More action in Japan

Last Saturday oour friends in Japan were holding a tournament in their premises of Sakura Living in Yokohama city. The tournament was organized by OSC Yamato and attracted seven players from several different clubs. The tournament winner is Suguru Fujino. Huge thanks to Hideaki Wada for helping to organize WASPA tournaments in Japan in 2017. Huge thanks also to M. Kenzo Koi, NOSK President, and Suguru Fujino, Sakuragicho TFC President  for their continuous support. OSC Yamato and Sakuragicho TFC have filled all conditions to become WASPA top clubs next season and we would be please to welcome them.

Gábor Baross wins in Szombathely

Last Saturday there was an Internation Open in Szombathely, Hungary. After that the main event there was also a small WASPA tournament. There were five players, and everybody played against everybody. Gábor Baross won the tournament and Zoltán Baross was the runner-up. This was the final trophy of TFKN Dragons, because unfortunately this team dissolves in the end of the season. Károly Szathmáry, the hungarian sectorball champion, took the third place.

A first victory for Nikos Psomiadis

16 players - all members of the Flaming Flickers - competed in the 26th "Flaming Flickers Evening WASPA tournament" on Saturday, August 12 before the club's summer break.

Due to the heat in Athens this tournament started in the evening and ended way passed midnight. The winner was Nikos Psomiadis who beat 2-1 Alekos Apatzis in the final.

Congratulations to Nikos for the title and to all the participants for the nice games.

Gus Gillespie wins in Brisbane

On a very cool Sunday morning, four friendly flickers finally fronted up to join  Pino at the home of Brisbane Subbuteo, Woody Pointe.  Sadly Andy Ridgen was not on the team sheet, get well soon Andy.  We did however have a new player turn up, travelling North from the Gold Coast, welcome to the fold Gerry Vickers. Gerry originally from NZ and a very keen ex Subbuteo player. The usual suspects Rik, Shane and Gus made up the remaining five.
Gerry being a typical Kiwi was happy to jump straight in after many years away from the game – a brief 5 minute warm up introducing the rules and he was into it. Gerry had his Parodi Base team un polished on the pitch and ready to go. He faced Shane who had travelled East to join us from Ipswich. A very friendly game then broke out with the result being 0-0, and Gerry learning lots of new rules. The other match was not a 0-0 affair, and Pino was 1-0 up within 45 seconds after a keeper blunder by Gus, can’t give Pino an inch.  Gus rallied though and put up a good fight, managing to equalise halfway through the first half. This irked Pino who promptly regained his lead from the kick off, and so it was 2-1 at half time, but a close contest. The second half was end to end, but with a couple of well taken goals by Gus, the tables had turned, and Pino was behind 3-2.  This normally triggers a Pino whirlwind, but amazingly Gus nicked a 4th. Pino did get one back to make Gus sweat but the beeper went with the score 4-3, a good come back and a great match between the two.
Rik who was the spectator for the first round came into the action, and Pino was involved in another 1 goal decided thriller, but on the wrong end again to last months champion. Shane and Gus played the other game, which is historically very close, was an unusual 4-0 win to Gus, who was obviously fired up from his rare win over Pino.
Midway through the rounds, Pino saw off Shane 2-1, Shane finally getting his first goal of the day, and Rik welcomed Gerry with a 5-1 win, but well done Gerry getting a goal against Rik in your return from the wilderness.
The penultimate round gave Gerry a chance to go up against our genial host, who gave Gerry some more pointers, but ensuring a 1-0 win to stay in with a distant chance of making the final.  The other match up saw the top two in the table go head to head. Rik took the lead against Gus in what turned out to be a very tight contest (the last time they played Rik won a tight semi  final against Gus).  Gus managed to equalise in the second half, and the game could have gone either way, but it was Gus who eked out a winner in what seemed to have been a game of two five minute halves.
The last round would have no effect on the final two as Pino had played all his games, and Shane finished with a credible 2-1 loss to Rik, whilst Gerry who ironically had borrowed Gus’s spare keeper gave the keeping performance of the day, and was definitely starting to regain his flicking mojo narrowly losing 2-0.
So after  lunch Rik and Gus faced each other , Gus’s first final since March, (the rest between Rik and Pino). Gus the only player of the day without a defeat was just happy making the final after a long absence
The game was end to end, Rik dominating at the start, but Gus worked his way back into it, and it really was even. Half time came and it was 0-0. Shortly into the second half Rik gave a free kick away just outside the shooting zone. Gus saw an opportunity and passed through Riks defence and as the ball was travelling left to right struck with an attacker which hit the ball perfectly to send the Newcastle Utd team into a 1-0 lead. Rik then seemed to step up a gear, but Gus dug in and defended as well as he could, however it wasn’t to be enough, and Rik broke through with clinical style and speed to score a great equaliser. With less than two minutes left (neither player really aware of the time, just going full on) Rik charged forward with his spare keeper which after a couple of deflections gave possession away.  Gus kept his calm (never won a penalty shoot out yet) and manoeuvred himself with a good scoring opportunity with the 5thflick, which in training would have been dispatched with aplomb, now it looked really, really, hard. It went in. Rik flicked off and 15 seconds later the buzzer went off. Gus had snatched it through a rare gaff by Rik. So a new –ish face on the winner podium (since January).
Another exciting competition, great to welcome Gerry, and it probably won’t be long before our Kiwi Bro is challenging for honors. Thanks again to our host Pino who didn't make the final but did a great job with the sausages, always a winner..  And a big shout out to Rik who has been in every final so far in 2017, he’s lost a few but won more.

