Chris 'Who' Harding wins the 2013 Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championship!

Report, photos and video from the 2013 Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championship in Hastings.

A packed house

When Crazy Golfers are not Crazy Golfing they can often be found lurking and loitering in the warmth of an Amusement Arcade.

In a tradition stretching back to 2010 minigolfers have enjoyed playing the game of Air Hockey and the 2013 championship promised lots of action and excitement. It certainly didn't disappoint.

With reigning and previous Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Champions competing, including 2012 winner - Finnish Bruiser Pasty Aho - and the man/myth/legend Peter '5 Star' Jones returning to both Minigolf and Air Hockey action in Hastings.

With a densely packed, competitive and eager field of 30 athletes lined-up it was down to the very busy Buttons Committee to do the draw to see who would face-off in the contest to win the £1 sterling prize money, and most importantly the title of "Best Air Hockey Playing Crazy Golfer in Hastings at the End of October".

International Air Hockey action

After what seemed like hours of play, especially as the tournament was preceded by the Worlds Tat Challenge, the final came down to a battle between two English competitors as Martin Greenhead faced off with Chris Harding.

Video of the final.

Full results:

(All players ENG, unless otherwise stated)
First round
1. Jouni Valkjarvi (FIN) defeated Ruth Burke 7-1
2. Dave Donnelly (IRE) lost to Mark Wood 4-1
3. Ted McIver (SCO) beat James Rutherford 7-5
4. Chris Harding  whitewashed John Moore 7-0
5. Keith Kellard bested Marc Chapman 7-4
6. Scott Lancley defeated Daniel Cottam 7-4
7. Adam Kelly received a bye
8. Pasi Aho (FIN) beat Will Donnelly 5-0
9. Alex Exall defeated Chris Wood 6-4
10. Steve Sturdy received a bye
11. Matt Dodd beat Helen Dodd 6-4
12. Steve Lovell won against Brian Smith 6-5
13. Terry Exall bested Jonathan Mather 5-4
14. Paul Johnson Paul Johnson Johnson lost to Peter Jones 7-3
15. Neil Cottam beat Ollie Greenhead 6-4
16. Martin Greenhead won against Christian ‘Anthony Pope’ Fuchs (GER) 7-4

Second round
1. Mark Wood bested Jouni Valkjarvi 7-3
2. Ted McIver lost to Chris Harding 7-4
3. Keith Kellard defeated Scott Lancley 5-4
4. Adam Kelly lost to Pasi Aho 7-1
5. Alex Exall beat Steve Sturdy 7-3
6. Matt Dodd defeated Steve Lovell 6-4
7. Terry Exall won against Peter Jones 6-4
8. Martin Greenhead bested Neil Cottam 7-4

Quarter finals
1. Chris Harding beat Mark Wood
2. Keith Kellard won against Pasi Aho 7-3
3. Alex Exall defeated Matt Dodd 7-6
4. Terry Exall lost to Martin Greenhead 7-5

Semi finals
1. Chris Harding beat Keith Kellard 4-1
2. Martin Greenhead defeated Alex Exall 7-2

Grand final
- Chris Harding defeated Martin Greenhead 7-4

In the most thrilling and most controversial match former Worlds Champion Peter Jones faced Terry Exall.

Peter 'The Puckmaster' Jones vs. Terry 'The Master Pucker' Exall in a fiery match-up

The match finished with a win to Exall, and utter disgust from Jones who threw his paddle across the table and into the path of Terry who recoiled in fear, only to be saved by the net!

In the immediate aftermath of the hot-blooded match Jones was heard to say the table robbed him of the win claiming "You can get better Air Hockey tables from Argos. The air flow on the table in that match was terrible."

Terry, ever gracious in victory, merely said at the the end of the competition "I didn't care about winning the whole thing, as long as I didn't lose to Peter Jones."

The event was a true one and is unlikely to be repeated.

Until next year that is when it'll take place at the same sort of time in the same place. Unless Peter Jones'ses'es behaviour has seen us all banned from the Old Town Buttons.

Until next time. Peace.

Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championships Hall of Fame:

2013 Chris Harding (ENG)

2012 Pasi Aho (FIN)

2011 Peter Jones (WAL)

2010 Kevin Moseley (ENG)

World Adventure Air Hockey Hall of Fame:

2013 Pasi Aho (FIN/GER)

The Undisputed International Worlds Crazy Air Squash Championships Hall of Fame:

2010* Scott Lancley (ENG)

* Note: the Air Squash tables were removed soon after, meaning the tournament became a 'normal' Air Hockey event.

Related blog posts:

- Air Hockey blog posts

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

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

Gottfried wins World £2 Tat Challenge & Aho wins Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championship.

Following the first day’s play of the 2012 ‘Castle Golf’ World Crazy Golf Championship in Hastings a group of the players headed to the Old Town Amusement Arcade in Hastings, East Sussex to take part in the now traditional World £2 Tat Challenge and Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championship.

Both events were publicised in the unofficial booklet of the World Crazy Golf Championship and saw an international group of participants compete.

