Brisbane 4th Anniversary Cup

Brisbane Subbuteo Club  4th Anniversary WASPA Competition - 27th January 2018
Venue, Sunshine Coast, Queensland Australia

Only one of our original three founding members was present for our 4th Anniversary competition, sadly our Giuseppe has moved back to Italy and Rik’s work load kept him away.
Despite our missing comrades, we had five competitors, of which Darren (Gus’s brother) was to play for the first time in over 30 years. It would be a round robin, with the top two playing a final.
It was a very steamy day on the Sunshine Coast, and the pedestal fans didn’t really cut it, but our flicking warriors were not to be stopped.
In the first round, our November champ Andrew showed Darren how to play generously and notched a safe 2-0 win. Gerry and Shane fought out a very nervy and tight 1-0 win to Shane, Gerry historically doesn’t start too well.
The second round so our host and only founder member Gus get a 2-0 win over Shane whilst Gerry had settled his nerves and fought out a classic 3-4 with Andrew, having been 3-2 up.
The 3rd round saw Gerry get his first points beating Darren 2-1.  The two favourites for the final were in a tight battle, with Gus scoring with his first possession, only for Andrew to quickly equalise. Gus snuck 1 in just before half time to lead 2-1. What happened next was totally unexpected, Gus really got into the groove and smashed five past Andy in the second half, Gus just couldn’t miss. The score ending up 7-1 to Gus.
Round 4 saw Andrew win to secure his final birth with a 2-0 win over Shane,  whilst the Gillespie brothers had a close game (like all those years ago) with Gus coming out on top 2-1.
The last round coughed up two draws, with Gerry doing really well to get a 1-1 with Gus, Gerry leading for a good period. Darren got his only point of the day off Shane with a 0-0.
So the final was to be between Gus and Andrew, Andrew promising no repeat of his 7-1 loss. Andrew was to be proved correct, though Gus took an early lead, Andrew had the majority of possession, hitting the post twice and the crossbar once. Despite his best efforts Andrew failed to find the equaliser, and Gus held on to win 1-0 and claim back to back Anniversary Competition wins.
A very much needed cold beer and some awesome pizza went down well after. Big thanks to Shane for travelling so far with his awesome table.

(Report by Gus Gillespie)