(Report by Giuseppe Tardiota)

Geoffrey Marain still reigns in Templeuve

The last Templeuve tournament of the season took place on August 22 with a small turnout of 8 players. geoffrey marain managed to win his 73rd WASPA title, a few days after being honored as WASPA number 1 in the ranking for the 60th month in a row. Marain won his four games and nobody was feeling able to defeat him. matthias Averlant was in a great day and was runner-up with 9 points. There will be a promotional tournament in Templeuve on August 29 and the first event of the new season will be held on September 26.

Home win for Peter Alegi

Grand Rapids TSC hosted a small tournament in East Lansing, Michigan, on Sunday, August 27, in honor of our visitor from Chicago: Ilias Gikas.

The nice weather allowed us to play some games outdoors and everyone enjoyed themselves. It all came down to the final round of matches. Peter Alegi defeated Ilias to top the table and Paul beat Joe to claim third place.

WASPA East Lansing Invitational results:

Joe Legatz - Peter Alegi 0-3
Paul Pate - Ilias Gikas 0-3
Peter-Paul 4-0
Ilias-Joe 4-1
Peter-Ilias 3-1
Paul-Joe 2-0

Final Standings

Peter 9 points
Ilias 6
Paul 3
Joe 0

Jurong Central August League Games

10 players plus Special Guest Sven Schilling from German club Sankt Pauli SC participating in the club monthly league held earlier today. Players were drawn into two groups with players who top the group paired for the finals.

Group A: Fauzi, Anas, Rizal T, Vikas & Michael

Group B: Nic, Noor Haikal, Rudy, Bolkiah & Sven

Group A favourite Anas got a scare in the first game when he was held in a goalless draw with Fauzi but current form prevail as he managed to top the group by beating his remaining opponents.

Group B saw Rudy winning all his games but the focal highlight was our German player Sven. A comfortable win over Haikal (who is still getting use to his new bases),  Two draws with Nic & Bolkiah & a single lost to Rudy saw Sven coming in 3rd in the group hence a satisfying outing & a match date with Fauzi (the mouth of the west) 😂

The final standing after group games were as follows:-

Group A - Group B 
1 - Anas - 1 - Rudy
2 - Michael - 2 - Nic
3 - Fauzi - 3 - Sven
4 - Vikas - 4 - Haikal
5 - Rizal T - 5 - Bolkiah

Final Match up 
🔹Rizal beat Bolkiah 3-2 on shoots.
🔹Haikal beat Vikas 3-1
🔹Fauzi won 1-0 Sven
🔹Michael 2-0 Nic
🔹Anas 3-1 Rudy

Anas was again triumphant in the final & was crown Jurong Central SC August winner.

Today's Final Standing:-

1-Anas
2-Rudy
3-Michael
4-Nic
5-Fauzi
6-Sven
7-Haikal
8-Vikas
9-Rizal T
10-Bolkiah

Hope more will join in the club flicks which is scheduled on every Friday, 7.30pm to 10pm.

