The 5th birthday monster meet – rapid tournament recaps
What a way to celebrate the 5th birthday of one of the happiest places in the UK, Pinball Republic – with 5 tournaments in the space of 4 days…
With 30-40 different people taking part each day, it was a chance for the pinball community to get together over cake and beer, with lots of banter and healthy competition thrown in to the mix.
Fitting for such an event, we saw 5 different winners across each of the tournaments which was great to see. Some quick recaps below for those interested or who missed the action:
Thursday - Tournament 1 – Pingolf was won by me – 150M on Guardians enough to take the final over Neil (60M) who again qualified impressively and got off to the early lead on ball 1. Brad came third with 49M. We were also treated to some quality play from the Silver Swede Evrenos who took a creditable 5th.
Final result: 1st – Yuen Aw, 2nd – Neil McRae, 3rd – Brad Attwood, 4th David Tucker
Friday – Tournament 2 – Fair strikes
Always exciting, the fair strikes format was 4 player group matchplay with the loser taking 2 strikes, 2nd and 3rd one strikes and the winner of the game escaping with zero strikes. 7 strikes in total would see a player eliminated from the competition.
Unexpectedly leading almost all the way was the recently much improved younger Aw brother – Gene Aw, who was finally taken out in 4th on Indy500 by the scorching hot Kevin Donovan and veteran Mike Parkins. A huge mention should be given to Tony Greenwood, who finished 5th in his best tournament ever and wowed those present with his Flash Gordon skills. The irrepressible Matt Vince took first with over 300M in the final on Whitewater, with Mike Parkins and Kevin joint 2nd.
Impressive play from Mr. Vince who was on 6 strikes for 4 straight games and won every single one to win the tournament.
Final result: 1st – Matt Vince, joint 2nd – Kevin Donovan + Mike Parkins, 4th – Gene Aw
Saturday – Tournament 3 – Group Matchplay
UK number 2 Craig Pullen was in town for the day, but with the depth of talent present at this comp he did not have it all his own way. David Tucker was the man leading the standings the whole way through, with a 2 point lead over Craig and one more result needed in the 13th game on Earthshaker. Unfortunately for Tucks, Anton Stewart and Josh spoiled the party dropping Dave to 3rd in that match - meaning Craig’s strong finish on Game of Thrones secured him first place. Honourable mention to Dan Lewell who had a great tournament to take fourth, and Kevin yet again amongst the trophies.
Final result: 1st – Craig Pullen, 2nd – David Tucker, 3rd – Kevin Donovan, 4th – Dan Lewell.
Saturday – Tournament 4 – Pingolf
Craig Pullen inevitably qualified in first in this comp – could he sweep the day’s events and go two for two? Josh Iles scraped into the top 8 playoffs after a tiebreak with David Fowler – and he went on to beat Craig in the QF match up – riding some top class play all the way to his first ever (and very well deserved) tournament win, the highlight being a huge Deadpool game in the final against Greg Mott on stream.
Final result: 1st – Josh Iles, 2nd – Greg Mott, 3rd – David Tucker, 4th – Tim Thornton.
Sunday – Tournament 5 – Best Game
After a 19 game slate of qualifying ended it was PBR regulars Vince at the top, McRae 2nd and myself 3rd with Gene Aw 4th – as we moved into the playoff matchups for the top 8, all of the top 4 seeds were upset in round one, as Tucker, Mott, Josh Iles and Kevin Donovan (yet again!) moved on.
In the semi finals, David knocked out Greg on Alien Poker and his speciality Game of Thrones, while Josh defeated Kevin on Alien Poker and Wizard. The final was very close and it was a rematch of the previous evening’s semifinal match, which Josh won. On Game 1 on Metallica, David Tucker put up a big ball 3 to set a 33M+ target with Josh getting to Crank it up and coming up agonisingly just a few million short on 29M. The next game was Wizard, and after 2 poor balls from both, ball 3 was much better. Tucker still needed over 20000 for the win and after a couple of great digs he calmly kept the ball alive for long enough to win.
Final result: 1st – David Tucker, 2nd – Josh Iles, 3rd – Greg Mott, 4th – Kevin Donovan
In the juniors, Lucy Vince was 1st, Effie Lewell 2nd and Phoebe Lewell 3rd.
In the ladies, Diane Bush was 1st with an excellent 11th overall, Lucy 2nd and Sarah Vince 3rd.
Well done everyone!
So a fitting finale to an excellent few days of pinball. Congratulations should go to Tucks who really shone over the course of the 4 days, coming 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th to take home 3 trophies, but Kevin was also immense as well as Josh.
The real winner however was UK pinball – thanks to all the event organisers and everyone who came along or supported from afar/on watched on stream!