DUTCH PINBALL
MASTERS 2017


Date: 29th & 30th April, 2017
Location: NFV Clubhouse, 5 Turbinestraat, Veenendaal, Netherlands.

The Dutch Pinball Masters is one of the major European tournaments and can generally expect a healthy turnout from many of the continent's top players.

This year there was a slight diminution due to a clash of dates with the German Pinball Association's convention in Potsdam, but competition was still fierce at the Dutch Pinball Association's (NFV's) clubhouse in Veenendaal in the centre of the Netherlands.

The NFV's clubhouse in Veenendaal
The NFV's clubhouse in Veenendaal

The location was the same as it had been for the past few years, a light-industrial unit on a commercial park on the outskirts of the town. There's are no catering or hotel facilities close-by, so a car or taxi was a must to get here. Vacant spaces outside the unit, on the street and in front of adjacent buildings meant there was no problem parking.

Once inside the door, there was an arrangement of plants, flowers and copies of the NFV's Spinner magazine, as well as a wall showing supporters' logos.

The table in the lobby
The table in the lobby

Supporters of the NFV
Supporters of the NFV

Once fully inside the building, the first section is the cafe and seating area.

The cafe area
The cafe area

The cafe had a full kitchen and prepared a range of hot food items, including fries, burgers, chicken sate, sausages, mini-snack selections and salads. The prices for all these were very reasonable, with a burger costing €2 ($2.17/£1.68) and a chicken meal with fries and salad at €6.50 ($7.07 /£5.56).

Part of the menu
Part of the menu

Part of a meal
Part of a meal

Soup was also available, while soft drinks, beer and wine could also be purchased.

Soup in front, beers and sodas behind
Soup in front, beers and sodas behind

Although there was a demand for quality craft or abbey ales, only Heineken or Bavaria beers were available for €2 a bottle. Those looking for something a little better had to either go elsewhere or bring their own.

Seating was available for those enjoying their meals or drinks, as well as those resting from the pinball. Alternatively, the weather outside was good enough to enjoy your purchases alfresco.

Indoor seating
Indoor seating

At the very front of the building were several small rooms either containing games to play or used for game repair.

A selection of EMs
A selection of EMs

When it's too much pinball, enjoy darts, video games or table football/foosball/babyfoot
When it's too much pinball, enjoy darts, video games
or table football/foosball/babyfoot

The main selection of pinballs was located in the back two-thirds of the hall. The two rows on the left were the main tournament machines, bolstered by a group on the back wall which were used as back-up machines in case of failure by any of those in the main tournament.

Machines and players in the main tournament
Machines and players in the main tournament

Those tournament machines were:

Main Dutch Pinball Masters Machines
1 Tommy
2 Junkyard
3 Fish Tales
4 Avatar
5 Spider-Man
6 Scared Stiff
7 Dirty Harry
8 Indianapolis 500
9 Roadshow
10 Star Trek: The Next Generation
11 Jackbot
12 Pirates of the Caribbean
13 World Cup Soccer
14 Demolition Man
15 Funhouse
16 Goldeneye
17 Doctor Who
18 Attack from Mars
19 Monopoly
20 Medieval Madness
21 The Lord of the Rings
22 Whirlwind
23 Congo
24 Creature from the Black Lagoon
25 Whitewater
26 Hoops

The back-up machines were: The Sopranos, High Speed 2: The Getaway, Terminator 2 and Corvette.

On the right side of the hall were the free-play machines, while on the back wall was a row of eight machines used for the classics tournament.

Free-play machines
Free-play machines

Free-play machines
Free-play machines

There were nicely-decorated table on which to put your drinks
There were nicely-decorated table on which to put your drinks

Free-play machines
Free-play machines

Ad Jonker's Captain Nemo machine was also here to play
Ad Jonker's Captain Nemo machine was also here to play

The eight classics tournament machines were:

Main Dutch Pinball Masters Machines
1 Capt. Fantastic
2 Bobby Orr Power Play
3 Gorgar
4 Charlie's Angels
5 Dealer's Choice
6 Paragon
7 Harlem Globetrotters
8 Viking

The back-up machine was Mata Hari.

The classics tournament
The classics tournament

In addition to these tournaments, there was also a team competition held on Friday night.

