25th tournament of the season in Canada and 7th title for Shane Hoopfer

The players of the Calgary Subbuteo Club met last week for their monthly tournament. This time only six players were present. All of them played a group stage and Shane Hoopfer finished on top with 13 points. There was no surprise in the barrage round as Tom Stevenson defeated Keifer Korol and Josh Braun beat Ben Herrel. In the semis, Shane Hoopfer beat Josh Braun by a single goal while Logan Stevenson beat Tom Stevenson on shots. In the final, there was no surprise as Hoopfer beat Stevenson by a clear 3-0 to claim his 7th title in the WASPA circuit. Well done Shane!

This was already the 25th tournament in Canada this season

Alberto Gagliardi wins in Corridomnia

8 players attended the tournament played with the Old rules in Corridomnia (Italy) and organized by United OSC Macerata. There were some new players and there was some good action in the games. After the group stage, Alberto gagliardi had no pain to win his semi-final against Leonardo Matteucci while Antonio Chieppa beat Mauro Matteucci on shots to qualify for the final. The final was easy for Gagliardi who beat Chieppa by a clear 4-0. Well done to all the players who competed outside by a very hot temperature of 38°.

Peter Alegi offers the title to Italy in Michigan

Peter Alegi walked off with a half gallon of Michigan maple syrup as winner of the 616 Cup played at SpeakEZ Lounge on Sunday. Unbeaten in a 7-game round robin tournament, his only blemish was a 1-1 draw with Paul Pate. The only out-of-state visitor this time round was Tim Tumminaro from the Chicago area, who finished 5th on goal difference. Marcus Fila, from Bournemouth England via Athens Ohio and new to the Grand Rapids area, played his first ASA tournament and finished second, losing only to Peter Alegi 0-1 and drawing with Paul Pate 2-2. Mike Ewer started out with two amazing results beating both Pates, Paul 3-0 and Nate 1-0, but then some indifferent form placed him 4th. Nathan Pate was a disappointing 5th, only beating the bottom two players. First year player EZ Albertson, owner of SpeakEZ, played a couple of 0-0 draws against Mike Ewer and Paul Pate. It was great to receive our near neighbour Tim Tumminaro from just a couple of hours away for the first time. And Marcus Fila adds to a local scene growing in strength.

Final Standings:
Peter Alegi (E.Lansing MI) ..... ITA 7 6 1 0 35:02 19
Marcus Fila (Grand Rapids MI) .. ENG 7 5 1 1 21:06 16
Paul Pate (Rockford MI) ........ USA 7 2 4 1 10:06 10
Mike Ewer (Grand Rapids MI) .... ENG 7 3 1 3 10:09 10
Tim Tumminaro (Batavia IL) ..... USA 7 3 1 3 11:17 10
Nathan Pate (Rockford MI) ...... USA 7 2 2 3 15:12 08
Eric Albertson (Grand Rapids MI) USA 7 1 2 4 02:18 05
Chad Idema (Grand Rapids MI) ... USA 7 0 0 7 00:34 00

(report by Mike Ewer)

Great picture showing the players in action

Luigi Marino wins the first regional tournament in Bari

As scheduled, on July 22th Subbuteo Club Bari (Italy) staged their first 'regional' tournament under the banner of WASPA! Despite of two last minute drop-outs, eleven players present. Not bad considering the holiday period and the sea nearby. One of the absent players was Stefano Capossela who was the big favorite!
This time the tournaent was played in swiss system with 5 rounds of 20 minutes. There were many close games and a lot of goals. Luigi Marino, who won the promotional tournament earlier in July, was again the winner. Giuseppe Triggiani was a surprising second and Paolo Triccoli was third.

Action!

