UK Championships 2024 Preston 1 June

[Freshmaker]

Lee? Ffs? Lee? Is that the best you could get as a champion?

I mean, congrats to Lee, of course.

[kanu2021]

Bravo Lee!

[Torchiador]

Congratulations to Lee!! amazing!

[iankay]

I've never seen a final game with so much in the balance!

Steve C arrived early so we had a couple of Amigas set up before noon, by which time nearly everyone was there, and I decided to take the plunge and decide we had time for everyone to play each other twice, which succeeded by 19:30 with just a tiny amount of nudging along. The first official game started about 12:30 and I was top for about five minutes until the second game finished.

I'd said to my mate newcomer Jon B that usually the two best players would save the game between them until last, in the expectation it would be an exciting decider everyone could watch, but before this tournament I didn't know who the two best players were. So it proved, because everyone slipped up in the first couple of hours; no-one got nine points from their first three games.

Jon B got a couple of wins in his first tournament, and John V had a last-minute equaliser against Robert that meant no-one went home empty-handed.

Brendan showed that online skills transferred to the real world and was top for a long time but the table was difficult to interpret as others had games in hand. The swingiest games saw Steve B win 5-1 against Steve C, only to be outdone 5-10 in the return match. Gradually it became clear that it was a four-way fight between those three and Lee, who was the only person not to lose to someone outside the top four (although it was close when he drew the highest-scoring game 8-8 against his good friend Mick).

Below that was a three-way battle for fifth; I edged out Robert 3-2 before he won the lowest-scoring game 1-0 against Mick, who took points off Brendan before winning and losing against me. A few spectators gathered as I had to equalise three times against Robert for the point I needed to take fifth, based on my aggregate score against Mick.

At the top of the table Brendan took four points from Lee, who took four points from Steve C, who took four points from Brendan. Then Steve B blew the race wide open by beating Lee 9-2 and Brendan 5-4 and we could all congregate to watch the exciting decider we hoped for, and the situation was that a win for Steve C would mean the top three all had the same number of points. Specifically, it was:

Lee wins = 1 Lee, 2 Steve B, 3 Brendan, 4 Steve C
A draw = 1 Lee, 2 Steve B, 3 Steve C, 4 Brendan
Steve C wins by at least six = 1 Steve C, 2 Steve B, 3 Lee, 4 Brendan
Steve C wins by less than six = 1 Steve B, 2 Steve C, 3 Lee, 4 Brendan

After seven seconds, Steve C scored; ten seconds later Lee equalised. Neither were lobs! Lee then took the lead four times, but Steve C equalised four times. It went down to the final whistle, but Lee held on for 5-5, and become the 2024 UK Champion!

[Freshmaker]

Nice write-up Ian! Makes it possible to feel the tention!! Seems like you guys really made a this a special one

[Rodolfo]

Great report, Ian! It looks that is was a wonderful gathering. Thank you for hosting, and thanks to Steve C for letting us take a peek at the event.

Congratulations, Lee!!! That is an epic coming back, winning the UK championship!

[Eternal-student]

Congrats to Lee.. definitely the worthy winner. I'd like to remind everyone though that early on in that Lee vs SteveC final game, SteveC was through on goal with a Walk of Shame only deciding at the last minute to do a bit of show boating so he tried to stop the player to let the ball dribble over the line in style.. he ended up not coming off the diagonal properly and slightly knocking the ball side ways and missing.. just saying (ffs).

It was a great day, so much fun and thank you again to Ian and Helen for hosting so brilliantly (and putting up with my very energetic, vocal and fluffy dog despite allergies). It was great to see everyone again and meet newcomer JonB and long term online opponent, Brendan.

