Kostas Seses wins Greek Christmas tournament

A total of 30 players from various Greek and international clubs competed to win the 30th WASPA title in Greece during the Christmas tournament organized by Flaming Flickers in Kallithea Athens. 6 groups of 4 players were formed while the juniors had their own 2 groups of 3 players tournament. There were a lot of good games in a festive spirit with a lot of traditional Greek season sweets and drinks.
The Open winner was Kostas Seses of Olympia after a penalty shoot-out in the final with Marcos Kapsabelis of the Italian Atletico Vibo.
Congratulations to the winner and the finalist for their performance and to all the participants for the great games. Season greetings to all.

Dheur, Dejardin and Marain win events in Belgium

Several WASPA tournament have recently been held in Belgium with some good turnouts.

Valéry Dejardin takes Christmas Cup

JSC Rochefort was holding a Christmas Cup on December 22. Due to the size of the venue, organizers decided to have no more than 18 players and they had to refuse some entries! In the end, players from Wammes, Rochefort TS and Temploux came to play against local players. Valéry Dejardin won the final on shots against world champion Rémy Huynh while Rémy Honet and Nathan Dizier reached the top 4 (full results to come).





Christophe Dheur wins in Verviers

After a rather long hyatus, SC Verviers-Herve hosted a tournament on December 15 with a good turnout of 8 players and a quite high level of play. In the final, Christophe Dheur (Charleroi) defeated Pascal Scheen (Valletta) while local players Jean-Michel Cuenca and Philippe Roufosse made it to the semis.

Picture: Pascal Scheen and Christophe Dheur in the recent Europa Cup for clubs in Rochefort


New record in Templeuve

There was another Christmas Cup in Belgium but this time it was a tournament held in Templeuve. Surprisingly, there was a very high field of 22 entries with representatives from 6 clubs and strong representation from Eugies and AS Hennuyer. Organizers decided to play 2 categories as according to the level of players. The "Serie A" had 10 players and some great games. Geoffrey marain (AS Hennuyer) had an hard challenge to win the event but he managed to win top games against Steffen Despretz and Maxime Rairoux to claim another WASPA title. He was the only player to finish the evening with four wins. Steffen Despretz was runner-up while Corentin Boltz was a very surprising third in the final table with just a few more goals scored than Michaël Dupret. "Serie B" had a great field of 12 players and several competitors had the feeling it was the "chance of their life" to win a first tournament. In the end, Eric Caillaux and Damien Urbain ended the evening with 10 points but the Frenchman won the tournament thanks to a better goal-difference. After this fantastic turnout, Templeuve players are really hoping to get another great tournament on January 4.

Final standings in Serie A:
1. Geoffrey Marain (AS Hennuyer)
2. Steffen Despretz (AS Hennuyer)
3. Corentin Boltz (AS Hennuyer)
4. Michaël Dupret (MT Tournai)
5. Maxime Rairoux (Eugies)
6. Vincent Coppenolle (Templeuve)
7. Stéphane Lambert (Yokohama)
8. Renald Deloose (Templeuve)
9. Matthias Averlant (Templeuve)
10. Sébastien Denne (Eugies)

Picture: Corentin Boltz, Geoffrey Marain, Steffen Despretz.

Final standings in Serie B:
1. Eric Caillaux (Templeuve)
2. Damien Urbain (Eugies)
3. André Boltz (AS Hennuyer)
4. Noah Denne (Eugies)
5. Léa Despretz (AS Hennuyer)
6ea. Benjamin Marain (SC Warcoings Ducks)
6ea. Franck Santer (Templeuve)
8ea. Jordan Bonte (Templeuve)
8ea. Florian Renaut (Templeuve)
10ea. Frédéric Cyganek (AS Hennuyer)
10ea. Jérôme Cyganek (AS Hennuyer)
12. Julie Taquin (Templeuve)

Picture: André Boltz, Eric Caillaux, Damien Urbain

Peter Alegi takes WASPA Connecticut Holiday

The WASPA Connecticut Holiday is in the books and so is the 2017 for our club. Many thanks to our gracious host Miguel Marques, to tonight's gracious winner Peter Subbuteo and to our new friend Domenico Venezia. Honorable mention this year for Andrew Zunino and Andy Sbongalo, just two great guys. May 2018 be filled with health, happiness and a full load of Subbuteo games!

