Italy: results from Borgo Vercelli and Firenze

Riccardo Bruno receives his award for his victory

Italy has been active in the WASPA circuit in December with tournaments held in Borgo Vercelli and Firenze.

The Christmas Cup in Borgo Vercelli had two categories in the books. The Open section consisted in a group of five with Riccardo Bruno finishing on top to claim his first WASPA title.

Open category standings:
1. Riccardo Bruno
2. Ferdinando Marino
3. Andrea Gennari
4. Gabriele Montaldi
5. Alberto Cirio

The Junior players together during the presentation of prizes

Alessandro Cirio
receives his medal
from Paolo Milan

The Junior section had a turnout of 6 players with a group stage and then knock-out games. Alessandro Cirio defeated Edoardo Montaldi in the final (2-1) while Marco Tagliavini won the game for the third place against Gabriele Saveriano. Matteo Comello won the game for the 5th place against Edoardo Beccati.

Thanks to Andrea Lessona for the good work to organize the event!

Luigi Di Vito (Eagles Napoli) winner in Firenze

In Firenze, the local club had the visit of Luigi Di Vito in the beginning of the month and the tournament organized under WASPA banner was played in Swiss system by 9 players. Luigi Di Vito proved to be the best player after winning three game and sharing points against local organizer Marco Bonciani.

Final standings of the Firenze tournament:
1. Luigi Di Vito
2. Gabriele Casati
3. Matteo Cherici
4. Stefano Barducci
5. Mirko Masini
6. Marco Bonciani
7. Francesco Gori
8. Tiberio Becucci
9. Mirko Pasquini

Terje Ellefsen wins Romjulscup in Norway

Sørensen (on the left) and Schjølberg. The luckiest price winners

Brekke (left) against Schjølberg

The "Romjulscup '19" was played on the 28th of December in Kragerø, Norway. Organizers decided to go for a NBFF+WASPA tournament again. It was a very nice tournament played in a round robin format. Hosts had sponsored prices for all players that were randomly picked. The most lucky one was Sørensen who won a cruise for 4 people from Larvik to Bergen with Fjordline. Second most lucky was Schjølberg who won a wireless charger for cellphone. :-) The most exciting match was probably the narrow 4-3 win for Brekke against Sørensen. Sørensen who made a comeback last month after 10 years away from the sport is already showing signs of old greatness. Sørensen was the junior Champion of Norway in 1994 and played in the Paris World Cup the same year. It will be very interesting to see how his form develops in the coming weeks and months. The two other comeback players F. Ellefsen and Schølberg plus the beginner Aabøe are also making good progress for every game.

Finals standings:
1. Terje Ellefsen (Kragerø BFK)
2. Svein Arne Brekke (Skien Wildcats)
3. Fredrik Sørensen (Kragerø BFK)
4. Frode Ellefsen (Kragerø BFK)
5. Geir Kristian Aabøe (Kragerø BFK)
6. Kenneth Schjølberg (Kragerø BFK)

Noor Haikal wins Merlion Cup WASPA tournament

The Merlion Cup 2019 saw some interesting matches, together with some surprise eliminations from the main tournament. The eliminated players were eligible for the plates event.

After a series of knockout matches, it was seasoned player, Noor Haikal, against Hong Kong Dragons’ youngest player, Nicholas Carabillo in the Plates Final. Nicholas managed to hold off Haikal’s relentless attacks in the first part of the final, but Nicholas’ defence finally gave way, with Haikal bagging in 2 goals in the net. Well done to the players!

Dimitris Stamatopoulos wins Boxing Day tournament

The Piraeus Lions "Boxing day" took place on Sunday with a great field of 16 players. Dimitris Stamatopoulos was the winner and the finalist was Lazaros Papakonstantinou.

Leonidas Koutroumanos and Vasilis Argyropoulos reched the semis.

Many thanks to the Piraeus organizers for another good event.

Jean Carl Tabone wins Christmas tournament in Attard

Attard Subbuteo Club held a WASPA tournament on Sunday as a good way to celebrate christmas among flickers. 9 players were taking part and there was a very strong field with representatives of different clubs from Malta.

