Report of the California Cup

Last weekend, May 2nd & 3rd, saw the coming together of the Northern and Southern California Subbuteo leagues for the first annual “California Cup” in San Francisco. This exciting inaugural event included a round-robin on day-one (allowing each NorCal and SoCal player to meet and play each other in a competitive but friendly and sporting “getting to know you” atmosphere), and two “teams” competitions on day-two consisting of mixed-teams rounds (allowing NorCal and SoCal players to join together against their own and opposing league member in a fast-paced and exciting competition) and a final, thrilling, “North vs. South” teams round, decided in the end only by a decisive “golden goal” in sudden death overtime! Despite the competitive edge, this year’s tournament focused on our two great California leagues meeting, building friendships, and looking ahead to the growth of table soccer in California. Participants enjoyed two great days of fun, comradery, and of course, plenty of Subbuteo. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who participated and made our first annual California Cup a terrific success! And special thanks to our new friend Tonny Villarreal for capturing it all so beautifully on film!

(Report by Conan Mullen)

A great come-back for David Wouters

Top 3 of the evening: Vincent Guyaux (3), David Wouters (1) and Jos Ceulemans (2)

The monthly event of the SC Flanders club took place this monday in Hofstade Zemst with 8 players taking part. The star of the evening was David Wouters who was competing in his first WASPA tournament ever after a long hiatus. Wouters had fingers on fire as he won his four games and even defeated Jos Ceulemans in the "Antwerp derby" (2-1). The final standings were as follows:
1. David Wouters (SC Flanders)
2. Jos Ceulemans (SC Stembert)
3. Vincent Guyaux (Bormla SC)
4. Geert Leys (SC Flanders)
5. Eddy Beernaert (SC Flanders)
6. Steven De Greveleer (SC Flanders)
7. Bert Feyens (SC Flanders)
8. Johan Lourdon (SC Flanders)

Monthly report of April 2015

Dear all, here is like every month the file with all WASPA results, rankings and statistics. April was another good month with 23 regional tournaments and 2 promotional tournaments. For this first time, we have a small decrease (-3) in the number of ranked players as it seems there is not much interest from players using the old rules to play in the WASPA circuit and therefore we are losing players who competed in WASPA tournaments in April 2013. It seems also 4 players from the US were ranked twice and this has been corrected now. Anyway, 28 players played their first WASPA event this year.

Click here for the golden book
Click here of the Excel file with the rankings

Action in Basel, Switzerland

Anyway, in April 2015, we were happy:
- to see great tournaments in Cyprus;
- to receive great news from Australia where the first tournament in Perth was held. Melbourne and Brisbane had also some very good events;
- to see action again in Indonesia with 8 different players;
- to have small events but great games in England;
- to have subbuteo action again in Michigan and for the first time in Indiana;- to have great tournaments in Scotland, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria;
- to see the English Association ran the Easter Cup under WASPA banner;
- to see new players in South Africa;
- to see a German player competing in Singapore;
- the event in Rome played in Swiss system had a good turnout of 16;
- there are more and more requests for promotional events.

The first WASPA event in Indiana

Thank you again for helping to promote the great game of Subbuteo table football. Remember the first WASPA event was held on May 22, 2011 and after 4 years, we have had 669 tournaments played under WASPA banner. I still can't believe it!

Let's continue to work for the development of the game. Having many small events is helping much more than having a few big events.

Sven Schilling from Germany played in Singapore and met Rudy Hesty

Don't hesitate to ask for WASPA status if you are hosting some events. Just send a request to vincent.cop@rsca.com

Please note the blog is updated almost every day at http://waspa-circuit.blogspot.com

The FISTF website is http://www.fistf.com

Have a great day and keep on flicking!