(Report by Rudy Hesty)

Kye Arnold still on top in Gillingham

Finn vs Nicky

Kye vs Dave

August 18th – Gillingham, Kent

The Kent League saw 7 players turn out for a really close evening of matches. With everyone playing each other, tight games were anticipated and sure enough that’s how the evening played out. Nicky Chappell, returning to the game, played well all evening whilst new player Kevin, continued to do well. At the end of the night however it was Kye who won with Nicky a close second in a fantastic evening’s round of matches!

Paul vs Kevin

Standings – All Kent Invicta
1. Kye Arnold +14 15pts
2. Nicky Chappell +3 13pts
3. Terry Arnold +6 12pts
4. Finn Taylor +1 7pts
5. Paul Frank -1 7pts
6. Dave Collier -3 7pts
7. Kevin Carter -19 0pts

Another victory for Rémy Huynh

Shots to decide the winner between Huynh and Leroy

On August 24 the club of Wamme SC was holding a tournament in their premises. There was a good turnout of 8 players with representatives from Semois, Rochefort TS and JSC Rochefort taking part. In the end, a shootout was needed to decided the winner and Rémy Huynh defeated David Leroy to claim the title. Local authorities were also present to confirm the club will be welcome in new premises in September. For Rémy Huynh, this is the second victory of the month after winning in Liège 3 weeks ago.

Jayden vd Merwe wins the Gold Cup

Saturday 19 August 2017, Pretoria, South Africa
A cold, windy August Saturday afternoon saw the return of Subbuteo action in the capital city after a two month break - and the return brought with it a record equaling number of participants, some last minute strikes, a 3-way shootout to determine the day's winner and an opportunity to meet new friends!
The event was played under the theme "Cup of Nations" and attracted 14 participants, equaling our previous highest number set in August of 2016 - maybe the month of August has something to do with it?
The event started with Jayden vd Merwe & Bevin Reed playing a good tactical match which ended 0-0. Match 2 saw Kegan vd Merwe defeat the much fancied Chessray Jooste by 1-0, thanks to a strike with just 2min left to play. At the end of Round 1 matches Osvaldo van Niekerk was surprisingly top of the standings thanks to a 2-0 victory over Antonio Abdeziet.
By the end of Round 2 matches, Kegan, Osvaldo and Bevin occupied the top 3 places (in that order) after recording further wins. Round 3 saw the top 2 clash with Kegan v Osvaldo - the result of 0-0 emphasising that Osvaldo is no longer a "push over" ! That 0-0 result suddenly paved the way for Bevin to go top after a convincing 3-0 Round 3 victory over Adam Murray!
Osvaldo grabbed everybody's attention with a 1-0 Round 4 victory over Stanton Nortjie (the 2016 PFC's Most Improved Player) - a result which saw Osvaldo occupy 1st place again with a tally of 7 points ! Bevin then battled to a hard fought 1-0 victory over Marlin Boyd to join Osvaldo with 7 points. Jayden then relied on a full time strike to dispatch an in-form Kegan by 1-0, to join Osvaldo & Bevin on 7 points - and thereby forcing the event into a 3-way shootout, as if we did not have enough drama during the event already!

Results of the 3-way shootout :
Osvaldo 1 v 2 Jayden
Bevin 2 v 3 Jayden
Osvaldo 1 v 3 Bevin
Jayden was able to hold his nerve during the shootouts to clinch the 2017 Gold Cup !!!

Julian and Gary Downs

Final Classification :
Jayden vd Merwe
Bevin Reed
Osvaldo van Niekerk
Kegan vd Merwe
Chessray Jooste
Adam Murray
Stanton Nortjie
Conway Julie
Rowin Wilson
Julian vd Merwe
Sherwin Reed
Marlin Boyd
Imtiaz Ahmed
Antonio Abdeziet

The highlight of the day has to be Osvaldo van Niekerk's overall improvement as a player - playing in only his 5th tournament, he constantly found himself within the top 3 spots all day and enjoyed an undefeated run. His efforts to clinch 3rd place overall was recognised when he was awarded the PFC club shirt!
The day's other highlight was the meeting between Julian vd Merwe and Gary Downs - our visitor from the Eastern part of the Gauteng Province. The Pretoria Flickers Club will support Gary in any possible way in his efforts to establish the EASTERNS TFC!
Lastly…. Jayden is showing a real affinity towards this event, the Gold Cup….as proven by his track record in this event. In 2015 the event was played under the theme "Copa America" and Jayden won the title playing in the colours of Mexico. In 2016 the event was played under the theme "EURO 2016", and it was Jayden who again proved too strong playing in the colours of Belgium. This year he completed the hat-trick of wins for this event - playing in the colours of his Netherlands set!

