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UKPINFEST 2021
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After the 2020 show had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, UKPinfest was back at the Mercure Daventry Court Hotel for 2021.
The Mercure Daventry Court Hotel – home of UK Pinfest
Held over the bank (public) holiday weekend at the end of August, UKPinfest is a pure pinball event featuring over 100 pinballs, a few vendor stands and multiple tournaments. It’s as much a social event as a pinball-playing one and, after missing out on so much in 2020, everyone was eager to see all the familiar faces again and catch up on everything that’s happened over the past two years.
To help facilitate that, the hotel has two bars – one in the lobby and another in the main show hall. There is a separate restaurant serving breakfast for hotel guests and a pop-up hot and cold food service in the bar at lunchtime and in the evening. Food could also be ordered at the bar throughout the day.
The reception desk in the lobby
The bar area and entrance to the show
The pop-up food service in the lobby
With reasonable weather over the weekend, the courtyard area was also a popular place to gather and socialise.
The courtyard at the Mercure Daventry Court
Seating and tables were available on the patio
Back in the lobby, four of the latest pinball machines were brought in just for the show, provided by Pinball Heaven. We arrived on Friday lunchtime just as they were being set up.
Setting up the machines in the lobby
The left two games – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Mandalorian (Premium) were for the youth and adult High Score Tournaments respectively, while the The Avengers – Infinity Quest and the second The Mandalorian (this time a Pro) were on pay-to-play for charity at a cost of £1 ($1.38/€1.17) per game.
The High Score Tournament and pay-to-play pinballs in the hotel’s lobby
The two High Score Competition machines
Access to the main show hall is via a corridor to the right of the bar area.
This is the way
However, to the left of the banner above is a smaller room which was used to host the Classics Tournament.
The Classics Tournament room
The Classics Tournament was run by Shaun Harvey and featured eight solid-state pinballs. They were:
Classics Tournament machines
Some of the Classics Tournament machines
Players in the Classics Tournament
Qualifying took place throughout Saturday after which the top two scorers on each machine moved on to the play-offs which were played on Sunday morning.
Shaun manages the player registration and scores
Trophies and medals for the Classics Tournament
Continuing down the corridor towards the main hall (a.k.a. the Danetree Suite), we come to the show registration desk.
The UK Pinfest registration desk
It was here you could usually find show organiser Philip Murphy as he answered questions and greeted guests.
UKPinfest organiser, Philip Murphy
Admission was by way of different coloured wristbands depending on the type of entry purchased. Adult entry to the show cost £20 ($27.50/€23.33) per day for the Saturday and Sunday daytime sessions. These ran from 10:30am until 6pm on Saturday and from 10:30am until 4:30pm on Sunday.
Entry for both days cost £35 ($48.20/€40.80), while there were also evening sessions on Friday and Saturday priced at £10 ($13.80/€11.70) each. A VIP pass covering all sessions was also available at a cost of £50 ($68.80/€58.40).
Once visitors had received their colour-coded wristbands, they could enter the main hall and find the 101 pinballs set on free play.
Philip opens the doors and invites the first guests inside
The Danetree Suite viewed from the rear of the hall
A row of machines from London Pinball
More classic pinballs
Another row of machines
More of the UKPinfest games
A Pinball Brothers Alien next to a Heighway Pinball Alien
Players enjoying the selection of machines
Players enjoying the selection of machines
Players enjoying the selection of machines
Players enjoying the selection of machines
Here’s the list of machines set up in the free-play area:
Free play machine list
The main UKPinfest Battle Tournament organised by Wayne Johns and Paul Garner was run at the back of the hall. This used ten machines with qualifying taking place all day Saturday and for two hours on Sunday morning, before the play-offs and final on Sunday afternoon.
Participation cost either £10 for registration and one entry of three games, or £20 for registration and four entries. Unlimited additional entries could then be purchased for £5 each.
