Western Flickers 10th WASPA - 2017 Kick-off

January 8, 2017

Saying Goodbye to the old...

Western Flickers kicked off the first WASPA tournament for 2017 by bidding farewell to one of the original club venues in Altona. The house – belonging to one of our founding members – has been the location of one of our biggest WASPA to date and also numerous Friday Flicks. It was indeed sad to bid the old lady farewell. Despite a couple of last minute scratches, there was still a relatively good turnout of 7 flickers – including a rare appearance by Australia’s number 1 ranked table footballer Peter Thomas. As usual, there was also a Junior category for our young flickers.

A rising star, a stunning upset and a dominant champion

In the first stage of the Open category, the players were split into 2 groups with the top 2 seeds – Benny Ng and Peter Thomas – heading the groups. The group matches went as per WASPA rankings, but special mention to Christos Garagounis who continued his rise in the local table football scene by pipping veteran and former Victorian champion Paul Mercer to second spot in Group A.

Meanwhile in the Junior category, both Benjamin Ng and Harrison Briffa overcame Alex Briffa by the same 1-0 score line. Credit must be given to Alex for showing significant improvement and giving the slightly older boys a hard fight. So that meant that the Benjamin-Harrison match would be a winner takes all affair. It was a tight affair with both boys having gilt-edged chances. In the end, a single goal was all that separated the boys and Benjamin emerged the victor.

The top 2 in each Open category group faced off in the semi-finals in the Championship pool. Peter accounted for Christos easily as expected, but the thriller was in the other semi-final where Benny faced off with his jinx player and Western Flickers co-founder – Adam Deverell. Benny dominated the match but Adam negated much of Benny’s attacking play with some excellent defending. The match ended 1-1 and went to a penalty shootout which Adam won in sudden death shots.
In the Plates pool, Kevin just pipped Simon to earn a match against Paul for 4th spot. In the subsequent match, Paul Mercer demonstrated his vast experience by winning comfortably.

In the grand finale, Peter showed no mercy as he defeated Adam easily in a frightening attacking display to clinch the opening WASPA title for 2017!

Onwards!

Thanks to all who attended for helping to make it another extremely successful Western Flickers WASPA event. All the matches were played in friendly spirit with top quality table football play on display. What a great way to kick off 2017!
We look forward to more exciting developments in the continued growth of the Western Flickers. Till next time .. GO PELICANS!

The final tournament standings are:

Open Category
1. Peter Thomas
2. Adam Deverell
3. Benny Ng
4. Christos Garagounis
5. Paul Mercer
6. Kevin Grant
7. Simon Briffa

Junior Category
1. Benjamin Ng
2. Harrison Briffa
3. Alex Briffa

P.S. If anyone is interested in taking part in future Western Flickers events or just popping by for chat and look-see, please visit the Western Flickers Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/WesternFlickers/) and send us a message.