Semi-finals (after the group stage):
Peter Alegi - Demonico Venezia 5-0
Massimo Conturso - Miguel Marques 1*-1

Final:
Peter Alegi - Massimo Conturso 1-0

(Report by Massimo Conturso)

Three promotional events in Belgium

Presentation of the trophies in Templeuve for Charlotte Bouchez - Noah Denne - Jordan Bonte - Eric Caillaux

Giulio Bonfanti wins in Bande

Several tournaments have been held recently in Belgium and some results are still to be published but it's worth reporting that among these events, there were three promotional events.

The first one was held on December 21 in Bande and organized by Wamme SC. Giulio Bonfanti, who was competing in his first tournament, won the group stage while Henri Grosdent was runner-up, Aurore Grosdent was third and Philippe Thys took the 4th place. The club has also some new players who will soon have enough experience to play in tournaments, which proves the local organizers do a great job.

On December 23, the national tournament in Templeuve was held with 2 categories and the novice players were, for the tthird year in a row, also playing under WASPA banner. There were 8 players competing in groups of 4. In the end, Noah Denne (Eugies) defeated clubmate Charlotte Bouchez (Eugies) in the final while Templeuve players Eric Caillaux and Jordan Bonte reached the semis. Jérôme Cyganek won the consolation event.

Great day of promotion with five new players competing in Vresse

Finally, on December 26, the club of Semois was organizing a special day with exhibitions and lessons for new players. There was also a small tournament for novice players under WASPA banner. There were 8 players taking part. One of them was back as a player after a break of more than a year and five players were competing for the very first time in a tournament. In the end, the most experienced player, Tom Léonard defeated a very surprising Philippe van Kerm in the final. Grégory Berte won the game for the third place against Philippe Thys. Congratulations to the club of Semois for the excellent job of promotion.

Alekos Apatzis still an old rules king

With a lot of last minute cancellations due to the bad weather, the 12th Greek Old Subbuteo WASPA tournament took place on Sunday December 3. The winner was Alekos Apatzis (Flaming Flickers) who won the final against Panos Panagiotides 4-3 on penalties while the game and extra-time ended in a 1-1 draw. Congratulations to the winner Alekos and to all the participants for the great games!

Pretoria Year End Event

Saturday 16 December 2017, Pretoria, South Africa:
The final gathering for 2017 attracted a field of 10 entries - players were placed in two sections (A & B) in order to complete the scheduled events on the 2017 PFC Calendar.

A Section - League 3 Cup
This event was always going to be the showpiece on the day - with players wanting to stamp their authority upon proceedings early on. It never disappointed, as we witnessed a total of 26 goals scored over the 10 scheduled fixtures, including a massive 5-0 win for Bevin Reed over Julian van der Merwe! In the end, Jayden van der Merwe posted 3 wins and 1 draw to capture his 12th WASPA title to date. This triumph for Jayden also secured him the honours of 2017 PFC League Champion - overall Jayden had accumulated 1 more point than Chessray Jooste in what was by far the closest run League Championship to date for the club.

B Section - Copa del Clausura
On paper, this event promised to be a very tight affair. The unpredictability of the event was further heightened when Imtiaz Ahmed stunned Adam Murray by 2-1 in Match 1 ! Gary Downs then suffered a second round loss, opening the way for newcomer Chris Abrahamse to lead the standings for all of 3 rounds of play! Round 4 then changed the shape of things completely - Imtiaz beat Chris by 1-0 to "demote" Chris to 3rd place overall ! Adam secured the title by way of a 1-0 win. Gary secured 2nd place overall by way of a 1-1 draw over Conway Julie.
A very disappointing day for Conway after his impressive 3rd place finish during last month's Scudo Campioni event !

A big thank you to all Pretoria players for your support during 2017 !!!
Wishing all fellow Subbuteo players across the WASPA circuit a joyous & peaceful Festive period.

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)

Many close games in the Flanders

The monthly tournament of the Flanders club took place on December 18 after having been postponed two times due to the bad weather. Geoffrey Marainw as supposed to attend but he finally stood at home to take care of his daughter was got a serious injury at school. There were finally 10 players taking part and in the end, four players ended the evening with 9 points. Vincent Coppenolle won the tournament on goal-difference thanks to a victory against Jos Ceulemans (6-1) and despite of a loss against Frank Lannoy in the final session (2-3). Frank Lannoy was runner-up while U19 player Matthias Averlant took the third place.

Final standings:
1. Vincent Coppenolle
2. Frank Lannoy
3. Matthias Averlant
4. Jos Ceulemans
5. Stéphane Lambert
6. Danny De Greef
7. Jordan Bonte
8. Johan Lourdon
9. Geert Leys
10. Willy De Bandt

Wamme and Semois players meet for a friendly day

The clubs of Wamme (based in Bande) and Semois (based in Vresse) met on Saturday for a very friendly afternoon. 6 Wamme players and 4 Semois playershad five sessions of games so that the 4 Semois players could play differents opponents from the rival clubs. In the end, there was a ranking proving Luc Grosdent was the man of the afternoon with 5 individual wins and a WASPA trophy. Congratulations to the winner!

