Essex tournament on June 3

The Essex Subbuteo League will be holding a tournament on June 3 and it will be under WASPA banner. Thanks to Paul Andreas for this last minute addition.

3 more tournaments

There are 3 last minute additions to the WASPA calendar.
- on June 5th there will be a tournament in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The local players want to make something special for the visit of Andrea Gasparini, the recent winner of the tournament played in Connecticut.
- On june 15 there will be a tournament with the old rules in Tolentino, Italy.
- Attard Subbuteo Club in Malta will have their next tournament on June 29.
Good luck to everyone involved.

Monthly report of May 2013

Hello everybody, here is the monthly report of the WASPA circuit. Link: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4_PpphlADgVNDU3MTY1ZGEtOGRiNS00YWYyLWIwMmEtYzJlOWM3ODRmOTA0/edit?usp=sharing

 May has been very interesting with 14 different tournaments and a lot of great news:
- we had the first tournament in Lincoln (England), hopefully the first of many more!
- the tournament in Michigan was fantastic with 17 players and a lot of great games. Canadian players travelled abroad for the first time in the WASPA circuit.
- there was a big surprise in Calgary where Riad Kadri managed to stop Shane Hoopfer's winning streak.
- Giorgos Zangylos is still dominating tournaments in Cyprus and he is now 3rd in the WASPA ranking.
- Fabrizio Fedele was strong enough to win the tournament in Chieti where subbuteo legend Andrea Di Vincenzo was taking part.
- Pierre Chastenais won the very first WASPA tournament in Montreal. Good to see the Province of Quebec has now some activity.
- Peter Sexton won in Hamilton and he is now 2nd in the WASPA ranking.
- Rudi Peterschinigg organized a very good tournament in Harrow Weald with 18 players taking part and Kevin Cordell made a sensational debut as he won the final.
- Geoffrey Marain won his 12th WASPA title!
- Chris Thomas won his second WASPA title in Thornaby. It's great to see such a big player is also competing in WASPA tournaments, which proves the love of the game is stronger than the need to cacth some world ranking points.
- The first tournament in Pretoria (South Africa) attracted seven players, which is very encouraging for the future.
- Antonio Carabillo (Hong Kong) was in visit in the US and played the tournament organized by MassimO Conturso in Connecticut. Andrea Gasparini won his third title.
- Warren Creighton came back to the game to win the Vancouver tournament.

Also, the very first promotional tournament was played in Templeuve with 5 players taking part. It was a great evening and the positive thing is that the local players who are not entitled to play promotional tournants were present to give tips to the new players and to be referees.

As for the statistics:
- Italy has now 30 titles (27 in regional tournaments, 3 in tournaments with the old rules)
- There are now 692 players ranked, it's 43 more than last month. For the first time 2 players have disappeared from the rankings as their last appearance was in May 2011.
- The ranking of nations is very close on top with Italy taking the lead for the first time with 178 points, Canada has 177 and Malta 175.

As for the rest of the WASPA news, here are some more points:
- the world map at http://goo.gl/maps/H3yLj has many more locations. Clubs and isolated players can be added if they are looking for new players in their area. We have just added several locations in South America;
- the first tournaments in Brazil is already in the agenda and there are now constructive contacts in Chile.
- tournaments in Northern Ireland, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Singapore, Canada, England and the USA are already in the agenda and it's not too late to add more events. The e-mail address to add tournaments is vincent.cop@rsca.com
- there are plans to create another category of tournaments in the near future. Events would be played only with Subbuteo material and the advanced rules. More details should be coming soon but feel free to contact me for any question.

Before the end of the message, I want to point out again that rumors are spread saying associations, clubs and players are not allowed to play in both FISTF and WASPA circuits. This is absolute bullshit. WASPA is not in competition with FISTF and our goal is only to attract new players, to give good games to every type of players and to offer something more than the elite tournaments where there is currently a lot of money involved and not many games are given to the players. So in no way people whould be scared to play or organize WASPA tournaments.

Well, that's all for now.

Please take a regular look at the blog (http://waspa-circuit.blogspot.com/) to check the news!

Thank you again to everyone for the support. it's a great source of motivation to see so many tournaments are played in so many different countries.

Cheers,

Vincent Coppenolle

Warren Creighton's winning come-back

There was a small turnout of four players but a lot of good fun in the Vancouver tournament held on sunday. it was good to see Warren Creighton back in action. Warren won the tournament after a close final against Gurmeet Khaira. After a 0-0 draw, Warren won the shootout. Congratulations!

