Chris Bedford wins Greenfield Cup

The Greenfield Cup 2018 took place last Friday. The tournament was a promotional event held in Greenfield, Wales. Besides Chris Bedford, four new players made their WASPA debut. Chris Bedfoord won his four games to win the title.

The final standings were as follows:
1. Chris Bedford
2. Ryan Jones
3. Jon Bedford
4. Melissa Lineton
5. Matt Thomas

Benji Batten winner in Derry

Derry City TFC returned to their home ground at the DCFC social Club for the Mid-Winter WASPA Cup. 7 players took part including Benji Batten, from Melbourne TFC in Australia, who joined us as part of his UK and Ireland Subbuteo Tour. Benji took the honours on the night with Derry’s own Kenny Beggs runner-up.

Final standings:
1. Benji Batten 15:4 11 14
2. Kenny Beggs 15:1 14 13
3. Simon Stewart 10:5 5 13
4. Mark Mc Crossan 12:5 7 12
5. Martinog Bradley 12:6 6 6
6. Lochlin Bradley 5:22 -17 3
7. Linus Mc Laughlin 0:26 -26 0

Seses and Psomiadis winners in Kallithea

24 players from various clubs competed in the WASPA Christmas tournament organized by the Flaming Flickers on the December 22.

There were 2 categories with 2 winners and 2 trophies. Winner of category A was Kostas Seses of Olympia and winner of category B was Nikos Psomiadis Jr.

Before the tournament a seminar on FISTF rules took place and George Drazinakis former FISTF sports director explained many rules and special situations to the participants.

The traditional Christmas buffet followed and everybody had a great time.

Congratulations to the winners and to all the participants for the special tournament. Seasons greetings to all!

First tournament of TSC 69ers in Borgo Vercelli

Finalists Andrea Lessona and Roberto Cacelli

Last December 23, the club of "TSC 69ERS" organized a tournament in their city of Borgo Vercelli, Italy. The aim of the event was to bring back Subbuteo table football in the city after a break of 30 years. Thirteen people attended the event: 5 boys/children and 9 adults.

As for the results, Andrea Lessona defeated Roberto Cacelli in the main final while Andrea Gennari beat Marco Palamà in the game for the third place. Emmerik Lucchini beat Tullio Villa in the game for places 5 and 6.

In the junior tournament, Alessandro Cirio won the main final against Edoardo Montaldi and Matteo Comello beat Edoardo Beccati in the game for the third place.

Huge welcome to "TSC 69ERS" in the WASPA family as we hope there will be many more events like this in the future!

Summary of recent events in Belgium

Several WASPA events have been held in Belgium in the last few days. Some of them had small turnouts due to late announcements, bad weather and duties of the students.

Players in Vresse

Players in Bande

In Vresse, Jean Grosdent finished on top of a group of four with home and away games. The Wamme player had 6 wins while local organizer Pascal Droeven was runner-up, Marc De Vos being third and Philippe Thys fourth. More importantly there were two visitors from Dinant visiting and they might become new players in the near future.

Jean Grosdent was a bit less lucky in his own club of Wamme where Bruno Mottet took the honors, claiming his very first title in the WASPA circuit. Grosdent was runner-up and Philippe Thys finished as third.

In Auvelais, it was good to see Antonio Mettivieri back in action. The Italian player based in Charleroi was undefeated and took the honors while Maxime Vanimpe was runner-up, Fabrice Guyaux 3rd and Vincent Guyaux 4th.

Finally, during the national tournament of Templeuve on Saturday, there were 3 categories played (as according to the level of the player) and it was decided that, as in the previous years, the "category C" would be a "promotional event".

Final 4 of the "promotional event" in Templeuve

It was a huge success with 21 players taking part. After the group stage, there were many close games but in the end, Xavier Verstrepen (USC Huy) managed to win the tournament after defeating Alex Genart (Eugies) in the final. Jérôme Cyganek (AS Hennuyer) and Damien Urbain (Eugies) reached the semis. Roman Vincke defeated Olivier Bodelle from France in the colsolation event for the third players of each group while jean-Luc canfin beat Morgane Hubert on shots to win the consolation event for the 4th and 5th players from the group stage.

To be noted the forthcoming confirmed events in Belgium will be held on December 28 at JSC Rochefort and also in Templeuve, on December 29 in Vresse, on January 4 in Auvelais and on January 14 in Hofstade-Zemst.