Final standings:
1. Luc Grosdent (Wamme)
2. Jean Grosdent (Wamme)
3. Pascal Droeven (Semois)
4. Renaud Parisel (Semois)
5. Henri Grosdent (Wamme)
6. Marc De Vos (Semois)
7. Kevin Depouhon (Wamme)
8. Patrick Vanderlinden (Semois)
9. Aurore Grosdent (Wamme)
10. Philippe Thys (Wamme)

Christmas cup for Mike Bradbury

Wolverhampton SFC hosted their first official Christmas Cup and Awards Evening on Sunday 17th December.  12 of the 15 club players turned out, and the tournament was  played in a handicap format giving less experienced players an opportunity to progress.  It was a tense evening with some very close games.  League winner, Mick Hammonds suffered the fate of a surprise quarter final exit to Mark Broadhurst who managed to hold on to his 3 goal advantage, winning 3-2.

Mark's glorious run of victories was brought to an end by Justin Scott in the Semi Finals, but it took a shoot out to get past him.  The final, Justin versus Mike Bradbury was a game of two halves.  First half a tight defensive affair, with neither player giving ground.  The second half was a goal fest, with 6 goals, 4 - 2 in Mike's favour.  It was a final worthy of an excellent evening of Subbuteo!  Next open event the WSFC Roy Holden Trophy, 28th January 2018.
Please visit Wolverhampton Subbuteo Football Club on Facebook for more information.

(Report by Justin Scott)

Sergio Robertiello wins in Firenze

The club of Firenze was hosting another tournament last week with a fantastic turnout of 18 players. There was a group stage and several knock-out stages were held to give more games to everyone. In the main event, Sergio Robertiello won the final against Davide Visani while Giammarco Riccioni and Stefano Barducci reached the semis. In the games for the 9th place, Marco Bonciani defeated Alessio Riccio in the final. In the consolation tournament (for place 13), Emanuele Cattani defeated Gabriele Casati in the final. Congratulations to the club of Firenze for always attracting a lot of players at their events.

More results from Australia

Action in Perth

Several tournaments have recently been held in Australia. In Perth, six players attended the latest event. Home and away games were played and in the end, Alan Kimber finished on top of the group stage but the tournament was far to be over. After barrage games, Alan Kimber and Ross McNulty won their respectives semi-finals and Alan won the last game to claim the title.

In Sydney, Hermann Kruse and the Northern Falcons organized a first tournament for the juniors and there was a nice group of six players competing for the win. Olliver Ollnow finished on top of the league while Thorben Pfister was runner-up, Niklas Raab took the 3rd place, Jonas Hahn was 5th, Moritz Raab was the and Hermine Ollnow was 6th. A good day was had by all.

Finally, the Sydney TFC Christmas Cup was held on December 9 with a good turnout of 10 players. Two groups of 5 saw a lot of great games as all players wanted to qualify for the semi-finals. The knock-out stage was interesting ith the "Lombardi derby", Raffaele beating Daniele (3-2) while Fabrizio Coco took the best on Eliot Kennedy. In the final, Raffaele Lombardi proved to be in a great day to win the game (2-0) against Fabrizio Coco.

Richard Stock wins again in North Wales

The players

London Road Subbuteo club held a great day of
Subbuteo this Sunday at the Parrot, Drury, Wales. 9 players were taking part and besides the strong welsh representation brian Daley from England and Tom Burns from Scotland were also taking part. In the end, there was no surprise as the usual final was played between Brian Daley and Richard Stock. Richard won the game (1-0) to claim the trophy while Tom Burns and Yani Kelly reached the semi-finals. Great job again by Cayne and the gang!

Trieste Cup: Gianfranco Grahonja on top

The 8th and last stage of the Trieste Cup in 2017 took place on December 15 with 5 players competing in a group robin. Gianfranco Grahonja and Gianfranco Grahonja finished on top of the group and qualified for the final while Furio Segnani had also a great evening but wasn't qualified due to a poor goal difference. In the decisive game the Italian took the best on the representative of Slovenia (2-0) to claim his second WASPA title.

A first trophy for Mathéo Grégoire

The players

Jean and Mathéo

There was a good turnout of 8 tonight in Bande (Belgium) where representatives from 3 different clubs attended the tournament organized by Wamme SC. jean grosdent was an happy organizer with two players competing in their first tournament but didn't manage to win the trophy. The young Mathéo Grégoire (Rochefort TS) finished the Swiss System with a great record of 3 wins and a draw. Jean grosdent was runner-up with 9 points.

