Date: June 7th & 8th, 2014
Location: Fontenay, Saint-Pere, France.

Report by David Mainwaring

This 24 Hour Flipper event started at 3pm on the Saturday and ran through to 3pm on the Sunday. No stopping. No sleeping. And eat at your peril!

The flyer for 24hr Flipper

The price of registration was €25 ($34/£20) in advance for the main tournament, which was the French element of the new IFPA European Circuit. Entry to the side Classic Tournament was free with entry to the main tournament.

I arrived at the venue expecting to see all the indications of a major tournament, but instead all I saw was a 'beware of dog' sign.

Is this a barn? Is this a farm? No it’s the French 24hr Flipper,
so let’s attempt to get inside safely!

Once inside, the first thing I came across was a truck loaded up with a Whodunnit? and a glorious-looking Fire Mountain.

At last - signs of a pinball event taking place

Walking up the path led me to a house with a few people gathered outside. I'm still not sure I have the right place.

Is this it?

Closer inspection of the building led me to the window where they were selling all sorts of goodies, including 'House Pizza'.

Yummy!

Glancing inside I saw a family preparing lots of food. They asked me if I would like something to eat and drink.

The food preparation area

So far, so good. But for such a major tournament there was a severe lack of pinball machines and players.

Maybe this long outbuilding will contain lots of machines?

As I walked inside I immediately recognized lots of friendly faces, and I knew this was the right place.

That's more like it!

This unlikely-looking building contained a great selection of well-kept machines, both old and brand new.

Joust stands next to The Wizard of Oz

Daniele Acciari putting up another huge score on Frankenstein

There were some great classic machines here too, in top-notch condition

The machines were packed-in and the space was well used, with every nook and cranny being home to another game, as you can see in my Five Minute Tour of the location.

Early on in the day there was space to move around the building, but it became overcrowded a little later in the day.

An early view of the event from the far corner of the building,
giving an idea how much space there was to move

This Joust double-sided pinball was used by the four finalists
of the Classics Tournament

There were three trophies for the top players in the Classic Tournament, while the fourth-placed player received a nice bottle of wine. The top three in the Main Tournament also received trophies, with the fourth winning vouchers to spend at a French pinball shop. There was also a trophy for the winner of the High Score Competition which was played on a Batman machine from Stern.

Trophies for the winners

The main competition ran from 3pm on Saturday, finishing at the same time on Sunday afternoon. You had those twenty-four hours in which to put up as many high scores on the machines as you could.

Every six hours the high scores were recorded and then reset, ready for the next six hour session.

Points were awarded for the high scores as follows:

• Grand Champion - 100 pts
• First place - 90 pts
• Second place - 80pts
• Third place - 70pts
• Fourth place (if registered by the machine) - 60pts

and so on for all recorded scores.

The machines' scores were recorded and reset four times in the twenty-four hour period, after which the person who had the most points overall was the winner. That proved to be Daniele Acciari from Italy who received his prize from IFPA France president, Eric Rousseau.

Winner of the Main Tournament, Daniele Acciari

Runner-up in the Main Tournament, David Grémillet

Third place in the Main, Jean Baptiste Blanquie

The Classics Tournament was quite different, with a list of machines which you could play as many times as you needed. Once you had obtained a large enough score you would declare it. Once all the scores were declared, the top three players on each machine went through to the final.

These final thirty-two played it out in eight 4-player games, with the top two going through to the next round and the bottom two leaving the competition.

The location had some nice memorabilia and pub signs on the walls

Eventually the last four in the Classics played a 4-player semi-final game, with the top two going on to fight it out in the final on the double-ended Joust machine. The third and fourth in the semi-final would also fight it out on Joust for third and fourth places overall, producing a nice twist to the conclusion of the Classics Tournament.

Winner of the Classics Tournament, Norman Heikamp

Second place in the Classics Tournament, Jérémy Reynaud

Third place in the Classics, Jürgen Gärtner

Fourth place in the Classics, David Mainwaring

The winner of the High Score side-tournament, played on the Batman game, was Michel Dailly.

Winner of the High Score Tournament, Michel Dailly

A group photo taken outside in the 33°C French sun (L-R): Daniele Acciari, David Mainwaring, Matteo Filippin, Ivan Riva, Norman Heikamp & Paolo Luise

Many thanks to Eric Rousseau and everyone else that made this event possible

CONCLUSION

If you like pinball marathons where you get no sleep, start passing-out, and can manage to last the full twenty-four hours, then this is for you!

However, it has to be said it was a very well-organised and fun event. The organisers were friendly, as were the players and everyone involved. The private location added to a nice warm cosy feel of the event.

Be warned though - this is for the hard-core pinball player, not the casual player.

But would I do it all over again? Yes, of course! Go play some pinball, and then play more, and even more!

© Pinball News 2014