Brisbane Euro 2016 report

The Brisbane Subbuteo Club held it’s very own Euro 2016 Tournament on a cold day in Redcliffe. Eight countries were represented by our flicking hero’s.  The format was to be 2 groups of 4 with the top team of each group playing the runner up of the other group, and a Plate for the 3rd and 4th players.
Group A, aka the “The Group of Death” had Italy (Giuseppe Tardiota), Belgium (Andrew Bennett) , England (Gus Gillespie) and Wales (Gareth Whalley).
Group B had Germany (Rik Bland), Iceland (Rob Bennett), Northern Ireland (Andrew Ridgen) and Sweden (Wil Gillespie U12).
England took on Belgium in a very tight contest. England took the lead early in the first half and made it to half time in front. Belgium came out fighting and equalised. At 1-1 the game was poised nicely and both countries went looking for a winner. With less than 30 seconds on the clock Belgium broke through the English defence and chipped a nice shot over the keeper. In the other game of Group A Wales (first tournament for Gareth) were facing the mighty Italian (not in height that is) Giuseppe. Wales managed a goal but lost 4-1.
In Group B the Germans saw off Iceland 3-2, after taking a 2-0 lead within the first 2 minutes. Iceland surprising the Germans with a couple of tasty goals. Sweden (Wil’s first tournament) lost to a determined Northern Ireland 4-0.
Next round of Group A games had Belgium see off Wales 6-0 and Italy beat England in the last minute 1-0. These results meant that Italy and Belgium were through. Over in group B Northern Ireland ruthlessly beat Iceland 5-1, and Germany beat Sweden by the same score (Wil registering his first ever competitive goal).  So Germany would go through with N Ireland.
So the last round of games would determine 1st from second, and 3rd from 4th. Italy claimed top spot with an exciting 4-2 win over Belgium. England finally managed a win, though against green opposition, 5-1. Wales (Gareth) scoring a very good goal. Germany edged N Ireland 2-1 in a tight battle.
The semis were pretty conclusive results. Italy continuing in great form despatched Northern Ireland 3-1 whilst Belgium humbled the Germans 4-1.  The German manager Rik Von Bland was suffering from Flu and reckoned it went through the team aswell.
The Plate was abandoned because Wales had to go home early. Mrs Wales was heading off to work.
The Final produced some great goals and a fair amount of controversy. With the score at 1-1 after a Belgium equaliser, Italy went into the lead after a contentious decision.  The game ended 3-1 to Italy and though Belgium felt hard done by, they were gracious in defeat. Another great day of flicking fun, and only two years to wait for the World Cup Tournament.
Oh, and the 3rd 4th play off went to Northern Ireland, 5-4, so N Ireland finished 3rd, and boy did we get reminded of that a lot. Special thanks as always to our great host Giuseppe, and well done to our new bloods Gareth and Wil, it’s a big ask to play your first tournament and represent a country……

David Busch wins again in Vienna

WASPA Tournament 24th of June 2016 in parish hall Mariabrunn, organised by TFC Wien West
The same 7 players aslast week in Ebreichsdorf, the same modus (1x15min, everyone against everyone), the same winner, but a different tournament! This time David Busch had no problem to win all his 6 games, Strommer’s were weak and Joni Nichtenberger was the real winner as runner-up behind ‘Ghost David’.

Final standings:
1. David Busch
2. Jonathan Nichtenberger
3. Alfred Strommer
4. Thomas Eppensteiner
5. Marios Strommer
6. Lukas Eppensteiner
7. Peter Nichtenberger

First event coming up in Romania

Exciting news! The first WASPA tournament in Romania will take place on August 7 in the citry of Lasi. Interested players can contact Salvatore Camma at salvatore.camma@libero.it for details. The event has been added in the WASPA calendar.

Martin Hodds wins in Chingford

This Sunday there was a great tournament in Chingford, London (England) with a superb field of 24 entries. The London & Essex players were there in mass with some guests from other clubs and Paul O'Donovan Rossa from the US as guest star. After the group stage (6 groups of 4), serious things started in the last 16 round. Till the end, there were many close games. Both semi-finals ended on sudden death with host Martin Bellefontaine  taking the best on Victor Jones while Martin Hodds defeated Elliott Bellefontaine. In the final, Hodds and Bellefontaine tied (1-1) but Martin Hodds took the honors after winning on shots. Jonathan Lopez-Real won the plate event, Kye Arnold defeated Joseph Kinrade in the Junior final and Rachel Shelley won the ladies tournament. Congratulations to the organisers for an amazing event!

West Midlands Subbuteo Club WASPA Tournament

The inaugural West Midlands Subbuteo Club tournament took place on 25 June 2016.  With 10 players competing for cup and plate trophies, the initial format saw 3 groups competing to see which trophy they would compete for.  The winners of each group, plus the best finishing 2nd placed team would compete for the cup, controversially called “The Brexit Cup”.  The remaining team would plate in the plate competition, aptly named “The Summer Shield”.

