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Episode 327: Peter Blakemore

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·21m 20s·analyzed·Dec 30, 2021
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TL;DR

Peter Blakemore interview: English competitive player, club owner, World Championship veteran.

Summary

Jeff Teolis interviews Peter Blakemore, a veteran English competitive pinball player who has represented England at multiple World Championships since 2008. They discuss his journey from casual judo player to league winner, his ownership of Special Unlit Club (a 25-29 machine pinball arcade in Salisbury with machines spanning from 1962 to modern), his tournament successes including a major win at Finland's EPC Classics event with 300 competitors, and his perspectives on the evolving competitive scene and rules complexity in modern pinball.

Key Claims

  • Peter has been playing competitive pinball since 2008 after discovering it through a UK pinball league started in 2007

    high confidence · Peter directly states his competitive pinball start date and how he learned about it through Facebook and a UK league

  • Peter won his first two pinball league meets before finishing nowhere in the third, ultimately placing second in his first league season

    high confidence · Peter recounts the specific sequence of events: won first meet, won second meet, got nowhere in third, then finished second overall due to a hungover performance at Dave Rolfe's event in Wales

  • Peter won the EPC Classics event in Finland with approximately 300 competitors after qualifying 54th in a four-game qualifying format with 96 people advancing

    high confidence · Peter describes the tournament structure, qualifying position, and knockout rounds leading to his win

  • Peter owns and operates Special Unlit Club in Salisbury with 25-29 pinball machines ranging from a 1962 Williams Space Station to modern LCD games

    high confidence · Peter explains starting the club to manage his growing collection, describes the specific machines available including Metallica LE, Star Wars LE, Medieval Madness, and others

  • Martin from Pinball News was the UK's top-ranked player for approximately 12 years and was unbeaten during that time before retiring from competitive play

    high confidence · Jeff and Peter discuss Martin's historical dominance, his brief overtaking by another player, and his subsequent retirement to spend more time with family

  • IFPA now restricts World Championship selection to typically the top 5 players per country (previously allowed dropping further down the rankings)

    medium confidence · Peter explains the tightened selection criteria to prevent higher-ranked players from being displaced, though he states 'normally' suggesting this may vary

  • Special Unlit Club charges £5 entry for 2-hour sessions split across Friday nights from 6:30pm to 10pm

    high confidence · Peter specifies the pricing and session structure for casual players

Notable Quotes

  • “I didn't know competitive pinball existed until somebody on Facebook posted... in 2014. How did you know about it in 2008?”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~11:30 — Illustrates the contrast between early competitive pinball knowledge (Peter in 2008 via UK leagues) versus later broader awareness (Jeff in 2014 via Facebook)

  • “I had an absolute fantastic day and I went away thinking I'll be happy if I finish mid-table in that meet and I'll have done myself proud. I actually won it.”

    Peter Blakemore @ ~13:45 — Peter's humble entry into competitive pinball and surprising success at his first league event

  • “When you buy a machine, they multiply... you've got a third one and a fourth one, so you put one at a friend's, you take one into work... so you've got four folding machines in your house. And you go, okay, maybe I need to do something about this.”

    Peter Blakemore @ ~32:15 — Describes the common collector experience that led to starting Special Unlit Club

  • “I'm looking in your back pocket right now, and you're wondering why I'm looking there, because you have this towel dangling... that's from IFPA 13 from Pittsburgh 2016 and you're still carrying it.”

    Jeff Teolis @ ~3:45 — References Peter's keepsake from a past World Championship, demonstrating his long tenure in competitive pinball

  • “It's the pinnacle... you get all the best players there and that's where I want to be and so I try and do my best to get into a position where I can actually go”

    Peter Blakemore @ ~55:30 — Expresses the prestige and importance of the World Championship in the competitive pinball scene

  • “He'd fly to the States, go into a big competition, get lots of more points, and then that closeness suddenly ended up being a big gulf.”

    Peter Blakemore @ ~63:45 — Describes Martin's competitive strategy of maintaining dominance by traveling for high-point tournaments

  • “I get to see all my friends for the first time in two years, and I also get to support Bulls and Balls and Matthias. They survived the COVID lockdown and come out strong.”

