The news of the week (15)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week. Sorry for the delay but yesterday was a busy day at work.

Updated results file - You can now download the updated "golden book" from the download section. Results of the last tournament in Templeuve are included, just as some more statistics and the ranking of september.

A new number 1 - Darren Bezzina of Malta is the new number 1 in the WASPA ranking. Darren, a player of the italian club "SPQR Roma", was semi-finalist of the last tournament held in Attard.

Tournament cancelled in Australia - Due to the lack of entries, the tournament scheduled in Sylvania hs been cancelled. Even if this is disappointing, many discussions between australian players came up in the last few days to organize meetings and tournaments in the future.

More tournaments in Europe - The WASPA Calendar has been growing over the last few days as there will be some more tournament in Attard, Malta (october 21) and Barcelona, Spain (November 27).

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You cans ee the contact person for every tournament int he section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- October 21 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- October 8 - Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden)
- November 27 - Tournament in Barcelona (Spain)

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Spain, Singapore, Finland, the US, Greece, Australia, the UK, Malta, Belgium & Germany.

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

Small turnout but big fun in Templeuve

Only 5 players from the host clubs showed up in yesterday's tournament in Templeuve (Belgium). The group stage was full of easy games fro top favorite Geoffrey Marain who won his 4 games. In the final, it was another story though as after leading 5-2 at half-time,t he game ended on an amazing 6-6. Vincent Coppenolle scored the decisive goal in the first minute of the sudden death to win the title. KevinD röhsler finishes 3rd? Elodie Bertholet 4th and Renald Deloose 5th.

Elodie Bertholet in action

Renald Deloose vs Geoffrey Marain

The final between Geoffrey Marain & Vincent Coppenolle

Another tournament in Malta

Attard Subbuteo Club will be organizing their 4th WASPA tournament on October 21 at "FX. Dingli Club". The entry fee will include three different types of pasta and a glass of red/wine wine. Details available from jmdebono@onvol.net or by phone at 21414712 or 99405867. Early booking is recommended.

A very first tournament in Spain

The club of Palomar Futbol Taula will be holding the very first WASPA tournament in Spain on November 27. The tournament will be open to a field of 12 players and games will be held in a sports center where football games and hockey games are played at the same time. Details are available from Flavio Watzka at flavio@parada13.jazztel.es

The news of the week (14)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week.

Some more picture of the Attard tournament - Here are some pictures of the final between Angelo Borg and Nicholas Sciberras in last week-end's final of the Attard tournament. The other picture is showing the presentation of the trophy to the winner, Angelo Borg.

Updated results file - Results of the Attard tournament have been added to the "Golden Book" (available from the "download section").

Ideas are welcome - There are 3 more tournaments to come in the agenda but we are looking for ideas on how to get more tournaments played in the future. We are looking for organizers to host events. Ideas are more than welcome!

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You cans ee the contact person for every tournament int he section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- September 28 - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium)
- October 1 - Tournament in Sylvania (Australia)
- October 8 - Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden)

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Spain, Finland, the US, Greece, Malta, Belgium, Italy, the UK, France & Germany.

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

Angelo Borg wins in Malta

It was another great tournament this sunday in Attard, Malta where 16 players were present for the 3rd tournament organized by the local club. Players were coming from the host club but also from Hamrun SC, the italian side of SPQR Roman and the greek team of Piraeus Lions. Angelo Borg, who is the current world number 1 in the FISTF U19 ranking, won the tournament after a close final against Nicholas Sciberras. Darren Bezzina and Daniele Spadaro lost in the semi-finals and Daniele won the game for the 3rd place. Congratulations to all the players and special tahnks again to Joe Debono for organising a great tournament.

Nicholas Sciberras (runner-up), Daniele Spadaro (referee of the final) & Angelo Borg (winner).

The news of the week (13)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week.

Attard tournament on sunday - 16 players will be attending the "TAZZA INDIPENDENZA" tournament in Attard on sunday. Players will be droped in 4 groups of 4 players, games will start at 9.00 am and the final should take place at 12.45. The event will be plat at FX.DINGLI CLUB - MAIN STREET H`ATTARD. Visitors are more than welcome.