Trophies for the tournaments
Trophies for the tournaments

The team tournament saw eight teams of four split into two groups. The teams and groups were:

Team Tournament Groups
Group A
Dutch Pinball Team
Team Slovenia
Oslo Tiltboys
Team Delta
Group B
Pinball DNA
Archiball Team
Team Ro-Me
Oslo Pinball Casuals

Each team played a match against each of the other three teams in their group. A match consisted of each player playing a member of the opposing team on a machine to win 1 point per game, and a pair of split-flipper games for two points each.

The two teams with the most points in each group went into the semi-finals. Here the winner of Group A played second place in Group B and vice-versa in the same style of match as in the first round.

The winners from the first round were Dutch Pinball Team and Pinball DNA, while second place qualifiers were Team Delta and Team Ro-Me.

Dutch Pinball Team and Pinball DNA won the semi-final matches, setting them up for a final match held in the same format.

In the final, the Dutch Pinball Team won three of the four individual matches to lead 3-1, meaning Pinball DNA needed to win both split-flipper games. They won one of them, but that was not enough, meaning the Dutch Pinball Team of Albert Nomden, Paul Jongma, Mark van der Gugten and Joska Keunekamp won 5-3.

The victorious Dutch Pinball Team:
The victorious Dutch Pinball Team:
Paul Jongma, Albert Nomden and Mark van der Gugten
(absent: Joska Keunekamp)

In the play-off, Team Ro-Me beat Team Delta for third place.

Third place, Team Ro-Me
Third place, Team Ro-Me

The main Dutch Pinball Masters tournament began on Saturday with a qualifying round for all 141 players. Tournament entry cost €15 in addition to the daily €7.50 fee for entry to the clubhouse, meaning a €30 total price for entry if you played on both days. As a bonus, all competitors received a 10% discount off products from playfield-protectors.com.

There were three qualifying periods starting at 09:30, 13:15 and 17:00, each one lasting around three-and-a-half hours.

In each period, players were split into four groups (A-D, E-H and J-M) with around twelve players in each group. Every competitor played a single three-ball game against each other player in their group, in a predetermined order and on preselected machines. A win in a game earned one point, a loss scored a zero.

Players in the qualifying round
Players in the qualifying round

When a game was over, the winner would come to a terminal and register their win.

Tournament systems head Ad Jonker at the results terminal
Tournament systems head Ad Jonker at the results terminal

The current matches on the results terminal
The current matches on the results terminal

As each result was recorded, the overall picture emerged on a large screen.

The overall group standings
The overall group standings

The group scores
The group scores

For all groups, a score of eight wins or more would guarantee you a place in Sunday's second round. If you got seven wins it was a toss-up whether that would be enough, or if you would end up in a tie-breaker. With six wins you would be lucky to progress. It wasn't impossible, but unlikely, and a tie-breaker was an almost certainty.

It wasn't how you won, but how many you won
It wasn't how you won, but how many you won

Head-to-head games were the order of the day
Head-to-head games were the order of the day

Every win was a step closer to qualification
Every win was a step closer to qualification

Those who did progress needed to be back at the venue at 9:40 on Sunday morning for the start of the second round. For everyone else, their Dutch Pinball Masters was over, and just the classic tournament remained.

Just a few points could be the difference between progressing and going home
Just a few points could be the difference between progressing and going home

The classic tournament cost an additional €10 to enter and was held on the eight machines we listed above, with competitors given ten games spread across the eight machines in order to qualify. No machine could be played more than twice and all ten scores were ranked, with the top 24 players progressing to the play-offs and the top players receiving a bye through the first round.

Classic tournament score cards
Classic tournament score cards

Players were issued with a score card for the classic tournament, but in truth all scores were recorded electronically on tablets or phones. with the current standings shown on a terminal.

Checking the current classic tournament standings
Checking the current classic tournament standings

Current standings and games in progress
Current standings and games in progress

Qualifying continued until 8:30pm on Saturday, with the play-offs beginning at 9pm once the main DPM rounds had finished and all players were free to take part.

Matches in the play-offs were head-to-head best-of-five games on machines drawn at random.

The play-offs schedule
The play-offs schedule

The classic tournament play-offs
The classic tournament play-offs

The classic tournament play-offs
The classic tournament play-offs

The classic tournament play-offs
The classic tournament play-offs

DPM tournament directors Albert Nomden and Paul Jongma
DPM tournament directors Albert Nomden and Paul Jongma

The final came down to a battle between Gabriele Tedeschi from Italy and Rich Mallett from the UK.