Jean Carl Tabone, who currently plays for the Italian squad of FCD Mortellito Barcellona PG, defeated Jason Pisani in the final while semi-finalists were Jamie Bonnici and Josef Camilleri. Spencer Conti and Mario Fleri Soler reached the barrage round.

"Thanks to Mario Fleri Soler for organizing all the fixtures", commented Joseph Debono after the event.

Brian Daley wins London Road Christmas Cup

The London Road Subbuteo Club MySubbuteo Xmas WASPA was held last Sunday at the Parrot in Drury. 7 players took part in a league format and there were many good games. Lothe event had a really mixed bag of results. Brian Daley wins again after winning every game, Chris Bedford came second but it great to see Ruby Matthews finishing third.

Final standings:
1. Brian Daley
2. Chris Bedford
3. Ruby Matthews
4. Raoul Newton
5. Cayne Matthews
6. Dave Merrilees-Kelly
7. Lucasz Whittle

Chris Kotrotsos wins Tavros Christmas Cup

Finalists Klaus and Christos

Nikos and Dimitris

As Christmas holidays are approaching rapidly, the Engineering department and the "Tavros Technical School Indoor Sports Club" organized a table tennis and table soccer tournament.

New students and new players were involved. As far as it concerns table soccer, eight players took place in a knock-out system tournament. The winner of “students/under 19” award and open 2nd place award was Berhanaj Klaus who was defeated in the final of the “open” cup by the “teacher” Christos Kotrotsos.

Nikos Marandidis and Dimitris Doukas reached the semi finals.

The results is below!

Round of 8
Nikos Marandidis - Orestis Tsaousai 3-0
Klaus Berhanaj - Giannis Maniatis 2-0
Chris Kotrotsos - Cristian Konti 4-0
Antonios Sklavounos - Dimitrios Doukas 0-3

Semi-finals
Chris Kotrotsos - Dimitrios Doukas 4-0
Nikos Marandidis - Klaus Berhanaj 0-0*

Final
Klaus Berhanaj - Chris Kotrotsos 0-3

Manolis Papadakis wins in Piraeus

Some late results from Greece where the Piraeus Lions club held a tournament a few weeks ago. It was the club's first event of the seaosn with 9 players taking part. Manolis Papadakis defeated Giorgos Karatarakis (3-2) in the final while semi-finalists were Stamatis Syrmos and Leonidas Koutromanos. The Piraeus Lions will hold their "Boxing Day" tournament on December 29. Interested players can contact Leonidas Koutromano for details.

Simon Stewart wins in Sankt Pauli

On December 10 Subbuteo St. Pauli held their monthly WASPA-tournament. This time only 5 players were taking part.

Because Sven was in his South Africa-holidays, everyone expected a fight between Simon and Marius for the tournament win.

Surprisingly Marius had a bad day and made only 2 points in his 4 round robin matches.

But Fred from Hannover showed his best performance since he started playing Subbuteo and gave Simon a hard fight.

In the end both rivals had 8 points, but Simon took the win with his 8 goals.

Final standings:
1. Simon Stewart
2. Fred Elesbao
3. Marcos Perianes
4. Marius Willhaus
5. Ralf Offenborn

Malcolm Lees wins first Edinburgh tournament

The first "WASPA Monday Night Subbuteo" action took place in Edinburgh on Monday. There were six players taking part and there were many good games between experienced and novice players. The group stage saw no surprise with favorites of the night qualifying for the next round. In the end, there was a final between Glasgow's Malcolm Lees and local organizer Marco Bevilacqua with Malcolm winning the game 3-0. John Mathieson was third, Martin Campbell fourth while Brian Spoors won the game for the 5th place on shots against French player David Curti.

"It was a great night for our first tournament. I thought that it might not be great if we only had 6 players, but because we only have two tables set up in the pub, it was actually a really good night", commented Marco Bevilacqua after the event.

Thanks to Marco for a great night of action! Hope to see the group playing more WASPA events in the future!