Final standings:
1. Mathéo Grégoire
2. Jean Grosdent
3. Basile Magermans
4. Thierry Magermans
5. Henri Grosdent
6. Aurore Grosdent
7. Bruno Mottet
8. Philippe Thys

Vikas Chandiramani and Izham Sidek grab honors in Singapore

Merlion Cup players

TFAS Merlion Cup 2017 (Plates Event)

The Merlion Cup 2017 International Open was held on 10 December 2017, which started off with the group stages. There were a number of player who got knocked out after the group games. However, these players were given a chance in winning the consolation Plates prize!

Tournament winner Vikas Chandiramani

There were 8 players for the Plates Event, and a draw was carried out to determine their matchups. A series of knockout matches followed.

Tournament runner-up John Ho

In the end it was Vikas Chandiramani and John Ho who reached the final, where the former won 2-1!

TFAS Merlion Cup 2017 (Amateur Category)

The Amateur Category of the Merlion Cup 2017 was held on 9 December 2017. New players or players who have not been playing for a long time were eligible for this event.

Tournament winner Izham Sidek

Sunday runner-up John Edwards

Five players competed in this category. After a series of round robin games being played, it was Izham Sidek who came out tops undefeated, with 3 wins and a draw.

Christmas Cup in Derry

The Derry City TFC 2017 Christmas Cup was a great success. We played with old subbuteo bases and the advanced rules. Due to the snow we only had 8 players so played a league format. The table was close at the end and all came down to a crunch match between Paul Boyle and Lawrence Watson, with Lawerence needing a win to top the table and Paul only needing a draw. A match full of drama was ended in the final few minutes with a goal from Watson, giving him his first WASPA win.

Table
Lawrence Watson - 14
Craig Stewart - 13
Martinog Bradley - 13
Paul Boyle - 12
Brendan Rodgers - 11
Patrick Mc Keever - 8
Niall Mc Keever - 3
Linus McLaughlin - 0

WASPA Christmas Cup Champion 2017 ‘ Lawrence Watson’

Promotion with kids in Northern Ireland

There was a great day at the Acorn primary Christmas fair! There were exhibitions, friendly games and even a small tournament. For several reasons we will not count the games in the WASPA circuit but hopefully many of the new players will have a chance to play official games in the near future. Well done to all the youngsters today and special thanks to Craig Stewart for making things happen!

Lincoln Flickers Copa del Santa

Andrew Garbutt with Villa Real retains the Copa in a competitive round robin in Lincoln. Five battled for the coveted Copa: Barcelona (Andrew Boyer), Villa Real (Andrew Garbutt), Lazio (Jez Boothman), Genoa (Mat
Atkin) and Apoel Nicosia (John Devaney).

Villa Real unbeaten with 3 wins and a draw (scoring 7, conceding 2) pips Jez Boothman’s Lazio also unbeaten with 2 wins and 2 draws (scoring 3, conceding 1). 

It was all to play for going into the last round with Villa Real on 7 points ahead of Barca 6 points, Lazio 5 points and Genoa 4 points.
Villa Real beat Genoa 2-1 and Lazio held their half time lead to beat three time winners Barca 1-0. Apoel Nicosia lost all 4 matches despite playing pretty well.

1. Villa Real (A Garbutt) 10 points W3 D1 L0 +5
2. Lazio (J Boothman) 8 points W2 D2 L0 +2
3. Barcelona (A Boyer) 6 points W2 D0 L2 -
4. Genoa (M Atkin) 4 points W1 D1 L2 +1
5. Apoel Nicosia (J Devaney) 0 points W0 D0 L4 -8

Thank you everyone for a splendid afternoon’s flicking, thankfully the snow was only a sprinkle over in the east! The day finished with pizza and donuts – we do comps well here in Lincoln!

Next WASPA is Sunday 25 February with South America’s Copa Libertadores.  Entry just £5 adults.

Two trophies for Marco Zucchi

Two WASPA events have been held this week-end in Szombathely, Hungary! On Saturday there was a small turnout and Marco zucchi from prague (Czech republic) took the honors. He finished on top of a group where each players met every opponent twice.

On Sunday there was a filed of 7 players with visitors from Austria but Marco Zucchi was really in a great day and finished on top of the Swiss ladder to claim his second trophy of the week-end.

Huge thanks to Andras Hicz for organizing things!

