Atkin and Blanchard win in Enderby

Saturday final

Sunday final

At the Enderby FISTF Satellite, 2 WASPA events took place with some great games. The WASPA plate event on Saturday saw a Kent final as Mat Atkin edged Brett Price 3-2 as the day came to a close. The Sunday WASPA plate was another tight game as London’s Martin Blanchard grabbed a 3-2 shots victory over Kent’s Gianpaolo Vitulano after a 2-2 draw.

Luca Pini on fire in Firenze

This monday 18 players competed in Firenze for another WASPA tournament. Luca Pini defeated Marco Bonciani in the ifnal (4-1) to claim his 8th WASPA title.

Mirco Pasquini and Emanuele Cattani also reached the semi-finals.

Giammarco Riccioni defeated Francesco Gori in the colsolation final.

Congratulations to the club of CS Firenze for another successful evening of Subbuteo.

Marcos Kalopsidiotis does it again

This saturday there was Subbuteo action in Cyprus after a hyatus of a few months. The club of Famagusta was holding the third tournament of the domestic circuit with 11 competitors.

The final

Marcos Kalopsidiotis won the final on shots against Georgios Zangylos. Giorgos Stylianou and Marios Themistokleous were the semi-finalists.

Marcos Kalopsidiotis is the current leader of the season ranking with 25 points while Zangylos is second with 15 points.

Thomas Eppensteiner did the job

This friday there was a small WASPA tournament in Ebreichsdorf, Austria.

Thomas Eppensteiner finished on top of a group of 4 while Thomas Bergholz, Lukas Eppensteiner and Mathias Eppensteiner  were the other competitors.

It was a good rehearsal before the serious tournaments coming up in Austria.

Old rules in Harrow

This sunday six players had good fun during a WASPA tournament played with the old rules in Harrow (England). Rudi Peterschinigg finished on top of a group of 6. The event was organized to test the pitches for the Old Subbuteo September gig.

Table 
10 points: Rudi Peterschinigg
6: Gerald Brightwell
5: Neil Doherty
4: Kevin John Walker (-2)
4: John Ellis (-3)
1: Matt Peterschinigg

But can he do it on a 30 degree day in Brighton?

4 Hour Subbuteo Marathon From Down Under

Luke Radziminski Reports:

Yeah, I must admit that the format wasn’t the most ideal. With a turnout of 7 players it was set up as a round robin event with 10 minute halves and a grand final after where top 2 go through after 7 rounds. There was only 5 minute breaks in between games on a day where it is over 30 degrees and have 3 boards squeezed into a small room. Could they do it on a hot, dry day in Brighton? Just barely.

Going back to the small room scenario, I was made unaware that the larger hall would be occupied for a birthday function and as soon as I arrived I saw a pre-school activity session occupying the smaller room. It was another panic mode for myself as we had no place to set up the event with only half an hour until the first games were about to start. Fearing the worst, I was half expecting an angry mob of 4 subbuteo players chasing me down the street with machetes and clubs as soon as they have found out there is no venue to play subbuteo after a long drive to reach Brighton. But not to worry, the small room had freed up 10 minutes before the start of the event and it was a rushed preparation to set up tables and had them vacuumed before everyone had arrived.

Juan, the beginner of the day

The man of mystery; Tom Nowacki had returned to the scene after 1 year in hiding and a new player, Juan Menendez, had joined the party. Juan had briefly played subbuteo back in Brisbane while growing up with his brothers. He recently moved to Melbourne and was very keen to experience an organised subbuteo event. He had surprised everyone with his solid flicking for someone to take part in their first ever tournament and even notched up a 1-0 win over tom and a 0-0 draw with Beth Eveleigh.

On paper, Christos Garagounis had made significant improvement in his performance achieving draws against the more experienced players Benny Ng and Luke Radziminski with scores of 1-1 and 0-0. He achieved 4th place in result of this. In other games Luke and Benny had won their first points against the superior Carl Young in 0-0 draws. Carl remained undefeated however and sealed his spot into the grand final, the second entrant was has contested between Luke and Benny. Each player achieved the same results in the 6 rounds however it was decided from the first round of games where Luke had defeated Benny 1-0.

Only smiles...

The grand final stood goalless at halftime, where Carl had dominated possession but was kept at bay from Luke’s goalkeeping. However in the second half Carl’s flicking had been flawless and disallowed Luke to advance forward with some precise blocking. Eventually it was too much for Luke to handle and was cleaned up 2-0 in the end.