The players

The top 3

Second tournament of the SG Flicks Tour in Singapore

This week-end the "SG Flicks Tour" at Leste Subbuteo club had a reasonable turn out with 12 participants. The draw was made and the group of death was in group A where the favourites were in. All in all the players were divided into 3 groups. Group A: Rudy, Anas, Rizal Ahmad & Farhan. Group B: Fauzi, Galvin, Azim Haikal and Amirul. Group C: Azhar, Fizul, Ashraff & Aziz. In the group games the first game provided an upset where Anas beat Rudy 2-1 however Anas loss the 2 other games thus was eliminated in the group stages. The other two groups were as expected apart from Galvin sudden rise beating the other two senior players & topping the group. In the knock-out stage, again Galvin surprized the field first by beating Rizal 2-0 and then Farhan in the shoot-out while Rudy won comfortably against Azim 7-3 and Fauzi 3-0 to reach the final. In the consolation final Farhan won a hard battle against Fauzi 1-0. Final: Rudy outplayed Galvin 7-3 who seems loss steam in the final stage nevertheless kudos to Galvin who outplayed himself reaching his 1st final.

(report by Rudy Hesty)

First tournament in South CarolinaCrai

Congratulations to Craig Cousino for winning the very first Azalea Cup in Summerville, SC (USA). He won a group stage of six players to win the title. Organizer Richard Mike Mellott took the second place. Great to see some subbuteo action in the part of the USA.

Craig Cousino from Charlotte, NC won the first Azalea Cup

Stefano Tagliaferri and Matteo Del Brocco on top in Rome

On July 24th, the fourth and final event of the Summer Cup Lazio WASPA, 2013 was played in Rome. It was counted as a wASPA tournament (as the August event of the Lazio club). It was also the last evening of the social competition at SS Lazio TFC for the season 2012/2013. The tournament was held over three rounds of 30 minutes each with seven players at the start. Stefano Tagliaferri and Matteo Del Brocco (who just scored one more goal) ended on top of the table with seven points while Gianmarco Del Brocco took six points.
In the same evening a team tournament was played with three teams, which was a good way for everyone to have good fun.

Giorgos Zangylos wins again

The last tournament in Cyprus saw Giorgos Zangylos's victory after he beat Kostas Kalopsioditis in the final. There was a big surprise in the first round as Marcos Kalopsioditis, the winner of the previous event, could not pass the group stage, taking only one point in two games. Kostas Kalopsioditis scored a golden goal to beat Giannis Zenonos and qualify for the final but he had no chance against the experience Zangylos who claims his 8th WASPA title.

The players

Fact of the day: more than 800 ranked players

Thanks to new players from Italy, Ireland, England, Malta, Belgium, South Africa, Finland and Singapore, we have now reached the gap of 800 players in the WASPA ranking. There will probably be more to come as we are waiting for results from the US, Canada, Italy and there will be some more events in Cyprus, Singapore, the US, Italy and England before the end of the month. Thanks to those who help WASPA to grow day after day!

Surprises and good time in Templeuve

10 players attended the monthly tournament organized by the Templeuve United club in Belgium. The tournament took place on monday evening and and there were several players from SC Eugies taking part. After the first round (2 groups of 5), the winners automatically qualified for the semi-finals. In the barrages, Vincent Coppenolle and Stelio Tsangouris qualified after beating Quentin Van Glabeke and Renald Deloose. There was a big surprise in the semi-final when Vincent Coppenolle beat Geoffrey Marain (2-1) while Stelio Tsangouris beat Anthony Lispet. In the final, it was another surprise. Coppenolle scored the first goal and had to admit the pressure from Tsangouris till the end of the game but Stelio didn't manage to equalize. This is Coppenolle's third WASPA title. Logan Adam won the consolation tournament, winning the group stage to Philippe Godart, Cyprien Godart and Olivier Van Glabeke.

The "final 4": Anthony Lispet, Stelio Tsangouris, Vincent Coppenolle and Geoffrey Marain

