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1997 Convention Report
The 1997 Wizard competition

Published in Pinball Player Volume 18, Issue 3
The magazine of the Pinball Owners Association

As part of this year's convention, Derek and Anne May were tasked with the organisation and running of the Wizard knock-out competition. The ultimate aim was to declare an overall Pinball Wizard and select a team to go forward to represent Great Britain at the European Pinball Championships to be held in Holland this autumn. In this article, Derek describes the set-up and organisation of the competition from an organiser's viewpoint.

Setting up

It was 8.15am Saturday morning in the Olympian Suite of the National Indoor Arena. I was looking at a large room with around twenty people milling hither and thither erecting pinball machines, pushing trolleys and generally showing signs of intense purposefulness.

I had to get the designated Competition area ready for an 11.00am start. But how? Priority one for the Convention was to get the games installed in the hall. That of itself was not an easy task, particularly apportioning the space for the machines, whilst maintaining passages clear to requisite fire regulations, and ensuring that there were sufficient power socket outlets available. With all possible assistance for me already busied at these tasks, I opted to assist in assembling the POA Stand.

It was now 10.30am, thirty minutes before opening time, and still no semblance of a Competition. The previous jumble of games scattered all around the Olympian Suite was now resembling more the traditional pinball Convention with music lights and speech from machines vying for the watcher's attention. I too had managed to gain attention, that of Convention Organiser and Committee member. As a task force of three, myself and Brian Arnold accompanied by John Whyatt roamed the Hall, viewing the machines before us, seeking out four games suitable for the sort of treatment meted out by players in the Wizard competition.

Convention visitors at play
on the public machines
Tradition states that we always have an electromechanical machine as a choice, and, thanks to Ray Foster's support, this year proved no exception. It is due credit to Ray that he can produce a vintage E/M pin which can last the pace of the Wizard competition. Well it was now just before 11.00am, I had two games standing ready, albeit with no power, but now a new distraction - compulsory fire drill by the security manager of the Indoor Arena. With 'punters' pushing to enter the Hall, with gangways still occupied by machines up-ended, we all had to listen to the evacuation procedure, and our roles therein. That being completed, the doors opened, and still we were two games short for the competition.

Finally after much sweating and humping, the area was complete, with six games ready to be powered up and tested. The final trial, one power socket outlet to power six machines. Some discrete borrowing, perhaps bordering on pilferage, brought me two more extension leads and we were powered up.

The machines

The games used in the competition were as follows:

Children's Wizard:	Gottlieb's Hot Shot, (E/M)
Non members heat:	Williams' Junk Yard
Qualifying round:	Bally Trail Drive (E/M), Williams' Indianapolis 500, Bally Radical and Premier Gladiators
Knock out heats:	Premier Cactus Jacks, Williams' Fish Tales, Williams' Getaway and Williams' Johnny Mnemonic
Final:	Williams' Junk Yard

The people

Let me now mention the human side of the competition. As always Anne was staffing the competition desk, log book at the ready; but this year we were extremely fortunate to have two full time marshals, Brian and Lerida Arnold. The Arnold family are regular attendees at Conventions, and I am pleased that they offered their assistance in running the competion this year.

Other thanks must go out to Lance Malkin for marshalling during Saturday's hectic knock out round, and to Simon Heath, a newcomer to the world of Conventions. Simon helped in setting up the machines and in ensuring they were set to tournament play. Thanks also to John Whyatt who managed to influence exhibitors to part with their best performing games for two days. And finally to those exhibitors, Ray Foster, Phil Palmer, Dave Kingston, David Blake, Simon Heath and Keith Best without whom there would have been no Competition.

Competition format

The competition followed the now standard routine of day one being a qualifying round where the top four scorers on each of the four competition games proceed to a knock out competition on day two, to decide the Pinball Wizard. This year though, there were two additional elements. Because the Convention had been extensively advertised around Birmingham, and the fact that we had overseas guests attending the Convention, we had an extra qualifying round for non-members. These non-members played on the new Williams' Junk Yard (hence six Competition games), with the four highest scorers winning a year's free membership to the POA, and also qualifying for entry to the Wizard Competition. Moreover on Day two, the top four male and top two female players had the chance to attend the next European Pinball Championships, to be held in the Netherlands during the first weekend in November 1997.

Other categories

Aside from the main Wizard competition, we also featured a Junior Wizard contest for our younger members and sponsors Empire Interactive organised a Virtual Wizard competition.

Some visitors were disappointed that there was no Adult Hi-Score competition this year, but with the non-members heat, we were running short of marshalling power, and could not support Hi-Score. Thanks to Dave Dutton, who organised a well attended junior competition at virtually no notice. Also a word for our sponsors, as they say. Empire Interactive organised a Virtual Wizard Competition, using their latest interactive Pro-pinball Timeshock PC game. This was won by Mike Parkins who walked off with a stack of PC software, T-shirts and posters, all courtesy of Empire Interactive.

Issues and hi-lites

The format and rules of the competition are by now well defined, following some four Conventions of refinement; so there were no issues here. It was disappointing to note that the one non-member who made it through to the knock out heats failed to arrive for the Sunday morning kick-off, thereby disqualifying himself from proceeding in the competition. Aside of that there were some minor annoyances with some of the games failing to perform faultlessly during the staging of the various competition rounds.

Martin Keates receives the shield
and cup as Pinball Wizard 1997

Runner up Martin Ayub receives his trophy

Highlights included the knocking out of the world class Dutch players by some seasoned UK players, and a previously unknown lady player making the final eight. And perhaps the biggest surprise of all, a Champion who only turned up because his friend told him that there was to be PC-pinball at the Convention!

Lessons for next time

So what was learned for the next Convention? Get some full time helpers for the competition; I hope that Brian and Lerida will assist next time, otherwise we shall be hard pressed to hold such a smooth running tournament. Spend more time choosing and testing competition games. A suggestion from Brian's systematic mind; record the scores in a book in columns, thus enabling easier interpretation of the highest scorers.

Spend more time choosing and testing competition games. This is perhaps the most essential, yet most difficult challenge. We rely upon exhibitors' good nature to loan machines for the competition. The ideal would be to use brand new machines, as we did with Junk Yard this Convention, but new machines are not always forthcoming. We must continue to rely upon exhibitors' skills in keeping machines in good repair, and in their generosity in loaning their best machines for the Wizard tournament.

The results

Children's Wizard:

Junior Wizard: Fuchsia Arnold, runners up: Russell Evans, Dale Evans, Tim Breheny.

Non-member qualifiers:

A Branch, L Hemm, I White, S Cottrell.

European Championship candidates:

Ladies: M Dutton, P Maidment.

Gentlemen: M Keates, M Ayub, R Mallett, M Rimmer.

Pinball Wizard Runner Up: Martin Ayub.

Pinball Wizard 97: Martin Keates.

So another Convention over and another successful Competition, here's to the next.....

1997 Convention Report The 1997 Wizard competition