New poster for the Sliders Tour

Thanks to Danny Lilley for this great poster and his great work to promote the game!

Amazing tournament in Rome

On wednesday 24 players attended the Waspa Lazio League tournament held in Rome. it was the first time the clubs of Lazio and Black Rose had a WASPA tournament together and the result was amazing. Enrico Guidi (Black Rose) won the tournament with 13 points while Matteo Del Brocco was second, Luigi Barone was thrid and Remo Fusco was third.

Superb group picture

Did you know that...

...the Isle of Man is the 31st "nation" to be part of WASPA? And that's not a joke!

New club in South Africa

There are some good news from South Africa where the newly-born Pretoria Flickers Club has asked to join the national association. The Flickers have already 8 members and Julian van der Merwe is the local organizer. Interested players can contact Julian by e-mail at julianrvdm@gmail.com

Vatican Subbuteo team?

Great picture found on the italian subbuteo forum, which means Italians have a very particular sense of humor.

First tournament in Wales

The first WASPA tournament in Wales will take place on March 28th in Llanishen, Cardiff. Interested players can check the Cardiff subbuteo blog at http://cardifftf.blogspot.co.uk/ or e-mail John Lauder at wrkl@hotmail.com

Giannarelli wins again

12 players attended the tournament held in Viareggio (Italy) last wednesday. The event was run with four groups of three players and the top 2 qualified for the next round. In the end, Enrico Giannarelli beat Marco Bacci (2-1) in the final to claim the title. Massimiliano Goldoni and Ruggero Torboli were the semi-finalists. Well done Enrico!

Another trophy for Enrico Giannarelli

Tournament postponed in Bangor

Unfortunately the Bangor tournament has been postponed due to snow. It will be rearranged in April and the new date will be confirmed soon. On friday the international football game between Northern Ireland and Russia had also been postponed due to the snow.
Also, the Forestside Open, in a busy Belfast Shopping Mall, will take place on 1st June and will be a WASPA event.

First Promotional Tour Event in Calgary

The Calgary boys are going to run a 'WASPA Promotional Tour Event' on Tuesday the 26th. This will be a learn to play event at Revolution Games & Music in Calgary. Open to anyone not in the top 50 in WASPA or in the top 50 that has not won a regular event. Doors open with Setup and a learning session at 5pm. Games will get underway at 6pm and should wrap up around 9pm. Contact Shane Hoopfer for more info. This will not count under the Canadian Standings but is set up to introduce new players to the game.

French winner in a belgian tournament

We had a great time tonight in Templeuve for the WASPA tournament attended by 12 players (including 5 from France) who were dropped in 2 groups of 6. In group A three players had 4 wins but Ulrich Linquercq was first on goal difference. There were many surprises but Grégory Puissant was the strongest player in group B before defeating Maxime Hoguet in quarter-final, Geoffrey Marain in the semi and Vincent Coppenolle in the final. The french club of Louvroil is now thinking to host a WASPA tournament that could be the "revenge" of this great evening.

A great field of 12 players were present

The finalists, Grégory Puissant & Vincent Coppenolle

The ranking:
1. Grégory Puissant
2. Vincent Coppenolle
3. Jérémie Gosset & Geoffrey Marain
5. Ludovic Midoux & Ulrich Linquercq
7. Maxime Hoguet & Ludovic Wienecke
9. Renald Deloose
10. Stéphane Lambert
11. Cyprien Godart
12. Philippe Godart

Easter cup in Attard

Another trophy for Daniele Spadaro

Joe Zammit Pavie presents the trophies to the ladies

Melanie Fenech (right) beat Maria Coppola to claim the title

Attard Subbuteo Cup in Malta organized two promotional events last week. Daniele Spadaro won the Easter Cup after beating Hector Scerri (3-1) in the final.

The Ladies Cup was a promotional match between the only two active girls on the island. Melanie Fenech beat Maria Coppola (3-1) to lift the trophy.

Home win for Wayne Smith

Four players attended the tournament held in Simi Valley, California last friday. This was a special moment for the club as the SoCal Subbuteo Club players wanted to say goodbye to Jason Mitchell who will leave California soon. Unfortunately it was difficult to find a better date so that more players could attend but there was good fun and some close games. After the group stage, Varant Kurkeyerian and Wayne Smith had seven points and qualified for the final. Wayne gave no chance to Varant and won the game 3-0. Jason Mitchell beat Kevin Nieman (1-0) in the 3rd place final.