Results from the group stages were as follows:

Group 1
Adam Washbrook 0 – 1 Tim Lovell
Simon Donadel 2 – 0 Chris Cooke
Adam Washbrook 0 – 1 Simon Donadel
Tim Lovell 2 – 0 Chris Cooke
Adam Washbrook 2 – 0 Chris Cooke
Tim Lovell 1 – 5 Simon Donadel
Simon finished top of the group, Tim finished highest placed second.  Both went through to The Brexit Cup.  Adam and Chris progressed to the Summer Shield.

Group 2
Richard Tubb 2 – 1 Peter Sleeth
Richard Tubb 0 – 3 Adam Lundy
Adam Lundy 3 – 1 Peter Sleeth
Adam topped the group, obtaining qualification for The Brexit Cup.  Richard and Peter qualified for the Summer Shield.

Group 3
Owen Shelley 0 – 0 Bill Whitehouse
Andrew Garbutt 2 – 0 Owen Shelley
Bill Whitehouse 0 – 3 Andrew Garbutt
Andrew topped the group, qualifying for the last place in The Brexit Cup.  Owen and Bill moved into the final places for the Summer Shield.

The Brexit Cup
Rather than play a straight knockout competition, it was decided all 4 players would play each other once, with the best performer winning the trophy.

Results:
Simon Donadel 0 – 2 Andrew Garbutt
Tim Lovell 0 – 3 Adam Lundy
Andrew Garbutt 1 – 0 Tim Lovell
Adam Lundy 4 – 0 Simon Donadel
Simon Donadel 1 – 1 Tim Lovell
Adam Lundy 0 – 3 Andrew Garbutt
After an impressive performance of winning all of his games and not conceding a goal all day, Andrew Garbutt lifted the trophy.   Adam Lundy took runner up spot, narrowly missing out on the trophy in the final game of the day.

The Summer Shield
We adopted a slightly different format for the shield , with 2 groups of 3 playing each other once, with the winners of the group progressing to the plate final.

Group 1
Owen Shelley 0 – 3 Adam Washbrook
Adam Washbrook 1 – 0 Richard Tubb
Richard Tubb 2 – 1 Owen Shelley

Group 2
Bill Whitehouse 0 – 2 Peter Sleeth
Bill Whitehouse 2 – 0 Chris Cooke
Chris Cooke 0 – 1 Peter Sleeth

Final
Peter Sleeth 2 – 1 Adam Washbrook.

Goal of the tournament by Shaqiri

Geoffrey Marain wins the Euro 2016 tournament

Some of the players during the presentation of the trophies

The final

The top 4 of the evening

Geoffrey Marain receiving his proze

Despite of four late dropouts, there was an interesting field of 18 yesterday in Templeuve (belgium) for the "Euro 2016 Subbuteo tournament". To respect the agenda of the real football event, players were put in six groups. Only Matthias Averlant and Benjamin Marain didn't manage to qualify for the last 16 round. The main problem for players was to fight against the heat and the high level of humidity in the hall but you can't change the weather. In the end, there were some unlucky draws in the last 16 games as 4 of the 5 players coming from Seraing were put in the same half of the table. Ahmed Choukri (who was Albania in the tournament) managed to qualify for the semi-finals but lost int he last second of the game against Vincent Coppenolle (Ireland). In the other semi, Geoffrey Marain (England) and Jérôme Heyvaert (Czech Republic) tied but Marain won on shots. Marain later won the final against Coppenolle by a single goal. Who could believe England would win the Euro 2016 final?

The first event in Mattersburg

Last Saturday the club of Mattersburg (Austria) awas holding their very first WASPA tournament. 12 players, including two players from TFC Wiener Neustadt, were taking part. Robert Lenz defeated Markus Matzinger in the final (2-0) while semi-finalists were Erich Hinkelmann and Bettina Lenz. The event was followed by a barbecue and watching the Euro 2016 games on TV (in particular Austria vs Portugal). Another great day of table football :-)

Simone Trivelli again in Rome

In the latest leg of the WASPA Lazio League in Rome, Italy 8 players were competing in Swiss format. Simone Trivelli was on fire and won his four games while Patrizio Lazzaretti was the only one to finish with 9 points. it was necessary to calculate the "value of opponents" to decide the third place but finally Simone Lo Iacono was on the podium of the evening. In the general classification of the WLL 2015-2016, Patrizio Lazzaretti is the leader with 160 points while Simone Trivelli is second with 144 points. There is one more tournament to play to know the season winner.

Final standings of the evening:
1. Simone Trivelli
2. Patrizio Lazzaretti
3. Simone Lo Iacono
4. Luigi Aniballi
5. Sebastian Cima
6. Lorenzo Lazzaretti
7. Mario Lo Iacono
8. Alessandro Spoto

Euro 2016 pictures from Greece

Some lovely pictures by our friends from the Flaming Flickers in Athens. Thanks to Panos Panagiotides for sharing!

