Saturday 19 August 2017, Pretoria, South Africa
A cold, windy August Saturday afternoon saw the return of Subbuteo action in the capital city after a two month break - and the return brought with it a record equaling number of participants, some last minute strikes, a 3-way shootout to determine the day's winner and an opportunity to meet new friends!
The event was played under the theme "Cup of Nations" and attracted 14 participants, equaling our previous highest number set in August of 2016 - maybe the month of August has something to do with it?The event started with Jayden vd Merwe & Bevin Reed playing a good tactical match which ended 0-0. Match 2 saw Kegan vd Merwe defeat the much fancied Chessray Jooste by 1-0, thanks to a strike with just 2min left to play. At the end of Round 1 matches Osvaldo van Niekerk was surprisingly top of the standings thanks to a 2-0 victory over Antonio Abdeziet.
By the end of Round 2 matches, Kegan, Osvaldo and Bevin occupied the top 3 places (in that order) after recording further wins. Round 3 saw the top 2 clash with Kegan v Osvaldo - the result of 0-0 emphasising that Osvaldo is no longer a "push over" ! That 0-0 result suddenly paved the way for Bevin to go top after a convincing 3-0 Round 3 victory over Adam Murray!
Osvaldo grabbed everybody's attention with a 1-0 Round 4 victory over Stanton Nortjie (the 2016 PFC's Most Improved Player) - a result which saw Osvaldo occupy 1st place again with a tally of 7 points ! Bevin then battled to a hard fought 1-0 victory over Marlin Boyd to join Osvaldo with 7 points. Jayden then relied on a full time strike to dispatch an in-form Kegan by 1-0, to join Osvaldo & Bevin on 7 points - and thereby forcing the event into a 3-way shootout, as if we did not have enough drama during the event already!
Results of the 3-way shootout :
Osvaldo 1 v 2 Jayden
Bevin 2 v 3 Jayden
Osvaldo 1 v 3 Bevin
Jayden was able to hold his nerve during the shootouts to clinch the 2017 Gold Cup !!!
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| Julian and Gary Downs |
Jayden vd Merwe
Bevin Reed
Osvaldo van Niekerk
Kegan vd Merwe
Chessray Jooste
Adam Murray
Stanton Nortjie
Conway Julie
Rowin Wilson
Julian vd Merwe
Sherwin Reed
Marlin Boyd
Imtiaz Ahmed
Antonio Abdeziet
The highlight of the day has to be Osvaldo van Niekerk's overall improvement as a player - playing in only his 5th tournament, he constantly found himself within the top 3 spots all day and enjoyed an undefeated run. His efforts to clinch 3rd place overall was recognised when he was awarded the PFC club shirt!
The day's other highlight was the meeting between Julian vd Merwe and Gary Downs - our visitor from the Eastern part of the Gauteng Province. The Pretoria Flickers Club will support Gary in any possible way in his efforts to establish the EASTERNS TFC!
Lastly…. Jayden is showing a real affinity towards this event, the Gold Cup….as proven by his track record in this event. In 2015 the event was played under the theme "Copa America" and Jayden won the title playing in the colours of Mexico. In 2016 the event was played under the theme "EURO 2016", and it was Jayden who again proved too strong playing in the colours of Belgium. This year he completed the hat-trick of wins for this event - playing in the colours of his Netherlands set!
As always, a big thank you to all who shared this memorable day with us.
And a special thanks to Gary Downs for making the 60km or so trip to visit the Pretoria Flickers Club!
The PFC website & facebook page will be updated shortly with photo's & news content at :
http://pfctest.leaguerepublic.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/PFC-SA/519566284755728
(report by Julian vd Merwe)
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