Entities

Peter BlakemorepersonJeff TeolispersonSpecial Unlit CluborganizationSalisburyorganizationMartinpersonEPC ClassicseventIFPAorganizationWorld ChampionshipeventBulls and Ballsevent

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Peter maintains active role as Special Unlit Club owner providing community hub in Salisbury with regular Friday night sessions at affordable pricing

    high · Peter describes operating club every Friday 6:30-10pm, £5 for 2-hour sessions, 25-29 machines maintained, helping with basket case restorations

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Peter expresses concern that complex modern rule sets and Keith Elwin's detailed rule updates may be discouraging older players from continuing competitive pinball

    medium · Peter notes 'even now with all the new ones that Keith Alwyn keeps producing with the real debut rule set, I know it's got a lot of older people going, maybe it's getting a bit past us now'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: IFPA tightened World Championship country selection criteria from lower-ranked fallback selection to typically top-5 requirement per country to prevent displacing high-ranked international players

    medium · Peter explains 2007-era selection would go down the order until finding someone willing to travel; now restricted to ~top 5 to maintain competitiveness

  • $

    market_signal: Post-COVID venue recovery evident with Bulls and Balls surviving lockdown and reopening strong, drawing international competitive players for gathering after 2-year absence

    high · Peter states he's at Bulls and Balls to 'see all my friends for the first time in two years' and to 'support Bulls and Balls and Matthias' who survived COVID

  • $

    market_signal: Star Wars LE replacement board costs were 'horrendously expensive' until 18 months-2 years ago when Spike 2 MPU/Node board pricing became more affordable, shifting Peter's purchasing behavior back toward LCD games

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.064

0:00
it's time for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff teals you can find everything on pinballprofiles.com all past episodes subscriptions and more we're on twitter and instagram at pinball profile you can email us pinballprofile at gmail.com please check out our facebook group this is a great opportunity for me to talk to one of england's finest players and for many years Peter Blakemore joins us. Hi, Peter, how are you? Yeah, I'm good, thanks, and that's very complimentary. Thank you. Well, thank you for the pounds. I appreciate that, too. That goes a long way, the currency exchange. No, it's all true, because you've represented England many times at the World Championship. In fact, I'm looking in your back pocket right now, and you're wondering why I'm looking there, because you have this towel dangling, and I looked at the towel, and I went, that's the Pittsburgh Steelers' terrible towel. and I looked carefully, no, no, no, that's from IFPA 13 from Pittsburgh 2016 and you're still carrying it. It's a great keepsake of being at the World Championships. Yes, I've brought a few of those this weekend, one for each day. Very nice. Did you grab one when you were in Canada as well too because you were there? No, only those that partake can have one. Seriously? They only made that many? Yes. I didn't realize. Likewise with the T-shirts. Well, no, you could buy them beforehand. All right, here's a little story. You're not supposed to. They were selling them on IFPA. So I bought one, and then when I actually made the tournament for IFPA 15, and I say make that as a reserve who happened to get in. Thank you, Herbert from Austria. Yeah, I had already bought a shirt, so I didn't get another one, which I probably should have because it had the dates and everything on the back. Stupid me. But anyway, you have played in world championships, and you like traveling for pinball. Where are some of your favorite places you've played? Here, Polder. Absolutely top-notch. Almost the Mecca of Europe at the moment. I did like Adam Beckers. He's got a fantastic set-up there. Casey Jay in Minnesota was a very nice set-up. And Todds, of course. Tom McCulloch. Yeah. Oh, out in Washington State, yeah. Bainbridge Island. Were you at that World Championship? I was, yeah. Okay, so that was the one, I think, 2012, maybe? Yep, that's right. You've been in this such a long time. 2008, competitive