Tuesday 16 December 2014

Junior Jayden Captures Johannesburg Open Title

Saturday the 13th of December, Panorama Sports Club played host to the annual Johannesburg Open table football tournament.  A big turnout of 19 participants including Zimbabwean national, Godfrey Sibanda, and 8 novices enjoyed an afternoon of fun, thrills, laughs and exciting games.

The 19 participants were split into four groups, where Clinton Gahwiler, Clifford Graaff, Bevan Reed and junior Alex Rodrigues qualified as group winners along with Fernando Rodrigues, junior Jayden van der Merwe, Kegan van der Merwe and Julian van der Merwe as group runner-ups. Clinton, Clifford, Fernando and Jayden progressed to the semi-finals.

In two tight semi-finals, Clifford edged out Clinton by the odd goal in the first semi and Junior Jayden and Fernando treated the crowd to a marathon penalty shoot-out whereby Jayden eventually held his nerve to triumph by 10 goals to 9.
The Open final
The Final saw pre-tournament favourite, Clifford Graaff face off against a determined Jayden van der Merwe. After a tense goalless final, penalties separated the two finalists with Jayden justifiably wrapping up his maiden Johannesburg Open by defeating Clifford by the odd goal in five.
The Junior final
A junior Final was also contested between the two top juniors, namely Alex Rodrigues and Jayden van der Merwe. Alex got a measure of revenge for losing in the Cup quarter-finals against the same opponent by scoring a cracker of a goal to capture the junior title.
Semi-finalists of the Open tournament
A big word of thanks must go to Clinton Gahwiler from Cape Town, for attending his first tournament in Johannesburg. Pretoria Flickers must also receive some praise as 5 of their members travelled down the N1 to partake in a very successful and entertaining Johannesburg Open.

(Report by Clifford Graaff)

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