend and people were very kind to me on Saturday with an unexpected presentation, so kind in fact I was unusually lost for words. It all rather caught up with me at the prize giving for Sunday's UK Pinball Cup when I was talking about Nigel, Dave and a few of the other friends who didn't make it through lifes qualifiers and are hopefully together having a beer in that great pinball hall in heaven (I imagine it to be like Valhalla without the horned helmets), Bless them all I miss them at this time of year when the shows roll round.

Speaking of the UK Pinball Cup (which was created in memory of Nigel Hill), it was fiercely fought for on Sunday and the eventual winners of the Retro Arcade Specialist prizes sponsored by David were in order of awesomeness:
Pete Bennett
David Bowery
Conrad Chambers
Dan Lewell
Martin excelled in the compo organisation as always and provided the cups from his own pocket once again (I forget to mention that bit of generosity every year), there will no doubt be a proper write up in Pinball News in due course.
The Cup has moved away from Swavesey once before in the past for a couple of years so I'm delighted to announce that it will relocate to it's new home at next years East Anglian Pinball Open held in Thetford next March (EAOPEN.CO.UK) so the competition will live on.

As you read above the work by Diane and Ailsa on the raffle let to in excess of £1600 being raised for Alzheimer's Research, this is a good thing we all did, one of many good things over the years and thanks to all the past and present folk who helped by sponsorship, machine loans and humping stuff about we have made a small difference to many charities. Well done, I can't think of many other hobbies where a loose affiliation of friends have flipped so much money into helping other people.

When I started this thing it was as a result of my involvement with Pinball Anon and Nick's initial UK Pinball Shows, there was no league activity in the East and I thought a friendly pocket show which fed my drinking and pinball hobbies that I could walk to would be a nice way to spend a summer weekend. It grew as did the friendship around it, all those years with only smiles and camaraderie 😃🥰🤗

Nowadays we have a flourishing scene, strong leagues, national shows and a far larger hobby, so reflecting on Swavesey I've had to face the fact that once again my organisation left a lot to be desired, slow food, a lackadaisical attitude and so on, so I've sacked myself 😉

To finish on a wave of clichés, I'm getting too old for this, it's been emotional, be awesome to one another and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!
(no one try to throw 'I'll be back' in there either!)

🤟🍻🎱
Click to expand...
Thanks mark but the raffle sales were all down to the amazing Diane Bush 😀
 
Benleigh250 said:
It’s been a great weekend of pinball in a laid back setting for the last time ever! Huge thanks to @Pinballsurgery for organising and @PinballNews for running a great fun comp. We even managed a session of late night pool which @Clive and I managed to win!
An unfortunate combination of mis-communication led to a late night 40 min trek back to our hotel despite suggesttion of pausing and waiting 10 mins for an £8 uber which would have got us back in half the time.
Hopeful this won’t be the last pinball news cup comp as who knows could feature elsewhere
Click to expand...
Probably my fault, I thought we'd all get lifts back. Silly me.
 
Brilliant weekend as always so much laughter and fun, really enjoyed John Wick, Kong, WCS, that Ninja game was brilliant too, nice suprise!

Highlight was how much fun shooting rockets and bombs on Special Force was, really fun game! Thanks Nick, especially getting it fixed just in time!

Cheers Mark as always. There is a demand from everyone, dunno what you'd do with yourself this time next year, whatever it is hope you have as much fun!

That Diane tho..bit of a legend doing that her, mad woman. Brilliant generosity from everyone too. hugs.
 
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thelab said:
Brilliant weekend as always so much laughter and fun, really enjoyed John Wick, Kong, WCS, that Ninja game was brilliant too, nice suprise!

Highlight was how much fun shooting rockets and bombs on Special Force was, really fun game! Thanks Nick, especially getting it fixed just in time!

Cheers Mark as always. There is a demand from everyone, dunno what you'd do with yourself this time next year, whatever it is hope you have as much fun!

That Diane tho..bit of a legend doing that her, mad women. Brilliant generosity from everyone too. hugs.
Click to expand...
We had an awesome game on Special Force Vin, loved it mate
 
I'd like to add my thanks to everything that's already been said above. Another fantastic weekend at what has always, for me, and I'm sure for many others, been the most enjoyable pinball social of the year. Thanks for all your efforts to Mark for everything, Diane for making the raffle happen and everyone who brought machines, kept them running and helped out in every other way to make it so enjoyable.
 
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