Updated results file - Results of the Johannesburg tournament have been added to the "Golden Book" (available from the "download section").

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You cans ee the contact person for every tournament int he section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- September 18 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- September 28 - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium)
- October 1 - Tournament in Sylvania (Australia)
- October 8 - Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden)

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from Russia, the US, Finland, Greece, Singapore, South Africa, Belgium, Germany, Canada and France.

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

Details of the tournament in Templeuve

The Templeuve tournament will be held on September 28 in the local sports center, which is also the headquarter of the Templeuve United club. The tournament will start at 6.00 pm and the registrations will be open till 4.00 pm by e-mail at vincent.cop@rsca.com

Renald Deloose, Elodie Bertholet, Geoffrey Marain, Kevin Dröhsler and Vincent Coppenolle have already confirmed they will be present.

Clifford Graaf is the african number 1

19 players took part last friday in the first WASPA tournament ever organized on the african soil. Panorama TFC was the host for the day and there were many good games. Players, aged between 8 and 47, were meeting in a great spirit and it was all about fair-play, having fun and making friends. The tournament was played in four groups and the top 2 players of each group qualified for the semi-finals. There was no surprise to see the most experienced players qualifying for the second round as Clifford Graaff, Jason Kennedy and Fernando Rodrigues were top of their groups but Cohen Naidoo (13 years old) also managed to win his group. Cohen later won his quater-final against Alex Rodrigues and his semi-final against Jason Kennedy. In the final, Clifford Graaff proved he's the african number 1 player by beating Cohen Naidoo (1-0). Hopefully this will be the first of many more tournaments to come in South Africa!

The news of the week (12)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week.

Some news from South Africa - Friday evening will see the first WASPA tournament on African soil and Clifford Graaff is hoping for a good turnout. Plans are discussed to hold a series of these tournaments every three months - so it will be 4 tournaments for the year and then have a series winner. As per the SATFA statutes there will also be holding the national champs towards the end of the year - this is the highest seeded tournament.

More about the Yokohama tournament - Massimo Conturso's excellent SC Connecticut website gave a some more details about Andrea Gasparini's win in Yokohama. The presence of a dozen of spectators (men and women), who cheered for the home players until the very end, enriched the well organized, 3 hours long tournament. The local club was particularly gracious and
offered a snack of pizza and Japanese specialties half way the event, as well as an after-tournament dinner. The competition saw a clear supremacy of the Italian expats, Andrea Gasparini (USA) and Hong Kong's Antonio Carabillo. Andrea & Antonio shared points in their scoreless match and the first place position. However, Andrea claimed the final victory thanks to a better goal differential. What better way to celebrate his 37th birthday! Andrea Gasparini had also won the FISTF Grand Prix of Argentina last season and played the FISTF World Cup in Palermo in July.

News from Malta - The "TAZZA INDIPENDENZA" of September 18 will be another great tournament as 16 players are already registered to play.

Results, rankings and statistics - The updated "golden book" is available from the "Download Section" (right column). The file reveals the new ranking and there are already 59 players ranked in the table of august. The points of the Yokohama tournament will be added in the ranking of september.

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future.
- September 9 - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa)
- September 18 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- September 27 - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium) - date to be confirmed
- October 1 - Tournament in Sylvania (Australia)
- October 8 - Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden)

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from the US, the UK, Malta, Germany, Finland, Greece, Belgium, Singapore, Italy and Portugal. Among the "exotic" countries, we also had visitors from Indonesia, Chile and Burkina Faso!

Keep on flicking,
Vincent

Updated results and rankings file

If you like results, statistics and rankings, the updated file with all the WASPA stuff is now available from https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B4_PpphlADgVNDU3MTY1ZGEtOGRiNS00YWYyLWIwMmEtYzJlOWM3ODRmOTA0&hl=en_US

Ideas, suggestions, proposals are always welcome to make things better!

Andrea Gasperini wins in Yokohama

The very first WASPA tournament took place this sunday at the Noge Hana Hana Hall in Yokohama. The tournament was not only a chance for the best local players to meet foreign players (Andrea gasparini from the US and Antonio Carabillo from Hong Kong), there was also a workshop for beginners. Andrea and Antonio teached the game to the new players and in total, 14 players were taking part.

