Gus Gillespie wins in Brisbane

28/06/15 – Woody Point

This month’s tournament was a long day, but very enjoyable for all. A new member and a new name on the trophy too. The first round of games had Rik Bland topping the league table, with Giuseppe Tardiota, Andrew Bennett and Gus Gillespie completing the top four spots. The semi finals were a repeat of last month’s encounters, with the same outcome – Andrew beat Giuseppe 2-0, and Gus beat Rik 2-1, (in which Rik scored a bizarre own goal). The final again went to extra time, and this time Gus prevailed and earned a 2-1 victory. Having built slowly, and peaked at the right time, Gus was delighted with his first trophy.

New member Andy Rigden, previously represented Wales internationally, and after a very lengthy lay off, is keen to get back into the flick of things again. A little time to polish up on the latest rules will no doubt see him contesting the trophy.
Congratulation Gus Gillespie

(Report by Giuseppe Tardiota)

Mark Farrell and John Moore win in Celbridge

The first Irish tournament this year held last Saturday and was called "The Celbridge open". Organizers had a low turnout of 5 players but played two tournaments. Both were on a league system with 4 games each. The first was to fistf rules in the morning which Mark Farrell won on 12 pts from John Moore on 9, Ken McKenzie in 3rd on 6pts.

In the Afternoon we played an old rules with 1980's style figures. John Moore (his first WASPA title!) won this on 10 pts, Mark Farrell in 2nd on 7, Nicky Moore 3rd on 6pts.

Gianpaolo Vitulano wins in Coulsdon

Gianpolo Vitulanot (left), here during the recent Gillingham tournament

Last friday five players met at the Coulsdon tournament in England. Gian paolo Vitulano took the honors after defeating his opponents. Rudi Peterschinigg was runner-up.

Fabrizio is... Coco-lossal!

Fabrizio Coco of Subbuteo Parramatta claimed the June 23 WASPA at the Northern Falcons club night, but was pushed all the way in the final phase.

A good turnout of 10 players on a cold, winter’s Tuesday night contested the event at the Good Games Chatswood venue, using four Extremeworks pitches.

In Group 1, Neil Brenner did well and pushed for a semi final place, before succumbing to the experience of Johnny Ball.

It was great to see Neil’s son Matt in action, and he will undoubtedly have benefitted from the evening’s action. As always, the more experienced players passed on tips and advice during matches.

In Group 2, Dom “Mad Dog” Grenot continued to hold the wood over Steve Dettre, with a pulsating 2-2 draw. Louis continued his fast paced game, which unsettled Raffaele, though the Subbuteo Parramatta man swept the group.

In the semi-finals, Raffaele just managed to edge out Johnny Ball, while Steve took the lead against Fabrizio only to see an equaliser in the last two minutes. The match was settled on shots, in sudden death, with Fabrizio taking the shoot-out 2-1.

The final was evenly matched, with Fabrizio squeezing the only goal just before the break, with a lovely series of flicks through the heart of Raffaele’s defence, before shooting on the run.
In the second period, Raffaele did everything he could, but he was too often caught with several figures in off-side positions, forcing him to backtrack his attack.
And then when he did get a sight on goal, Fabrizio’s reflexes denied him. This was no better illustrated than with a few minutes to go, Raffaele won a corner. His flick was beautifully weighted, and a centrally placed figure caught the ball on the run, but as it flew to the goal, somehow Fabrizio swept it away for a breathtaking save!

In the end, a great game to finish the night. Many thanks as always to the players, and to Andy and Sonny for letting us use their venue.

(Report by Steve Dettre)

Lazzaretti and Trivelli share the honors in Rome

On June 17 the last leg of the WASPA Lazio League this season was played in Rome with a good field of 14 players, all members of SS Lazio TFC. The event was as always played in Swiss system. Patrizio Lazzaretti was again the winner of the tournament. he won the decisive game int he last session against Simone Trivelli (3-2). Trivelli has a good consolation as he is the winner of the WLL 2014-2015 for the second season in a row. The evening was special for several reasons, including the visit of Diego Tagliaferri who had now played for a long time. Diego finished the event with 3 wins and a loss and finishes in 4th place, right after Trivelli and Gianmarco Del Brocco. Simone Trivelli is therefore the season champion with 152 points while Patrizio Lazzaretti is second (131) and Gianmarco Del brocco (123) is also on the podium. Then come Luigi Aniballi (95) and Paolo Barone (94).