As always, a big thank you to all who shared this memorable day with us.
And a special thanks to Gary Downs for making the 60km or so trip to visit the Pretoria Flickers Club!

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)

Alekos Apatzis wins old rules tournament in Greece

12 players from various clubs competed for the 9th Greek old rules trophy. The tournament was held in the premises of the Flaming Flickers in Kallithea.
Alekos Apatzis of Flaming Flickers SC was the winner after a very strong final against Serafim Koulosousa of Proteas Athens. Congratulations to the winner Alekos and to all the participants.

Kye Arnold wins in Florida

July 22nd, Orlando, Florida

7 players had a great days play with Garage Soccer hosting a tournament at the Dead Lizard Brewing Co’ in Orlando, Florida, USA. The early games saw some close matches between the local players however the English and Kent pair of Kye and Terry Arnold had an clear edge over their opponents in the early rounds. The Semi-finals saw Kye overpower Shervin 8-0 whilst Terry gained a 5-1 victory over Chris. The final saw a convincing 4-1 victory for unbeaten Kye over Terry but sportsmanship and fun was the real winner on the day with a great atmosphere and everyone having a great time.

Many Thanks to Pat and the Garage Soccer team for arranging a brilliant tournament and they will be hosting more events in Florida in the future.

(Repot by Terry Arnold)

Mark Farrell is All-Ireland champion for the 4th time

Kenny Beggs and Mark Farrell

The All-Ireland championships took place this week-end in Derry, Northern Ireland. It was a great tournament with a superb field of 10 players. It was difficult to predict who would be able to stop Mark Farrell (Yorkshire Phoenix) to win a 4th title. In the end, Farrell defeated Kenny Beggs (Irish Premier League) in the final (1-0) while Martinog Bradley (Derry City) took the best on Mark McCrossan (Derry City) in the 3rd place play-offs (3-1). It was a great day with also the come-back of Neil Hermon who came from Belfast and was the representative of Northern Ireland in the Junior FISA world cup back in 1990. Congratulations to Mark for the victory and huge thanks to Derry City TFC for hosting a great tournament.

Richard Stock does it again

Richard vs Brian

London Road SC played their end of season tournament on August 20. Due to holidays and other commitments only 5 players entered. This gave the chance to play a league and everyone play each other twice giving all players 8 games. Richard Stock won his 3rd LRSC event with Brian Daley finishing 2nd. Cayne Matthews finished 3rd, Yani Kelly 4th and Dave Kelly 5th. Maybe the shock game of the tournament Dave drew 1-1 with Brian. After our 1st season LRSC would like to thank all the players who have entered any of our tournaments. London Road SC start the new season with a change. We will be holding a 2 day event on 23-24 September playing advanced rules. Saturday 23rd will be the "Paul Lloyd North Wales Open" an individual tournament with 20 players expected. Sunday 24th will be the "Invitational Inter Club Cup" a club event with LRSC A & B, Wolverhampton, Glasgow and Derry. LRSC is looking forward to the new season, Subbuteo in North Wales.

Cape Town City Southern Suburbs Tournament

13 August 2017

The Southern Suburbs event had a small turnout of only 4 players, but turned out to be a very competitive event.

John Fishlock has long been one of Cape Town’s most consistent players, who’s last minute equaliser was key to the club’s victory over Pretoria Flickers at the 2016 SA Champs. Today’s event saw him finally come out on top in an individual event, with a long overdue and well-deserved win.

Rémy Huynh wins in Liège

On August 6 the club of Verviers-Herve was hosting a WASPA tournament in a Museum in Liège. There was a total of 14 entries. Rémy Huynh (Rochefort TS) was the winner of the tournament. He defeated Christophe Dheur in the final (Charleroi). Jérôme Heyvaert and Christopher Sabetta were the losing semi-finalists. Vito Di Ruggiero won the consolation tournament. Thanks to all the players for the fair-play.