pinball. For me, and I've told the story before, and I'll do it briefly here on Pinball Profile, I didn't know competitive pinball existed until somebody on Facebook posted. So that was 2014. How did you know about it in 2008? I was part of, well, I looked in rec games pinball. Yes. Originally, and much from afar. and then a few UK chaps went abroad to one or two of the Opens, like Dutch Open, German Open, came back to the UK and said, oh, we should start a pinball league. And so in 2007, they started a pinball league. I watch from afar. My other sport is judo. Judo? Yep. And my year in 2007, well, my weekends were judo events and so I wasn't able to go to any pinball. And they finished the first season the second season started and I found that I could go to the first event I thought great that's it, sorted and the first event was at a chap's place called Greg Mott and I got in touch beforehand went down there just like you might for the first time and he had a real fabulous games room glow in the dark carpet with the UV light fantastic array of games which I hadn't seen for 10 years maybe 15 years when I used to go down to the pub have a pint and play a few games and so there I was and I had an absolute fantastic day and I went away thinking I'll be happy if I finish mid-table in that meet and I'll have done myself proud. I actually won it. Nice. And it was like okay maybe I need to prove that's not a fluke. I'll go to the second meet if I'm available and I was, so I went and I won that one as well and then no one ever told you about events ever again you said, no, nothing's going on Peter you've got judo to do but then the third meet, I got absolutely nowhere oh, ok but you stuck with it, 2 out of 3 yeah, that's right back then it was, well it still is 6 league meets in a season and the last event was Dave Rolfe's in Wales and he used to have a fantastic little shed at the bottom of their garden he actually rented out a mill and they had very nice grounds for people to visit and then he had a shed full of classic valleys and he eventually started doing the Welsh Classic tournament which all of the UK used to turn out at but anyway his last lead me to the season for the South West League we went to Dave's, we partied the night away Saturday night in the middle of Wales in the middle of nowhere there's no nightclubs nothing so everyone from miles around used to come to this shed of his play pinball he had a little dance floor he loved DJing getting the Blues Brothers on everyone partying the night away drank too much absolutely annihilated all the machines with massive scores and of course it was a lean meat the following day Oh boy. hungover barely flipped straight managed the respectable result but it dropped me down to second in the league that time so didn't quite win the league that first time out but i can see how you were easily hooked and that's amazing that again i didn't even know people had machines back in the mid 2010s so the eyes have been open and there are people always getting pinball now that are just finding out about it. And it's come a long ways, as you've seen, from playing all your life, but even competitively, the rules have really changed so much with the modern games. It's a lot more difficult, and you really have to have rules knowledge. Yes, yes, you do. And even now with all the new ones that Keith Alwyn keeps producing with the real debut rule set, I know it's got a lot of older people going, maybe it's getting a bit past us now, Maybe we should just back off and concentrate on something else, possibly. Lawn bowling or something, right? Yeah, yeah, that's right. Or judo. Judo, really? Maybe I could still see you doing judo, because if anybody's ever watched Peter play pinball and he's doing well, it's not exactly judo moves, but you mentioned at that Wales party there was some singing and dancing. You do that in pinball. You've been known to dance on a successful game or two. Indeed. as do all the players even last night This is Frank Bona from France That's right, he was dancing last night You were both playing Scared Stiff you actually both got to Scared Stiff the wizard mode too Frank's been doing very very well and I guess you would cross paths with him a lot here in Europe I mean you're in England, here we are in Germany it's only what, an hour flight? Yes, that's right So it's easy for you to get here, even though you're not part of the EU anymore.

