Gus Gillespie wins in Brisbane

On a very cool Sunday morning, four friendly flickers finally fronted up to join  Pino at the home of Brisbane Subbuteo, Woody Pointe.  Sadly Andy Ridgen was not on the team sheet, get well soon Andy.  We did however have a new player turn up, travelling North from the Gold Coast, welcome to the fold Gerry Vickers. Gerry originally from NZ and a very keen ex Subbuteo player. The usual suspects Rik, Shane and Gus made up the remaining five.
Gerry being a typical Kiwi was happy to jump straight in after many years away from the game – a brief 5 minute warm up introducing the rules and he was into it. Gerry had his Parodi Base team un polished on the pitch and ready to go. He faced Shane who had travelled East to join us from Ipswich. A very friendly game then broke out with the result being 0-0, and Gerry learning lots of new rules. The other match was not a 0-0 affair, and Pino was 1-0 up within 45 seconds after a keeper blunder by Gus, can’t give Pino an inch.  Gus rallied though and put up a good fight, managing to equalise halfway through the first half. This irked Pino who promptly regained his lead from the kick off, and so it was 2-1 at half time, but a close contest. The second half was end to end, but with a couple of well taken goals by Gus, the tables had turned, and Pino was behind 3-2.  This normally triggers a Pino whirlwind, but amazingly Gus nicked a 4th. Pino did get one back to make Gus sweat but the beeper went with the score 4-3, a good come back and a great match between the two.
Rik who was the spectator for the first round came into the action, and Pino was involved in another 1 goal decided thriller, but on the wrong end again to last months champion. Shane and Gus played the other game, which is historically very close, was an unusual 4-0 win to Gus, who was obviously fired up from his rare win over Pino.
Midway through the rounds, Pino saw off Shane 2-1, Shane finally getting his first goal of the day, and Rik welcomed Gerry with a 5-1 win, but well done Gerry getting a goal against Rik in your return from the wilderness.
The penultimate round gave Gerry a chance to go up against our genial host, who gave Gerry some more pointers, but ensuring a 1-0 win to stay in with a distant chance of making the final.  The other match up saw the top two in the table go head to head. Rik took the lead against Gus in what turned out to be a very tight contest (the last time they played Rik won a tight semi  final against Gus).  Gus managed to equalise in the second half, and the game could have gone either way, but it was Gus who eked out a winner in what seemed to have been a game of two five minute halves.
The last round would have no effect on the final two as Pino had played all his games, and Shane finished with a credible 2-1 loss to Rik, whilst Gerry who ironically had borrowed Gus’s spare keeper gave the keeping performance of the day, and was definitely starting to regain his flicking mojo narrowly losing 2-0.
So after  lunch Rik and Gus faced each other , Gus’s first final since March, (the rest between Rik and Pino). Gus the only player of the day without a defeat was just happy making the final after a long absence
The game was end to end, Rik dominating at the start, but Gus worked his way back into it, and it really was even. Half time came and it was 0-0. Shortly into the second half Rik gave a free kick away just outside the shooting zone. Gus saw an opportunity and passed through Riks defence and as the ball was travelling left to right struck with an attacker which hit the ball perfectly to send the Newcastle Utd team into a 1-0 lead. Rik then seemed to step up a gear, but Gus dug in and defended as well as he could, however it wasn’t to be enough, and Rik broke through with clinical style and speed to score a great equaliser. With less than two minutes left (neither player really aware of the time, just going full on) Rik charged forward with his spare keeper which after a couple of deflections gave possession away.  Gus kept his calm (never won a penalty shoot out yet) and manoeuvred himself with a good scoring opportunity with the 5thflick, which in training would have been dispatched with aplomb, now it looked really, really, hard. It went in. Rik flicked off and 15 seconds later the buzzer went off. Gus had snatched it through a rare gaff by Rik. So a new –ish face on the winner podium (since January).
Another exciting competition, great to welcome Gerry, and it probably won’t be long before our Kiwi Bro is challenging for honors. Thanks again to our host Pino who didn't make the final but did a great job with the sausages, always a winner..  And a big shout out to Rik who has been in every final so far in 2017, he’s lost a few but won more.

(Report by Giuseppe Tardiota)