TFAS League 2017 Match day 6

Game 6 of STFPL on 13th Aug saw 5 players plus 2 special refs participating. A round robin format was adopted with lots of close games played. In the end Rudy edged out the rest to win August tournament.

Final standings:
1st - Rudy
2nd - Anas
3rd - Bernard
4th - Vikas
5th - Noor Haikal
Special Refs - Tan Kok Wee & Rizal Taib

The results are as follows:

Round 1
Rudy 2 v 0 Anas
Vikas 0 v 2 Bernard
Round 2
Bernard 0 v 4 Rudy
Haikal 1 v 2 Vikas
Round 3
Bernard 4 v 0 Haikal
Anas 3 v 0 Vikas
Round 4
Vikas 0 v 3 Rudy
Anas 3 v 1 Haikal
Round 5
Bernard 1 v 4 Anas
Rudy 3 v 0 Haikal

WASPA rankings of July 2017

Dear all, you will find in the attached file the monthly rankings of July 2017. It was another great month with a total of 24 regional events, 2 tournaments with the old rules, 4 promotional tournaments, 1 tournament with advanced rules.

CLICK HERE FOR THE RANKINGS

Sorry for the delay but the last results of July arrived during the week-end; I'll start compiling the results of August on Wednesday.

Advanced rules were used in Wolverhampton, England

Thanks to Jeremy Bradley for organizing a lot of WASPA tournaments during the FISTF GP of London, thanks also to Australia for hosting another 5 tournaments.

Special thanks to the clubs in the Netherlands and in England who managed to organize a few small WASPA events during the visit of Australian players in Europe.

We were glad to have the first tournament in Ireland this season, hopefully many more will follow in the future.

Amazing tournament with big screen and prize-money in Singapore

Geoffrey Marain is now on top of the WASPA ranking for the 60th consecutive month, which is incredible!

Or friends from Jurong Central SC in Singapore are likely to win the first season of the "top clubs ranking". This will be confirmed next month.

Still a good turnout in Greece

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

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

Great fun for a great field of players in Templeuve, Belgium

WASPA is also looking for partners. If you know any company ready to support us (we don’t ask for money but we want some win-win agreements so that we can promote each other), don't hesitate to contact me at vincent.cop@rsca.com

Ideas to develop the WASPA circuit or to make things more attractive are always welcome. We stay at your disposal for more info.

Yours sincerely,
Vincent Coppenolle

Western Flickers 15th WASPA

Western Flickers 15th WASPA - Club championships
August 12, 2017

To close off the table football season, Western Flickers TFC held its first ever club championship to decide which Pelican will have chief bragging rights for the next 12 months!

A spate of illness struck the club ranks which meant that only 7 flickers took part – including young but talented Benjamin who joined in with the adults.
The top 2 seeded players – club president Benny and 3-time WASPA winner Adrian Connolly – headed the 2 groups with the rest drawn randomly.
Adrian easily won his group with convincing wins. But the big surprise was in the other group where young Benjamin topped his group undefeated! This meant that he earned a bye straight into the semi-finals.

In the quarter finals, the slow-starting Steve Wright was finally to hit his straps and picked up a good win 2-0 against club vice-president Kevin Grant. Benny broke through Arjuna’s “parked bus” to seal a victory, while Adrian needed a last minute goal to pip a valiant Anthony Madiona in a tight match that ended 2-1.
In the semi-finals, Benjamin continued his amazing run by defeating Steve again – this time on penalties to reach the final. The other semi-final between top seeds Benny and Adrian was the match of the tournament with quality fast and furious table football played by both players. Luck was on Benny’s side on the day, and he emerged victorious.

In the final, little Benjamin gave his all but could not overcome Benny who won the game 1-0 to take out the inaugural club championship!
Thanks to all who attended. It was a fabulous fun day for all and Subbuteo table football was the real winner. GO WEST !!

The final tournament standings are:
1. Benny Ng
2. Benjamin Ng
3. Adrian Connolly
4. Steve Wright
5. Anthony Madiona, Kevin Grant, Arjuna Hanafi

P.S. If anyone is interested in taking part in future Western Flickers events or just popping by for chat and look-see, please visit the Western Flickers Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/WesternFlickers/) and send us a message.

(Report by Benny Ng)