The Inaugural Ipswich Cup

Saturday June 18th – 9am Start
Venue: Ipswich Club House

Andrew Bennett, first winner in Ipswich

Right smack the middle of the Euros and Copa tournaments, surely the next biggest event on the football calendar was the Inaugural Ipswich Cup, hosted by the Ipswich Kestrels Table Football Club. With a couple of Ipswich regulars not playing but on the sidelines cheering, the competition got under way with 5 starters. These included Ipswich members, Ian Garred, Rob Bennett, Andrew Bennett and a couple of Brisbane SC visitors – Rik Blank and Giuseppe Tardiota.
The format took the form of a group stage with the top 4 to progress. Things got off to a cracking start with last month’s BSC contenders Andrew and Rik facing off in the first round with Rik dominating 3-0. The other tie saw Ian take out a tight win against Rob 1-0.
Round 2 saw the Brisbane boys, Rik and Giuseppe take on Ian and Rob with both games going in favour of the BSC members 2 goals to nil.
Round 3 had both games decided by a 2 goal margin with Giuseppe beating Ian 2-0 in a fiery affair and Andrew beating Rob 3-1. Despite only scoring 1 goal in the game, Rob showed a returning quality in the game, scoring possibly the goal of the day with a scything effort between 2 figures from somewhere near halfway, rendering Andrew’s keeper utterly useless after crashing off the crossbar into the back to the net.
Round 4 threw up another couple of cracking games, and despite Giuseppe having the better of the ball, Andrew managed to get over 2-0. The other game featuring Rob and Rik was superb, worth the price of admission alone. Rik managed to score late to level the match 3-3 however Rob showed that when he gets in front, he leads well – being 2 nil up for most of the game.
At this stage the final 4 was decided but the final positions were still to be decided
The final group round saw Ian going down to Andrew 3-0 to guarantee Andrew 1st spot in the group, with the BSC lads playing each other with Giuseppe upsetting the inform Rik with a 2-1 victory in a typical cagey Italian v English affair.
So with the groups stages out of the way, the semi-final games saw a rematch of Round 5. Andrew again dispatched Ian 3-0 however this game being much tighter than the previous despite the score line. A couple of quick goals either side of the break was enough to see Andrew though. In the other match it was Rik extracting revenge for the earlier defeat with a 1-0 with over Giuseppe, who conceded early and spent the game chasing a goal.
So the final came down to Rik vs Andrew, possible the 2 clubs inform players, recently contesting victory last month at BSC. The head to head between the 2 players tells a different store however, with Rik defiantly having the wood on Andrew. The final saw the game played on the brand new Extreme Works pitch and the new Ipswich Clubhouse.
The match started at a fast past and did not let up. Rik constantly attacking and Andrew constantly under pressure at the other end, with very little in the way of chances of his own. Rik peppered the goal and was unlucky not to be a couple up at the break. The second half saw much of the same, loads of pressure from Rik, and with Andrew expertly parking his Chelsea bus across the laneway at the other end, Rick was unable to break through. In almost cynical fashion, Andrew broke down the right wing with 30 seconds left on the clock, and fired a shot home in to the top left corner of Rik’s net. It was brutal for one, and joyous for the other, however at the end of a day, an absolute cracking game.
Ipswich would like to thank the Brisbane Subbuteo club for making the journey for the inaugural tournament. The next event will be in July so be sure to keep an eye out for dates.

(Report by Andrew Bennett)

Dave Baxter wins in Dundee

Congratulations to David Baxter on his first club championship victory. Even although the attendance was only three players the action was played for six hours. This is also counting as a WASPA so this will also be a first for Dave, very good preparation for the upcoming English Major in two weeks time!

Table
1. Dave Baxter 8 pts +2
2. Rob Conway 5 pts +1
3. Andy Beskaby 2 pts -3

Melbourne TFC tournament: June 2016 report

4 players arrived on a cold, wet day in Brighton where we played in a league format of where we play each opponent twice and the winner will be who finishes first on points and goal difference after the 6 rounds.
Newcomer Juan Menendez had tight games with Christos Garagounis in a 0-0 draw and 1-0 defeat. It quickly turned into a two horse race between Luke Radziminski and Benny Ng as both players defeated Christos and Juan by significant margins in the first set of games. The first game between Benny and Luke saw 2 goals in the second half, the second scoring late from a quick free kick and shooting the moving ball, locking in the victory 2-0 in favour of Luke.
The second round between Benny and Luke saw Benny scoring very early in the first half attacking swiftly with his German national team in Blitzkrieg fashion. This had Luke on the back foot during the majority of the first half, however things have evened out in the 2nd half with back and forth counter attacking. Midway through the 2nd half Luke managed to chip the keeper just behind Benny’s German defence line and it concluded in a 1-1 draw, with plenty of missed chances and saves from both players.
The last round Luke faced Christos and Benny faced Juan. Luke only needed to play for a draw to win top spot, Benny finished strongly with a 3-0 win and Luke felt the pressure and almost slipped in the race with a couple of half chances from Christos. However it was not to be and it took something special for Luke to lock in first place by scoring from halfway in the final 2 minutes of the game. Benny Finished second place, Christos third and Juan finishing fourth.