Vincent

Simone Trivelli does it again in Rome

On April 30, the 6th stage of the WASPA Lazio League was played in the premises of SS Lazio in Roma. There were 16 players competing, which is an excellent number for what was the 600th "Regional" tournament played in the WASPA circuit. Simone Trivelli ended with four wins, taking the title of the evening. The last session had a real final between Trivelli and Micael Caviglia (2-1). Patrizio Lazzaretti ended third with 9 points, just before Paolo Barone. Good performance also from Massimo De Paolis and Luigi Aniballi who ended with 7 points. The two junior players, Lorenzo Lazzaretti and Sebastian Cima, ended respectively with 6 and 4 points.

In the general ranking of the WLL, Simone Trivelli is a strong leader with 108 points but the fight for the second place is though between Patrizio Lazzaretti (86), Luigi Aniballi (84), Gianmarco Del Brocco (83) and Paolo Barone (80).

Thomas Eppensteiner wins promotional tournament

This friday a small WASPA promotional event was held in Ebreichsdorf (Austria) as a good way to prepare the International Open of Traikirchen. There was a good turnout of six with three guys from Hungary. Players decided to play three sessions in Swiss system. In the last session it came to a real final between Markus ziergoi and Thomas Eppensteiner. Markus had ball possesion most of the time, but was unlucky with two counterattacks in first half. Always one goal behind, he didn't manage to score the equalizer. Finally Thomas won the game 4-2.

The final standings were as follows:
1. Thomas Eppensteiner (Austria)
2. Markus Ziergoi (Austria)
3. Gábor Baross (Hungary)
4. Lukas Eppensteiner (Austria)
5. Zoltan Baross (Hungary)
6. Adrián Száki (Hungary)

Cyprus: Sofoklis Mougis wins promotion tournament

The U15 circuit of the Cypriot association had another tournament this sunday in Limassol with 10 young players taking part. Sofoklis Mougis finished as winner as he beat Marinos Mitellas in the final. Kyriakos Stylianou and Marios Themistokleous were the semi-finalists.

Australia: The first tournament of the Western Flickers

Western Flickers 1st WASPA tournament! (2nd May 2015)

Reported by Benny Ng (Melbourne, Australia)

The Western Flickers is a newly formed sub-group of the Melbourne Table Football Club. Arising from a casual chat between Benny Ng and Adam Deverall, the purpose of the Western Flickers is to cater for players living on the north/west side of Melbourne and provide more opportunities to play the wonderful game of table football.

The Western Flickers began with a great start today by having 5 players attend the very first meet-up and celebrated the occasion by conducting a WASPA tournament. As a first event, it was important that everyone had a chance to play each other and get to know one another better. As such, the tournament was conducted as a simple round robin single-leg league ladder.
In the historic first round of matches, Adam Deverall played Beth Everleigh while David Simpson faced off with “young star of the future” Benjamin Ng.

Playing with her brand spanking new Snipers (a superbly painted Bristol City team from Giuseppe of the Brisbane TFC), Beth showed off her lightning quick play and raced off the blocks with a win despite Adam’s valiant efforts both in attack and defence. It was a very close affair with Beth edging out Adam 1-0. As expected, the vastly more experienced David won comfortably against Benjamin 3-0 in the other match. But I have to say that Benjy displayed some truly magnificent goalkeeping!

In round 2, David and Benny played out a tight but exciting goalless draw. With similar playing styles, the game followed the pattern of recent encounters with few chances that neither could take on this occasion. In the other match, Benjamin pulled off a performance beyond his years to upset Beth 1-0. Another sign of great things to come for the young player.

In round 3, excellent flicking play by Beth could not prevent David from notching a tight 2-1 victory. Benny then unleashed a rare attacking display (normally he likes to “park the bus” ala Mourinho) to defeat Adam 3-0.

In the next round, Benny faced off against Beth for the first time and pulled off another 3-0 win. The score did not reflect the actual play though as Beth played fantastic and it was actually a tight game. Some clinical (and probably lucky) finishing from Benny made all the difference. In the other game, Adam took revenge for his earlier loss by taking it out on Benjamin (Benny junior) and winning comfortably at 3-1. Just kidding Adam! ;-)

In the final round of matches, father played son and Benny showed no mercy coming out tops 2-0. Looks like Daddy won’t be getting much hugs and kisses from his little boy the next couple of days! In the other fixture, Adam held out David to a 0-0 draw which turned out to be a crucial result as it meant that Benny would finish top of the ladder and win his very first WASPA tournament!