Kegan van der Merwe wins PFC Challenge Cup

Saturday 20 July 2013, Pretoria (South Africa) : The Pretoria Flickers Club hosted their second WASPA event, the PFC Challenge Cup. The event attracted a field of 8 players, including Subbuteo debutant Conway Julie. The 8 players were drawn into 2 groups of 4 players each, contesting 3 round robin matches with the 2 top placed players proceeding to the semi's. Chessray got the tournament off to a blistering pace by beating Marc-Leigh 3-0 in Group A's opening match. Elsewhere, in Group B, Selwyn beat debutant Conway 2-0 (the goals coming 35 seconds apart !) to race to the top of Group B.
In the 1st Semi Final, Julian could not stop the in-form (and current PFC League 2 leader) Chessray : score 2-1 to Chessray, the winner coming with 2 minutes left to play! In the 2nd Semi Final, Kegan had to rely on the lottery of penalty shots to beat Selwyn 2-1, this after a scoreless match during regulation and extra time! Julian managed to salvage some pride by beating the most consistent player on the day, Selwyn, with a 3-2 penalty shots win to clinch 3rd place overall. Jayden (winner of PFC's first ever WASPA event, the FOUNDERS CUP) could not negotiate his way through the group stages, but managed to beat Adrian in the 5th/6th play-off to claim the "Plate Prize".
The Final saw Kegan (PFC League 1 Champion) take on Chessray (current PFC League 2 leader) - a very closely contested affair all the way, but in the end Kegan won 1-0, scoring the winner after 6m11s of extra-time play !!
A very big thank you to all the PFC members who participated & a special thanks to the spectators who attended !!!
The PFC website & facebook page will be be updated shortly with photo's & news content at :
http://pfctest.leaguerepublic.com/l/league/298369156.html
http://www.facebook.com/pages/PFC-SA/519566284755728

Final Places
1st Kegan van der Merwe
2nd Chessray Jooste
3rd Julian van der Merwe
4th Selwyn Davis
5th Jayden van der Merwe
6th Adrian Otto
7th Conway Julie
8th Marc-Leigh Alexander

(report by Julian Van der Merwe)

'Old Subbuteo' Victory for Bickerstaff in Gorey

Congratulations to Ernie Bickerstaff on recording his first tournament victory in Gorey, County Wexford (Ireland). There were two WASPA events organised by Nicky Moore on the same day. Ernie won the first event, played to the 'Advanced Subbuteo Rules', topping the six-player table ahead of Nicky Moore. Only old Subbuteo 'Heavyweight' teams were allowed, with no polish and it produced some interesting results!

Kenny Beggs won the second WASPA event of the day, finishing above Mark Farrell in a five player group. A last-gasp goal following a corner-flick gave Kenny a 2-1 victory over Mark in the decisive match. This one was played to 'FISTF Rules'. Many thanks to Nicky, Anne & family for their kind hospitality, providing the players with accommodation and lovely food. A great summer weekend in a beautiful location.

Full details and results at http://www.nitfa.org.uk/

Ernie Bickerstaff, winner of 'Old Subbuteo' tournament in County Wexford

Wexford 'FISTF Rules' Winner, Kenny Beggs with organiser, Nicky Moore

George Ebejer wins the first Bormla tournament

The first WASPA tournament organized by Bormla Subbuteo Club in Malta was held on saturday and 16 players were taking part. George Ebjer (who already won the Attard tournament last month) was the winner, beating Mauro Camilleri (5-3) in the final. Josef Camilleri took the third place by beating Melanie Fenech (6-4). Well done to everyone and special thanks to Josef Camilleri for making things happen at Bormla Subbuteo Club!

Melanie Fenech and Mauro Camilleri

 

The finalists

Presentation of the trophies

The trophies

Den Mulia wins in Singapore

Six players attended the Singapore tournament held on saturday in the premises of the Ealias club. The event was played under league system and Den Mulia was the winner with no surprise, Anas finishing second and Rizal third.

Nice pictures of the tournament

Chris Thomas on top in Thornaby

This meeting saw only 6 players take part in our third WASPA event. Heading the field was Chris Thomas and he was never really troubled throughout the evening's play. The first round saw Ben beat Mike, a result that sent a little shock wave around the players. In truth, it's been coming as Ben continues to improve. Jeff Parsons returned for more action and started with a 2-2 draw against Chris Kaberry. Chris Thomas gave Neil a lesson! Round two saw Ben taught that same lesson by Chris Thomas. Mike recovered to beat Chris Kaberry 3-0 and Neil scored a narrow win against Jeff. The final set of games sorted out the final placings. Chris saw of a decent challenge from Mike, Ben beat Jeff to secure second place in the final table, and Neil beat Chris Kaberry to pinch third place.