A nice group picture

First event for Pretoria Flickers Club

Saturday 25th May 2013 marked the first ever WASPA event in Pretoria, South Africa when PFC hosted their first Club Cup competition, namely the PFC FOUNDERS CUP.
The event attracted a field of 7 entries :
Each participant played 4 matches on the day - the format based on a Swiss System draw.
A cautious first round of matches saw three 0-0 drawn matches, and we had to wait for the latter rounds to see some goal action !
Jayden vd Merwe stormed to the top of the leaderboard with first a 2-0 win over Marc-Leigh Alexander in Round 3 action & then a hard fought 1-0 win over Julian vd Merwe in the penultimate
match of the tournament ! As fate would have it, the very last match-up Kegan vd Merwe (0) vs (1) Chessray Jooste turned out to be a real "decider" - in which Kegan needed a clear 2-0 win to
be crowned Champion & Chessray needed a 2-0 win to force a title deciding play-off against Jayden !! However, Chessray could only manage a single goal scored on 13min to claim 2nd place &
thereby handing the title to Jayden !! Elsewhere, a very impressive 3rd place for PFC (and Subbuteo) newcomer Adrian Otto !!
A very big thank you to all the PFC members who participated in our 1st ever WASPA event - a great success & a memorable day indeed !!
The PFC website & facebook page will be be updated shortly with photo's & news content at :
http://pfctest.leaguerepublic.com/l/league/298369156.html

(Report by Julian van der Merwe)

Gasparini wins the Connecticut Cup

On sunday in Wallingford Subbuteo Club of Connecticut was resuming activity with the 11th edition of their oldest competition, the Connecticut Cup. 7 players were taking part and there was a special guest, Antonio Carabillo from Hong Kong Dragons Subbuteo Club. Antonio reached the semis but lost to Andrea Gasparini. Host Massimo Conturso also lost the other semi to Luis Silva. In the final, Gasparini beat Silva (1-0) to claim the title. Well done!

A nice group picture!

Chris Thomas wins the NETFA Teesside tournament

Our second WASPA event took place in Thornaby on the 24th May 2013. The night was special for the club because we had a guest player from Lincoln Flickers, John Devaney, who came up for the nights play. John did well, only losing one game and that one only by the odd goal in three. Chris Thomas was the star of the show, scoring some remarkable goals in demolishing Mike Parnaby and Ben Staples. Neil Youngson recovered from losing his first game to win the next two and take second place overall. Chris Kaberry was helped by winning the 'bye' game, but still finished 4th and recorded one of only three positive goal differences on the night! John Bottomley was only ahead of 'bye' in the final table, but continues to improve as he gets used to his new teams. The next meeting is in June and we hope to have an increased entry at this one!

Date of next NETFA Teesside WASPA tournament will be 21st June 2013.

(report by Mike Parnaby)

Chris Thomas (here in action in the FISTF Major of Frameries)

Poster of the next Templeuve tournament

The next Templeuve tournament will take place on June 23. Everybody is welcome!

Another victory for Geoffrey Marain in Templeuve

Geoffrey Marain won the Templeuve tournament on thursday evening. 10 players from 3 different clubs were taking part. Marain beat Vincent Coppenolle (4-3) in the final. Logan Adam (in his first WASPA tournament) and Renald Deloose reached the semis. Cyprien Godart and Maxime Hoguet finish 5th. Alain Flament, after a 10 year break, wins the consolation tournament.

Geoffrey Marain's son is already practicing

Cyprien Godart vs Greg Spilmont

Logan Adam vs Maxime Hoguet

The players of the consolation tournament

The traditional group picture

The finalists: Geoffrey Marain & Vincent Coppenolle

Calendar update

Tournament in the agenda this week-end

May 23: Templeuve (Belgium), May 24: Thornaby (England), May 25: Pretoria (South Africa), May 26: Wallingford, CT (USA), Chieti (Italy) and Vancouver (Canada).

Some events have been added for June in Northern Ireland, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Singapore, Canada & England.

To contact the tournament organizers, see details on the "forthcoming events" section of the WASPA blog.

7th title for Peter Sexton

There was a good field of seven players in the Hamilton tournament on saturday. After the group stage the top four players qualified for the semis. Stephen McNab beat Brodyn Sexton (2-1) while Peter Sexton had to wait the shootout to beat Shaun Burt. In the final, Peter Sexton gave no chance to Stephen McNab and won the game (2-0) to win his 7th WASPA title.