Players interested in joining the Melbourne Table Football Club can e-mail Luke Radziminski at luker@internode.on.net

Majee Nolizam does it again Jakarta

This Sunday there was subbuteo action in Indonesia where the club of Batavia Garudas was organising a tournament.

Malaysia's Majee Nolizam was the final winner, beating Arudyo Putro in the final. Dwi Putranto and Yulianto Saputro where the other semi-finalists. 8 players were present in Jakarta for the event.

Lindsey and Boothman winners in England

On February 5, there was a small tournament in Cousldon. Colin Lindsey finished on top of the group stage of three players. Lee Fenton was runner-up and Scott Freeman took the third place.

The Lincoln Flickers held their monthly tournament this Wednesday in their premises. Jeremy Boothman finished on top of a group of 4 while Andrew Garbutt was runner-up, Andy Boyer was third and John Devaney was fourth.

Number 50 for Geoffrey Marain

The 16 players after the 4th session

The Templeuve United club was holding their 5th tournament of the season this friday and this time there was an incredible field of 16 entries, including 6 players from France. There were many close games, several draws and nobody finished the evening with 4 lost games. Geoffrey Marain managed to win his 50th title in the WASPA circuit, which is a great achievement. Marain won his four games and even won the final games against Vincent Coppenolle by a clear 8-3. Coppenolle had some luck anyway as many games ended with a draw, which means 6 players tied with 7 points for the 3rd place. Alain Flament, who had a better goal difference, took the third place. Erwin Delaunoy was playing his first tournament in 10 years, Michel Einsle and Hervé Lesigne made their WASPA debut and Jean-Charles Kain and Eric Caillaux were playing their first "regional" tournament, just 2 weeks after they made their debut in a "promotional event". Templeuve United will hold another WASPA event on March 4, the day before the FISTF Major of Frameries. Interested players can contact Vincent Coppenolle at vincent.cop@rsca.com

Action in the hall

Top 3 of the evening

Final standings of the evening

1. Geoffrey Marain (Belgium/Flickers Milano) 12

2. Vincent Coppenolle (Belgium/Templeuve United) 9
3. Alain Flament (Belgium/SCAF Quévy) 7
4. Renald Deloose (Belgium/Templeuve United) 7
5. Hervé Lesigne (France/SCAF Quévy) 7
6. Stéphane Lambert (Belgium/Kent Invicta) 7
7. Eric Caillaux (France/-) 7
8. Jean-Marc Matha (France/SCAF Quévy) 7
9. John Verfaillie (Belgium/Templeuve United) 6
10ea. Olivier Bodelle (France/Templeuve United) 4
10ea. Erwin Delaunoy (Belgium/Templeuve United) 4
12. Benjamin Marain (Belgium/Warcoing Ducks) 4
13. Eddy Beernaert (Belgium/SC Flanders) 3
14. Michel Einsle (France/SCAF Quévy) 2
15. Jean-Charles Kain (Belgium/Templeuve United) 2
16. Grégory Sottiau (France/SCAF Quévy) 1

Winning comeback for Christian Filippella

Newbury Park, California FISTF CHALLENGER 07/02/16
On Sunday February 7, 2016, the Southern California Subbuteo Club hosted the FISTF Challenger event in Newbury Park, California. The tournament also counted for the WASPA circuit. Seven competitors participated in the tournament, showcasing the return of Italian great, Christian Filippella.  In his first tournament in the United States, Christian defeated Paul O'Donovan Rossa 3-1 in the final, to capture the FISTF Challenger Championship.  Entering the semifinals, Christian won group A and Varant Kurkeyerian (USA) won Group B. In the semifinals, Christian defeated João Bruno Casaca (Portugal) 6-0 and Paul O'Donovan Rossa edged out Varant Kurkeyerian via penalties (6-5), after finishing the match 0-0.

(Report from the organizers)

David Bonamici returns

Seven players present at the last round of Pistoia Series with an absolute beginner, Jerry Morandy, more used to traditional Subbuteo, and the surprise of David Bonamici, who comes back at games after a long stop. The champ reveals himself and after a hard start, qualifies for the final and wins the tournament.