Cayne Matthews takes the Sychdyn Cup

Subbuteo in North Wales - London Road Subbuteo Club held the "Sychdyn Cup" promotional WASPA event 9th December. Snow reduced the players to 4 and a league format was played .

Results
Dave 0v0 Cayne
Ruby 0v2 Yani
Cayne 3v0 Yani
Dave 1v1 Ruby
Ruby 0v3 Cayne
Yani 2v2 Dave

League Table 
Cayne 7pts +6
Yani 4pts -1
Dave 3pts
Ruby 1pts -5

Kai Hagenkötter wins Weihnachtscup tournament

Three months ago the newest Subbuteo club of Germany was created and TV Germania Kaiserau already hosted their first WASPA tournament. On December, 10th twelve players from three different clubs took part of the 1. Weihnachtscup of TV Germania Kaiserau in Kamen at Bürgerhaus Methler with Victoria Büsing as competition manager. Congratulation to Kai Hagenkötter from Dortmund, now playing for the italian club of Catania, for a very well performance with a clean sheet and thanks to all friends from the clubs of Berlin and Schwalbach for their participation and friendship.

Semi-finals:
Marcel Schulz - Victoria Büsing 3:2
Leif Banscherus - Kai Hagenkötter 0:3

Final:
Marcel Schulz - Kai Hagenkötter 0:5



Final standings:
1. Kai Hagenkötter (SC Catania)
2. Marcel Schulz (TVG Kaiserau)
3. Leif Banscherus (TVG Kaiserau)
4. Victoria Büsing (TVG Kaiserau)
5. Thossa Büsing (TVG Kaiserau)
6. Klaus Fritz (Sparta Spreeathen 74/82)
7. Yannik Matusch (TVG Kaiserau)
8. Ralf Popp (TVG Kaiserau)
9. Felix Herrmannsdörfer (TVG Kaiserau)
10. Daniela Grünberg (BSC Schwalbach)
11. Kim Bradke (TVG Kaiserau)
12. Manuel Politz (TVG Kaiserau)

Eastern Bloc Dictator Fulfils His Iron Curtain Dream

Lakeside Cup, the inaugural WASPA tournament at Lakeside Futsal in Albert Park, Melbourne, was hosted by MTFC on the 9th of December 2017. A total of 10 players entered the tournament on neutral territory, for what is seen now as the central hub for Melbourne Subbuteo. For what it went down as a little bit chaotic where players had to mind junior futsal players coming in and out through the futsal courts and couldn’t help themselves have a go at the game on a spare table. Luke couldn’t enjoy his souvlaki peacefully as there would be a handful of curious rogue junior onlookers who were more interested touching the expensive personal gear rather than experimenting with the beginners sets. The tzatziki sauce had eventually run down to the bottom of the souvlaki roll and it just became an awkward soggy mess and the chips had gone cold.

But nonetheless the group stages had finally been completed after the lunch break where both Luke and Paul had claimed all 4 wins and faced Christos and Simon respectively in the semi’s. Those who did not make the top 2 in the group of 5 were placed in the placing finals where they play their opponent who achieved the same position as them in the group stage. Both fixtures between Anthony and Kevin, Arjuna and Juan had ended in 0-0 draws and went to penalties.

Anthony and Arjuna came out victorious finishing on 5th and 7th place.  The two brothers of Alex and Harrison faced each other for 9th place where Harrison came out as the victor with a 3-0 result.


The semi-finals were extremely tight and heated contests. Paul defeated Simon 2-1 while Luke defeated Christos 1-0. Luke had considered himself lucky as he managed to make 4 crucial reflex saves against Christos and cruelly went 1-0 up late on in the second half on the counter while still maintaining his clean sheet since the group stage.

The final was end to end action between Luke and Paul, both missing clear cut chances and having their shots saved after saved. The decider had also ended in a 1-0 margin late in the second half as well, but it took something special to break through Paul’s stubborn defensive line, with a 1-2 touching run down the middle of the defensive wall through the tiniest of gaps and a high risk in a possession turnover. Luke would consider himself lucky as everything seemed coming up Milhouse for him on the day.

The Melbourne Dictator of the East had won the Lakeside Cup without conceding a single goal and will temporarily rule the city with a tiny iron fist until the Asian Cup where he will be inevitably belted and be brought down back to reality.

In the meantime, the search for an un-interrupted souvlaki meal session continues…

The final standings:
1 Luke Radziminski
2 Paul Mercer
3 Christos Garagounis
4 Simon Briffa
5 Anthony Madiona
6 Kevin Grant
7 Arjuna Hanafi
8 Juan Menendes
9 Harrison Briffa
10 Alex Briffa