A first tournament in Verviers

Last friday 7 players were present in Verviers to attend the very first WASPA tournament organized by SC Verviers-Herve. Pascal Scheen took the honors, defeating local player Alexandre Torré on shots in the final. It was a good evening with many close games. Hopefully more players from the Verviers area will take part in the next one!

Action in the semi between Eric Threis and Alex Torré

Action in the hall

The final standings of the evening were as follows:
1. Pascal Scheen (SC Stembert)
2. Alexandre Torré (SC Verviers-Herve)
3. Eric Threis (SC Stembert)
4. Philippe Roufosse (SC Verviers-Herve)
5. Benoit Vanwissen (SC Verviers-Herve)
6. Jean-Michel Cuenca (SC Verviers-Herve)
7. Romain Threis (SC Stembert)

(Pictures by Pascal Scheen)

Toninho is the 2015 Rio De Janeiro State Champion

The 2015 Rio de Janeiro State Subbuteo Championship was held on June 14th. The competition was played at the Vasco da Gama Table Football Division  on the Antonio Soares Calçada Gym, in São Januário Stadium. Before the championship, there were some exhibition games with italian Saverio Bari. The matches were streamed globally thru the Internet. Bari, who has already won  the Italian championship, Champions League and World Cup was in São Januário for the dispute and witnessed the evolution of  the international sport in our country.

Saverio Bari (center) was the special guest of the week-end

For the Carioca 2015, the contestants were divided into two groups, where the top two players in each group advance to the semi-finals. In the semifinals, the confrontation between the brothers Marcelo and Toninho ended tied at 1-1. Toninho ended up winning on the shoot-out (1-0). In the other semifinal, Daniel Matos assured his place in the final by defeating Felipinho. On the final, Toninho became the champion by defeating his teammate Daniel Matos by a score of 2-0. In the race for the 3rd place, Marcelo Lages defeated Felipinho by a score of 4-1.

Winner: José Antônio Ramalhete
Runner-up: Daniel de Matos
3rd place: Marcelo Lages Ramalhete
4th place: Felipe Gomes

(Report by Daniel de Matos)

Bernard Lim wins Plate Event of the 2015 TFAS National Championship

Bernard Lim and Steve Dettre

After a tense and closely fought match, Bernard Lim of Singapore triumphed over Steve Dettre from Australia.  While Bernard dominated possession throughout the match, Steve took the lead against the run of play with a well-taken shot.  The scores was 1-0 in Steve's favour at half-time.  Thankfully to the cheering home crowd at Sports Hub Library, Bernard managed to score the elusive equaliser with about 6 minutes of the match to go.  And to the loudest cheers of the home crowd, Bernard just managed to squeeze in a shot of the near-post and then off Steve's goalkeeper to score the winning goal from the tightest of angles!!  With 3 minutes left to play, it was all-out attack from Steve.  Alas, Bernard held on to emerge victorious!!

Watching on the sidelines are the 2 losing semi-finalist: Hideaki Wada (JPN) and Chandru Chugani (SIN).

(Report by Bernard Lim)

Peter Alegi wins Chicago United TSC meeting

Chicago United Table Soccer Club held its first ever club meeting which was followed by a WASPA event. It was a fun night and the club members who attended had a chance to exchange ideas about the club and Subbuteo table soccer in general.

Six club members participated in the WASPA tournament. In group A it was Peter Alegi, Chris Sweetland and Tony Kees. In group B it was Ilias Gikas, Tim Tumminaro and Roderick Ysaguirre.

The results from group A were
Alegi vs Sweetland 4-0
Alegi vs Kees 3-0
Sweetland vs Kees  2-0

The results from group B were
Gikas vs Tumminaro 3-1
Gikas vs Ysaguirre 4-0
Tumminaro vs Ysaguirre 3-0

The group standings were:

Group A
Alegi 6 points
Sweetland 3 points
Kees 0 points

Group B
Gikas 6 points
Tumminaro 3 points
Ysaguirre 0 points

The top two players from each group advanced to the semifinals. The scores of the semifinals were
Alegi vs Tumminaro 2-1
Gikas vs Sweetland 5-1

The final featured Peter Alegi vs Ilias Gikas. Peter dominated the match from start to finish and won easily 4-1.