Date of next NETFA Teesside WASPA tournament will be 23rd August 2013

(report by Mike Parnaby)

Left to right: Jeff Parsons, Ben Staples, Neil Youngson, Chris Thomas, Andrew (spectator this time), Mike Parnaby, Chris Kaberry

Final table:
1. Chris Thomas - 9 points - +14
2. Mike Parnaby - 6 points - +1
3. Neil Youngson - 6 points - -5
4. Ben Staples - 3 points - -4
5. Jeff Parsons - 1 point - -2
6. Chris Kaberry - 1 point - -4

Claudio Dogali wins the Lurago Cup

Claudio Dogali, number 8 in the FISTF world ranking and Number 3 in the Italian ranking FISCT, won the first "Lurago Cup ETF" played on July 18 in the evening. Dogali played with a great technique despite he isn't accustomed to play with the old material. There was an excellent performnce by Luca Rajna who managed to tie with Dogali in the group stage (3-3) but at the end Dogali had a better goal differnce. Host Luca Rajna also reported "The best thing by far was the comeback of Luciano Bottà Luciano."
Roberto Cavallo was 3rd, Fabrizio Olla 4th, Luciano Bottà 5th.

Agenda of the week-end

There will be several WASPA tournaments taking place this week-end.

On friday, July 19, the NETFA Teesside players will meet in Thornaby (England) for what shoud be a good event.

On saturday, there will be tournaments in five different places. The club of Bormla (Malta) will organize their very first tournament under WASPA banner. There will be a tournament for the very first time in Summerville, South Carolina (USA). Singapore will have a tournament in the premises if the Elias club. The second tournament in Pretoria (South Africa) will also be interesting to follow. Last but not least, there will be two WASPA tournaments organised by Nicky Moore in Gorey, County Wexford (Ireland), one played to Old Advanced Rules and the other to FISTF Rules. One of the world's top players, Eric Naszalyi of France, will be taking part. See website for more details.

There will be a tournament in Calgary (Canada) on sunday and two more events on monday: one in Bari (Italy) and one in Templeuve (Belgium).

Justin Finch wins the Subbuteo event in Glasgow

The first leg of the Subbuteo Challenge Cup was played this week-end in Glasgow (Scotland). It was an enjoyable tournament with 24 players divided in the Open and Junior sections. In the open category, Justin Finch beat Gareth Cristie to bring back the trophy in England. Keeland Anderson beat Jamie Pilgrim (7-0) in the Junior final. Well doe the Mark Watson and Alan Collins for making things happen and to Gareth Christie and Gregg Dand for helping to organize everything at local level. The next tournaments of the Subbuteo Challenge Cup will have some more players as there are already 40 entries for Leeds and 60 for Chelsea FC. Despite these tournaments are not played under WASPA banner, they receive full support from WASPA as our games deserves more tournaments like this. Well done to everyone involved! (Pictures from FlickForKicks)

Justin Finch, Open winner

Keelan Anderson, Junior winner

Home win for Peter Sexton

It was a great day of subbuteo in Hamilton on saturday as the local club tried the Swiss style and with the help of their technical director Stephen McNab it was a wonderful tournament. Unfortunately too many posts and crossbars kept Stephen from making it to the final. It was a repeat match up from the last final with Brodyn Sexton and Peter Sexton Peter came out the winner this time around. We had 9 players out which is great in the summer. Thanks to all that came. One last tournament and our first year as the HSC is officially in the books. can't wait for the next year as we have some more vested players to come out.

Semi-finals
Peter Sexton - Shaun Burt 1-0
Stephen McNab - Brodyn Sexton 0-1

Final:
Peter Sexton - Brodyn Sexton 5-1

(report with the help of Peter Sexton)

Jani Mustonen wins the Sysmä tournament

First ever table football tournament in Sysmä, Finland, was organized by Finnish team champions TFC Lynx. Unfortunately only participants from organizing club were attending. 6 players played first 10 games in one group. Then 4 players proceeded to semifinals. This time Jani Mustonen was the tournament winner as he beat 2 time Finnish Champion Jarkko Lindholm in semifinal and 4 time Finnish Champion Marko Karhunen in the final with the scoreline 1-0.