World £2 Tat Challenge

First-up was the World £2 Tat Challenge and 30 players took part. Earlier in the month James ‘Ruthers’ Rutherford had set the Tatting world on fire with his big win in the Crazy £2 Tat Challenge Open in Hastings which saw him win a grand total of 40 pieces of Tat!!! This saw him rocket to the top of the £2 Tat Challenge Order of Merit ranking list.

With the players from England, Germany, Finland and the USA having changed up their £2 stake money into 2ps they were given a quick rules briefing before the order was given and the players set loose on the buttons and their crack at becoming World Tat Challenge Champion.



The Tatters, Ratters and Sharks at the 2012 £2 Tat Challenge in Hastings



Fourteen players in the field of 30 were veterans of the 2011 contest in which a total of 127 pieces of tat were won and were awarded to the winner, Polly, who had scored eleven 2p pusher prizes with her £2.

The 2010 World £2 Tat Challenge champion, the man they call “Johnson Paul Johnson” Paul ‘Johnson Paul Johnson’ Johnson, was making his third consecutive appearance and was hoping to find the form that won him the inaugural title.

The hot blooded contest saw many of the novice players making classic rookie errors such as feeding coins too slowly, or too fast, with a few playing at a medium pace. Costly mistakes indeed. Other errors from the players saw them going after big piece of tat thinking it’s all about the quality, not the quantity. This play is known in some quarters as “the Denis Exall gambit” and has never worked.



Action



An early club house lead was taking by Will ‘Robbed’ Donnelly with an impressive eleven pieces of tat. He must of been dreaming of heading home with the grand prize, as the same quantity in the previous year’s event would of seen him crowned world champion. However 2012 was not to be the year of the young pretender.

With players pots of two penny pence pieces running dry the tournament saw players new and old resorting to the age old seaside amusement arcade practice of ‘ratting’. Brad ‘Roland Rat’ Shepherd and newcomer Craig ‘David’ Patterson were two such players who were out, then in, then out, then back in the game a number of times.

Irwin ‘Don’t call me Owen’ Johnson was another player that seemed to be endlessly back in the game after running out of cash. In fact event half an hour after the final whistle was blown and the semi-final in the Worlds Crazy Air Hockey was underway the Dudley youngster was still finding two pees to play. However with a grand total of just four bits o’ tat he’d be playing til 2013 before he neared a winning total.



More action



The strongest overseas challenge for the title came from Finland and Pasi ‘Bruiser’ Aho. He eventually finished in the Bronze medal spot with a total of 17 pieces of tat, ahead of debuting player Mrs Kelly who had a good haul of 14 pieces. A fine effort, but not enough for the win this time.

In tied 15th place Top Chris (Overseas Category) Christian ‘Anthony Pope’ Fuchs from Germany managed to win three pieces, including a rubber duck for ‘The Fox’ to take back home with him. The USA’s ‘Hacksaw’ Jon Drexler managed to avoid drawing a blank on his debut, but was languishing in tied 25th place with a solitary piece of tat.



Tat Challenger Marc 'The Force' Chapman and his (in)action figure



Former £2 Tat Challenge Champion Alan ‘Not so Stormin’ Norman (ranked 3rd in the £2 Tat Challenge Order of Merit ) and 2010 Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Champion Kevin ‘Lost in the pub’ Moseley finished in tied 29th place after both players failed to win anything at all!? Quite how this happened is anyone’s guess. Perhaps they wisely decided to save their two quid stake money for something else and just said they didn’t win.

With Richard ‘Jaws’ Gottfried and James ‘Sharkey’ Rutherford almost all square with around 20 pieces of tat going into the home straight the other players joined the crowd to watch two of the masters of the game in action. The battle was back and forth until Gottfried ran out of money and with no 2ps seen dropping to rat he had to hold his breath and wait for the final outcome sitting on a club house lead of 23 bits of tat.



The Clubhouse Lead

Hot on the heels of his win earlier in the month Rutherford seemed to be powering to success and had a never-ending pot of money. Unfortunately it and his luck ran dry as his pockets sat at the 21 pieces mark, meaning that Richard Gottfried took the win and the 166 pieces of tat haul that was won by the competitors!

Richard Gottfried and his big bag of winnings



2012 World Tat Challenge Results

Rank Player Country Tat Won
1 Richard Gottfried ENG 23
2 James Rutherford ENG 21
3 Pasi Aho FIN 17
4 Mrs Kelly ENG 14
5 Will Donnelly ENG 11
6 Scott Lancley ENG 10
7 Anna Green ENG 8
8 Steve Gow ENG 7
9 Trevor Exall ENG 6
10 Adam Kelly ENG 5
11 Keith Kellard ENG 4
11 Oliver Florence ENG 4
11 Gareth Holmes ENG 4
11 Owen Johnson ENG 4
15 Chris Jones ENG 3
15 Denis Exall ENG 3
15 Christian Fuchs GER 3
15 Craig Patterson ENG 3
19 Brad Shepherd ENG 2
19 Emily Gottfried  ENG 2
19 Marc Chapman ENG 2
19 Paul Johnson ENG 2
19 John Moore ENG 2
19 Tony Kelly ENG 2
25 Sharon ENG 1
25 David Donnelly ENG 1
25 Jon Drexler USA 1
25 Steve Sturdy ENG 1
29 Kevin Moseley ENG 0
29 Alan Norman ENG 0

Following the 2012 Worlds there is no change at the very top of the tat challenge tree as James 'Ratters' Rutherford maintains his lead with a total of 81 pieces of tat won from his five outings (an impressive 16.2 pieces per event). In second place is Richard 'Shark King' Gottfried with a total of 63 bit.