The UKPinfest Battle Tournament machines
The organisers used the Drains Tournament System to track scores for qualifying
Qualifying for the UKPinfest Battle Tournament
All entry fees were returned to the players, with the winner receiving 35% of the prize pool, second place got 20%, third got 15% and fourth 10%.
Winners will receive trophies and cash prizes
Here’s the list of machines used in the UKPinfest Battle tournament:
UK Pinfest Battle machines
Along the side wall were three NBA Fastbreak machines used for the NBA Challenge which cost £5 to enter. These were provided by Northern Lights Pinball with the tournament run by the Scottish Pinball Association.
The NBA Challenge machines
Two of these machines were linked and head-to-head matches were played by the 24 players who were split into six groups of four, with everyone playing a game against the other three people in their group. The top two players in each group then continued to the play-offs on Sunday morning. The remaining NBA Fastbreak machine was used as a spare in case of any issues with the other two machines.
The NBA Challenge tournament begins
Trophies for the top players in the NBA Challenge
There was an additional competitive event held on Friday and Saturday nights. Neil McRae of Domino Arcade organised the free Stall Ball competition on a The Shadow machine.
The Shadow was used for Stall Ball
In Stall Ball, players line up to play the machine. As it becomes their turn to play, they have to lock a ball in either a ball lock or a saucer without draining.
Playing Stall Ball
Once they do that, they leave the machine and return to the back of the line to play again. If they drain, they are out of the competition.
Part of the line to play Stall Ball
There was a long line to play each night, but once the competition began the line moved pretty fast, and as more players were eliminated the line became shorter until just two players remained. As soon as one of them drained, the other was the winner. Neil provided a nice selection of prizes, with the winner receiving a new iPhone.
We have a winner!
There were a few vendors present at the show. Jonathan Melleney’s 1 Stop Pinball has a selection of new and used parts.
1 Stop Pinball’s stand
Jonathan also brought a beautiful Turf Champ horse-racing pinball.
Turf Champ on the 1 Stop Pinball stand
London Pinball and the Flip Out London pinball club also had a stand at the show selling merchandise and reclaimed parts. They also brought a bunch of machines for guests to enjoy.
The Flip Out London and London Pinball stand
The Special When Lit pinball club brought some machines along too.
Special When Lit brought quite a few machines
Outside the main hall, Chris Brimacombe had his regular impressive selection of reclaimed pinball parts.
Chris Brimacombe’s parts selection
More of Chris’s parts display
The show draws to a close later today, so we’ll be back with more news and tournament results from UKPinfest 2021 together with our thoughts about the UK’s first ‘post-pandemic’ pinball event.
In the meantime, here’s our exclusive Ten Minute Tour video as we walk around the show floor and the other pinball areas around the hotel.
The Pinball News Ten Minute Tour of UKPinfest 2021
Continue reading...
Pinball News
After the 2020 show had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, UKPinfest was back at the Mercure Daventry Court Hotel for 2021.
The Mercure Daventry Court Hotel – home of UK Pinfest
Held over the bank (public) holiday weekend at the end of August, UKPinfest is a pure pinball event featuring over 100 pinballs, a few vendor stands and multiple tournaments. It’s as much a social event as a pinball-playing one and, after missing out on so much in 2020, everyone was eager to see all the familiar faces again and catch up on everything that’s happened over the past two years.
To help facilitate that, the hotel has two bars – one in the lobby and another in the main show hall. There is a separate restaurant serving breakfast for hotel guests and a pop-up hot and cold food service in the bar at lunchtime and in the evening. Food could also be ordered at the bar throughout the day.
The reception desk in the lobby
The bar area and entrance to the show
The pop-up food service in the lobby
With reasonable weather over the weekend, the courtyard area was also a popular place to gather and socialise.
The courtyard at the Mercure Daventry Court
Seating and tables were available on the patio
Back in the lobby, four of the latest pinball machines were brought in just for the show, provided by Pinball Heaven. We arrived on Friday lunchtime just as they were being set up.
