2013 World Adventure Tat and Air Hockey Challenges!

Report from the off-course shenanigans in Hastings.

When in the Miniature Golf mecca that is Hastings, East Sussex it is almost guaranteed that after a hard days practice or competition on the seafront courses you'll find a bunch* of Crazy Golfers spending their time in one of the amusement arcades (or 'The Buttons' as a wise man once termed them, Christian Fuchs wasn't it). 

Pasi 'Bruiser' Aho was keen to get in some early practice

At the 2013 WMF World Adventure Golf Masters tournament it was no different as sixteen Minigolfers adventured into the Old Town Buttons for the 2013 World Adventure £2 Tat Challenge and Air Hockey Championships!

New Buttons Committee Member Johnny Waffles

With a truly international field competitors from Great Britain faced Swedes, a Finn who resides in Germany and an Englishman from the United Arab Emirates lined up for the seventh ranking Tat Challenge tournament.

Sweden's Bjorn Dinau approaches the field of play

With a number of debutees in the tourney it was left to new Buttons Committee member John 'YI' Moore to gather the players ready for the big event and also explain the rules of the contest, with some help from Richard Gottfried.

Thrilling action

In a truly enthralling contest there were a number of players racking up a nice haul of tat, while others fared less well, including veteran players including Emily Gottfried and Will Donnelly.

Will Donnelly had a bad day at the office

A shocking result came from former Worlds number one player James Rutherford who limped out of the contest with a meagre two bits of tat.

Even a double fire approach from James 'Ruthers' Rutherford was not enough to help him this time

Young gun Adam 'AK47' Kelly was heading for last place, but by tactically not declaring his score of zero until he'd done a bit of ratting enabled him to move up the leaderboard to lucky seventh.

Newcomer Craig Small is watched by veteran competitors Richard Gottfried and Adam Kelly

With a strong score of 32 (second only in the all-time list to James Rutherford's massive score of 40 in 2012) Richard Gottfried declared.

A smug Richard Gottfried on course for the win?

With Mike Small, Craig Small, John Moore and Torgny Kjellstrom the final players left with any two-pees in the contest it looked like the win was all but secured.

A mighty haul is shown to adjudicator John Moore

However, in an extraordinary debut from the Dubai-based player Mike Small managed to keep on winning tat and replenish his tuppenny bit ammo stockpile. With the crowd gathering and excitement building Small eventually ran out of money and his big haul counted.

The crowd are in awe of Mike Small's tatting

Astonishingly he also scored 32!

The crowd waiting to see the (tup)pennies and tat fall...

Deciding against a play-off, or even the traditional argument decider of Rock Paper Scissors the players agreed that the contest would be a draw.

Here are your winners - Mike Small (l), big bag of tat (m) and Richard Gottfried (r)

Each competitor in the event was allowed to choose one piece of tat as a memento from the 151 pieces the group had won, before the big bag of it was given away to other players in the arcade who had been watching in equal measures of amazement and confusion as the group of players had been in action!

The £2 Tat Challenge Order of Merit has been updated following the contest and now sees 54 players from seven countries ranked!

The next Tat Challenge takes places in Hastings in October and will be the WORLDS title match!

World Adventure Air Hockey 2013

In the World Adventure Air Hockey contest fourteen players faced-off to take the crown. With Sweden's Filiph Svensson and Torgny Kjellstrom receiving byes in the first round the results were:

- Chris Wood lost to Will Donnelly 5-6

- Ruthers beat Mark Wood 5-4

- Big Al Moore lost to Peter Eisenschmitt 2-7

- Pastie Aho beat Craig Small 7-1

- Mike Small beat AK47 3-2

- Paulli lost to Bjorn 6-7

In the quarter finals:

- Filiph bested Will D 7-4

- Ruthers beat Peter E 4-4

- Pasi defeated Mike Small 6-1

- Bjorn beat Torgny 7-3

In the semi finals:

- Filiph beat Ruthers 6-5

- Pasi beat Bjorn 3-2

Pasi and Filiph in Air Hockey action

In the grand final Pasi (the reigning World Crazy Air Hockey Champion) was bested by Filiph 4-3. Watch the video of the final moments of the match-up.

* Not sure what the collective term is for a group of Crazy Golfers is. Suggestions on a Postcard 

Related Blog Posts:

- Report and Results from the off-course Shenanigan Competitions in Hastings

- Tat Challenge blog posts

- Air Hockey blog posts