At the end of the day, I can proudly declare that the Western Flicker’s first gathering was a resounding success! Everyone had a really fun time in a relaxed and social environment. And as  a bonus, we managed to recruit a young new fan to the beautiful game in Adam’s boy! The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades!

GO WEST!

Final standings:
1. Benny Ng
2. David Simpson
3. Adam Deverall
4. Benjamin Ng
5. Beth Everleigh

P.S. If anyone is interested in taking part in future Western Flicker events or just popping by for chat and look-see, feel free to send Benny Ng an email at bennidokk@yahoo.com

A German guest in Singapore

The Jurong Central Subbuteo Club had its usual end-of-the-month WASPA tournament last Friday with 12 players taking part. Besides the usual group of players that had been taking part in recent months, there were three notable participants: (i) Sven Schilling, a German from the Subbuteo St. Pauli club in Hamburg who was visiting Singapore, (ii) Tan Kok Wee, President of the Table Football Association of Singapore, whose itchy fingers could not resist a flicking session on a Friday evening, and (iii) Mohd Ezan Ahmad, a veteran player and runner-up of a WASPA Futures tournament held here last year, who was taking part in his first WASPA tournament this year.
The 12 players were randomly drawn into three groups of four with the final positions in each group then moving into a separate round-robin group to determine final positions (e.g. top of each group would play one another in a second three-man group). The random draw allowed tough competition not only for our veterans but also for our more junior players, some of who were thrown into the deep end of the pool. Games were played over 20 minutes with no half-time break.

Group A consisted of Nic Tan, Henry Peh, Lim Quan Feng, and Lim Yew Seng. Nic won the group tightly through goal difference over Henry.
Group B consisted of Vikas Chandiramani, Bolkiah Musa, Tan Kok Wee and Rudy Hesty. Rudy topped the group also through goal difference over Kok Wee.
Group C consisted of Mohd Ezan Ahmad, Anas bin Rahmat, Sven Schilling and Lim Ding Heng. Anas won the group convincingly without defeat.

Rudy Hesty (winner) and special guest Sven Schilling

In the final group, Rudy won both of his games against Nic and Anas convincingly to win the tournament. Anas came in second after defeating Nic. There were also close games in the lower groups to determine final positions with shots needed to separate Kok Wee and Ezan, and Sven and Vikas.

Final Standings
1. Rudy Hesty
2. Anas bin Rahmat
3. Nic Tan
4. Tan Kok Wee
5. Mohd Ezan Ahmad
6. Henry Peh
7. Sven Schilling
8. Vikas Chandiramani
9. Bolikah Musa
10. Lim Quan Feng
11. Lim Ding Heng
12. Lim Yew Seng 

(Report by Nic Tan)

Steve Bennett did it again

This sunday's WASPA tournament in Arbroath counted as the 8th stage of the Tayuside circuit. Due to some late dropouts, there was only a small field of six players but there were many interesting games as everyone competed in a round robin of six. Steve Bennett, despite drawing with Andy Beskaby in the last session, won the tournament with 13 poitns. Andy Beskaby was second. Then came Fraser Bruce, Rob Conway, Craig Thom and Kevin Perkis. "It was really good, a lot of coaching and improvements showing in the play", commented Steve Bennett.

Peter Erb win the Wanderpokal 2015

This friday evening there was a small tournament with five players in Basel (Switzerland). There were many good games and Milan Knežević (Subbuteo Club München) was the special guest of the evening. Peter Erb took the honors and won the 4th edition of the "Wanderpokal".

More details about the club of Basel can be found http://www.subbuteo-basel-united.ch/

Final standings of the Wanderpokal 2015
1. Peter Erb
2. John Imbrogiano
3. Leo Cavallaro
4. Milan Knezevic
5. Alberto Eiris