News from Belgium - Results of January 2020

Several tournaments have been held in January in Belgium. Here is a brief summary of results.

The SC Flanders tournament took place in the beginning of the January with a strong field of 15 players. As always, games were played in Swiss system and this time Geoffrey Marain took the honors with 4 games won while seven players tied in second place with 7 points. Only the goal difference and the number of goals scores could decide the final table. The ranking was as follows:
1. Geoffrey Marain
2. Vincent Coppenolle
2. Geert Leys
4. Ralf Grégoire
5. Dirk Vekemans
6. Matthias Averlant
6. Richard Boulanger
8. Jos Ceulemans
9. Benjamin Marain
10. Vincent Wouters
11. Danny De Greef
12. Filip Van Hulle
13. Didier Moons
14. Willy De Bandt
15. Jordan Bonte

Two days later, the club of Huy held their very first tournament of the season with 6 players taking part. William Van den Houte (picture on the left) defeated Ralf Grégoire in the final (3-2). Semi-finalists were Dany Mlynek and Sébastien Dohet while Richard Boulanger won the game for the 5th place against David Boulanger.

The Templeuve United club had a small promotional tournament. 5 players were taking part but two of them were not "eligible" to get ranking points. Eric Caillaux won the "official" games to claim the title while didier Moons was runner-up and Jordan Bonte too the third place.

During the FISTF Major of Rochefort, a WASPA tournament was played in the afternoon for eliminated players. 32 players from 10 different nations were competing and there was the very first appearance of Tunisia in the WASPA circuit thanks to Mongi Rouis. Rémy Lours (France) took the victory after defeating Spain's Jean-Michel Cuenca in the final. Mongi Rouis and Malta's Josef Camilleri were the semi-finalists.

The monthly regional tournament in Templeuve took place on January 24 with 9 players taking part. Geoffrey Marain took another title even if he had some difficult games. Matthias Averlant took the second place once agai, one week after his final in the U19 Major of Rochefort.

Final standings
1. Geoffrey Marain
2. Matthias Averlant
3. Vincent Coppenolle
4. Jean-Pierre Genart
5. Michaël Dupret
6. Didier Moons
7. Eric Caillaux
8. Sébastien Sorge
9. Benjamin Marain

Old rules are back in Italy

Our friends from TSC Black Rose 98 Roma sent us fantatsic news to confirm that their "Extreme Works Series" are being played under WASPA banner. The tournaments are played with the old rules and the first two stages have recently been held in Fiumicino, home of the Black Rose club.

The first stage took place in November with 23 players attending the "Autumn Championship". Players were dropped in four groups with every players being given the chance to play knock-out games to decide the winners in the main event and in the consolation rounds. Andrea Strazza defeated Federico Milan (2-1) in the final to claim the titles. Semi-finalists were Michele Giudice and Luigi Arena. Massimo Garbuglia won the consolation for the 9th place while Luca Periccioli won the consolation tournament for the 17th place.

On January 19, the TSC Black Rose 98 Roma organized the "WINTER CHAMPIONSHIP", second round of the "SUBBUTEO OLD RULES" “EW SERIES" 2019/2020. It was a very nice tournament with 30 competitors, the furthest coming from Bari and Verona (as in the first round).  Those present were divided int
o 8 groups of 4 players. The top two finishers from each group faced a knockout round to enter the master tournament (first level) or to the cadet tournament (second level). Same situation for the last two classified in each group called to a knockout round to establish who would play in the challenge tournament (third level) and who in the future tournament (fourth level). In this way all participants were able to play at least 5 games and this is one of the target of Black Rose Roma tournaments.

The winner of the "WINTER CHAMPIONSHIP" was, as happened in the first round, Andrea Strazza (Black Rose Roma). He played 6 games with 6 wins, 16 goals scored and none conceded. A victory, however, more difficult than it might seem. Behing him the EW Series debutant Andrea Balestrucci able to eliminate Federico Milan, the finalist of the EW Series first round (november 2019). Lower step of the podium for Roberto Mazzucchi and Rodolfo Miccoli.

The winner of the "Cadet Tournament" was Alessandro Laurenzi, runner up Massimiliano Painelli. The winner of the "Challenge Tournament" was Andrea Bevilacqua and the runner up was Luca Periccioli, the youngest tournament player (11 years old). The "Future Tournament" was won by Michele Romanazzi while the silver medal was won by Francesco D’Amico.