Setting up the machines in the lobby
The left two games – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Mandalorian (Premium) were for the youth and adult High Score Tournaments respectively, while the The Avengers – Infinity Quest and the second The Mandalorian (this time a Pro) were on pay-to-play for charity at a cost of £1 ($1.38/€1.17) per game.
The High Score Tournament and pay-to-play pinballs in the hotel’s lobby
The two High Score Competition machines
Access to the main show hall is via a corridor to the right of the bar area.
This is the way
However, to the left of the banner above is a smaller room which was used to host the Classics Tournament.
The Classics Tournament room
The Classics Tournament was run by Shaun Harvey and featured eight solid-state pinballs. They were:
| Devil Riders Elektra Fireball II Joker Poker | Meteor Paragon Raven Super Orbit |
Some of the Classics Tournament machines
Players in the Classics Tournament
Qualifying took place throughout Saturday after which the top two scorers on each machine moved on to the play-offs which were played on Sunday morning.
Shaun manages the player registration and scores
Trophies and medals for the Classics Tournament
Continuing down the corridor towards the main hall (a.k.a. the Danetree Suite), we come to the show registration desk.
The UK Pinfest registration desk
It was here you could usually find show organiser Philip Murphy as he answered questions and greeted guests.
UKPinfest organiser, Philip Murphy
Admission was by way of different coloured wristbands depending on the type of entry purchased. Adult entry to the show cost £20 ($27.50/€23.33) per day for the Saturday and Sunday daytime sessions. These ran from 10:30am until 6pm on Saturday and from 10:30am until 4:30pm on Sunday.
Entry for both days cost £35 ($48.20/€40.80), while there were also evening sessions on Friday and Saturday priced at £10 ($13.80/€11.70) each. A VIP pass covering all sessions was also available at a cost of £50 ($68.80/€58.40).
Once visitors had received their colour-coded wristbands, they could enter the main hall and find the 101 pinballs set on free play.
Philip opens the doors and invites the first guests inside
The Danetree Suite viewed from the rear of the hall
A row of machines from London Pinball
More classic pinballs
Another row of machines
More of the UKPinfest games
A Pinball Brothers Alien next to a Heighway Pinball Alien
Players enjoying the selection of machines
Players enjoying the selection of machines
Players enjoying the selection of machines
Players enjoying the selection of machines
Here’s the list of machines set up in the free-play area:
| AC/DC Adams Family, The Aerobatics Alien (Highway Pinball) Alien (Pinball Brothers) Attack from Mars Austin Powers Avengers, The – Infinity Quest Avengers, The – Infinity Quest Banzai Run Batman (Stern) Batman 66 Baywatch * Black Knight Black Knight – Sword of Rage Black Knight 2000 Black Knight 2000 Blue Chip Cactus Canyon Champion Pub, The Circus (Zaccaria) Cirqus Voltaire Count-Down Creature from the Black Lagoon Deadpool Demolition Man Doctor Who Dracula, Bram Stoker’s Eight Ball F-14 Tomcat Farfalla Fathom Fish Tales Flash Gordon Flintstones, The Genie (Gottlieb) * Getaway, The – High Speed 2 Getaway, The – High Speed 2 Gigi Goldeneye Harlem Globetrotters Hook Indiana Jones (Stern) Indiana Jones (Williams) Indiana Jones (Williams) Iron Maiden (Stern) Johnny Mnemonic Jokerz! Jurassic Park (Stern) Lethal Weapon 3 Lethal Weapon 3 | Lord of the Rings Lucky Strike Machine, The – Bride of Pinbot Mata Hari Medieval Madness Metallica Monster Bash Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man Munsters, The Nautilus No Good Gofers Orbitor 1 Pharaoh Pirates of the Caribbean (Stern) Police Force Queen’s Castle Revenge from Mars Revenge from Mars Ricky and Bullwinkle and Friends Riverboat Gambler Riverboat Gambler Roadshow Robocop Shadow, The Simpons Pinball Party, The Ski Jump Space Station Spider-Man Star Trek – The Next Generation Star Trek – The Next Generation Star Trek (Bally) Star Trek (Data East) Star Trek (Stern) Star Wars (Data East) Star Wars (Data East) Starship Troopers Strikes and Spares Swords of Fury Tag Team Taxi Terminator 2 The Machine – Bride of Pinbot Tommy, The Who’s Total Nuclear Annihilation Tramsformers Tron Turf Champ Twilight Zone Wizard! X-Files, The |
The main UKPinfest Battle Tournament organised by Wayne Johns and Paul Garner was run at the back of the hall. This used ten machines with qualifying taking place all day Saturday and for two hours on Sunday morning, before the play-offs and final on Sunday afternoon.