Thessaloniki WASPA tournament

12 players from various Greek clubs attended the WASPA tournament organized at the VIP lounge of PAOK Football Club last Saturday (December 15).

The Winner was Nikos Skordas after a 3-1 victory against Vaggelis Liolios in the final. Semi-finalists were Giorgos Philippou and Ilias Galanopoulos.

Congratulations to the winner Nikos and the finalist Vaggelis for the great final and to all the participants for a super WASPA tournament.

Christmas Cup a flicking success

On Thursday night, 13 December, the Johannesburg TFC (AKA 'The Eagles') hosted the year end Christmas Cup at Randburg FC.

A very good field of twelve participants, including 5 members from Pretoria Flickers, flicked off in an extremely festive and competitive tournament. Once again enjoyment and friendship proved to be the cornerstone of a successful evening which served up top quality table football and more importantly, big smiles and inter club comeraderie.

The evening started with the presentation of the SA Club Champs Trophy (Glass Eagle) by Clifford Graaff (Chairman of the Eagles) to Gary Downs and the victorious Pretoria Flickers Club for their fine victory in the recent SA Champs Club Competition. A special bouquet was given to Nita, Clifford's better half for all her work in preparing meals and snacks during the year for the Eagles' club evenings. True to nature, Nita served a delicious dinner that was greatly appreciated by all!
Santa Claus also dropped off small gifts for all the players and spectators to set the tone for the upcoming festive season.

The top two ranked players in their respective groups easily qualified for the quarter finals along with Imtiaz, who was in great form to claim third spot in a very competitive group. Conway Julie along with Eagles duo of Johan and Chris completed qualification into the last eight.

A special mention must be made to Alyssa Green, who was the only female competitor and acquitted herself admirably against the boys. The quarters were unfortunately a bridge to far for Imtiaz, Conway, Chris and Johan as they succumbed to their higher ranked players. The semi finals produced a family affair between Julian and his recently matriculated son, Jayden. This was a war of attrition between the Vans and was only settled by way of a penalty shoot-out. Jayden showed sublime goalkeeping skills in defeating his father by 3 goals to 1. The other semi saw Clifford defeat Gary in tight game where the former used his chances to clinch the final berth.

The final showcased the top two ranked players in the tournament and Jayden burst out the blocks by exerting immense pressure on Clifford for the first few minutes. The remainder of the game was very tactical and once again proved Jayden's goalkeeping acumen by brilliantly saving from Clifford to force a final penalty shootout. The resultant shootout was a marathon affair and Jayden proved unlucky to lose by 8 goals to 7 after sudden death. Once again VAR was used by two different positioned cameras (cellphones) for one of Clifford's shots which was initially ruled as saved only to be overturned by the VAR operators. It must be said that some of Jayden's goals were top quality strikes, unfortunately Jayden's last shot was somewhat soft in allowing Clifford to capture the Christmas Cup of 2018.

A special thanks to all the Eagle players for attending AND a very special thanks to the Pretoria Flickers on travelling over 130 kms from our capital city and Kempton Park (Gary) to insure a top quality tournament.

The Eagles would like to wish everyone a very blessed Christmas and a prosperous New Year filled with Subbuteo action.

Lincoln Flickers’ Copa del Santa

Matthew Atkin (Girona) becomes only the third winner of the Copa del Santa since 2010 after he won all three of his matches including a late winner against holders A Garbutt (Villarreal). His final round, a 3-1 win, sinking contender Jez Boothman (Roma) down to fourth to clinch top prize.

Villarreal were hoping to make it three consecutive wins equalling Barcelona (Andy Boyer) 2010/11/12 but it was not to be. Andy Boyer (Montpellier) finished second on goals scored ahead of Andrew Garbutt who both won their final games 5-0. The Villarreal opener against Neil Atkinson (AEK) hit the post, landed on the line with the striker curling round to tap in before the keeper could claim.

Young Spencer (Barcelona) performed well and beat his older brother Elliott (Lazio) with a goal each half lifting him above Clinton Simpson (Atletico Madrid) into sixth place just behind dad Neil (AEK). This was the families first WASPA tournament and Lincoln look forward to seeing them competing at future events.