Kevin Cordell wins in Harrow Weald

There was a superb field of 18 players on sunday in Harrow Weald for the second tournament organized by Rudi Peterschinigg. Despite of 2 last minute drop-outs, everyone had a great day. Players were dropped in four groups and the top two players of each group qualified for the next round while others played the consolation tournament. In the consolation tournament, Richard Stock beat Matthew Henry int he final. In the main event, there were many close games. In the first semi-final, Rudi Peterschinigg scored a golden goal to beat Colin Tarry (4-3) while Kevin Cordell beat Steve George (2-1). Kevin, who had not played in a competitive level for years, managed to beat Rudi Peterschinigg in the final after shoot-out and claimed the title while Steve George beat Colin Tarry to finish third. Congratulations to everyone involved for making this day a success.

Kevin Cordell and Rudi Peterschinigg after the final

The location

Richard Stock was the Plate winner

First Montreal tournament

There was a small turnout on saturday in Montreal with 3 players taking part in the first WASPA tournament in Quebec but the important thing was to get players together and have finally something going on. 8 games were played and Pierre Chastenais beat François Primeau in the final while Aydin Mir was third. Hopefully there will be future developments and more players taking part in the future.

François, Pierre  Aydin

Maxime Hoguet wins the first promotional tournament

The first promotional tournament took place on thursday in Templeuve with five players taking part. It was a good evening with some experienced players, including Geoffrey Marain, giving tips to the five competitors. Everyone played four games and some more friendlies and at the end of the group stage, Maxime Hoguet came on top with 4 wins. Renald Deloose was second, Cyprien Godart third, Philippe Godart 4th and Arthur Van Houtte 5th.

The decisive game between Maxime Hoguet and Renald Deloose

Philippe and Cyprien Godart in action

Cyprien chipping the ball to score the first goal

What about Chelsea?

Is it the day for Chelsea? Do you think they can beat Benfica and win the Europa League final tonight?

Chelsea: the official subbuteo kit 2012-2013

Fabrizio Fedele was the best in Pescara

There was a small turnout of 9 players on sunday in Pescara (Italy). Fabrizio Fedele won the tournament, finishing on top of the group stage while Andrea Di Vincenzo was second and Camillo Di Francesco was third. Maurizio Cavallo won the "under" category, which was only for the juniors.

Novak Djokovic does it again!

Novak Djokovic does it again. When will we see Nadal and Federer playing subbuteo?

Novak Djokovic and his friends have fun playing subbuteo in Rome

7th title for Giorgios Zangylos in Cyprus

11 players attended the tournament organized in Limassol by Famagusta TFC on friday. There was no surprise with another classic final between Giorgios Zangylos and Marcos Kalopsioditis and Zangylos won 4-0. Vangelis Zorbis and Mikel Sarris lost in the semis. This is already Zangylos's 7th title under WASPA banner! Congratulations.

Action during the tournament

The final

Nice group picture in the premises of Famagusta TFC

The finalists

Next tournament in Michigan

MiSTFA (Michigan Subbuteo Table Football Association) will be hosting their next tournament on Sunday, July 28th in Grand Rapids.

"The 616 Cup is the latest MiSTFA/ASA/WASPA Open tournament. After the success of our recent Flicko de Mayo we anticipate another great turnout for this event.
We plan on returning to SpeakEZ Lounge at 600 Monroe Ave NW in Grand Rapids, a venue which welcomes us with open arms.
The tournament will be a Swiss Ladder format, just for a change, and so we can accommodate a large number of players and a large number of games in a relatively short time.
The name 616 refers not only to the telephone area code for GR, but also the format: 6 pitches, 1 table, 6 matches. This format allows up to 24 players completing the program in 6 hours.
The joy of the Swiss Ladder format is that after the first match or two you are playing against players of a similar standard, but you still have the chance to move into the upper reaches of the competition.
Please RSVP by emailing info@mistfa.org your phone number and email address. We would also appreciate your RSVP to our event on Facebook to encourage others to attend our tournament through social media channels. 
We will have an entry fee of $5. This will consist of a $2 fee which is passed on directly to the ASA, and the remainder for us. It has been a while since MiSTFA itself charged a tournament entry fee, but we would like to provide trophies and/or prizes for the winners of this magnitude of tournament, plus the larger tournament means more requirement for pitches and we need vehicles to haul them. Any surplus funds will be returned back into the game by providing equipment to new players.
As usual at SpeakEZ, we will not cater any meals, you are free to order anything off the menu you wish. The food has received rave reviews from our previous visitors!
The venue will open by around 10am to begin setting up tables, you will be able to enter by then for any practice or friendlies. Anyone bringing pitches is asked to provide them by this time.
We will start at 11am and aim to have the event wrapped up around 5pm. All times Eastern of course.
We will be preparing a "flickGR" document which provides additional information for visitors from out of town or out of state. This will include a questionnaire about your arrival and accommodation needs. Please fill it out as appropriate and we'll recommend some options for you.
We look forward to seeing you for the next tournament in Grand Rapids, the new hotbed of Subbuteo in the Midwest!", explained organizer Mike Ewer!

