End of Year Pretoria event with an International entry

Padro Araujo and Julian Van der Merwe

Sunday 18 November 2018, Pretoria, South Africa: 
The 2018 edition of this event attracted 11 players - 7 in the Open Section and 4 in the Promotion Section.
It was a great honour for Pretoria Flickers Club to welcome Pedro Araujo from the Portugese club OS Belenenses, as this just reinforced the spirit of this great sport of ours - to kindle new and lasting friendships!
In the Open Section both Pedro Araujo and Jayden vd Merwe won their 4 allocated matches, and as there was no "head to head" to choose from between these two players, the event was forced into a final play-off match!

Pre-tournament favourite (and 2017 defending champion), Bevin Reed did not have a good day trying out his new CLR bases and as a result only managed to win 1 of his allocated matches.
Conway Julie managed a very impressive 3rd place finish on the day!
In the final play-off match, Jayden took a 1-0 lead by the end of the first half, with Pedro equalising within the final 2 minutes of the 2nd half in what turned out to be an evenly contested and tense match-up. In the end penalty shots was required and Jayden triumphed by 3-1 shots over Pedro! In Pretoria we have been employing the "VAR" system for some time now - and Pedro's 4th shot was carefully scrutinised (slomo replay after replay after replay) to eventually make the correct call, where Jayden's 'keeper tipped the ball onto the inside of the upright without crossing the line to bounce back into play! This tiumph marks Jayden's 18th WASPA title to date!

Austin de Gama

In the Promotion Section some tightly contested matches unfolded and when Austin Da Gama beat Shaquille Barman by 2-0 in Round 2, it was clear that the 2017 winner (Shaquille) was about to relinquish his title! A clear sign of progression for Austin - as he ended bottom of the standings during the same event a year ago!
A special mention regarding the debutant Joycelle Tellie, who displayed very impressive touches on the tables all day - enough to earn him a well deserved 2nd place finish!

This event brings the curtain down for 2018 as far as PFC's club events are concerned. The next event = PFC's hosting of the 2018 SA Championships on Saturday 24th November 2018.

As always, a big thank you to all who attended to make the day a great success.
Finally….a special note of thanks to all the Pretoria players for your continued support during 2018!

The PFC website & facebook page will be updated shortly with photo's & news content at :
http://www.facebook.com/pages/PFC-SA/519566284755728

(report by Julian vd Merwe)