Gabriel on Mata Hari in the final
Gabriel on Mata Hari in the final

After some exciting games, Mata Hari was the decider, and with Gabriel going first but failing to score much Rich just had to hold his nerve, which he did very successfully to win the game and the final.

Rich prepares to plunge his winning final ball
Rich prepares to plunge his winning final ball

So, Rich was the winner, Gabriel second, while in the play-off it was Jochen Krieger Germany who took third place ahead of Frenchman Sebastien Puertas in fourth.

Dutch Pinball Masters Classic Tournament winner, Rich Mallett
Dutch Pinball Masters Classic Tournament winner, Rich Mallett

Second place, Gabriele Tedeschi
Second place, Gabriele Tedeschi

Third place, Jochen Krieger
Third place, Jochen Krieger

Here are all the placings in the DPM classic tournament:

DPM Classic Tournamenti 2017
Pos Name
1 Rich Mallett
2 Gabriele Tedeschi
3 Jochen Krieger
4 Sebastien Puertas
6 Marco Suvanto
6 Jan Anders Nilsson
6 David Deturck
6 Lieven Engelbeen
12 Joël Wozniak
12 Arjan Neet
12 Philippe Bocquet
12 David Mainwaring
12 Mathias Leurs
12 Fredrik Mellberg
12 Perttu Pesä
12 Eko Elens
20 Evert Brochez
20 Andreas Hedström
20 Ad Jonker
20 Kirsten Adam
20 Ivan Geentjens
20 Jonas Valström
20 Ollivier Francq
20 Anders Carlsson
25 Cayle George
26 Martijn Van Amsterdam
27 Martin Ayub
28 Heinz Berges
29 Helen de Haan-Verbeek
29 Albert Nomden
31 Robert Lau
32 Juha Viitanen
32 Fabrizio Amiconi
34 Alysa Parks
35 Florian Thomas
36 Rob Fransen
37 Rob Overdijk
38 John van der Wulp
39 Željko Vasic
40 Paul Jongma
41 Artur Natorski
42 Vin Jauhal
43 Peter Franck
44 Bart Volman
45 Vincent Chardome
46 Kevin Roelants
47 Mattias Jeppsson
48 Frank Wolthers
49 Wolfgang Haid
49 Benjamin Gräbeldinger
51 Pittchen Müller
52 Erno Lahdenperä
53 Thomas Van Clapdorp
54 Andrej Rižner
54 Carlo Vijn
56 Matt Vince
56 Tormod Pettersen
58 Mario Schröder
59 Didier Dujardin
59 Ramon Richard
61 Laurence Boulieu
62 Simo Rimmi
63 Jani Saari
63 Ales Rebec
65 Michel Lanters
66 Jules Reivers
67 Daniel Bertilsson
67 Tom-Andre Andersen
69 Stan Simpson
70 Dominique De Cock
70 Archibald Lefevre
72 Norman Heikamp
73 Pontus Qvarfordh
73 Evelyne Desot
75 Glenn Verhoosele
76 Mark van der Gugten
77 Alain Boulieu
78 Laurent Mahe
79 Thomas Reichenstein
79 Norbert Broman
81 Sven Kirmes
81 Michel Rorive
83 Adam Lundquist
84 Stéphane Swaenepoel
85 Jürgen Schmitz
86 Olav Hjelmstadstuen
87 Erol Saydam
88 Vid Kuklec
89 Gerard Vos
90 Emma Berlin
91 Fredrik Lekander
92 Tom Geneyn
92 Thomas Doepelheuer
94 Mirko Bogic
95 Andreas Thorsén
95 Kelly Lembrechts
97 Olivier Renders
98 Oyvind Winther
99 Svein Tjeldflåt
100 Neil Fellender
100 Nils de Kleine
102 Fred Van Den Bosch
103 Eric Andries
104 Bjørn Erlend Hellem
105 Daniela Oymann
106 Gerard Poelwijk
107 Daniel Bradford
108 Ralf Wittwer
109 Morten Søbyskogen
110 Rob Breyne
111 Kevin Sultana
112 Manuela Krieger
113 Bjorn Brand
114 Andrej Demsar
115 Johan Bernhardtson
116 Elin Wilhelmsen
117 Torstein Bjørnstad
118 Babs Negelen
119 Jasmijn de Jong
120 Stanislas Chabior
121 Joeri Stroobants
122 Kyoo Barbaix
123 Karin Eisenstecken
124 ralf de kleine
125 Sandra Søbyskogen

Sunday morning rolled around with the main DPM tournament left to decide.