The Facebook page of the event is http://www.facebook.com/events/141582249358881/permalink/141582546025518/

The recent "Flicko de Mayo tournament" in Grand Rapids had 17 players taking part

Another tournament in Lincoln

The Lincoln Flickers will have their second WASPA tournament in Saturday, June 29th 2013 at The Eastgate Tennis, Bowls and Squash Club, Langworthgate, Lincoln LN2 4AD. "It's a well-appointed and sizeable venue with ample (free) car parking. Lincoln Central Railway Station is approximately 1.5 kilometre away. The Eastgate has a fully stocked and licensed bar and, because it is essentially a sports and social club, drinks cost considerably less than at local pubs. There is also an extensive and reasonably priced bar menu. The event will commence at 12 noon, thereby giving any players who have to travel ample time to reach the venue. The format of the competition will be determined nearer the time, once entry numbers are known, but needless to say it will be in keeping with WASPA's guidelines on the matter", reported John Devaney.
Interested players can drop a line to John at jaypeedee1956@yahoo.co.uk

First tournament in Pretoria (South Africa)

There will be a first tournament under WASPA banner on May 18 in Pretoria (South Africa). Interested players can contact Julian van der Merwe at julianrvdm@gmail.com
Good luck to everyone involved!

A new champion in Calgary

There was an absolutely shocker on sunday in Calgary as Calgary Subbuteo club has a new champion! Riad Dangerkat Kadri pulled off a huge win in the final over Logan Tommy Stevenson beating him 1-0! Riad also upset Josh Frodo Braun in one semi-final and in the other semi Logan got payback for the last month pulling off a upset of his own beating Shane Hoopfer 1-0 in penalties after a 0-0 game through extra time. Benjamin Joseph Herrel and Tom Stevenson both had good showings in the tourney. Added thanks to Tom for putting up his shop as the new home for Calgary Subbuteo! Next Tourney should be Sunday Jun 9th at the shop.

(report by Shane Hoopfer)

17 players and a great tournament

17 players attended the "Flicko de Mayo" tournament held in Grand Rapids, Michigan on sunday. Not only the field of players was very large but there were some special guests for the tournament such as Stephen McNab and Peter Sexton from Hamilton Subbuteo Club and some legends of american subbuteo such as Steve Laskey and Eric Walton. In the end, Steve Laskey beat Peter Alegi in the final. Eric Walton and Nathan Pate (who is only 14) made it to the semis and Brian Lambert won the consolation tournament.
All results are available here: http://www.mistfa.org/scores/2013/flickodemayo/

Nice group picture!

Steve Laskey gets his trophy from Amanda Ewer

Steve Laskey and Eric Walton in the semi-final

Inaugural Waspa event in Lincoln (England)

The Lincoln Flickers Subbuteo Club held their inaugural WASPA event last wednesday. In some ways it was merely a case of putting our toe in the water as the event was organised at very short notice. That probably explains why we only attracted 4 entrants, all of whom live locally. Anyway, it was a good evening and it was great to have a new player, a 12 year old girl who is football crazy and really loved subbuteo, besides showing some real latent talent!

As for the results, John Devaney won the tournament, Michael Hardy being second, Peter Warner was third and Mick Brien was fourth! The next club meeting will take place on May 15th.

John Devaney, the tournament winner!

Michael Hardy

Mick Brien

Pete Warner

Sophia, a new talent in the club

Steve Dettre wins in Penrith (Australia)

For the fifth time in less than a year, the Mega Games shop in Penrith hosted a subbuteo tournament under WASPA banner. This time 8 players were present and the event was played under swiss system. Steve Dettre won the tournament with 3 wins and 1 draw. Steve Dettre is a legend of table football as he was a Director int he FISTF Board in the early 90's. The rest of the table was as follows: 2. Eliot Kennedy ; 3. Paul Magee ; 4. Mike Newton (England) ; 5. Nick Drage ; 6. Brett Davis ; 7. Anthony Ilacqua ; 8. Jay Porter.