The biggest winner of the night was Chicago United Table Soccer Club as it got to officially open its club headquarters and more than half of club members got a chance to get together.

Geoffrey Marain did it again in Pecq

The finalists

This thursday 5 players met in Pecq for the second WASPA tournament held in this small town in the province of Hainaut (Belgium). Geoffrey Marain took the honors, winning all his games in the group stage and the final against Vincent Coppenolle (5-4). Thibault Buron was 3rd, David Coulon 4th and Benjamin Marain 5th.

Thibault Buron (left) and David Coulon

Benjamin Marain, youngest player in the area

Jose Carlos Guerrero and Jorge Pinero win in Madrid

Last week, a tournament was played in the shop "We are Games" in Madrid (Spain). 14 players were competing and they were divided in 2 categories. In the Open section, Jose Carlos Guerrero defeated Piero Capponi in the final (2-1). Semi-finalists were Juanjo Gomez and Paco Muñoz. In the Junior section, Jorge Pinero was the winner as he beat Carlos Barios in the final. Maria Muñoz and Gonzalo Guereta lost in the semis. Congratulations to all. See hereunder a video with the best images of the tournament.

Enderby: the honors for Vitulano, Farrell and Blanchard

Gianpaolo Vitulano, winner on saturday

At the FISTF English Satellite Weekender in Enderby this weekend, there was plenty of WASPA action with 4 tournaments with an Open & Veterans WASPA events on each day.

On the Saturday, the Open event saw an all Kent final as Gianpaolo Vitulano beat fellow team mate and England U19 player, Chris Bowen to win the trophy whilst in the Veterans it was an all Yorkshire affair as Martin Blanchard edged Andy Boyer 3-2 on shots after a draw in normal time.

The Sunday tournaments again had some great action as Ireland’s Mark Farrell beat Kent and England Junior star, Kye Arnold, to win the Open trophy as Martin Blanchard made it a double winning the Veterans with a victory over USA’s Paul O’Donovan Rossa.

Lots of games, lots of goals and all played in great spirit!

(Report by Terry Arnold)

Saturday Open WASPA

Barrage:

Russ Harker (ENG/YOR) 3 -2 Connor Bowden (ENG/YOR)
Kye Arnold (ENG/KIV 1-1 Rob Ramsay (SCO/NET) Kye won 3-0 on shots

Semi-Finals:
Christopher Bowen (ENG/KIV) 3-2 Kye Arnold
Gianpaolo Vitulano (ENG/KIV) 3-1 Russ Harker

Christopher Bowen

Final
Gianpaolo Vitulano 6-1 Christopher Bowen

Saturday Veterans WASPA

Quarter-Finals:
Brett Price (ENG/KIV) 2-1 Terry Arnold (ENG/KIV)
Andy Boyer (ENG/YOR) 1-0 John Devaney (ENG/LIN)
Tim Bowen (WAL/KIV) 3-0 Brian Kinrade (ENG/MOR)
Martin Blanchard (ENG/YOR) 3-3 Mat Atkin (ENG/KIV) Martin won 2-1 on shots

Semi-Finals:
Andy Boyer 0-0 Brett Brice – Andy won 1-0 on shots
Martin Blanchard 1-0 Tim Bowen

Martin Blanchard

Final:
Martin Blanchard 2-2 Andy Boyer – Martin won 3-2 on shots

Andy Boyer

Sunday Open WASPA

Semi-Finals:
Mark Farrell (IRL/YOR) 6-0 Brett Price
Kye Arnold 3-2 Connor Bowden

Sunday final between Kye Arnold and Mark Farrell

Final:
Mark Farrell 6-3 Kye Arnold

Sunday Veterans WASPA

Barrage:
Brian Kinrade 0-0 Terry Arnold – Brian won 2-1 on shots

Semi-Finals:
Martin Blanchard 2-1 Andy Boyer
Paul O’Donovan Rossa (USA/MAR) 2-1 Brian Kinrade

