It was the second anniversary of The Brisbane Subbuteo Club, and up for grabs was a very nice (and large) trophy for the winner to hold for one year. And for the first time a minor trophy was to be competed for by the bottom group.
Things were made easy by the fact we had eight players competing, which meant we could run two groups of four, the top two from each would then play off for the major trophy, and the bottom two from each for the minor. The format being another group stage with the two highest finishers having to play a final. So it was going to be hard fought for no matter what. Just to make it slightly harder it was very hot and humid, but it would seem some people will do anything for a bit of cake.It was an open draw, no seeding, but it turned out that the four stronger players were split evenly in the two groups. Group A had Rik Bland, Wil Gillespie, Gus Gillespie, and Gareth Whalley. In Group B we had James Gillespie, Derek Hovell, Andrew Ridgen and Australia’s #1 Giuseppe Tardiota.
Rik won all three games, beating Gus 4-2 quite comfortably. Gus came second securing his spot in the last four. Wil came bottom of the group to Gareth, but was just warming up. Group B saw Andrew lead by goal difference to Giuseppe, and they both fought in frantic 3-3 draw. James finished bottom to Derek.
In the minor trophy group, Wil rallied to finish second on goal difference, pipping Gareth. The top 3 all had 6 points but Derek’s goal difference was far superior. So Derek and Wil would meet in the final.The Major trophy group saw top spot beat bottom spot by 2 points. A very tight group indeed. The first round saw Gus beat Andrew scoring some very quick goals indeed, three from kick offs. Andrew did well to comeback and had most of the attacks in the second half but the damage was done. Rik and Giuseppe fought out a very skilful game which ended 1-1. Round 2 saw Rik edge Andrew by a goal in a 3-2 thriller. Gus found Giuseppe’s goalkeeper in fine form and could not get past him, and Giuseppe scored a clinical through the middle goal to take the 3 points. The final round saw Gus hold onto to hard fought point from Rik with a 1-1 score line. In the other game, Andrew came out on top to beat Giuseppe 3-2 which saw Giuseppe drop to third and let Gus into the top two on goal difference.
The minor trophy saw a couple of tired players do their best, Wil taking a lead in the first half and managing to hold on to it, despite a flurry of shots from Derek’s Seagulls. A good experience for these players.
The Major final was very tight. Not the score fest the same two players started with at the beginning of the day, both players defending like lions. Gus however managed to score a good finish after a large slice of luck went his way. Rik went into half time 1 down but with 15 minutes to go, Gus was worried. As expected, Rik came out and worked his way down both flanks with Gus’s back to the wall hanging on. Eventually Rik broke through and scored a nice chipped goal for the equaliser. Two minutes later the whistle blew. 10 minutes of extra time required, after 6 games in the heat it was a marathon. Extra time saw Rik have the largest share of possession but Gus did manage the odd flurry forward. And just when it looked like it might go to penalties, Gus finished a nice move with a goal on the fly (unfortunately the video camera we had setup didn’t record it). Gus held out and the large Trophy went to a new custodian, Rik having won the year before, and Giuseppe winning the very first tournament.
A great anniversary tournament, and a very tight one. The cake got devoured and everyone survived and had a ball despite the heat. A big thanks to Rik for the awesome Anniversary Trophy, and to Giuseppe who does such a great job as host we can’t thank him enough. Good luck in Sydney.(Report sent by Brisbane SC)
