The Super 8 will count as WASPA event

The Lions SC in Singapore will be hosting the second Super 8 event on May 1, 2012 at Elias Community Center. The best players from past to date are specially selected to participate in the event. Den Mulia, Christopher Soh, Erfandy Kusnadi, John Ho, Noor Haikal, Erza Aripin, Tan Kok Wee and Rudy Norita will play for the title. Two years ago, Den Mulia won the first edition of the Singapore Super 8.

Easter Cup postponed

The tournament scheduled on April 3 in Attard (Malta) has been postponed to April 13 so that players can watch the Champion's League games on TV. Registrations are open till April 9.

A second tournament in California

The WASPA circuit is back in California. The second tournament in the US will be held on April 22 at Wayne Smith's in Porter Ranch. Details are available at ismith@socal.rr.com

Angelo Borg is Attard champion

The Attard SC Premier League ended this week and Angelo Borg is the new champion. Borg came on top of the table with 36 points in 12 games. Simon Gauci (25) is second and Darren Carabott (22) is third. Daniele Spadaro, Marco Mifsud, Hector Scerri and Timothy Spiteri come next.

Subbuteo is available again in the UK

Today is the official launch day for the new subbuteo range at the famous store Hamleys in London. The official launch of the iconic sports game takes place at 10.30 on the 5th floor with four top England under 12 table football players demonstrating the beautiful game!

Subbuteo is also available now in UK stores nationwide including Toys R Us, John Lewis (Oxford Street in London), selected Waterstones and Toymaster branches...

The new results file is ready

The latest version of the Golden Book can be downloaded HERE and contains the results of the 3 tournaments played in March as well as the new rankings and the updated statistics. There are also some pictures and some more details about WASPA. Take a look!

Singapore players made history

Two tournaments were scheduled this week-end in the agenda of the Singapore association. The guys from Leste Aquila, due to the lack of time, decided that the FISTF Future and the WASPA regional tournament would only make one tournament. the special event finally attracted 14 players and all of them were out of the top 300 from the FISTF open ranking. In a very open tournament, Erfandy Kusnadi managed to win the title. He beat Muhammad Azhar Yusri in the final. Henry Peh Yu Xiang and Mohd Rizal Taib were the semi-finalists.

The new WASPA ranking and results file should be available in the next 24 hours.

Some news from Sweden

There was a meeting on wednesday in Stockholm. Lars Löfgren was happy to play a few games with some of the local players. There are now plans to organize another WASPA tournament during the European football championship in June. More info will come later.

In Templeuve again

The Templeuve United club in Belgium will be hosting another tournament on April 12. The tournament will be played at 7.00 pm and players are welcome to register from 6.30 till 6.45. The entry will be free and there will be drinks available at the price of 1 EUR. Details from Vincent Coppenolle at vincent.cop@rsca.com or 0(032)477-221902.

More news from Malta

Some more players have confirmed their attendance int he forthcoming Easter Cup to be played on April 3rd in Attard. the list of entries is now as follows: Gordon Caruana, Angelo Borg, Mark Gauci, Joseph M.Debono, Joseph Mifsud, Simon Gauci, Hector Scerri, Clint Abela Wadge and Daniele Spadaro.

Congratulations also to Attard Subbuteo Club for setting up a youth league at the San Andrea School. The league competition just ended and the winner is Nicolai Cini, the runner-up is Salmon Thiele. Felix Thiele, Jake Borg and Peter Gregh also took part.

The competitors at the presentation of the trophies

Another tournament in the agenda in Malta

Attard SC will host another WASPA tournament on April 3rd. The "Easter Cup" competition will be open to all maltese players. Registrations are Open till march 28 at Joe Debono's address at jmdebono@onvol.net or by phone at 21414712.

Gordon Caruana, Joseph Debono, Simon Gauci and Clint Abela Wadge are already registered for the tournament.

Geoffrey Marain wins in Templeuve

There were only six players in Templeuve on thursday but there were many good games as there was a group stage with four players having a chance to qualify for the big final before the last group session. Finally stéphane Lambert (SC Flanders) came on top of the group with 11 points while Geoffrey Marain and Vincent Coppenolle had 10 points. Marain qualified with a beter goal difference. Kevin Dröhsler was 4th with 9 points while Samuel Verriest and Yves Baten had 1 point. In the final, Marain gave no chance to the winner of the Singapore tournament as he won by a clear 3-0. Coppenolle won the 3rd place play-off on shots against Dröhsler and Verriest also won the game for the 5th place on shots against newcomer Yves Baten.

Marain & Lambert before the final

Stéphane Lambert wins the Leste Aquila Cup

Last sunday Singapore was hosting a third tournament under WASPA banner. It was a great time for the 12 competitors even if "Mr TFAS" aka Tan Kok Wee could only be a spectator due to a back injury. Nevertheless, players enjoyed their day and many of them gained valuable experience, especially when playing the European player, Stéphane Lambert from Belgium. The group stages ended with the favorites going to the next round. The games became a bit more intense and there were some great matches. The local 'Dark Horse' Henry beating 'top gun' John Ho while 'Leste Home Boy' Rudy Hesty lost the shoot-out to Stéphane Lambert who qualified for the big final.

In the final, it was like David vs Goliath. Mr 'Cool' Henry Peh was to meet the favorite Mr 'Hot' Stéphane. The tough fight began with Stephan pressing from the start causing Henry to make several heroic saves. Stephan striked first blood but the happiness was short-lived when Henry equalized. The match went full circle without any more goals and at the end of full time the game ended with a score line of 1-1. Extra time also did not bear fruits thus the dreaded shoot-out had to settle the game. The shoot-out was tensed with only 2 goals to show for and again both were tied 1-1. The sudden death needed two turns before one had to give in and in the end, Stéphane was victorious. Rudy Hesty finishes third, John Ho is fourth while Faizal won the consolation tournament.

(report written with the help of Rudy Hesty)

The news of the week (36)

Tournament in Singapore - There will be a tournament this sunday in Singapore. Belgium's Stéphane Lambert will be the first european player to compete in a WASPA tournament in Asia. Good luck to all the competitors.

Tournament in Belgium - The next tournament in Belgium will take place on March 15th in templeuve. the event will be played in the evening (kick-off at 7.00 pm). Details are available from vincent.cop@rsca.com

Forthcoming events - Here is a list of the forthcoming WASPA tournaments. We hope many more will be added in the near future. You can see the contact person for every tournament in the section "forthcoming events" (on the right column).
- February 10 - Tournament in Attard, Malta
- February 24-26 - Tournament in Cincinnatti, Ohio (USA)
- March 4 - Tournament in Singapore
- March 15 - Tournament in Templeuve (Belgium)
- March 25 - Tournament in Singapore - 'LBH' tournament at Jurong Green Community Centre
- Tournament in Adelaide (Australia) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Trenton, Ontario (Canada) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Johannesburg (South Africa) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Nicosia (Cyprus) -> Details coming soon
- Tournament in Stockholm (Sweden) -> Details coming soon

Top 10 nations this week on the blog - This week the bigger number of visitors came from the US, Italy, Austria, canada, Germany, Spain, Sweden, the UK, Singapore, Greece.

Have a great week-end and keep on flicking,
Vincent