(Report by Luke Radziminski)

David Busch wins again in Ebreichsdorf

Last Thursday the TFKN Dragons decided to host Dragons-training as a WASPA regional tournament. After inviting some friends seven players from three different clubs were present in Ebreichsdorf. They chose a league format, everyone had six good games. David Busch was absolutely favorite but had great problems against the Strommer-Family this evening. In the end he made it because Alfred lost his last game against Peter Nichtenberger, a big sensation, too. Three U15 players were in the field and organizers are convinced they will be candidates for medals in Frameries in September!

Final table:
1. David Busch (ASD Master San Remo) 6 4 1 1 12-05 13
2. Alfred Strommer (TFC Wien West) 6 3 2 1 08-04 11
3. Marios Strommer (TFC Wien West) 6 2 4 0 04-02 10
4. Lukas Eppensteiner (TFKN Dragons) 6 1 4 1 05-06 07
5. Jonathan Nichtenberger (TFC Wien West) 6 1 3 2 06-09 06
6. Thomas Eppensteiner (TFKN Dragons) 6 1 1 4 10-10 04
7. Peter Nichtenberger (TFC Wien West) 6 1 1 4 01-11 04

Please note the next WASPA tournament: Upcoming Friday in Vienna, held by TFC Wien West and Alfred Strommer.

Rudi Peterschinigg on top again in Harrow

11 player battled on June 15 for Round 6 of The (WASPA) Harrow League at the Tithe Social Club. Everyone played almost 5 games of Swiss Ladder and incredibly, Rudi Peterschinigg came on top once again, but aside the glorious win of the night he only managed to gain 2 small points to Elliott Bellefontaine, 2nd on the night, on the race to the title, I think I can start engraving his name on the cup as virtual table when it's only one session left to go says that Elliott is on 48 and Rudi on 40, so would take more than a miracle to be honest.

Anyways, amongst the 11 players we had Panos Stemitsiotis (don't think he needs a introduction) that made his debut at Harrow and Clelio de Souza also a first timer at Harrow, Brazilian player of "Futebol de Botao", a similar game of Subbuteo/table football back in Brazil. Panos made an excellent debut, finishing 3rd and back on the game after a long break from it, whilst for Clelio was an introduction night to his possible new addiction. Martin Bellefontaine, with a brilliant 4th place tonight, made his return to Harrow and was the only one between Rudi and his 100% record of wins for the night.

Step back for both Victor Jones and Kevin J. Walker not on their usual shape tonight, but I'm sure ether will give their best along with Lee Fenton on battling for the 3rd spot in the league, where at the moment Vic Leeds by 1 point (30) on Lee (29) and Kevin (27). Steady on, catching up and trying to master their game Neil Doherty (excellent 6th on the night), John Ellis (9th) and Jonathan Lopez Real (10th). Clelio not surprisingly last before this Bye guy (which is very consistent on his losses 😜) but as I've said to him, we all been there and by the way he flicks won't be long till he'll start giving people hard time.

Thanks to everyone for making it such a wonderful evening and hopefully I'll see all of you back for last Round 7 next month.

Tables for the night:
Rudi 13 pts
El 12 pts (+16)
Panos 12 pts (+6)
Martin 10 pts
Lee 7 pts (0)
Neil 7 pts (-1)
Kevin 6 pts (-1)
Victor 6 pts (-8)
John 5 pts (-4)
Jonathan 5 pts (-5)
Clelio 0

Next event in Pretoria to be played on July 9

The honors for Raffaele Lombardi in Singapore

Congratulations to Subbuteo Parramatta's Raffaele Lombardi at the Asian cup over the weekend. Drawn into a group of death alongside eventual tournament winner David Ruelle and one of Singapore's top players, Den Mulia, he bowed out at the group stage but then successfully manoeuvered his way through the WASPA tournament to take the title with a 2-0 win over Steve Dettre in the final.

16 players from Singapore, Australia, Belgium and Japan attended the WASPA event. Results were as follows:

Last 16:
Lim Yew Seng - Tan Kok Wee     0-2
Steve Dettre - Simon Ee             2*-2
Mohd Ezan Ahmad - Liam Ming Liang                1-0
Hideaki Wada - Stéphane Lambert          0-3
Mohamed Musa Mohamed Bolkiah - Lim Ding Heng   4-0
Ruhan Sham - Johnny Ball         0-1
Luke Lim - Nic Tan 1-6
Raffaele Lombardi - Simon Cole         6-0

Quarter-finals:
Tan Kok Wee - Steve Dettre      2-2*
Mohd Ezan Ahmad - Stéphane Lambert          1*-1
Mohamed Musa Mohamed Bolkiah - Johnny Ball         0-2
Nic Tan - Raffaele Lombardi           0-1

