Better than shady land deals and contentious severance packages: When the city council in Oakland, Calif., convened last summer, one of the items on the agenda was a proposal to repeal a bylaw that forbade residents of that burg from playing pinball.
Oakland’s ban, which council members voted unanimously to lift, dated back to the Dirty Thirties — an era when pinball was viewed in many circles as a form of gambling.
“Pinball was illegal in lots of places for years,” says Rick Exner, a Winnipegger who manages an online forum (www.wpgpinball.forumotion.ca), which caters to pinball aficionados in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. “Pinball wasn’t allowed in New York (City) until 1976, I believe, and Chicago, too, even though that’s where most of the machines were being built.”
The second annual Ontario Provincial Championship will be taking place in Newmarkey, Ontario on Feb 7th 2015!
In conjunction with this event will be a 9 Hole Pingolf tournament!
This is an objective based tournament which each ball that you play counting as a stroke.
The player with the lowest stroke count at the end of the tournament will win the PCS Pingolf tournament!
Even though this is running in Conjunction with the Ontario PCS, you do not need to be qualified in the PCS in order to attend.
The Pingolf tournament will be the first opportunity to get some WPPR points for the 2015/2016 Ontario PCS!
There will be no limit on how many times you attempt to play in the tournament, but only your lowest total score will count.
Each attempt will be $10
Prizes will be paid out as follows:
1 – 50% of Prize Pool
2 – 25% of Prize Pool
3 – 15% of Prize Pool
4 – 10% of Prize Pool
Machines and objectives are still TBD, but will be published ahead of time.
The event will start at noon on Feb 7th and end 1 hour after the completion of the Ontario PCS.
Thanks to Luch for hosting everyone again in his now more spacious basement. Expanding into a second room means more space to move, but it also means more space for pins, which I’m sure Mike will be filling in the coming months.
Happy new year to everyone, and welcome back to the second half of the season. Thanks to Andrew for hosting this week-it’s great to have him back as a host, and it was a good chance to play some really well restored games that aren’t as common for the league.
Thanks to Kim for hosting everyone for the last regular TOPL week of the year. We had a group of 20 regulars this week (both old and new members), and had plenty of time to give Kim’s games a workout.
Thanks to Eddie for once again hosting the league this week, and for keeping everyone fed through the night. Also, welcome to Jeff, who came out to his first league night this week, and welcome back to Jennifer, who was in from out of town for her semi-annual drop in league night.
Thanks to Adam for hosting this week, and for the usual food and hospitality. We had another good week with 20 people out, and at 1/3 of the way through the season we’ve had 41 players so far.
Thanks to Chris for having everyone out to his place this week! The central location meant a big turnout, so almost all of his games were in league play. It’s also not often that a new pinball machine gets released these days, so the first chance at a new machine is always interesting. While the version of the Walking Dead that we played will probably bear little resemblance to what the “final” game turns out to be, it was still a fun machine with steep ramps and a pretty nasty prison magnet. While we couldn’t put everyone’s league group on the game (since we would have been there until midnight), at least just about everyone had a chance to get a shot at it in free play, and I’m also sure that this won’t be the last time we’re at Frolic’s.
Also, welcome to Mike, who made it out to his first TOPL night this week. Hope to see you out again!
Thanks again to Nick for having everyone out to his place this week, and to everyone who made it out despite the snow (which was more substantial the further north you got). We also had four new players this week, so welcome to Larry, Peter, Nick, and Eric (who has been out before, but it’s been a while).