Very good performance of Massimo Lapucci, who leads now both Subbuteo and Table Soccer rankings. Good test for all players in sight of next national tournaments around Italy.
(Report by Alfredo Granato)

Ugo Custo also wins with the sports rules

Ugo Custo

Michele Nitti

Luigi Grillo

This week-end there was Subbuteo action in Catanzaro. The club run by Andrea Pagano was playing this time with the official sports rules and attracted 20 players from Catanzaro, Bruzia, Taranto and Cosenza. In the final, home player Ugo Custo defeated Michele Nitti from Taranto to claim the title. Antonio Berardi won the tournament for places 11 to 20.

Paolo Talarico

Final standings:
1. Ugo Custo (SC Catanzaro)
2. Michele Nitti (SC Taranto)
3. Luigi Grillo (Bruzia CT)
4. Paolo Talarico (SC Catanzaro)
5. Gianfranco Gallelli (SC Catanzaro)
6. Vincenzo Manica (Bruzia CT)
7. Luca Signorelli (SC Taranto)
8. Gianfranco Manzella (SC Taranto)
9. Alfredo Priamo (SC Catanzaro)
10. Federico Manzella (SC Taranto)
11. Antonio Berardi (Bruzia CT)
12. Simone Pedullà (SC Catanzaro)
13. Sandro Vasapollo (SC Catanzaro)
14. Giuseppe Pedullà (SC Catanzaro)
15. Massimo Ubbiali (CT Cosenza)
16. Raffaele Gangale (SC Catanzaro)
17. Domenico Giglio (SC Catanzaro)
18. Salvatore Scalise (SC Catanzaro)
19. Ivan Quattrocchi (SC Taranto)
20. Nicola Fiordalisi (Bruzia CT)

Jos Ceulemans is a winner again

A great spirit between the players

On February 1, the club of SC Flanders was hosting another tournament in their premises of Hofstade-Zemst (Belgium). Jos Ceulemans was in a very good day, beating Geoffrey Marain in the first session and finishing the evening with 10 points. Jos therefore won his first tournament exactly 52 weeks after his previous WASPA title. Congratulations!

Top 3 of the evening: Marain, Ceulemans and Coppenolle

Final standings of the evening
1. Jos Ceulemans (London & Essex United)
2. Geoffrey Marain (Flickers Milano)
3. Vincent Coppenolle (Templeuve United)
4. Johan Lourdon (SC Flanders)
5. Geert Leys (London & Essex United)
6. Vincent Guyaux (Bormal SC)
7. Jérôme Heyvaert (SC Charleroi)
8. Renald Deloose (Templeuve United)
9. Filip Van Hulle (SC Flanders)
10. Jason Delattre (Templeuve United)

The Chicago United TSC held its first 2016 club meeting.

The Chicago United Table Soccer Club had its first club meeting for 2016. It was a great get together for club members that was followed by a WASPA event.
In the first match, Tim Tumminaro and Ilias Gikas ended up on a 2-2 tie. It was a very exciting match with lots of action on both ends of the pitch. Tim scored first but Ilias came back with two goals to take a 2-1 lead. Tim saved the best for last when he tied the match 2-2 with an excellent goal.


In the second match, Ilias beat Rocco Ysaguirre 6-0 and in the final match Tim beat Rocco 3-0.


Since goal differential did not matter, the eventual winner was determined in a shootout between Tim and Ilias in which Ilias won 2-1.

It was a great event and the eventual winner was Chicago United TSC.

(Report by Ilias Gikas)

Bevin Reed wins the first event of 2016 in Pretoria!

(Report by Julian vd Merwe)

Saturday 06 February 2016, Pretoria, South Africa

The first event for 2016 in Pretoria attracted a field of 8 entries, amongst whom we had a Subbuteo debutant in the shape of Stanton Nortjie.
He (Stanton) had been an avid spectator / supporter of most, if not all, of our events during 2015 and felt the time was right for him to enter the fray. The day was filled with goal action, as we witnessed 22 goals scored from the 16 scheduled fixtures.
Matches 15 & 16 featured the top 4 players on the day playing against each other, and there was plenty to play for in these two matches. Match 15 ended Jayden (0) v (2) Chessray, where a win for either player meant they would equal the table-topping Bevin. The win for Chessray gave him the runner-up position eventually. Pretoria's highest ranked player, Jayden vd Merwe, had to settle for 4th place overall as he managed 2 wins and 2 lossess from his 4 matches on the day.
Match 16 was the real decider - a win for Kegan would give him the honours, whereas Bevin only needed the draw to clinch the title. The match ended Kegan (0) v (0) Bevin - a very entertaining match where Kegan produced most of the chances, but unfortunately he could not convert any of the chances afforded to him. The draw handed Kegan 3rd place overall, even after not suffering a loss all day - and having not conceded all day!
Bevin also ended the day unbeaten, and the only blemish to his day's work was a goal conceded in Match 6 : Julian (1) v (3) Bevin. Many regard this as the "Match of the Day" wherein Julian dominated most of the play to take a 1-0 lead. Bevin came storming back in the final 1/4 of play to score 3 goals on the counter - Bevin even admitted afterwards that this was the match that earned him the title on the day!
Overall, an exciting opening event to the 2016 Pretoria Flickers Club calendar!