The top 5 players played the "official" tournament under WASPA banner and every player played each other. At the end, Andrea Gasparini and Antonio Carabillo had 10 points but Andrea won the tournament thanks to a better goal-average!

New date for the next maltese tournament

The "TAZZA INDIPENDENZA" tournament organized by Attard SC will be held on September 18, 2011 at "FX. Dingli Club H'Attard", Main Street. The kick-off will be at 10.00. there will be trophies for the four semi-finalists. Entries must be sent to Joe Debono at jmdebono@onvol.net

A few more shots of the Attard tournaments

Here are a few more pictures of the tournaments held in Malta this wednesday.

The news of the week (11)

Hello everyone, here are the news of the week.

Darren Bezzina wins the "Joseph M. Debono Cup" - 16 players competed in this wednesday's tournament in Attard (Malta). Darren Bezzina, who now plays for the italian team of SPQR Roma, was the winner of the competition. He came on top of his group before beating Nicholas Sciberras in the semi-final (1-0). In the final, he beat Daniele Spadaro (5-3). Gordon Caruana was the other semi-finalist.

From left to right: Darren Bezzina (winner), Daniele Spadaro (runner-up), Nicholas Sciberras (3rd), Gordon Caruana (4th).

New leader in the WASPA ranking - After his victory in Attard, Darren Bezzina becomes the new number 1 in the WASPA ranking. The full table will be published as soon as we get the full results of the Singapore tournament.

One more tournament in Malta - After the Attard tournament, Joe Debono announced the club of Attard will hold a third tournament on September 25, which will be called the "Independance Cup".

Results of the survey - 20 people answered to the questions about the structure of the WASPA circuit. The question was "Do you think we should have 2 types of tournaments already next season if we keep "regional" tournaments as they are and "national tournaments with the possibility for each club to host one tournament per season?"
12 answered that "Yes but National events would need to have better organisation standards than regional events" (60%)
2 answered that "National events can give more ranking points but it's not a priority" (10%)
4 answered "I'd better keep things as they are now" (20%)
2 had no opinion
Conclusion: there will be some proposals to make some bigger tournaments in the future. As we are not sure it will be a very good thing to make different types of tournaments, the circuit wil remain as it is at least till January. If there are good proposals and ideas to make sure "national tournaments" are something special, this will be discussed through another survey.

Status update from Stockholm Tournament at O´Learys Gamla Stan - The event to be held on October 8 is being prepared and the following players will problably participate in the tournament: Robert Green, Yupa Kaewwongsa. Peter Elio, Jesper Willaume, Lars Löfgren, Ari Kainu, Anders Virtala. Players have a 15 % discount at Collectors Hotels that lies in Gamla Stan in Stockholm. Feel free to contact Lars Löfgren for more details.

A growing circuit - With new events added in the agenda (in Malta, Sweden, Japan, South Africa, Belgium, Australia), the circuit is growing quickly. There is interest also from Spain, Greece and the UK so hopefully there will be many more tournaments in the next few months.

New project in Malaysia - CK Au (jack208@boardgamecafe.net) is trying to start a new project at Boardgamecafe.net, which is moving to a new place that will allow him to set up a subbuteo table. CK and his partners are planning to give another shot at reviving this game in Malaysia and once they have settled into their new centre, the will get back on details. This might be an important step to develop connections with players from Singapore in the future!

Postponed tournament in the US - The tournament planned for last week-end in Connecticut has been postponed. More details on the new date will be announced soon.

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future.
- September 4 - Tournament in Yokohama (Japan)
- September 9 - Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa)
- September 25 - Tournament in Attard (Malta)
- September 27 - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium) - to be confirmed
- October 1 - Tournament in Sylvania (Australia)
- October 8 - Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden)

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors were from the UK, Finland, Russia (!), Greece, Malta, Sweden, Canada, the US, Germany and Italy. We also had visitors from Indonesia!

Subbuteo in Russia - The blog has had a lot of visitors from Russia over the last few days. If there are some players over there, don't hesitate to drop us a line at vincent.cop@rsca.com. We are here to help you!

Keep on flicking,
Vincent