Veterans final between Paul O'Donovan Rossa and Martin Blanchard

Final:
Martin Blanchard 4-1 Paul O‘Donovan Rossa

Thomas Baumeler takes the Swiss cup

Kasey and Thomas

Last Sunday the first Swiss Cup was played in Wiznau and it was also a WASPA tournament. The event was run using the Swiss system. The final ranking was as follows:
1. Thomas Baumeler (bla) 16
2. Trisha Baumeler (bla) 13
3. John Imbrogiano (bas) 11
4. Leo Cavallaro (bas) 11
5. XXX (-) 9
6. Peter Erb (bas) 9
7. Roman Bernhardsgrütter (lit) 7
8. Alberto Eilis (bas) 6
9. Noemi Bernhardsgrütter (lit) 6
10. Kasey Baumeler (zur) 1

Anas wins an international event in Singapore

The Jurong Central Subbuteo Club organized the WASPA tournament on 12 June 2015. There was a good turnout of 17 players, with friends from overseas joining us, namely Stephane Lambert (BEL), Emmanuel Miranda and his son, Nael (FRA). However, our Aussie friends had to pull out of the tournament last minute.
The tournament was split into two categories, which are the U12 and open categories.

U12 Category
There were 4 U12 boys participating in this category, namely Ding Heng, Wei Xuan, Ilhan and Nael. The boys had to battle it out in a round robin format, where the one with the most points will emerge as the winner.
There were several tight matches between the boys which mostly ended in 0-0 draws, but Ding Heng managed to climb to the top of the table by scoring a goal against Nael. Hence Ding Heng emerged as the winner for the U12 Category.

Open Category
The 13 participants from this category were split into 3 groups of 3 players and a group of 4 players. The top player from each group would battle it out in the semifinals. The same knockout format goes for the 2nd player from each group, and then the 3rd from each group.
Rudy from Group A and Nic from Group B emerged top of their groups comfortably, while Anas from Group C and Haikal from Group D had to go through a tough penalty shootout with Emmanuel and Fauzi respectively to proceed to the semifinals.

Group 2nd Runners-up Playoffs
Yew Seng won in the first playoff against Irshad only after a tight 1-1 draw and a 1-0 win in the penalty shootout.
Stephane had a good 1-0 win against Galvin in the second playoff.
In the 2nd Runners-up Playoffs final, Stephane had a comfortable 3-1 win against Yew Seng to emerge as the winner.

Group Runners-up Playoffs
Irwan won 1-0 in the first playoff against Amin .
Fauzi had a close 1-0 win against Emmanuel in the second playoff.
In the  Runners-up Playoffs final, Fauzi had a tough 2-1 win against Irwan after extra time to emerge as the winner.

Group Winners Playoffs
Rudy had a good 1-0 win in the first playoff against Nic .
Anas won 2-0 against Haikal to proceed to the final.
In the final there were a lot of goalless misses and keeper saves throughout the match till full time. Anas finally managed to score after extra time to seal his victory and emerge as the tournament winner.
Congatulations to all the winners!

(Report by Anas)

Alex Batacchi wins the Suncoast Open

Alex Batacchi topped the Standings after an incredible hard fought round robin , with Isabel playing very well and Dario emerging as a new star player in Florida, Sasha showed good touch but still too young to maintain focus on the game.

"With the absence of the other two Club players Daniel Louis and James Hulsey the field look smaller, but it was indeed nevertheless a great day of fun a table soccer", reported Alex Batacchi.

Luca Martinelli wins in Harrow

The Round 10 of the Harrow Waspa League played last night at the Tithe Social Club saw once again Luca Martinelli leading the final table after 4 Rounds of Swiss System with a poker of wins showing that he could easily be top of the overall table if he'd only attended more events at begining of the season, second in the night was Elliott Bellefontaine and third Rudi Peters which now leads the overall table (only because he played each event 😜) in front of Paul Andreas, thanks to Paul ODR from USA (next USA national WC player), Victor Jones, Elliott Bellefontaine, Gianpaolo Vitulano, Paul Andreas, obviously (not) Luca Martinelli and Neil Doherty (looking forward to his first season at harrow) for turning up hopefully I'll see you all and more to the last round in July.