Semis:
Steve Dettre - Mohd Ezan Ahmad          1-0
Johnny Ball - Raffaele Lombardi           0-1

Final:
Steve Dettre - Raffaele Lombardi           0-2

England: local wins for Kye Arnold and Elliott Bellefontaine

Kent Invicta held a 6 man WASPA on Friday night at Playfootball Gillingham to celebrate the start of the Euros 2016. With all players having 5 games in all, the tournament entered the last session with 4 players still able to top the table. In the end, Kye Arnold (U15) held his nerve to beat Veteran Legend Dave Collier 1-0 to take the victory on the night. It was good preparation for two of our September World Cup England youth debutants too as both Rhys Williams (U15) and Josh Foreman (U12) played well on the night getting results against senior players! (Report by Terry Arnold)

Josh vs Dave

Final table:
1. Kye Arnold 12
2. Rhys Williams 9
3. Dave Collier 7
4. Josh Foreman 7
5. Terry Arnold 3
6. Paul Frank 0

In the same evening, there was also subbuteo action in London with finve players meeting in a group format. After the five sessions, Elliott Bellefontaine was the clear winner with four wins while Martin Hodds was runner-up thanks to more goals scored than Martin Bellefontaine.

Final table:
1. Elliott Bellefontaine 12
2. Martin Hodds 7
3. Martin Bellefontaine 7
4. John Brand 3
5. Richard Herbert 0

Bevin Reed wins the 2016 League 2 Cup

Saturday 11 June 2016, Pretoria, South Africa
The 2016 edition of the PFC League 2 Cup saw a field of 8 participants on a very cold day in Pretoria, with each player getting to play 4 matches by way of random draw. In Match 1, Bevin Reed got his campaigne off to a perfect start by beating 2015 League 2 winner Kegan vd Merwe by 2-0 : a setback which Kegan would never recover from in his attempt to defend his title! The last match of Round 1 produced the "match of the day", a 5 goal thriller which ended Julian vd Merwe (2) v (3) Chessray Jooste - a match played at fast pace with Chessray getting the decider with 2min left to play! In Round 2, Kegan got his campaigne back on track with a well deserved 1-0 win over Julian vd Merwe - another match played at a franctic pace. This result became even more significant as Bevin was frustrated to a 0-0 draw against younger brother Sherwin - a solid defensive approach earning Sherwin a well deserved point! That result moved Sherwin into 4th place after he triumphed by 1-0 over Rowin Wilson in Round 1. After Bevin's draw in Round 2, the top of the leaderboard saw Chessray Jooste & Jayden vd Merwe move tied for 1st place after both players followed up their Round 1 wins with another win in Round 2. Chessray & Jayden then played to a 0-0 draw in a "top of the table" clash in Round 3, paving the way for Bevin to reclaim top spot by way of a 2-0 win over Stanton Nortjie.
In Round 4, a win for Kegan would see him in with a chance of getting the runner's up spot - but Stanton produced good blocking flicks and good goalkeeping skills to earn a 0-0 draw! Jayden had to produce a miracle in Round 4 to beat Sherwin by 7-0 if he were to pip Bevin for the title - in the end, a defensive error by Jayden allowed Sherwin to force a 1-1 draw and Jayden had to settle for 2nd place yet again! The draw for Sherwin also ensured a remarkable undefeated run as he claimed 5th place overall! Then Match 16 produced the "upset of the day" as Rowin beat Julian by 1-0 for him (Rowin) to move up two places to 6th overall! For his success on the day, Bevin was also presented with the new 2016 PFC shirt. For his remarkable undefeated run (against all odds), Sherwin was also rewarded with the 2016 club shirt for his efforts! Bevin Reed is surely making a habit of winning in 2016 and this latest success marks the capture of his 6th WASPA title to date - congratulations to Bevin! Thanks to all for attending and making the day a success once again!
A nice gesture at the end of proceedings was when Jayden vd Merwe took some time out to offer coaching tips to some of the youngsters who were in attendance during the event - maybe with an eye on Pretoria Flickers Club soon to introduce a Junior League in our attempts to promote this beautiful game of Subbuteo. Watch this space!

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

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

(Report by Julian vd Merwe)

North vs South clash in Friendship Trophy Final

Abraham on the attack against Ernest

Pierre’s intense concentration vs Jason in the Plate Final

This past Wednesday evening, the 8th of June, saw the Panorama Friendship Trophy hosted at Panorama Sports Club. A good turnout of 8 participants braved the extremely cold Highveld weather to participate, including Cape Town's top ranked player, Cliton Gahwiler. The players were divided into two groups with top seeded players, Clifford Graaff, Clinton Gahwiler, Richard Graaff and Waynne Pienaar progressing to the Cup semi finals. The biggest cheer must go to newcomer Pierre Coetzer, who raised the roof with his equalizing goal against Clinton. The bottom two players in each group qualified for the Plate Final which saw the impressive junior Jason Pienaar defeat Pierre in an extended and exciting penalty shoot-out. The concentration on Pierre's face was the photo of the evening - see attached pic. Clifford and Clinton accounted for Richard and Waynne to set up a traditional North vs South derby. The final lived up to its billing with both players testing each other with strategic and counter attacking moves. A defensive mistake by Clinton with 3 minutes left on the clock, allowed Clifford to score the only goal and claim the 'derby' victory. All winners and losing finalists received special Panorama medals.