Participation cost either £10 for registration and one entry of three games, or £20 for registration and four entries. Unlimited additional entries could then be purchased for £5 each.
The UKPinfest Battle Tournament machines
The organisers used the Drains Tournament System to track scores for qualifying
Qualifying for the UKPinfest Battle Tournament
All entry fees were returned to the players, with the winner receiving 35% of the prize pool, second place got 20%, third got 15% and fourth 10%.
Winners will receive trophies and cash prizes
Here’s the list of machines used in the UKPinfest Battle tournament:
| Avengers, The Avengers, The – Infinity Quest Batman (Stern) Getaway, The – High Speed 2 Hot Wheels | Indianapolis 500 Iron Man Jurassic Park (Stern) Led Zeppelin Wizard of Oz, The |
Along the side wall were three NBA Fastbreak machines used for the NBA Challenge which cost £5 to enter. These were provided by Northern Lights Pinball with the tournament run by the Scottish Pinball Association.
The NBA Challenge machines
Two of these machines were linked and head-to-head matches were played by the 24 players who were split into six groups of four, with everyone playing a game against the other three people in their group. The top two players in each group then continued to the play-offs on Sunday morning. The remaining NBA Fastbreak machine was used as a spare in case of any issues with the other two machines.
The NBA Challenge tournament begins
Trophies for the top players in the NBA Challenge
There was an additional competitive event held on Friday and Saturday nights. Neil McRae of Domino Arcade organised the free Stall Ball competition on a The Shadow machine.
The Shadow was used for Stall Ball
In Stall Ball, players line up to play the machine. As it becomes their turn to play, they have to lock a ball in either a ball lock or a saucer without draining.
Playing Stall Ball
Once they do that, they leave the machine and return to the back of the line to play again. If they drain, they are out of the competition.
Part of the line to play Stall Ball
There was a long line to play each night, but once the competition began the line moved pretty fast, and as more players were eliminated the line became shorter until just two players remained. As soon as one of them drained, the other was the winner. Neil provided a nice selection of prizes, with the winner receiving a new iPhone.
We have a winner!
There were a few vendors present at the show. Jonathan Melleney’s 1 Stop Pinball has a selection of new and used parts.
1 Stop Pinball’s stand
Jonathan also brought a beautiful Turf Champ horse-racing pinball.
Turf Champ on the 1 Stop Pinball stand
London Pinball and the Flip Out London pinball club also had a stand at the show selling merchandise and reclaimed parts. They also brought a bunch of machines for guests to enjoy.
The Flip Out London and London Pinball stand
The Special When Lit pinball club brought some machines along too.
Special When Lit brought quite a few machines
Outside the main hall, Chris Brimacombe had his regular impressive selection of reclaimed pinball parts.
Chris Brimacombe’s parts selection
More of Chris’s parts display
The show draws to a close later today, so we’ll be back with more news and tournament results from UKPinfest 2021 together with our thoughts about the UK’s first ‘post-pandemic’ pinball event.
In the meantime, here’s our exclusive Ten Minute Tour video as we walk around the show floor and the other pinball areas around the hotel.
The Pinball News Ten Minute Tour of UKPinfest 2021
Continue reading...
