How to Play Pinball - Interview with Craig Pullen

Interview with Craig Pullen, UK Pinball Champion, starting off our series on how to play pinball. Craig covers how he got into the game from an early age, his pinball collection and favourite game, as well as how he got into competitive pinball playing.

Written By: Andy Beresford

Video Transcription:

Andy: Okay, so we're here with Craig. Craig, thanks for coming to see us and share your skills with us. Just to get a bit of background about yourself, then. Great pinball player. So in terms of starting out, how did you start out in pinball, then?

Craig: Well, when I was 13, for Christmas, my dad got me an old electrical, mechanical, nothing like these machines. It was an old 1975 bow and arrow, it was called. And he got it for Christmas, and to be honest, I didn't even know what it was. I didn't have a clue and he kind of said, it's a game of skill, rather than just going in a fruit machine and chucking your money away, he said, have a go flipping the ball around. And so he bought me that. And then within a month we had another one called the Bride of Pinball, and then they basically just escalated after that. So yeah, that was basically how I started.

Andy: Fantastic. So how's that escalated now, how many machines do you have now?

Craig: Well, I've had over 100 over the years. Since I was 13, and I'm 28 now, so that would be over 100 machines and I've currently got 24.

Andy: And they're dotted around a variety of places.

Craig: Yeah, exactly. There's nowhere near enough room in our house to have them so I've got a few at my school because I'm a teacher, I've got one at my sister's house, two in my flat, five at my parents house, yeah, all over the place. All over the place, yeah.

Andy: Fantastic. Favorite games, then?

Craig: A Rode Show, it's called. It's a '94 game made by Pat Lawlor, who is a very famous pinball designer. Yeah, it's not actually one that a lot of people really enjoy. It's just one that I got when I was 16 and it kind of just changed the way that I really thought about pinball. It was really cool. And then I really like Spiderman and Lord of the Rings. There's loads of them. Too many, that's why I've got so many, yeah.

Andy: So, you obviously play competitively as well then. When did that start?

Craig: I didn't really know that competitive pinball existed. I just always thought that it was something that was fun, it was a bit of a hobby to me, I was quite in deep with it in terms of having so many machines. Competitive pinball, I found out that there was a league, a UK league, and then about three years ago I found out that there was one in Bristol, and I'm from Bristol, so I thought I'll go along and see what this is all about, sort of thing. And there are a number of machines that I knew pretty well, and there were about 25 people that went, 30 people that went. I ended up coming 4th.

Andy: Good start.

Craig: Yeah, that was pretty cool. So I thought, maybe I'm alright at this. I didn't really know how good I was because I never really played a game against many other people. And so then I went to a few more of them and I did a little bit better. Then I kind of thought, well, okay. I started speaking to the other people who were going and found out that there's this whole kind of scene, this whole tournament scene all over the world, effectively. Obviously, these machines are made in America, so kind of the biggest pinball competition is in America. But, actually, over in Europe, there are places in Holland, Sweden, there's some really, really competitive players. In fact, he's not number one in the world now, but he was, from Italy. So there's a big European contingent that really play pinball. So then over the past three years, I basically started to go into more tournaments all around the UK and I've started travelling as well. I went over to Sweden, I've been over to Spain. I've played in a few, yeah. Some big tournaments. In Germany I played in the world championship as well.

Andy: Okay. What's been sort of the pinnacle of your achievements, then?

Craig: Well, so, I was only playing about four or five months, I managed to, I went to the UK open. There's a big tournament up north, around Coventry way in Daventry. And about 100 players played, so people traveled all over Europe, loads of people from the UK. And I entered, not thinking I was going to do much, but I actually managed to win it. So in 2011 I was the UK Champion.

Andy: That's amazing.

Craig: Yeah, that was pretty cool. So then from then, that was really the time when I started to take it seriously. I started to think, this is something I'm quite good at, why not? So then a couple of months after that it was the European championship, so basically anyone from Europe can enter. And it was being held in Madrid, in Spain, so I thought, okay, if I can get a place in that, then why not? So a few of us flew over and I have 155 competitors, including the number one in the world, and some of the best players. I managed to make it to the final and came in third. So I was third in Europe.

Andy: Brilliant.

Craig: It was pretty cool.

Andy: Yeah, that's good.

Craig: There are my kind of really main achievements. I've finished fifth in Germany and some other ones as well. Including, like, in terms of local leagues, I've been the Southwest Champion over the past few years, so yeah.

Andy: Brilliant. Well done. Well that's great. It's great to have you along. Thanks for coming in and sharing your skills with us.

Craig: No problem.

Andy: Thanks a lot.

Craig: Cool.