Full results and pictures here

You can find the details of the results, the rankings and other photos or documents  following this link: https://it-it.facebook.com/TableSoccerClubBlackrose98Roma/ or https://blackrose98roma.blogspot.com

In the months to come TSC Black Rose 98 Roma will organize other EW SERIES and WASPA tournaments.
- March 22, 2020: EW SERIES SPRING CHAMPIONSHIP in Fiumicino
- April 25, 2020: EW SERIES SUMMER CHAMPIONSHIP in Fiumicino
- June 7, 2020 WIMBLEROME 2020 in Fiumicino (*)
(*) to be confirmed

Thanks to all the participants. See you soon!

(report by TSC Black Rose 98 Roma)

Sven Schilling wins sankt Pauli tournament

Subbuteo Sankt Pauli hosted our 5th monthly WASPA of the season with 8 players travelling from as far away as Hannover to compete. For the first time this season we deviated from our league or Swiss ladder format with two groups of four battling it out for the title.

Group 1 hosted previous winners Sven & Marius along with Marcos and Fred. After two round of games Marius topped the table with 4 points, Sven and Marcos on 3 apiece and Fred on 1. Marcos and Fred played out a 1-1 draw while Sven claimed top spot in the group with a tight 1-0 victory over Marius who claimed 2nd spot thanks to his win over Marcos.

Group 2 was more pedestrian with the winner of the two previous competitions Simon winning all three games against Philip, Andre and Ralf to finish 1st. Philip beat Andre and drew with Ralf to finish 2nd.

In the plate Marcos beat Andre 2-0 to set-up a 5th place playoff against Fred who triumphed over Ralf on shots after a goalless draw. There were no goals this time following their 1-1 group game and it was Fred who took 5th place with a comprehensive 3-0 win on shots. Andre avoided the wooden spoon thanks to 2-1 shots victory over Ralf.

Group 1 winner Sven edged a tight encounter with Philip 1-0 while Simon overcame Marius 2-0 to set-up a final between the two seeded players. In the 3rd place playoff the oldest rivalry at Sankt Pauli was rejoined with Marius coming out on top against his oldest rival with a 2-0 win.

The final itself was a tight affair with Sven having the best of the early chances but unfortunately shooting wide when he should have hit the target. Simon came more into game and forced a good save from Sven before he saw the last chance of the game crash off the crossbar and post to roll harmlessly out for a throw-in. And so it was to be shots once again that decided the victor. Simon won the toss opting to shoot first, but the toss was all he was to win as his first four efforts were all saved by Sven with Sven scoring 2 of his four to win his second Sankt Pauli WASPA.

London Road January event in Wales

Last Sunday London Road were joined by 3 Wolverhampton TFC players (Justin Scott, Mick Hammonds and Richard Badger), as well as welcoming Sven Schilling from Sankt Pauli SC (Germany). 11 players were split into 2 groups with 1st and 2nd going through to semis and 3rd and 4th playing in the Plate. Group A was topped by Brian Daley with Richard Badger in 2nd. Group B was topped by Mick Hammonds with Sven Schilling in 2nd. Justin Scott and Chris Bedford made the plate from Group A and Cayne Matthews and Mark Tilling from Group B. The plate Final was played out by Justin and Cayne and after finishing 1-1 extra time golden goal was played with Justin breaking the dead lock to win 2-1.



The Parrot Cup Final was played between Brian and Richard and after finishing 2-2 and no goals in extra time went to a shoot out. Brian won the shoot out 2-1 to retain the Parrot Cup.

Varant Kurkeyerian winner in Northern California

On Saturday January 18, NorCal Subbuteo Club held their first event of the 20’s. The WASPA event included 7 players in San Francisco and saw Varant Kurkeyerian beat Conan Mullen 2-0 in the Final.

The tournament also featured the debut of newcomer Sam Omiotek! He’s been training hard with Varant the last 3 months and it showed with two wins and a draw! Cracking debut Sam!!

Fabrizio Coco does it again

Fabrizio Coco won the first tournament of the year in Australia. 6 Sydney TFC players met on Wednesday with a group stage and knock-out games. Fabrizio Coco defeated Tony Credentino (3-0) in the final while Kostas Barbaris and Paolo Credentino were the semi-finalists. Players commited to support Australia firefighters!

Anas wins January event in Singapore

In this new year of 2020, the WASPA tournaments by Table Football Association of Singapore (TFAS) will be renamed as “TFAS Monthly WASPA”. The WASPA is open to everyone, while also serving as a platform for the TFAS League 2020.

