Author: Mike Parkins

In another excellent day of pinball at Medway, 34 players took part in Medway’s 2nd ever pinball tournament – 20 rounds of friendly Head to Head matches with random matchups and machines on each round.

Off to a flier, yet again was “Brocktastic” Andy Brock, who has been on fire of late, having leapt into the UK top 40 off the back of an impressive 4th place at Electric Circus (Steve’s 55thBday tournament) and then putting in a monster performance to win at the famous Pinhaus Flip Frenzy the following week, starting the frenzy off with ten consecutive wins. Brock started this one off with 5 straight wins to lead the pack early, only cooling off in the second half to finish 9th overall.

The Silky skills of Matt Silk took over at the top, racing to a highly impressive 10 wins and just 1 loss and threatening to run away with the competition. During round 12, he was matched up against 7 year old Michael Aw on Spiderman, who was making his matchplay tournament debut. Michael played very well to take the match, and the capable Claire Lecari Lickman also won against Matt Silk in the following round to throw the contest back wide open.

Meanwhile Yuen Aw was making his move, reeling off 10 of his final 11 games to take 3rd place – his only loss coming to the enigmatic David Bowery, who danced and nudged his way to a colossal High score 1 of 44 million on Bride of Pinbot 2.0 while Aw looked on in a mixture of awe and disbelief. Greg Mott was inevitably one of the other main contenders at the very top with his calm and measured play style coupled with his immaculate rules knowledge. His challenge for first was derailed by unexpected losses to Ellie Attwood, who played superbly to put up 450M on No fear, and then Daniel Vince, who helped his dad immensely and won with a decent 7M on Avatar. Mott finished in 2nd place after winning a Cactus Canyon playoff against Aw.

And so it was left to the mighty Matthew Vince – and the UK number 3 made no mistake, finishing with 11 consecutive wins after an average start. His final game was a tricky one, against Matt Silk on Lord of the Rings. Matt Silk put up a solid 13M, but Matt Vince had 20M after ball 2 which was enough to secure him another trophy to add to the Vince treasure trove. Very well done to Matt Silk also who played great all day to finish a superb fourth.

Lucy Vince and Michael Aw shared junior tournament joint 1st honours with 10 wins and 10 losses for each.

Thanks to Mike Parkins, Caz, Tony Molloy, Vickie and everyone who helped for a fantastic day!