Only the DPM trophies remain
Only the DPM trophies remain

The top four from each of the four groups in each of the three qualifying sessions meant (4 x 4) x 3 = 48 players progressed to the second round which began at 10am on Sunday.

Sunday's second round
Sunday's second round

The format was the same as Saturday - four groups of twelve players, with everyone playing one head-to-head game against everyone else in their group (11 games). The four players with the most wins in each group would move on to the quarter finals.

The second round of the Dutch Pinball Masters
The second round of the Dutch Pinball Masters

The sixteen who made it into the quarter-finals were:

Tormod Pettersen Roger Wijnands
Kirsten Adam Taco Wouters
David Deturck Jules Reivers
Philippe Bocquet Sébastien Puertas
Benjamin Gräbeldinger Cayle George
Ivan Geentjens Bart Volman
Fredrik Lekander John van der Wulp
Jan Anders Nilsson Bjorn Brand

The quarter-finals paired up players in a best-of-five match on randomly-drawn machines. The first to win three games moved on to the semi-finals.

Kirsten Adam had three straight wins to progress, as did Ivan Geentjens, Sébastien Puertas and Cayle George. David Deturck took four games to win, the same as Jan Anders Nilsson and John van der Wulp, while Roger Wijnands took all five games to win and move on to the semis.

The semi-final was the same as the quarters - best-of-five on random machines.

This time David Deturck beat Kirsten Adam 3-2, Jan Anders Nilsson did the same against Ivan Geentjens, as did Roger Wijnands against Sébastien Puertas. Only Cayle George had an easier 3-0 win against John van der Wulp.

In the four-player four-game final, each competitor got to choose a machine to play with 9-5-2-0 scoring used for first to fourth places.

Jan Anders Nilsson began by choosing Congo, but the game didn't co-operate with him this time. His first ball scored 100M to put him in third place, while balls two and three only lifted that to 380M which was last place.

Cayle George had the best first ball with 215M, boosted to 800M on his second and 1.067B on his third to win. David Deturck recovered from a bad 79M start to end on 932M for second, while Roger Wijnands's 744M total was only good enough for third.

David chose Star Trek: The Next Generation for game two but once again the curse of machine choice struck as his 1.2B was the lowest of the four scores. Jan had a great last ball, scoring 2.3B to end up on 3.1B, taking first place. Cayle's 2.6B might normally be enough to win but only gave him second here, with Roger's 1.8B good for third.

Cayle's choice of Scared Stiff broke the chooser's curse with his ball one score of 16M being enough to win the game. In the end, he totalled 79M - way ahead of David in second on 9.8M, Jan on 2.7M and Roger who never got started and ended on just 0.8M.

With game four still to play, Cayle's 23 points was already enough to win the final, with Jan closest behind on 11 points, David in third on 10, and Roger on 4. But Roger could still get into a tie-breaker for second place if the other places worked out for him, while Jan and David were battling it out.

Roger chose Whirlwind, but was blown away by three quick drains to end up on just 309K. The battle for second was thus between Jan and David, and it was David who stormed his way to the win with 9.5M, ahead of Cayle's 7M and Jan's 4.5M.

So the result was, Cayle in first place, David second, Jan third and Roger fourth.

Dutch Pinball Masters 2017 winner, Cayle George
Dutch Pinball Masters 2017 winner, Cayle George
(picture: Ad Jonker)

Second place, David Deturck
Second place, David Deturck
(picture: Ad Jonker)

Third place, Jan Anders Nilsson
Third place, Jan Anders Nilsson
(picture: Ad Jonker)

Fourth place, Roger Wijnands
Fourth place, Roger Wijnands
(picture: Ad Jonker)

Here are the full results:

Dutch Pinball Masters 2017
Pos Name
1 Cayle George
2 David Deturck
3 Jan Anders Nilsson
4 Roger Wijnands
6 Kirsten Adam
6 Ivan Geentjens
6 Sebastien Puertas
6 John van der Wulp
12 Tormod Pettersen
12 Philippe Bocquet
12 Benjamin Gräbeldinger
12 Fredrik Lekander
12 Taco Wouters
12 Jules Reivers
12 Bart Volman
12 Bjorn Brand
17 Jonas Johansson
17 Albert Nomden
21 Evert Brochez
21 Sylvain Grevin
21 Michel Rorive
21 Martin Ayub
21 Olivier Renders
28 Thomas van Clapdorp
28 Anthony Rorive
28 Jani Saari
28 Evelyne Desot
28 Stéphane Swaenepoel
28 Ramon Richard
28 Marco Suvanto
28 Johan Bernhardtson
28 Jonas Valström
37 Archibald Lefevre
37 Juha Viitanen
37 Mattias Jeppsson
37 Andreas Thorsén
37 Florian Thomas
37 Martijn van Amsterdam
37 Andrej Demsar
37 Laurence Boulieu
37 Norbert Broman
43 Sébastien Muller
43 Paul Jongma
43 Erno Lahdenperä
43 Andrej Rižner
46 Didier Dujardin
46 Eko Elens
48 Joël Wozniak
49 Mark van der Gugten
49 Anders Carlsson
61 Dominique de Cock
61 Ralf Wittwer
61 Thomas Reichenstein
61 Stanislas Chabior
61 Rich Mallett
61 Matt Vince
61 Martijn van Aken
61 Sven Kirmes
61 Mathias Leurs
61 Peter Franck
61 Norman Heikamp
61 Pontus Qvarfordh
61 Bjørn Erlend Hellem
61 Helen de Haan-Verbeek
61 Neil Fellender
61 Lieven Engelbeen
61 Heinz Berges
61 Jeroen Wieringa
61 Fabrizio Amiconi
61 Vincent Chardome
61 Ralf de Kleine
61 Andreas Hedström
84 Eric Andries
84 Jochen Krieger
84 Olav Hjelmstadstuen
84 Gerard Poelwijk
84 Michel Lanters
84 Svein Tjeldflåt
84 Mirko Bogic
84 Daniel Bertilsson
84 Laurent Mahe
84 Morten Søbyskogen
84 Jasper van Embden
84 Vid Kuklec
84 Ollivier Francq
84 Robert Lau
84 Tom Geneyn
84 Gabriele Tedeschi
84 Arjan Neet
84 David Mainwaring
84 Joeri Stroobants
84 Kevin Roelants
84 Perttu Pesä
84 Rob Fransen
84 Alysa Parks
107 Adam Lundquist
107 Fred van den Bosch
107 Simo Rimmi
107 Frank Wolthers
107 Rob Overdijk
107 Oyvind Winther
107 Bas van Embden
107 Daniel Bradford
107 Nils de Kleine
107 Alain Boulieu
107 Jeremy Dorling
107 Erol Saydam
107 Babs Negelen
107 Fredrik Mellberg
107 Artur Natorski
107 Jürgen Schmitz
107 Jeroen Boiten
107 Elin Wilhelmsen
107 Tom Loomans
107 Ronald Klappe
107 Pittchen Müller
107 Gerard Vos
107 Ales Rebec
127 Steven van der Staaij
127 Karin Eisenstecken
127 Vin Jauhal
127 Rob Breyne
127 Jasmijn de Jong
127 Torstein Bjørnstad
127 Mario Schröder
127 Kyoo Barbaix
127 Ronald Oenema
127 Thomas Doepelheuer
127 Olivier Calimet
127 Kelly Lembrechts
127 Wolfgang Haid
127 Justin van Schooneveld
127 Carlo Vijn
127 Glenn Verhoosele
127 Tom-Andre Andersen
127 Alicia Juniet
140 Daniela Oymann
140 Manuela Krieger
140 Machteld Decloedt
140 Željko Vasic
140 Emma Berlin
140 Kevin Sultana
140 Arno Punt
140 Sandra Søbyskogen

And so we come to the end of this report from the Dutch Pinball Masters 2017.

The top four in the Dutch Pinball Masters 2017
The top four in the Dutch Pinball Masters 2017
(picture: Ad Jonker)

The DPM is a well-established and well-supported international tournament, one which guarantees all players at least eleven games even if they don't progress beyond the qualification round.

There were clear improvements to the match result reporting system, allowing players to record their own results and providing instant standings which made life easier for competitors and organisers. The timings all went to plan and any technical issues were resolved quickly and amicably.

The only real negative was the quality of the free-play machines, although even there the addition of Ad Jonker's The Matrix and Capt. Nemo games helped made up for any shortcomings or unavailabilties.

Hopefully next year the dates for the DPM won't clash with another major European tournament and players can get to enjoy two top-flight Spring tournaments.


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