Round 1
Luca v Elliott 4-1
Rudi v Paul A. 1-1
Paul O. V Victor 1-2
Gianpaolo v Bye 1-0

Round 2
Luca v Victor 2-1
GP v Paul A. 0-4
Rudi v Paul O. 2-1
Elliott v Bye 1-0

Round 3
Luca v Paul A. 5-3
Rudi v Victor 1-0
Elliott v GP 4-2
Paul O. V Bye 1-0

Round 4
Luca v Rudi 3-1
Elliott v Paul A. 4-3
Paul O. v GP 1-2
Victor v Bye 1-0

Final Table
Luca 12 pts
Elliott 9 pts
Rudi 7 pts
Victor 6 pts (0)
GP 6 pts (-4)
Paul A. 4 pts
Paul O. 3pts

A third WASPA title for Kegan van der Merwe

Saturday 13 June 2015, Pretoria, South Africa:
A day of great Subbuteo action in Pretoria as the event delivered a total of 37 goals over the 28 matches played, with only 8 matches ending without goals!
Kegan vd Merwe, playing in his beloved customised Portugal home and away kits, hit the ground running with a 2-1 win over Chessray Jooste in Match 1.
Throughout the event Kegan found himself in the top 2 positions and it was in Match 14 : Sherwin Reed (0) v (2) Bevin Reed, when Bevin went top of the
standings to threaten Kegan's hold on the top - this was largely due to a shock in Match 10 : Rowin Wilson (1) v (1) Kegan vd Merwe, where Kegan had to
fight back and earn the equaliser in the last minute of play after staring certain defeat in the eye to newcomer Rowin Wilson!
The match of the day came in Match 17 : Kegan vd Merwe (1) v (1) Jayden vd Merwe - after Kegan took the lead with a well chipped shot from just within the 18y area he adopted a very defensive approach which afforded Jayden the freedom to attack and Jayden equalised from an angled shot from wide in the
shooting area. The match was very tightly contested thereafter with both players going for accurate long range shooting, but neither could break the deadlock and alter the scoreline - a fair result for the day's most entertaining match! Jayden was making his way up the standings after a bad start - losing 1-0 to Julian vd Merwe in Match 2, and then a 0-0 draw with Rowin Wilson in Match 5.
When Jayden beat Bevin by 1-0 in Match 20 he suddenly found himself in 2nd position and challenging Kegan for the honours on the day!
Match 24 : Kegan (1) v (0) Bevin brought and end to Bevin's chances of challenging for the title as Bevin was looking to follow up on his success during the PFC League 1 Cup held in April 2015 !
Kegan secured 1st place in Match 25 : Kegan (1) v (0) Julian with a well deserved victory - a result which also ensured an unbeaten run on the day for Kegan. Well done to Kegan for capturing his second WASPA title for 2015, and his third WASPA title overall! In Match 27 : Rowin (0) v (0) Julian, a win for Julian would have secured 3rd place on the day - but Rowin showed good defensive play to deny Julian the win and at the same time earn himself a total of 7 points on the day!
Finally, a special mention must go to newcomers Rowin Wilson and Justin Thumbran - as these two players celebrated scoring their first ever goals in a
Subbuteo event ! Well done guys - hope that it is the start of many more to follow!
This was by far the most exciting event on the PFC calendar to date - let us get some more......please!

(report by Julian vd Merwe)

The PFC website & facebook page will be updated shortly with photo's & news content at :
http://pfctest.leaguerepublic.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/PFC-SA/519566284755728

Final Standings
1. Kegan vd Merwe
2. Jayden vd Merwe
3. Bevin Reed
4. Julian vd Merwe
5. Sherwin Reed
6. Justin Thumbran
7. Rowin Wilson
8. Chessray Jooste

Poster of the next tournament in Pretoria

Home win for Tom Shirley

Tom Shirley wins 2015 Scenic City Subbuteo Spectacular over Simon Neil, 2-0 in Ringgold, GA. In a great day of action. Seven players made it to Tom's house and there was plenty of great goals, near misses and great fun for all the participants. Mark Able beat David Quallas in the 3rd place final. Congratulations to all.