  • Star Wars LE replacement boards were horrendously expensive until about 18 months to 2 years ago when Spike 2 MPU and Node board costs became more affordable

    medium confidence · Peter describes his experience with Star Wars LE costs and subsequent shift back to purchasing LCD games after board prices dropped

    • Peter Blakemore @ ~72:30 — References post-COVID recovery in the pinball venue/tournament scene

    Bainbridge Island
    event
    Greg Mottperson
    Dave Rolfeperson
    Frank Bonaperson
    Flipcompany
    Metallica LEproduct
    Star Wars LEproduct
    Medieval Madnessproduct
    Scared Stiffproduct
    Pinball Profileorganization
    Dark Shadowproduct

    medium · Peter explicitly states he 'went away from' LCD games due to Star Wars replacement costs, but is 'now venturing out into possibly buying more' after costs dropped

  • ?

    technology_signal: Shift in EM/vintage board replacement landscape with Flip (France-based company) providing affordable replacement boards with protection features for System 80/classic games

    medium · Peter states he can now buy new boards from Flip/Pascal for System 80 games, making vintage machine maintenance more accessible and sustainable

    • 7:32
    Did that actually make it difficult? It does. I remember talking to Jim Lindsay about how he had to get a new license. Yeah. I was in doubt to travel here because the computer said no. And so when I went to check in online for the aircraft, they said, have you got a visa for traveling to Europe? Which you never would have had to have. Correct. And we still don't need to. So the computer is still passing. Is there a grace period of time? Is that why you don't? Oh, but you will eventually. We will, yes. Coming in next year. Yeah, they've got to get their money somehow, don't they? Indeed. Yeah, oh well. It's equivalent to the U.S. ESTA system, where if you visit the States, you've got to sign up on ESTA to be allowed to go into the country. When you came to Canada, did you have to get one? No. That's right. You're welcome in Canada. Come on, everybody. Come on. But you do travel. In fact, I know Finland has to be a place that you certainly like because that's one of your biggest wins ever. the EPC Classics event, a big, big field. 300. 300 people. Yeah. What was the format for that? You were given four games for qualifying. Sorry, that's it? Four games? They gave you four games to qualify on. Because there were so many people? Because there were so many people. And then the top qualifiers in each group, and they qualified something like 96 people. So you were in a group? and you had to win that group to move on to the next level? You had to be high up enough. I was, with all the groups merged, I don't know how it worked, but all the groups were merged and positions and everything. And I think I qualified about 54th. And then made it all the way to the top. Because you didn't have any choice in the games that you were given. Oh, boy. So you just had to do the best. And, folks, this is classic. So maybe some EMs were house balls are the norm. Indeed, yeah. And then you had a couple of rounds of knockout, where the bottom 32 played each other, then the next 16 played them, and then the last 16. So if you were in the top 16, I think you had two buys, and if you were in the top 16 to 32... It's kind of like if anybody's been to Pinberg, and I wish that was still around, but they used to do that. They had 40 people, and they were a lot of buys there, but some people would have the two buys. But that's amazing that you made it. You just kind of... Well, you didn't just get in, but you made the playoffs, and to go from there, it's different. I've said this before. Sometimes I've been the bus driver. I've done really well in qualifying and then just blown it all in the playoffs. Other times I just squeak in, and then there's no pressure, and you just kind of go from there. And you've had those kind of successes as well. Oh, yes, that's right. Even here at Bowls and Balls, you're in a tiebreaker to get into the classics. That's right. There is nine people in the qualifying slots with seven qualifying and I scraped in at position seven. And then you had to play the top seed. Played the top seed and knocked him out, much to his disgust. Seed? Sorry Toby Yeah that the thing When you squeak in there no pressure It unbelievable But you know you still have to perform I know you were talking about your leagues in England Good friend, Neil McRae, I've seen what he's done at his place in London. And you're in Salisbury, which is really close to Stonehenge. Which, by the way, I've been to Stonehenge. And I wanted to see it because I'm a huge Spinal Tap fan. It's my favorite movie of all time. Peter's going, what? It's my favorite movie ever. So I'm in England. I've got to go to Stonehenge, went, and I was like, oh, that's it. Okay, move on. And then as we drive away, you can see it from the road. So I was like, oh, that was a waste of my, but anyway, I was glad I did. But you're right near there in Salisbury with the world's tallest cathedral, maybe? Yes, that's correct. It was the tallest cathedral in Europe for many years. Oh, okay. It's a world-famous Salisbury Cathedral, medieval. But you've got this club there, Special Unlit Club, and what's going on there? Well, as everyone knows, pinball's a hobby. and it gets out of control. And so when you buy a machine, they multiply. Yes. And when you live in a toast house like I do with no garage, you can have a couple in the house, but you've got a third one and a fourth one, so you put one at a friend's, you take one into work. You take one to work? Yeah. And then you're not allowed to keep them there, and they all come home, so you've got four folding machines in your house. And you go, okay, maybe I need to do something about this. So I hired an industrial unit and set them up, and started a pinball club, now known as Special Unlit. And is this yours, or are you with anybody else on this? No, this is myself. That's a big undertaking for you. Yes, I've got a couple of helpers, and I've got some people that have donated or loaned machines, and I look after them, and, you know, sort of like 25 to 29 machines set up, just depending on the situation at the time, because a wheeling deal, selling pinball machines, buying pinball machines, doing pinball machines. I like getting basket cases and getting them working again. So you're really handy that way. Yeah. I have to be if I've got 29 machines to keep going. Is that with all eras of pinball machine or are you special everything? Yeah. The oldest one I've got, admittedly it's not set up at the moment, is Space Station 1962 Williams. It's scoring on the back glass. It's not even the end. Oh, wow. I don't even know if I've ever seen that one before. So there you go. You're repairing those. Do you find it easier repairing EMs versus new games? I do like the 80s GotLibs, the System 80s. So I've got a nice System 80 collection. So that's an easy game to fix? Yeah, basic electronics.
