Cape Town Open 2018

This past Sunday saw the 5th edition of the Cape Town Open. This year’s event saw one of the smaller fields to date (9 players), but definitely the most competitive. All three previous winners were present, including German visitor Sven Schilling from Subbuteo St. Pauli, and current South African champ Clifford Graaff from the Johannesburg Eagles Club.

Special mention should also be made of Nick van den Berg, a Dutch visitor and the only novice to take part. He had a wonderful time even though he didn’t manage to score too many goals, and has promised both to look up some players / clubs on his return to Holland, and also to come back and play in South Africa.

Group A proved to be a very tight affair, with it all coming down to the last two games to decide who would progress to the next round.

The toughest game in Group B was undoubtedly the one between Wayne and John, with the former just failing to equalise by hitting the post in the dying seconds, and the latter collapsing exhausted into a chair at the buzzer.

John had done enough however to force his way into the semi-finals along with the three previous winners, Sven, Clifford and Clinton. Clifford beat Clinton on penalties after a tense 1-1 draw, and Sven beat John 2-0. The final was a very close affair, with much enthusiastic spectator banter. Sven finally took it by the only goal, giving him his second CT Open title.

A special word of thanks once again to Lee from the Conference centre at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa, for the wonderful venue.