Exhibition in Milano (Italy)

Beautiful pictures of the exhibition (courtesy of Luca Rajna)

Four images taken on saturday March 16th during a demonstration of the game with ETF rules at the "Ludica Milan 2013".

Luca Rajna reported there was a maximum enthusiasm among spectators and approval for certain players (as it had been for Luca) was an unexpected surprise. There were talks to create a club where people can play subbuteo with ETF rules.

For the sake of accuracy, the one in the picture was a demonstration absolutely fun/amateur: a problem for "technical" axis on which was pasted (sic) in the field dedicated to cotton, we had to use an Astropitch, which is not allowed by the regulation. For this reason, despite having had the chance, we have organized a WASPA tournament limiting to individual challenges as well as the explanation of the rules of the game.

Very nice picture on the bottom left where a goal is scored using a thumbnail to lob the "Subbuteo Legend": their performance was the second surprise of the demonstration, the Subbuteo "the Legend" are similar to flat for the quality of engagement between the another, congratulations to those who have decided to make regulations in the game WASPA-ETF because if you use the big ball these miniatures are fully and scope collectible and play seriously. Here, too, this opens up a new world.

(translated from the Italian)

First Manchester tournament to come

Manchester TFC will be holding their first tournament under WASPA banner on April 20th. Looks like it will be a great tournament.

First WASPA title for Shaun Burt

12 players attended the St. Patrick tournament held by the Hamilton Subbuteo Club. There were some new players and everyone had great fun. Brodyn Sexton and Stephen McNab lost in the semis and the final was exciting as usual. Peter Sexton and Shaun Burt tied (2-2) but this time Shaun won on the penalties. This is his first title under WASPA banner.

Paulo Gouveia wins the international Cup

Paulo Gouveia (picture of the French GP in Issy)

8 players took part in the "International Cup" held during the English National Cup tournament on March 16 in Birmingham. The tournament was part of the WASPA circuit and was only for the non-English players. During the day, every player was offer to play five games, which was brilliant. Paulo Gouveia (Portugal) won the trophy while Paul Andreas (Cyprus) was second and Mike Burns (Scotland) was third. Scotland also become the 30th nation involved in the WASPA circuit.

The other winners of the day were Matt Lampitt (English Open Cup), Justin Finch (Veterans) and Kye Arnold (U15).

South Africa: Randburg League to flick-off!

The draw for the Randburg League has been made and the much anticipated league will flick off on the 15th of March at the the Randburg Football Clubhouse. Both senior and junior games will be played every 30 minutes. There will be 8 or 9 players pers section. The fixtures will be appearing shortly on the website (http://premiersubbuteoleague.leaguerepublic.com). Any new players and/or spectators are welcome to attend as extra non-league games will also be played. First games to flick-off @ 18h30. All the results will be posted on the website.

Ten (yes 10!) more tournament in the WASPA circuit

10 tournaments have been added in the WASPA calendar in the last 24 hours. Many events will be held in Italy but there will also be one more tournament in California and one more in canada. Please note the event in Milano will be played with the ETF rules.
March 15: tournament in Simi Valley, California (USA).
March 16: Ludica 2013 - Festival Italiano del Gioco e del Videogioco - Fiera di Milano. Play with ETF rules.
March 20: tournament in Viareggio (Italy).
March 27: tournament in La Spezia (Italy).
April 7: tournament in Calgary (Canada).
April 14: tournament "Primavera" in Manoppello (Italy).
May 12: "Torneo Majella" in Pescara (Italy).
May 26: "Torneo Majella" in Chieti (Italy).
June 16: "Arabona Tour" in Pescara (Italy).
July 13-14: "EW Cup" in Manoppello Scalo (Italy).

Fedele beats Di Vincenzo in Pescara

15 players attended the tournament held in Pescara on saturday. There were four groups of players and quarter-finals. Andrea and Simone Di Pierro lost in the semis while Andrea Di Vincenzo and Fabrizio Fedele played the final together. After a very close game with six goals (3-3), Fedele won the title on the shootout (4-3) to claim his second WASPA title.

Shane Hoopfer still on top in Calgary

Calgary Subbuteo Club hosted their 7th tournament on sunday with 5 players taking part including two beginners, Tom Stevenson and Riad Kadri. After the group stage and the 4th place play-off, Shane Hoopfer and Josh Braun qualified for the final. Shane beat Josh (2-0) to claim his 5th WASPA title. The next Calgary event should be held on April 7th.

