Date: December 11th, 2011
Location: Wheatsheaf Inn, Thurcaston, Leicester, UK

Report and pictures by Paul Brock

It was a cold Sunday morning in Thurcaston, and an empty room greeted those who arrived early to the venue.

There were 17 machines to set up and get working before the proceedings could begin. The usual suspects from across the UK were all there, with the majority of machines being donated by the event's organiser Phil Dixon and well-known Midlands pinball player Terry Sullivan, alongside a couple of others who were good enough to loan their machines for the meeting.

The Wheatsheaf Inn, Thurcaston

This is a popular meeting which is now in its second year and is held around Christmas time.  The £10 entrance fee included entry to the tournament and the sumptuous buffet that kept coming and coming throughout the afternoon. This is a charity event with all proceeds going towards LOROS, a Leicestershire and Rutland-based charity specialising in hospice care for persons over 16 years of age.

These were what everyone was playing for
(along with the WPPR points of course!)

One talking point was the late addition of a Magic Castle – a Zaccaria second generation game, complete with a working mechanical backbox animation of Count Zaccula's castle. This was a last minute replacement for Elektra and was kindly bought along by Matt Vince.

Zaccaria's Magic Castle

The machine list was as follows:

The machines were drawn completely at random using the 'playing card' method – each machine had a playing card allocated to it, and the cards were drawn at random to decide which machines you would be playing.

Some of the machines set up for the Christmas Cracker Pinball

Players were divided into four-player pools and the format was then as follows:

Round 1
Each pool played 2 x 4-player games with the winner of each game getting 7 points, the second-placed player 5 points, third-placed just 3 points and the lowest scorer getting no points.  The points from the two games were added together to decide the pool places. 
The top 2 from each pool progressed to the next round.
The 3rd-placed player went into the Final Chance bracket.
The 4th-placed player dropped out.

Round 2
Each pool played 2 x 3-player games and totaled the points as defined above.
The top 2 players progressed to the next round.
The 3rd-placed player went into the Final Chance bracket.

Round 3
Each pool played 2 x 4-player games and totaled the points as defined above. 
The top 2 from each pool progressed to the next round.
The 3rd and 4th-placed players went into the Final Chance bracket.

Round 4
Each pool played 2 x 4-player games and totaled the points as defined above. 
The top 2 players progressed to the Semi-Finals
The 3rd and 4th-placed players went into the Final Chance bracket.

Final Chance Brackets
Players in the Final Chance brackets played a single multi-player game with the winner progressing to the next round.

Semi-Final
Each pool played 2 x 3-player games and totaled the points as defined above. 
The top 2 players progressed to the Final round.
The 3rd-placed player dropped out.

Final
This consists of a single 4-player game, with the resulting scores determining the top four finishing positions.

Unfortunately because of limited space (and people liking to have a good chat with those they hadn’t seen for a while) things started to run a little late.

The day was timetabled to finish at 5pm, however it was closer to 7pm before it ended up with the final four – Eddie Lehan, Matt Vince, Nick Marshall and Stan Simpson. The final machine was drawn again at random – Avatar.

After a closely fought final, the top places were decided. Trophies were presented by organiser Phil Dixon.

In fourth place was Eddie Lehan.  Stan Simpson was third.

Third-placed, Stan Simpson

In second place was Matt Vince.

Runner-up, Matt Vince

And the winner was Nick Marshall.

Christmas Cracker Pinball winner, Nick Marshall

The final standings were:

We were also happy to hear that we had raised £115 ($180) for LOROS - news which was very well received by everyone who attended.

© Pinball News 2011