Australia: The first tournament of the Western Flickers

Western Flickers 1st WASPA tournament! (2nd May 2015)

Reported by Benny Ng (Melbourne, Australia)

The Western Flickers is a newly formed sub-group of the Melbourne Table Football Club. Arising from a casual chat between Benny Ng and Adam Deverall, the purpose of the Western Flickers is to cater for players living on the north/west side of Melbourne and provide more opportunities to play the wonderful game of table football.

The Western Flickers began with a great start today by having 5 players attend the very first meet-up and celebrated the occasion by conducting a WASPA tournament. As a first event, it was important that everyone had a chance to play each other and get to know one another better. As such, the tournament was conducted as a simple round robin single-leg league ladder.
In the historic first round of matches, Adam Deverall played Beth Everleigh while David Simpson faced off with “young star of the future” Benjamin Ng.

Playing with her brand spanking new Snipers (a superbly painted Bristol City team from Giuseppe of the Brisbane TFC), Beth showed off her lightning quick play and raced off the blocks with a win despite Adam’s valiant efforts both in attack and defence. It was a very close affair with Beth edging out Adam 1-0. As expected, the vastly more experienced David won comfortably against Benjamin 3-0 in the other match. But I have to say that Benjy displayed some truly magnificent goalkeeping!

In round 2, David and Benny played out a tight but exciting goalless draw. With similar playing styles, the game followed the pattern of recent encounters with few chances that neither could take on this occasion. In the other match, Benjamin pulled off a performance beyond his years to upset Beth 1-0. Another sign of great things to come for the young player.

In round 3, excellent flicking play by Beth could not prevent David from notching a tight 2-1 victory. Benny then unleashed a rare attacking display (normally he likes to “park the bus” ala Mourinho) to defeat Adam 3-0.

In the next round, Benny faced off against Beth for the first time and pulled off another 3-0 win. The score did not reflect the actual play though as Beth played fantastic and it was actually a tight game. Some clinical (and probably lucky) finishing from Benny made all the difference. In the other game, Adam took revenge for his earlier loss by taking it out on Benjamin (Benny junior) and winning comfortably at 3-1. Just kidding Adam! ;-)

In the final round of matches, father played son and Benny showed no mercy coming out tops 2-0. Looks like Daddy won’t be getting much hugs and kisses from his little boy the next couple of days! In the other fixture, Adam held out David to a 0-0 draw which turned out to be a crucial result as it meant that Benny would finish top of the ladder and win his very first WASPA tournament!

At the end of the day, I can proudly declare that the Western Flicker’s first gathering was a resounding success! Everyone had a really fun time in a relaxed and social environment. And as  a bonus, we managed to recruit a young new fan to the beautiful game in Adam’s boy! The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades!

GO WEST!

Final standings:
1. Benny Ng
2. David Simpson
3. Adam Deverall
4. Benjamin Ng
5. Beth Everleigh

P.S. If anyone is interested in taking part in future Western Flicker events or just popping by for chat and look-see, feel free to send Benny Ng an email at bennidokk@yahoo.com