TFC Lynx also organized their traditional 2 day Summer Games before WASPA tournament. After a mixture of different sports, the winner was Juha-Pekka “Purtsi” Hölttä by 99,9 % of the points.

(report by Marko Karhunen)

First title for Marcos Kalopsidiotis

8 players attended the Limassol tournament organized by Famagusta TFC in Cyprus on wednesday. After the group stage, there were no surprises in the semi-finals as Georgios Zangylos beat Giorgos Stylianou (5-2) while Marcos Kalopsidiotis beat Giannis Zenonos (3-0). Zangylos and Kalopsidiotis are used to play finals together but for the first time, the winner was Marcos Kalopsidiotis (0-2) who claims his first WASPA title. Well done!

The usual group picture

Fair-play between the finalists

Simone Trivelli wins again

On July 10, 2013 the second of the four events of the "Summer Lazio Cup 2013" was played in Rome. The tournament was held over four rounds of 30 minutes each with Swiss formula. Eleven players attended the event. Simone Trivelli won the event with 10 points and the ranking was very close as Gianmarco Del Brocco and Stefano Tagliaferri ended with 9 points, Matteo Del Brocco with 7 points, Patrick Lazzaretti, Paolo Barone, Claudio Paolino, Luigi Aniballi and Marco Moretti 6 points. After the 2 events Simone Trivelli is on top of the table (20 points) while Matteo Del Brocco is second (17).

Tom Groves's book "In the box" is available

Tom Groves's book "In the Box" is now available. It's probably the best book about modern subbuteo ever made. Don't miss the chance to buy a copy. Details are available from Tom's website: http://intheboxbook.co.uk/

Success for the first promotional tournament in Italy

14 players attended the WASPA tournament organized by the club of Bari last week. The event was played in swiss format with six rounds so that everyone played six games. At the end of the evening the winner was Luigi Marino with 5 wins and 1 draw. There were all types of players involved, people who play in official tournaments in Italy and occasional players. After the success of the very first first promotional tournament in Italy, the club of Bari decided to have a regional tournament on July 22. Good luck to the organizers and in particular to Luca Fazio for being in charge!

Four tournaments in Singapore

The senior players in Singapore have collaborated on a new pilot project to have more flicks in different part of the country in different clubs. The "Flicks SG Tour" philosophy is to have more game play among players, 20 minutes per game, games to end within 4 hrs & no referee. There will be 4 game dates in 3 different venues lined up.  The dates & venues are as follows:
1) July 20 @3-7pm @ Elias SC
2) July 26 @7-11pm @ Leste Aquila SC
3) August 25 @11am-2pm @Woodlands SC
4) September 6 @7-11pm @ Leste Aquila SC
All meetings will be under WASPA banner.
Interested players can contact Rudy Hesty at norrud@singnet.com.sg

Always more subbuteo events

Since the release of the latest monthly report, a few more events have been added.
There will be 2 tournaments in Cyprus. The club of Famagusta TFC will host events in Limassol on July 10 and 24. The first event has been allowed as there was no tournament in June due to the duties of the local organizers who kindly asked to postpone their monthly tournament.
Finland has added a last minute tournament on July 10 in Sysmä. The club of TFC Lynx will organize the event.
Hamilton (Canada) will have their monthly tournament on July 13. Will Peter Sexton win this time? It's difficult to say as the competition is huge over there.
NETFA Teesside will hold another tournament in Thornaby on July 19.
Ireland will have two events on the same day. The city of Gorey will host a "regional" tournament and the first tournament played with the advanced rules.
There will be two more events on July 22: one in Bari (Italy) and one in Templeuve (Belgium).
On July 28,  tournament with the Old Rules will be played in Corridonia (Italy).
The Lincoln Flickers (England) will have their monthly event on July 31. The June event had been postponed in the last minute for valid reasons.
Finally, there is an early announcement for the next tournament in Penrith (Australia). Their next event will take place on September 14.
Good luck to all organizers! Anyone wanting to add any event is welcome to do so by sending an e-mail to vincent.cop@rsca.com

Posters of the next tournament in Macerata

The next tournament organized by the club of OSC Macerata will be held on July 28 in Corridonia (Macerata). Interested players can contact Alberto Gagliardi (see details on the poster)

John Devaney wins the Barn Cup

The "Barn Cup" was played on saturday and John Devaney won the event organized by the Lincoln Flickers. John ended on top of the group stage while Graham French was second, Andy Berry third and Peter Warner fourth.