    13:23
    And now they're even easier to fix. You can actually just buy the new boards from Pascal. or I should say Flip is the company in France. Okay. And yeah, they resurrect a lot of games now. And of course, they look after them because they've got the protection features in them, stop coils burning out and things like that. Oh, boy. So you have done a few streams yourself, not on Twitch, but on YouTube. What have you done? I've recorded a lot at the moment. I've got a few on my site, especially on YouTube. I've done a sample of Dark Shadow, which is quite a rare pinball. Another one I haven't heard. Yeah, and some virtual pinball reproduction people got hold of me and said they wanted to reproduce Dark Shadow because it's very unusual, very little known. So I did quite a bit of streaming to allow them to figure out the play field and sent them lots of photos and everything. And they've got very nice reproduction of Dark Shadow now. That's amazing because people will come across machines and a lot of times they'll look on YouTube Okay, how does this play? What is it? If especially if it's a title they don't know and you might have one of the only videos of that. Yes, that's right So at the club, is it more casual? Is it open a couple nights a week? Do you have tournaments there? What are you doing? We do it a lot. We normally open every Friday night half six till half ten So four hours break that down into sessions So if someone doesn't want to spend the whole evening there, they're not paying for the whole evening. It's normally £5 entry for two hours. That's a great deal. Yeah. They can pre-play any machine that's there. So we've got Metallica LE. We've got Star Wars LE.
    15:10
    Attack of the Mars. Medieval Madness. Monster Bash. Scared Stiff. Then all the classics. So we've got Fathom. We have the Sea Witch. We've sold that now.
    15:22
    At the moment, we've got a nice little array of Star Trek's. We've got Bully, the Data East, and Next Gem. A good mix for sure. Okay, so you got rid of the Sea Witch. Is that because when they came out with the Beatles, and you being in England, you had to switch it up with the Fab Four? Or do you have Led Zeppelin? What other English groups do you have? Do you have Iron Maiden? What are these English bands that are really great pinball machines? That's a very good point. I haven't got any. No, we got Metallica, which is obviously one of the top games. Oh yeah. And we recently got JP2 Yeah I slowly expanding the LCD line I went away from them We had a problem with Star Wars LE and the cost of replacement boards was horrendously expensive and then they brought them down about 18 months ago, two years ago. And now the Node boards and the MPU boards for Spike 2 are more affordable. so I'm now venturing out into possibly buying more despite two games. Peter, I know you are possibly going to be going to IFPA 17 in Florida. It's an alternate thing right now but who knows if somebody drops out Peter could be there but you've got to be excited that IFPA 18 is coming to Germany because there's a lot of great tournaments in Germany and people are really stepping up their games like here. So the World Championship, is that your favourite tournament? it is yes it's the pinnacle you get all the best players there and that's where I want to be and so I try and do my best to get into a position where I can actually go so we mentioned Bainbridge Island earlier and Todds I first learnt of that in the UK when the World Championships was in the UK and it was in three years time so it was UK one year States next Europe next year and Tod's in the States and so I had a three year plan to get myself high up enough to be guaranteed a slot in that world championships and that was my goal and I achieved it It's a tough grind, there's so many good players now it's really tough Yes it is, but it was easier back then as we just required the top two in the country and even if I wasn't the top two those that weren't keen to travel. Sure. Expense or they don't like aeroplanes or whatever. So they used to go down the order until they found someone.
    18:00
    Josh has cut back on that. They normally now say they've got to be within the top five of the country. Oh. Can't normally let them drop too much. I didn't know that. Yeah. It's tightened down a lot because the scene's grown. It's more competitive. You get more of the high-ranked players. Getting someone really low ranked in a country is depriving a higher ranked player from elsewhere in the world. So he's trying to restrict how many you drop down in a country. So your country director is Martin from Pinball News. And, you know, I always see him behind the scenes, but I had no idea the competitive side of Martin. He's been the UK's top player since the ranking started. He was number one for the best part of, I think, 12 years. and he was unbeaten in that time.
    18:50
    But is he still playing today? No. I didn't think so. No. But in that time, there were some people that got very close within a few points, and then he would go... He put the foot down. He would put the foot down. He'd fly to the States, go into a big competition, get lots of more points, and then that closeness suddenly ended up being a big gulf. and so just before he retired he was overtaken for a very brief period and then got his mainly because someone delayed getting the results in in Europe he had a good result in Europe and then they took like six eight weeks to filter them through I think there's a 30-day window now because of things like that yeah but back then there wasn't and so he lost out for I think it was about a week. Still quite a run. Yeah, he met a very nice lady and found that pinball was taking too much time and that he needed to spend a bit more time away from pinball, not away from pinball, away from the competitive scene and encourage other interests. Hey, as long as you're happy, that's the main thing, isn't it? Absolutely. I got to tell you, Peter, it's great to finally talk to you and spend some time with you. It's really nice just to spend time with anybody, but you in particular, and this is certainly a great mass gathering here at Bulls and Balls. That's one of the reasons why I'm here, because I get to see all my friends for the first time in two years, and I also get to support Bulls and Balls and Matthias. They survived the COVID lockdown and come out strong and it's great to see everyone here. Yeah, so hey, that's a good message for anybody, anywhere whether it's an arcade, whether it's a club whether it's a tournament. If they're up and going right now and you have a chance to support them, anything you can do would be a great idea. Peter, great to talk to you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com, Twitter, Instagram at pinballprofile, email us pinballprofile at gmail.com and check us out on Facebook. I'm Geoff Teolas.