Some short news

* This week-end we have WASPA tournaments in Pescara, Italy and Calgary, Canada.
* Last week at the FISTF Major of Frameries there were good talks with many people who said there is interest to have the first tournaments under WASPA banner in the Netherlands and Wales.
* WASPA has been contacted by fans of the game in Malaysia. Since the game is available again in the country (thanks to the same distributor as in Singapore), there is interest to organize some tournaments. This is a very exciting challenge to introduce the game in a new country.
* The FISTF World Cup will take place in Madrid (Spain) on September 6-7-8. Good luck to the organizers.

Andrea Di Pierro wins in Manoppello

A small turnout of nine players attended the tournament of Manoppello in Italy this week-end. Six players played the open category with Andrea Di Pierro beating Simon Di Pierro in the final (2-0) while Fabrizio Fedele and Gaetano Monticelli lost in the semis. In the junior section, Maurizio Cavallo won the tournament,t aking the best on Lorenzo Chiri and Davide Di Pierro.

While some of the best Maltese players were competing in the FISTF Major of Mons (with the Open final between Derek Conti and Samuel Bartolo and the U19 title for Angelo Borg), 14 players attended the tournament held in Attard. There were four groups and only the winner of each group passed to the semi-finals. Daniele Spadaro beat Joseph M. Debono while Hector Scerri defeated Roderick Vassallo. In the final, both players couldn't make the difference and the game ended on 2-2. Daniele Spadaro won the shoot-out session to claim his second WASPA title. It was also the 10th time Daniele ended in the final 4 of a tournament. Well done!

Second WASPA trophy for Daniele Spadaro. Well done!

Another success for Giorgos Zangylos

A great field of 12 players attended the event!

12 players attended the WASPA tournament of Limassol held in the premises of Famagusta TFC on sunday. After many interesting games in the group stage and in the quarter-finals, Giorgos Zangylos beat Marcos Kalopsdiotis (2-1) in the final, claiming already his 5th title in a WASPA tournament.

Harlem Shake at Rochefort TS

After Singapore, the Harlem Shake is reaching the belgian subbuteo community with this great video made by the players of Rochefort Table Soccer!

Updated golden book! (February 2013)

The monthly report of WASPA with the results, rankings and statistics is now available from the download section of the blog.
We had 16 tournaments in February, bringing the total to 106 Regional tournaments (!), 43 new players, bringing a total of 571 players in the ranking. Zimbabwe is now represented, bringing the number of nations to 29.
Some tournaments were brilliant and very positive for the game as many organizers are doing a great work of promotion!
There is a continued development in Canada and the guys in Hamilton and Calgary are doing a great job!
Congratulations to Clifford Graaff in South Africa for bringing more and more new players to the game!
Italy is becoming the most active nation in terms of number of tournaments and it is great to have a legend of subbuteo like Andrea Di Vincenzo winning a WASPA tournament!
Australia is struggling to have players at tournaments but at least the game is alive, promotion is continued and hopefully there will be a tournament in Melbourne in the near future!
England is now really part of WASPA with successful tournaments in Harrow Weald (where everyone played 8 games) and Heckmondwike.
Welcome to Finland. The first tournament in the country was held in Lappeenranta and everyone played 8 games!
Good also to see Singapore and Hong Kong in action under WASPA banner. Hopefully many more events will take place in Asia!
Special thanks finally to the players from Dortmund & Bergkamen for their great initiative. The "5-4-8 series" are a great idea: tournament where 8 players can play 5 games in 4 hours. The first tournament had only positive feedback! Hopefully many more to come!
As for the WASPA rules, please note that after having received constructive feedback from canada I have adjusted the criteria for the "promotional tournaments". Now the rules is updated as follows: Every player is free to take part in a promotional tournament but only players who are not in the top 50 in the last WASPA ranking are allowed to take part. 2 wild cards are possible for players not ranked in the top 25 and who have not won a Regional tournament in the last 12 months.
Well, that's all for now. Good luck to the players travelling this week-end to Belgium for the FISTF Major in Frameries. This is the biggest tournament of the year with 48 teams playing the team competitions and 240 individuals! WASPA will also have events in several places this week-end and all over the month.
It's not too late to add a tournament so feel free to send your tournament requests at vincent.cop@rsca.com 
Have a great week-end!