Players after the event

Poster of the forthcoming Templeuve tournament

Belgium will have a tournament on July 22. Interested players can contact Vincent Coppenolle at vincent.cop@rsca.com

WASPA monthly report of June 2013

Here is the monthly report of the WASPA circuit.

In June we managed to break some records but the most impressive one was than 25 tournaments were played (21 regional, 3 "Old Rules", 1"promotional").

We have now 766 players ranked, which is 74 more than last month. Chile has become our 32nd nation and we wish them welcome. Now we can say WASPA is present on every continent. We had also a first winner from sweden.

This month we had tournaments in Northern Ireland, England, Italy, Belgium, Singapore, Spain, the US, Chile, Malta, the Republic of Ireland and Australia. Several clubs organized tournaments for the first time.

We expect the activity to slow down in July and August but there are already seven tournaments in the agenda for July and we are sure a few more will be added soon. We keep in mind that the more events there are, the more opportunities to promote the game we have! Even small tournament with 3 to 6 players can be interesting.

This month we also open the opportunity to organize WASPA tournaments with advanced rules and subbuteo material only. There is a renewed interest for Subbuteo material and the brand SUBBUTEo will organize tournaments in Leeds, London (Chelsea FC), Glasgow and Manchester. We have had several requests to know if it's possible to organize tournaments with advanced rules and there was no reason to refuse. Organizers should have two options about the material: only Subbuteo material or flat figures only. All details have been added in the handbook.

In the "golden book", some sections in the statistics have been updated or improved. If you have more ideas about statics to add or to improve, don't hesitate to send a message.

As for the WASPA blog, http://waspa-circuit.blogspot.com has now had more than 50.000 visits and it's fantastic to see so many visitors.

For the future, we will try to have more interviews on the blog. If you are interested to be interviewed or if you want to interview one of your friends, you can send a picture to Vincent.cop@rscA.com and answer the following 5 questions:
- can you introduce yourself as a player? When did you start playing?
- why do you like subbuteo table football?
- what are your greatest achivements in the game?
- If you had to improve something in table football tournaments, what would it be?
- What are your thoughts about WASPA? Why do you like (or dislike) it?

Please check the WASPA world map at http://goo.gl/maps/ggoYe and if you see some places to add or to modify, don't hesitate to drop a line.

Well, that's all for now. Thanks to everyone for helping WASPA to grow. Two years ago, nobody could have expected more than 175 tournaments would have been played.

The direct links:
WASPA golden book: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4_PpphlADgVeDFLdUZ6S25DQTQ/edit?usp=sharing
WASPA handbook: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4_PpphlADgVeTEwd1piSVlGdkE/edit?usp=sharing
WASPA advanced rules: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4_PpphlADgVaWdHazFHMmxIRlU/edit?usp=sharing

Good evening!

Vincent Coppenolle

Flat figures help George Ebejer to win the Attard tournament

The 17th WASPA tournament held in the premises of Attard Subbuteo Club in Malta attracted 16 players from both the home club (11) and Bormla SC (5). The amazing performance of the day was the victory of George Ebejer in the final. The Bormal player defeated Adrian Bonnici but the amazing fact was that Ebejer was using flat figures (!)
Adrian Bonnici was the losing finalist while Hector Scerri and Mauro Camilleri reached the semi-finals.

Roderick Vassallo and Daniele Spadaro in action

Roderick Vassallo wears the polo of Valletta FC while Adrian Bonnici wears the uniform of football rival Birkirkara but both players competed in a great spirit of fair-play

Picture from the presentation of the trophies

First WASPA title for George Ebejer using flat figures