The first Monthly WASPA saw a great turnout of 16 players!

All the players went through 4 rounds of the Swiss system, with every player playing 4 games each. Additionally, there were handicap conditions implemented on experienced players when playing against less experienced players.

Every session, 2 to 3 handicap conditions will be randomly drawn. This session’s handicap conditions are:
- No flick for all set piece (corner, free-flick, flick in), but opponent gets to flick.
- Use small plastic goalkeeper

These handicaps are aimed to challenge the experienced players, and at the same time, prevent the weaker players from taking a bashing.

After the 4 rounds, it was Anas who came out tops, undefeated with 3 wins and a draw, with Rudy and Bernard close behind.

WASPA rankings of December 2019

Dear all,
you will find in the attached files the monthly standings of the WASPA circuit after the events held in December.

WASPA Season results 2019-2020
WASPA ranking - December 19

Christmas Cup in Singapore

We added 28 sets of results, some of them arrived a bit later than expected but we are glad to have seen 27 regional tournaments and 1 promotional events last month. We also had a test-match in Switzerland and some meetings of the NETFA mini leagues.

We are glad to see a new club joining the WASPA circuit in Edinburgh (Scotland) and to see the Ellan Vannin tournament on the Isle of Man.

26 players for the Flaming Flickers tournament

Maybe a few results are missing in the PDF file. If you see missing data, please get in touch so that I can correct the files.

If some juniors (born in 2003 or later) don't appear in the ranking, it means we don't have their birthdates so please send your feedback.

Players at the Attard tournament in Malta

In the different rankings of clubs, we are glad to see the Kragero club from Norway joining the Development league.

Kids having a great day on Subbuteo in Italy

Please remember you only need 3 players to register your tournament. Don't be scared to join. It's free and tournament requests can be sent by e-mail to vincent.cop@rsca.com

Please invite your friends to join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/waspasubbuteo/
We also have a WASPA page here: https://www.facebook.com/WASPA-World-Amateur-Subbuteo-Players-Association-231789816834700/

Keep in mind WASPA is also looking for partners. If you know any company ready to support us (we don’t ask for money but we want some win-win agreements so that we can promote each other), don't hesitate to contact me at vincent.cop@rsca.com or vincentcoppenolle@gmail.com

Ideas to develop the WASPA circuit, to get new clubs/nations involved or to make things more attractive are always welcome. We stay at your disposal for more info.

Yours sincerely,
Vincent Coppenolle

Eugene Plytas with Flaming Flickers tournament

A great turnout and a great atmosphere

The latest Flaming flickers tournament was a real success as our greek friends decided to run their December event with three different categories. 26 players from many different clubs were taking part.

Eugene Plytas receiving his trophy

In the main event, Eugene Plytas was the best of 12 players after defeating Markos Kapsabelis (1-0) in the final. Alekos Apatzis and Manolis Papadakis were the semi-finalists.

Podium of the B category

The B category had 10 players with two groups of 5 and then knock-out games. Achilleas Bogdanidis took the honors after beating Vasilios Argyropoulos (3-0) in the final.

The Juniors

Finally, the Junior category consisted in a group of four with Christian Tsakalakis finishing on top of the table and Nikos Jr Psomiadis being runner-up.

Huge thanks to the Flaming Flickers for another amazing event!

John Imbrogiano wins Swiss Cup tournament in Eschenbach

Players having a great day in Eschenbach

We continue our review of January events with the great news from Switzerland where after a long absence of more than two years, there was a tournament again under WASPA banner. The Swiss Cup event held in Eschenbach and organized by the Linth Sliders Club had a turnout of five players including South Africa's Clinton Gahwlier. John Imbrogiano (subbuteo.ch) won the tournament, finishing on top of the league with 3 wins and a draw. Peter Erb was runner-up (7 points), Clinton (7) took a great third third place while Roman Bernharsgrütter (3) and Martin Wiesmann (1) were the other competitors.

"The absolute highlight though was the friendships forged and the amazing hospitality shown particularly by Peter Erb and Martin Wiessman. It was also fantastic to meet Subbuteo legend Willi Hofmann who popped in unexpectedly at the WASPA event", commented Clinton Gahwlier on the Cape Town City Facebook page.

Huge thanks to Roman Bernharsgrütter for his great job to organize the tournament and also to bring back Switzerland in the WASPA circuit! A much appreciated effort!