Final Standings
Bevin Reed
Chessray Jooste
Kegan van der Merwe
Jayden van der Merwe
Julian van der Merwe
Sherwin Reed
Stanton Nortjie
Rowin Wilson

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

Monthly report of January 2016

Dear all, you will find enclosed the updated WASPA results file and the Excel file with the rankings of January 2016.

PDF file of the Golden book
Excel file of the January rankings

This month, we broke a few records. I received results from 40 tournaments (!) but in reality only 38 were played in January as results from 2 events played in December had been forgotten last month and it was a pleasure to get them.

Continued development in Australia, here in Brisbane

Typing results, records, statistics and calculating points for 40 events (34 "regional", 4 "old rules", 2 "promotional events") took me a lot of time but in the end I was more than happy to do all the work.

Players from Johanneburg and Pretoria in South Africa

We had 82 new entries and the ranking has now 1653 ranked players from 41 nations. France and the Czech Republic held their first tournament of the season. 20 nations have already organized WASPA events this season.

Winners in Vienna, Austria

We had some special facts this month:
- the very first WASPA tournament in Volos (Greece) with promising hopes of having many more events there;
- South Africa had 4 events this month, which is proving things are moving down there;
- the Flickers Milano had a successful first event under WASPA banner;
- we are glad to welcome the club of BUSL 95 (from Boise, Idaho, USA) among the WASPA organizers;
- 6 tournaments have been played in Australia, which is also amazing. Special thanks go to Steve Dettre for organizing a fantastic week-end in Sydney with not only the FISTF Grand Prix of Australia but also several WASPA events to make sure everyone had many games;
- tournaments with the old rules have a growing success in Italy but the "Italian Championship" organized by Alberto Gagliardi had a real success with 44 entries. Well done!

Huger success for the old rules in Italy

I am very pleased to see the latest developments even if there are now big differences between active WASPA nations and some countries where the level of activity of very low. Ideas to make things more attractive are always more than welcome.

Players in Volos, Greece

Please remember you only need 3 players to register your tournament. Tournament requests can be sent by e-mail to vincent.cop@rsca.com

Please note the blog is updated almost every day at http://waspa-circuit.blogspot.com

The FISTF website is http://www.fistf.com

Yours in sport,

Vincent Coppenolle

Patrizio Lazzaretti still on top in Rome

On January 27, the 4th leg of the WASPA Lazio League 2015-2016 was held in the premises of Lazio TFC. It was as usual played under Swiss system with 9 players taking part. Patrizio Lazzaretti was the winner of the day with 12 points while Simone Trivelli and Gianmarco Del Brocco had 9 points. Patrizio Lazzaretti (97) is the leader of the general ranking while Gianmarco Del Brocco (85) is currently second and Simone Trivelli (78) is third.

Final standings of the evening:
1. Patrizio Lazzaretti
2. Simone Trivelli
3. Gianmarco Del Brocco
4. Paolo Barone
5. Stefano Tagliaferri
6. Lorenzo Lazzaretti
7. Sebastian Cima
8. Matteo Alvisini
9. Luigi Aniballi

Forthcoming event in Indonesia

Charity shirt for the Flaming Flickers

Flaming Flickers SC created a charity shirt to promote and support "Ark of the World" in Athens, Greece."Ark" is a "Non-Profit Organization" for the Special Care and Protection of Mothers and Children which operates on the care of children who were living under conditions of negligence and abandonment, without medical attendance, without a future, most of them coming from single parent families and many of them without parents. Money from the special shirt will go to the Organization and the club members donated a table and equipment to the kids and organized weekly visits to play the game with them. Let us all show that our community can make the difference, let's make this a challenge and find a cause in our area and promote it. Thank you all!