Semi-finals
Clifford Graaff vs Richard Graaff 1-0
Clinton Gahwiler vs Waynne Pienaar 3-1

Final
Clifford Graaff vs Clinton Gahwiler 1-0

(Report by Clifford Graaff)

Álvaro Martínez wins in Basque Country

For the very first time a WASPA tournament was organized in the Basque Country in the North of spain last week-end. Only four players were competing but everything was run in a smooth and faire atmosphere. Álvaro Martínez (SC Madrid), who represented Italy in this "Euro 2016" tournament, defeated local player Kepa Etxebarria (Germany) in the final. Iñigo Ibáñez (Northern Ireland) was third and Moises Ramos (Spain) was fourth. It was nice to see for the first time the club of Euskal Subbuteo represented in a WASPA tournament. Well done!

Final table
1. Álvaro Martínez (SC Madrid)
2. Kepa Etxebarria (Euskal Subbuteo)
3. Iñigo Ibáñez (Euskal Subbuteo)
4. Moises Ramos (Euskal Subbuteo)

WASPA monthly report (May 2016)

Dear Subbuteo,

here are the WASPA records of May 2016.

Excel: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4_PpphlADgVbXBZVlpfczdHRVE/view?usp=sharing
PDF file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4_PpphlADgVZDV0RllvN1hZYm8/view?usp=sharing

We had 26 regional tournaments (+ 1 added from last month), 1 tournament with the old rules and 1 promotional tournament for a total of 265 entries from 16 countries this month.

The first event of Hipfingerz TFC

It was great to see a lot of interesting tournaments. Congratulations to Australia for hosting 5 events in 5 different cities. Special thanks to the club of Hipfingerz TFC for running their first WASPA tournament with an impressive field of 16 players. It was nice also to see action in Finland and the first tournament of the season in Gibraltar. Well done to the friends in Wales for hosting the first event in North Wales; I believe the Wrexham tournament was great. Thanks also to Marcus Tilgner and the Berlin gang for hosting a nice tournament with the old rules with players from four nations.

Winners in Berlin

There isn't much to say about rankings. Rankings are more a base of statistics than anything else but it's a great tool to see who are the active players, clubs, nations. Players from 6 different nations are in the top 10. The ranking of nations is very exciting to follow with changes every month. Gibraltar gained 12 places this month and Denmark moved from places 36 to 30. South Africa is second in the ranking by places while Scotland is now second in the ranking by points.

Players in Wrexham, Wales

As I said many times before, I remain open to any idea to make the game more popular, to get more nations, clubs and players involved in the WASPA circuit. We are open to all kind of players, beginners or experienced players. We just try to make things popular and we are glad to offer some exposure on the Internet to all groups of players. WASPA is yours so your ideas and always welcome.

Keep an eye on the WASPA blog at http://waspa-circuit.blogspot.com as there are updates almost every day.

The FISTF website can be found here: http://www.fistf.com

Please remember you only need 3 players to register your tournament. Don't be scared to join. It's free and tournament requests can be sent by e-mail to vincent.cop@rsca.com

Have a great week, keep on flicking and for those who will watch the Euro 2016 games, have a great time!

Yours sincerely,

Vincent Coppenolle

Thomas Baumeler wins in Eschenbach

Last week-end the Linth Sliders club in Eschenbach was glad to meet again and to have the visit of the Baumeler family for a small WASPA tournament with five player. The tournament consisted in a round robin so that everyone had four games. Thomas Baumeler won the tournament this time thanks an important victory against his daughter Trisha (4-1) in the last session. Roman Bernhardsgrütter took the third place and finished with 6 points. Noemi Bernharsgrütter was 4th and Kasey Baumeler was 5th.

The Heineken Cup for Ugo Custo

The Italian club of Catanzaro was organizing a tournament with the old rules this week and 9 players were taking part. Ugo Custo (Ajax) defeated Domenico Giglio (Bruges) in the final. Antonio Marullo (Goteborg) and Alfredo Priamo (Feyenoord) were the semi-finalists. Alessandro Corigliano (Groningen) won the consolation tournament. Congratulations to everyone for another goodevening of subbuteo.