Pasi 'Pastie Jarno' Aho leaps up from 7th to 3rd with a total of 29 pieces of tat from three events. Alan 'Stormin' Norman drops from tied 3rd to 5th, with Emily 'Lemony' Gottfried moving down one from tied 3rd to 4th. The highest new entry is Mrs Kelly with an impressive debut haul of 14 bits of tat to take a share of 7th place alongside Seth 'AWOL' Thomas who was MIA. Brad 'Ratman' Shepherd and Keith 'PP' Kellard round out the top ten places with the pair tied in 9th spot.

The £2 Tat Challenge Order of Merit Rankings List

£2 Tat Challenge Hall of Fame:
#1 - Paul Johnson - 9 pieces of Tat (World Title)
#2 - Richard Gottfried - 10 pieces of Tat
#3 - Alan Norman - 6 pieces of Tat +1
#4 - Polly - 11 pieces of Tat (World Title)
#5 - James Rutherford - 40 pieces of Tat
#6 - Richard Gottfried - 23 pieces of Tat (World Title)

Note: Will Donnelly failed to submit his eleven bits of tat to the prize fund and has been issued with a public warning for disorderly conduct by the Buttons Committee.

Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championship

With no real let up between competitions the bracket for the Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championship was drawn up by Buttons Committee Executive Members Scott Lancley and Emily Gottfried.

The straight knockout event saw 16 players go head-to-head in first to seven, or until the time-limit expired matches. With three Air Hockey tables available the action came thick and fast.

In round one results:
- Johnny Waffles lost to Denis Exall 4-5
- Will ‘Robbed’ Donnelly was robbed in his match to Scott ‘Donkey Gringo’ Lancley 1-4

- Sharon beat Adam ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly in extra-time after a 2-2 draw
- Jon ‘Drex’ Drexler beat Owen ‘Do You Know’ Johnson – score unknown

- Johnson Paul Johnson bested Steve Sturdy 7-1

- Brad ‘The Fist’ Shepherd punched his way to victory with a 7-3 win over 2010 Champeen Kevin ‘Max’ Moseley
- Christian Fuchs was outfoxed by Craig ‘David’ Patterson in the battle of the newcomers, losing 4-6
- Marc Chapman wasn’t forceful enough in his losing effort to Pasty Arno 1-5

A random draw was held before the quarter finals commenced. The matches saw:
- Johnson Paul Johnson lose to The Fist 5-7

- Denis 'Simly the Best' Exall beat Sharon 6-0 in a Squire-bashing level of action

- Drex lost to Pasty 2-7 in an international incident

- Scott beat Craig 5-4

There was little pause in the action before the semi-final matches got underway. Margate’s Scott Lancley was drawn against the dangerous Finn Pasi Aho. The contest ended in a 4-4 draw. Eschewing the usual sudden-death extra-time golden-goal play-off, or a game of Rock Paper Scissors the pair settled the result with a coin toss. Pasi won.

In the second semi-final Denis ‘Last Exall Standing’ Exall beat Brad ‘The Fist’ Shepherd 7-5 to set-up an England-Finland grand final for the title of Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Champion of 2012!

The crowds gather to watch the spectacle that is the grand final of the Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championship in Hastings

With the international player champing at the bit since his arrival in Hastings he took the lead and Denis assumed the same position that faced his brother Phil in the legendary final of 2011. Denis put up a valiant effort, but it wasn’t to be for him on this occasion as Pasi Aho scored a seventh and final goal to win the match, the title and the £1 prize money with a 7-3 scoreline.



The end of the final



Pasi Aho adopting the now customary Peter Jones Champions pose

Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championships Hall of Fame:
2012 Pasi Aho (FIN)
2011 Peter Jones (WAL)
2010 Kevin Moseley (ENG) 



Pasi Aho receives his winnings from Lemony

Related Blog Posts:

Tat Challenges

- Report from the 2012 Crazy £2 Tat Challenge Open in Hastings
- 2011 Worlds £2 Tat Challenge at the Old Town Amusements in Hastings
- £2 Tat Challenges at 'The Buttons' in Hastings - May 2011
- 'The £2 Tat Challenge' at 'The Buttons' in Hastings - October 2010
Air Hockey

- Arcade Games at Star City – Air Hockey, Pool & Ping Pong

- 2011 Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championships in Hastings

- Crazy Minigolfers Play Air Hockey Tournament in Hastings
- The Undisputed International Worlds Crazy Air Squash Championships