[iankay]

Thanks guys! Here are the final table and results in case the link on my earlier post ever breaks:

. ......... W. D. L.. F. A. Pts Tie
1 Lee.... 11 03 02 89 56 36
2 Steve B 11 02 03 94 48 35
3 Steve C 10 03 03 88 47 33 3,5
4 Brendan 10 03 03 71 39 33 3,2
5 Ian..... 07 01 08 54 55 22 2,5
6 Mick... 06 04 06 56 60 22 3,3
7 Robert. 05 03 08 44 62 18
8 Jon B.. 02 00 14 26 82 06
9 John V. 00 01 15 20 93 01

Brendan 2 1 Ian....
Brendan 6 1 John V.
Brendan 4 0 Jon B..
Brendan 3 3 Lee....
Brendan 6 2 Mick...
Brendan 7 4 Robert.
Brendan 2 2 Steve B
Brendan 2 5 Steve C
Ian.... 4 1 John V.
Ian.... 6 1 Jon B..
Ian.... 4 8 Lee....
Ian.... 2 3 Mick...
Ian.... 3 2 Robert.
Ian.... 2 6 Steve B
Ian.... 4 6 Steve C
John V. 1 4 Jon B..
John V. 1 6 Lee....
John V. 2 4 Mick...
John V. 2 2 Robert.
John V. 2 9 Steve B
John V. 0 7 Steve C
Jon B.. 1 8 Lee....
Jon B.. 0 2 Mick...
Jon B.. 1 5 Robert.
Jon B.. 2 6 Steve B
Jon B.. 2 11 Steve C
Lee.... 8 8 Mick...
Lee.... 6 3 Robert.
Lee.... 6 4 Steve B
Lee.... 5 5 Steve C
Mick... 0 1 Robert.
Mick... 4 8 Steve B
Mick... 5 5 Steve C
Robert. 2 6 Steve B
Robert. 3 2 Steve C
Steve B 5 10 Steve C

Ian.... 3 6 Brendan
John V. 1 9 Brendan
Jon B.. 1 6 Brendan
Lee.... 3 7 Brendan
Mick... 4 1 Brendan
Robert. 1 3 Brendan
Steve B 5 4 Brendan
Steve C 3 3 Brendan
John V. 2 5 Ian....
Jon B.. 0 5 Ian....
Lee.... 4 0 Ian....
Mick... 3 5 Ian....
Robert. 4 4 Ian....
Steve B 3 4 Ian....
Steve C 4 2 Ian....
Jon B.. 5 2 John V.
Lee.... 7 0 John V.
Mick... 4 2 John V.
Robert. 6 1 John V.
Steve B 8 1 John V.
Steve C 7 1 John V.
Lee.... 5 3 Jon B..
Mick... 5 1 Jon B..
Robert. 4 1 Jon B..
Steve B 6 2 Jon B..
Steve C 6 2 Jon B..
Mick... 3 5 Lee....
Robert. 2 9 Lee....
Steve B 9 2 Lee....
Steve C 3 4 Lee....
Robert. 3 3 Mick...
Steve B 4 4 Mick...
Steve C 7 2 Mick...
Steve B 8 0 Robert.
Steve C 6 2 Robert.
Steve C 1 5 Steve B

[Steve Camber]

The live stream unfortunately dropped when I moved the laptop to the gaming table.
So here is what we have of the final two games.
It's not up to the usual recording quality as I forgot the video capture device, but pointing a webcam at the CRT was the only option.

https://www.youtube.com/live/IET9OrdGI2A

[Steve Camber]

Congrats to Lee.. definitely the worthy winner. I'd like to remind everyone though that early on in that Lee vs SteveC final game, SteveC was through on goal with a Walk of Shame only deciding at the last minute to do a bit of show boating so he tried to stop the player to let the ball dribble over the line in style.. he ended up not coming off the diagonal properly and slightly knocking the ball side ways and missing.. just saying (ffs).

At 11:00 in the video
https://www.youtube.com/live/IET9OrdGI2 ... _ElC&t=660

I've been doing that in online games recently as I love watching the ball roll over the line. 90% of the time I can pull it off and I'm sure I did it a couple of times successfully earlier in the day too, but it's probably not a good idea to attempt it in a high stakes game!

[Eternal-student]

Hehe, yes I think you did it in that match against me when you DDed me

[chrisad]

Congrats Lee!! And Well done Ian, for hosting:)

[alkis21]

Fantastic tournament!

All hail the new UK Champ, Lee!

Shite result posting!

Have we managed to learn Brendan's last name? I've bee searching for it since 2017.