Rudy Hesty wins the latest Jurong Central tournament

Jurong Club League WASPA on 3rd June 16 attracted 12 JCSC players however several senior club players were missing due to work commitments. Nevertheless, with the introduction of senior club players  Michael, Giovanni & Amin added another dimension in the tournament.
With no ranking system, the Players were drawn into 4 groups of 3 players with only 2 from each group progressing to the main Cup stages while the bottom 4 players from each group qualifying to the consolation Plates round. The group draw as follow:-

Group A
Nic Tan
Bolkiah
Amin

Group B
Noor Haikal
Rudy
Fauzi

Group C
Michael Choong
Simon
Giovanni Choong

Group D
Ding Heng
Ming Liang
Yew Seng
Group Games

Group A - Recent Singapore Futures winner, Nic had a tough time and ended up drawing with Amin while defending Singapore U19 champ, Bolkiah was having an off day as he lost both his games.
Group B -Games were more tighter with Club Captain Rudy winning both his games by a goal margin; leaving both Fauzi & Haikal to play in a tensed decider match, with the latter winning 0-1.
Group C - Michael playing with his new bases strolled to 2 wins; while Simon & Giovanni played in an entertaining 2-2 draw, with the latter losing out in qualifying to the cup rounds on goal difference.
Group D - Riding junior star, Ming Liang won both his games & kept a clean sheet; while father & son, Yew Seng & Ding Heng drew their game.

Plates Semi & Finals
Giovani cruised to the final with a comfortable win against Yew Seng while Fauzi advanced to the finals as his opponent had to leave early.
The final between Fauzi & Giovanni was not as expected as Giovanni tumble to a heavy defeat as fatigue set in.

Cup QF
Nic vs Simon
Rudy vs Ding Heng
Haikel vs Ming Liang
Michael vs Amin
As expected the favourites progressed to the semis with not much resistant and it was pleasing to see that both senior players who played against the QF juniors were more of mentor & student training match with seniors coaching them technics & strategies.

Cup SF
Rudy vs Nic
Michael vs Haikel

Both Semi games were close with the 1st semi, Rudy sealing his ticket to the final with 2 late goals. While the 2nd semi was deadlocked at 2-2 in normal time and Haikal winning on sudden death extra time goal to advance in his 1st Jurong WASPA final of the year.

FINAL 
Both Rudy & Haikal once again meet after their group encounter. The earlier group game between them was separated by only one goal but this time, experience prevailed. Rudy won comfortably making it a back to back Jurong WASPA win title.

An enjoyable outing with club admin sharing our tournament games in FaceBook live video. With this last club training session, we hope all club players are ready for the coming Asian Cup.

QF 
1 Nic vs Simon 0
2 Rudy vs Ding Heng 1
2 Haikal vs Ming Liang 1
2 Michael vs Amin 0

SF
3 Rudy vs Nic 0
2 Michael vs Haikel 3 (ft - 2-2) (et 2-3)

FINAL
0 Haikal v Rudy 3

Euro 2016 event in Greece

Trivelli and Lazzaretti claim wins in Rome

The WASPA Lazio League 2015/2016 had two more stages in the recent days with good turnouts of 8 and 11 players. Simone Trivelli won stage 5 with 10 points in 4 games while both Patrizio Lazzaretti and Mikael Caviglia finished with 10 points in stage 6 but Patrizio Lazzaretti was decided winner on the usual number of points taken by the opponents.

Ranking of stage 5:
1. Simone Trivelli
2. Gianmarco Del Brocco
3. Paolo Barone
4. Giuseppe Cascioli
5. Patrizio Lazzaretti
6. Luigi Aniballi
7. Sebastian Cima
8. Lorenzo Lazzaretti

Ranking of stage 6:
1. Patrizio Lazzaretti
2. Mikael Caviglia
3. Gianmarco Del Brocco
4. Paolo Barone
5. Simone Trivelli
6. Simone Lo Iacono
7. Lorenzo Lazzaretti
8. Mario Lo Iacono
9. Alessandro Spoto
10. Riccardo Galieti
11. Luigi Aniballi

Patrizio Lazzaretti (137) is the current leader of the general classification after six stages. Gianmarco Del Brocco has 127 and Simone Trivelli 119. There will be two more stages to play to know the final winner of the WASPA Lazio League 2015/2016.

Poster of the forthcoming event in Spain

George Papadopoulos wins small event in Finland

In a recent gathering in Helsinki (Finland), local players Kari Hakkarainen, Robert green (Australia) and George Papadopoulos (Greece) met to have a small tournament where all players met each other three time. Papadopoulos won his six games to claim the title while Robert green was runner-up. Due to several circumstances some other players were unable to attend so hopefully there will be more next time.

Jones and Bellefontaine on top in Harrow

Short reports of the latest 2 stages of the Harrow League

Victor Jones came top of the WASPA round robin of 6 players last week after a solid performance with no defeats and also accumulated valid points for the Harrow league 2nd spot (1st looks already done and dusted to be honest) race too, taking advantage of Elliott Dieu De Bellefontaine forfeit on the night and beating Rudi (2-1) with a last minute goal, to try to deny him of the second place on the general board.
If he could only make more appearances who knows where would he be sitting on the table by now. Good job by Kevin ending third despite 2 losses and Gerald (4th) only losing one game (to Rudi), improvements for Neil (only a marginal loss 1-0 to Rudi) and John which 6 minutes from the end was leading Rudi 1-0 and came close to a 2-0 just before Rudi equaliser.

