Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Report from the 2014 Worlds Tat Challenge in Hastings

Results of the World Tat Challenge Amusement Arcade Tournament in Hastings.

Much like the World Crazy Golf Championships the 2014 World £2 Tat Challenge would not see an appearance by the defending champion, and with many new entrants mixing it up with the veterans of The Buttons the competition was set to be quite thrilling.

2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings
Why are they so happy? They didn't win.

As usual the players - all 33 of them - were ably led by The Buttons Committee straight from the first day's play of the World Crazy Golf Championships to the Old Town Amusement Arcade where they received the instructions and rules. Not for the first time a few of the more eager competitors had jumped the gun and already changed up their gold into coppers. This included Paul 'Johnson Paul Johnson' Johnson - a real veteran and the first-ever World Tat Champion - who had made a rookie error and only changed up a quids worth!?

2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings
A newcomer and a veteran at the 2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings

With the countdown counted down the athletes were off and running and the battle for the tat was underway.

2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings
Paul Preston may be good at quizzes, but he's not much good at tat challenges

With some players scouting out the arcades in the preceding days (most notably the Greenheads and Lovell) the predictions were that the winning haul would be low and those halcyon days of winning as much as 40 bits o' stuff were long gone.

One of the most notable events of the competition was that after eighteen minutes of the twenty minute time-limit John 'Big Al' Moore still had about £4 left in change and hurriedly tried to win some more tat, but to no avail.

2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings
A bull and a donkey

2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings
Helen Dodd plays the buttons as Adam Kelly wins nothing

2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings
Peter Jones eyes up Steve Sturdy's machine, ready for a sharking perhaps

2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings
Mark Wood in action

2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings
Playing as a Stormtrooper proved difficult for Steve Ragless as he couldn't bend down to pick up any change or prizes!

2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings
A guilty looking John Moore!

2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings
It's just not Cricket. No, it's Brian Smith. Short-changed perhaps...

2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings
Fast hands Squire

2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings
Marion Homer took a two on her debut and drew a blank

2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings
Owen and The Johnson amid a flurry of tatting

2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings
This is what 90 pieces of tat looks like

2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings
2014 World Tat Champion Kate Kelly with her bag of winnings

With the challengers for the title declaring their winnings to Emily Gottfried there were rumblings of a tie, with the pace set at seven pieces of tat, but this was slightly blown out of the water by the ten pieces of tat that Kate 'Mrs Kelly' Kelly had managed to win from the 2p pushers to see her declared the winner.

Results of the 2014 World Tat Challenge

Results list from the 2014 World Tat Challenge
Results list from the 2014 World Tat Challenge (click to enlarge)

To date nine Tat Challenge competitions have been played with 799 bits of tat won for a total of £336. This year saw one less piece of tat won overall with 90 prizes won.

The Tat Challenge Order of Merit Rankings List

Tat Challenge Order of Merit Rankings List (click to enlarge)
Tat Challenge Order of Merit Rankings List (click to enlarge)

£2 Tat Challenge Hall of Fame:

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Once again Richard,
great write-up of the event and even better stats.....

Big Al said...

Does having money left at the end of the tournament mean that my points get donated to a random non-playing member of the tat challenge order of merit?

Lems said...

Another Terrific Tat Challenge.... Well done to Kate Kelly

Richard Gottfried said...

Hello Big Al,

An error snuck through on your results, all corrected now.

Personally I blame all the members of The Buttons Committee, especially that character called John.

Best,

Richard