Rik Bland wins again in Brisbane

Brisbane Subbuteo Club 12th Tournament 30 Jan 2016

The 1st anniversary of Brisbane Subbuteo Club was played in sweltering conditions, the high humidity had the players sweating, and the pitches playing incredibly slowly, similar to a water logged pitch in real football, but the 5 competitors played on, and after a birthday cake treat, managed to get through the afternoons fixtures. Rik Bland retained the trophy for the 3rd time in succession with his Profibase C3 Cameroon team, but it got mighty close…. The initial round of games saw Andrew Bennett dispatch with recent Sydney ATFA WASPA winner Giuseppe Tardiota by a scoreline of 4-1, both would make the semi finals along with Rik Bland and Gus Gillespie.

Semi-finals

Rik Bland 3-0 Giuseppe Tardiota
Rik went straight for the throat in this fixture between current Brisbane champion v current Sydney ATFA, WASPA champion, taking a 3 nil lead into the halftime break. Perhaps Giuseppe was still recovering from the big tournament a week earlier, and was a bit off his game today, having taken the big trophy 7 days ago.

Andrew Bennett 0 – 1 Gus Gillespie
A tight semi final between the 2 guys, saw Gus edge past an unusually defence minded Andrew by the narrowest of scorelines, setting up his first final appearance in 6 months.

Final

Rik Bland 3-2 Gus Gillespie (aet)

With conditions being far from ideal, the pitch was playing very slowly, and player’s runs were more like short bursts and sudden stops, which led to a lack of quality, but a test for each player equally. Rik had some terrible moments with the spare GK, which led to the first goal for Gus, when he casually worked the opportunity to score effectively an open goal. Rik managed to reply with an equaliser midway through the second half, and despite more crazy goalkeeping, the final entered extra time. Midway through extra time, Gus got into a great position, and managed to dink the ball over the dive of Rik’s GK, to lead 2-1. With a little over a minute left on the clock, Rik found a way through the defence, and dispatched a shot into the net, to his great relief. From the restart, Rik quickly regained possession, and with seconds remaining, got into a goal scoring position, and found the bottom corner to steal the trophy in the last couple of minutes, and Cameroon have a 3rd consecutive title. Gus was left to rue yet another defeat in the dying stages of a match, an all too familiar situation for ‘the magpies’, his request is to have all matches 14 mins per half from now on!

(Report by Brisbane SC)

South Africa: action in Johannesburg and Cape Town

New Years Challenge 2016 Report

Bawden Park, home of Robertsham Callies FC hosted their first Subbuteo tournament on the 31st of January 2016. A good field of 10 players participated in the first tournament of 2016, proudly hosted by the Johannesburg Table Football Club.

The participants were split into two groups of 5 players with the top 2 qualifying for the semi-finals. Group A saw favourite Clifford Graaff advancing as winner over Julian van der Merwe who was unlucky to concede a  very soft goal against Clifford in the deciding group match.

The only Lady playing, Nita Hermens, showed considerable improvement to claim a well deserved third spot in Group A and had her male opponents under pressure.

Group B was an extremely tight affair with favourite and junior, Jayden van der Merwe, progressing unscathed through to the knock-out stages. The runner-up was contested via a penalty shoot-out by three players who ended on the same points and goal difference. Abraham Siame held his nerve to register penalty shoot-out victories over Ernie Botha and Xolani Ndaba.

The first semi-final pitted father and son against each other and Jayden scored two early goals to edge his father, Julian van der Merwe, by the odd goal in three. Although Julian scored his consolation goal just before full-time, his younger son progressed to the final.

The second semi-final saw Clifford defeat Abraham by three goals to nil which was a  commendable performance by newcomer Abraham Siame who delighted all present with his wild celebrations after qualifying for the knock-out stages. Julian claimed 3rd place with a close penalty shoot-out victory over Abraham.

The final once again saw perennial adversaries, Clifford and Jayden contest top honours. Unfortunately, Jayden's  rustiness after an elongated November and December break, proved detrimental to his performance and Clifford's clinical passing and possesion helped Clifford down junior Jayden with three unanswered goals. A very pleasing aspect was the comeraderie and support from all quarters displayed in all the games. All players were also treated to a lunch courtesy of the Johannesburg TFC and free soft drinks during the entire tourney.

Cape Town New Year's tournament

Games were played in a sweltering heat, which may well have been a factor in the low turnout. It was not planned in advance, but everyone ended up playing exclusively with original Subbuteo equipment, which was quite fun for a change! In the end, Cliton Gahwiler finished on top of a group of three. Grant Lewis was runner-up and Mike Ryder was third.