Final table:
1. Victor Jones
2. Rudi Peterschinigg
3. Kevin John Walker
4. Gerald Edwin Brightwell
5. John Ellis
6. Neil Doherty

Round 5 (WASPA) of the HARROW league played last Tuesday confirmed that at the moment Sir Elliott Bellefontaine is unstoppable, and he continues to dominate the race to engrave his name on the league Cup in cruise mode gear, Rudi on the other side can't keep his pace and despite haven't lost a match of the 4 rounds Swiss system, the two wins and two draws weren't good enough. Martin instead (first time at Harrow), played for two, himself in his personal family derby battle with Elliott but also to deny Rudi valuable points, coming second on the night with a great performance after loosing only to his terrible son. Steady on on his way to the higher places in the league is Victor, which appears to be playing very consistently and after coming top in the night the round (4) before, seats himself in a decent 4th spot in a night where he only lost (2-0) to the league leader ( who else?).
Decent performances by Gerry, also coming back from a 2-0 to a 2-2 with Rudi, whilst he keeps playing with a useless team and for Kevin with only one loss two draws and a win. Room for improvement for Neil and John E, I'm sure they'll master their game soon enough if they keep the same passion they've showed so far. Great to see Jonathan Lopez Real back on the pitch as well, valuable player if only would come a bit more often he'd be amongst the first 5, 6 in the league table after only a massive defeat vs Gerry (1-4) and a 1-3 vs Martin (not just a random player).
Anyway great to see everyone once again and hopefully see most more of you lot for Round 6 (TBA)

Final table:
1. Elliot Bellefontaine
2. Martin Bellefontaine
3. Rudi Peterschinigg
4. Victor Jones
5. Matthias Peterschinigg
6. Mister X
7. Gerald Edwin Brightwell
8. Kevin John Walker
9. Jonathan Lopez-Real
10. Neil Doherty
11. John Ellis

(Reports by Rudi Peterschinigg)

Hosie’s back…

A big upset, a new venue, an old face returned, and an unusual competition format were the features of the latest round of the Sydney Premier League played last weekend.

The 7th and penultimate round saw the best turnout so far of 16 players, at the home of the Hipfingerz Table Football Club in Sydney’s east.
Gary Hosie, former Australian champion from the 80s and 90s, signalled he is back as a force in the local game by beating Peter Thomas 4-2 in the final.
Pete roared into action in the final, and scored after just 2 mins to take the lead, before Gary hit back in the 4th minute. Both players showed a willingness to craft their attacks, moving the ball around the pitch looking for an opening. Beautiful touch by both players was complemented by fantastic block flicking.
In the 9th minute Gary again pulled Peter’s defence left and right before taking the lead, only for Pete to return the favour, scoring with a delightful chip to and make it 2-2 at the break.
In the second half the tempo increased and after 7 mins of the half, Gary scored, then added a fourth to secure the win.
The unusual “knockout pool system” (borrowed from Gary’s involvement in petanque), with plenty of repechage and ‘plate’ action, gave everyone at least four games, with most getting five — always a bonus for the effort of attending.
Special mention should be made of Peter’s efforts in coming up from Canberra (about the same distance as Amsterdam to Charleroi for our European friends!!) for the day. He, like all the senior players, provided advice and guidance when playing younger or newer players: best way to grow our game.
In the early rounds, Eliot held Gary to a draw 1-1, but lost on shots, while it was great to see Grace Lockard back in action, along with fellow youth players Daniel and Jonty. Let’s hope there can be a female competition at next year’s AGP17 with Imojjen and Æowyn Elmer, Beth Eveleigh and Grace!!
Subbuteo Parramatta’s Mat Barrie and Dave Sultana acquitted themselves well, Mat making the semi-final and Dave the quarterfinal. Mat had a real battle with Steve Dettre, leading 2-0 before Steve scored twice in the last 4 mins to send the match to extra time. When there was still no score, Mat won on shots, before nerves got the better of him in the semifinal against Gary.
Tony Credentino continues to push people hard, and won the B final 1-0 aet against Geoff Sirmai, who is also loving his return to the game, especially as he can play with his rapidly improving son Daniel.
Jason Lockard is also coming along in leaps and bounds, and will be a huge addition to the Canberra scene when he moves there later this year.
A big thanks all round to everyone for coming, and to John Palamara and his daughter Catherine for coming and slotting into the plate competition ‘gaps’. John was one of the ‘refoundation’ members who played in our revival tournament back in 2010.
Also great work by Gary who is gradually winning new members and the support of the Bronte Bowling Club to use their fine facilities. And to his wife, Jane, for the great sandwiches for lunch!!!

Full results here

(Report by Steve Dettre)