@Lecari requested a report so here goes!
26 players descended on Suffolk’s number 1 pinball venue for a fast and furious day of head-to-head max matchplay action. The format was a round robin, so we all played each other once for 25 games total with top 10 qualifying for the finals and the top 6 getting a bye. Qualifying action was intense with no more than a couple of minutes between games for most of the day.
Two major events punctuated qualifying: lunch, which was a delicious homemade curry and sandwich affair along with SUBLIME cheesecakes. Then shortly after lunch, a power cut! Dan Prachar, inspired by Dave the Train and his constant snippets of show tunes from Starlight Express, decided to become a conductor. Unfortunately he was not inspecting tickets but instead offering a route to ground from the coin door of Cross Town. Thankfully Dan was okay after his shocking experience, which David also survived after successfully replicating the fault. All ongoing games were restarted (somewhat unfortunately for me and for rookie of the year Emily Stokes, who was 34m into an excellent game of Junkyard) and Cross Town was yanked.
Top qualifiers on 18/25 were Andy the Brock Johnson
@AndyB and the aforementioned “Boy Who Lived” Prachar, now sporting a lightning bolt scar on his forehead as a permanent reminder of his ordeal. David and Boy George Bennett took the next two places with impressive 17/25s. After a late run of seven wins on the bounce I ended up with 15/25 and in a five-way tie for 5th-9th with two byes on the line.
@Jmac and PAX Woollard rounded out tiebreak hell as they played off for the final qualifying spot on 14/25.
The raffle took place before the playoffs with a range of thematic prizes ranging from a vinyl record of pinball tunes through to a magic 8-ball representing Eight Ball Champ. I won six fancy pinballs which will undoubtedly end up in my next machine!
The 5th-9th tie was played on Creature, with Nathan and DPock
@DanEFC putting up the best two scores (of c. 180m and 130m) to take the byes whilst condemning Martin Bedford
@LaserEyes , me and Graham Swaffield
@Gcasgcas to the quarter finals. JMac put up a great game on Centaur to take the final qualifying spot.
We moved on to the best of three PAPA-style finals (4/2/1/0) with Martin picking all three games for the first round. He opted for World Cup Soccer, Centaur and Creature. A great first ball for JMac set the tone and he took the win on WCS with 785m. The Swaff was on fire for the next game, with 1.3m on Centaur. Going into Creature, the scores were 4-4-4-2 with me being the 2 after taking two 3rd places - so only a win on Creature could get me through. Unfortunately my game followed the established pattern of post-to-toast and I couldn’t get it done with yet another 3rd. Swaff and JMac advanced.
In the semis, group 1 led by Prachar played Jungle Lord, Barracora and (Data East) Jurassic Park. Nathan “Heel Peel” Garwood progressed with a 1st and two 2nds for 8 points, joined by JMac with a 1st and two 3rds for 6 points. Bowery put up a strong 300m on JP for a win on that game, but his <100k Barracora doomed him to 5 points and the end of his day.
Group 2 were not feeling imaginative and played the same games with only the replacement of Jungle Lord with Centaur. The Swaff stormed to 8 points from his first two games to guarantee his progression. He was joined by Brock, who grabbed an essential win on the final game of Barracora with an excellent 1.1m.
The final group played Corvette, Barracora and Junkyard for all the marbles. A relatively low-scoring game of Corvette saw Andy take the win. On Barracora, Swaff put on another target shooting clinic to win with 826k. After these games the scores were 6 (Andy), 4 (Swaff), 3 (Nathan) and 1 (JMac) so it was all still up for grabs.
The result was quickly put to bed with Andy, playing as player 1, stamping his authority with one of the best balls of Junkyard I’ve seen. 28m from that first ball left a huge mountain to climb and nobody else could do it. Andy took his deserved win to deliver his second Pinhaus title. Nathan and Swaff tied for 2nd and played off on Jurassic Park, which Nathan won. JMac was over the moon to still get a trophy for his 4th place finish.
Thanks of course go to Claire and David for their hard work throughout the day and for preparing such an eclectic range of machines in excellent condition. I very much enjoyed my first Pinhaus experience and look forward to returning in the future.