Final standings:
1. Girona FC (Matthew Atkin) 9 points +5
2. Montpellier HSC (Andy Boyer) 6 points +8 (goal for 10)
3. Villarreal CF (Andrew Garbutt) 6 points +8 (goals for 9)
4. AS Roma (Jez Boothman) 6 points +3
5. AEK Athens FC (Neil Atkinson) 4 points -4
6. Barcelona FC (Spencer Atkinson) 3 points -4
7. Atlético Madrid FC (Clint Simpson) 1 point -9
8. SS Lazio (Elliott Atkinson) 0 points -7

Another Parrot Cup for Brian Daley

London Road Subbuteo Club held their "25th Parrot Cup" on December 9, 2018. Nine players attended and were split into two groups before knock-out stages. Nine year old Ruby had a great event qualifying for the semi-finals for the first time. Richard Stock won the plate event against new member Chris Bedford.

Ruby Matthews was beaten by Martin Blanchard and Trevor Schott beaten by Brian Daley in the semi-finals. After extra-time the final finished 0-0, Brian beating Martin in shoot out 2-0.

Thanks to Cayne and his friends for another good tournament under WASPA banner. Good to see the game alive in North Wales!

The Christmas Cup for Kenny Beggs

The Derry Citty TFC Christmas Cup this year was an Old Subbuteo event played to the advanced rules in a league format. A good turn out saw Kenny Beggs top the table with Martinog Bradley runner up, Simon Stewart took the third spot with Mark McCrossan coming in fourth.

Final standings:
1. Kenny Beggs 19
2. Martinog Bradley 14
3. Simon Stewart 13
4. Mark McCrossan 9
5. Brendan Rodgers 8
6. Lawrence Watson 5
7. Craig Stewart 5
8. Oisin Mor 3

Two in a row for Marco Bonciani

The third tournament of the season in Firenze took place on Monday with 12 players taking part. Marco Bonciani won his second tournament in a row after defeating Luca Pini in the final. Sergio Robertiello and Gabriele Casati manage to share the third place while Giammarco Riccioni won the consolation tournament.

George Zangylos winner in Limassol

The second stage of the national circuit in Cyprus took place on December 2 with 13 players representing 6 different clubs taking part. The final was not a surprise as George Zangylos took the honors, this time defeating Marcos Kalopsidiotis as a replay of the previous tournament (won by Marcos). Giannis Bekos (novice in the WASPA circuit) and Panagiotis Panaretos reached the semi-finals. The next tournament will be held on December 23.

Action in Belgium

Here is a quick look at the recent tournaments held in Belgium.

The Templeuve United tournament on November 28 had a smaller turnout than expected with 6 players competing in a league format and Geoffrey marain taking the honors to claim his 92nd WASPA victory while Matthias Averlant was a well-deserved runner-up. Jordan Bonte won the Junior tournament after defeating Islam Belahcen int he final.

In Bande, there were six players competing on November 29 with Rémy Honet (JSC Rochefort) taking the honors to claim his very first WASPA title. Jean Grosdent was runner-up while Henrin Grosdent was a surprising third.

Last Monday the December tournament in the premises of SC Flanders had another field of six with Geert Leys taking the victory of the day and Frank Lannoy being runner-up.

Finally, the Warcoing Ducks tournament on December 5 had an amazing field of 15 competing in Swiss system. Geoffrey marain had no pain winning another tournament but this time runner-up was Michaël Dupret (who will attend the FISTF tournament in Japan next week) and Junior Corentin Boltz from AS Hennuyer took the third place.

WASPA monthly report of November 2018

Dear all, please find enclosed the WASPA rankings and updated records of November 2018.

Excel file with the rankings
PDF file with the results

We have had results from 37 tournaments played in many different countries. There were 34 regional events, 2 promotional tournaments and a National Cup in South Africa where representatives from the three local clubs had the chance to meet a player from Portugal.

A good National cup in Pretoria, South Africa

Central Sporting Club 18 (Northern Ireland) and Magic Team Tournai (Belgium) have organized their first WASPA events, which is great. Both Australia and Belgium have been very active with 6 regional events in the records. We are very happy to see some great events in Greece, some activity in the US and Canada, the great events in Northern Ireland, Singapore, Wales, Ireland, England and some activity in Austria. We are very happy to see Cyprus back in action.

The "Flaming Flickers" club (Greece) is the leader of the "top clubs ranking" while the Western Flickers TFC (Australia) is currently the number 1 junior club.

Good turnout for the events in Greece

If some juniors (born in 2002) don't appear in the ranking, it means we don't have their birthdates so please send your feedback.

About the WASPA world cup: we have no candidate to take over after FISTF put their European tournament on the date we had booked. If any of you is ready to organize the tournament, let me know. Otherwise there might be a "special" event again in Belgium on the first week-end of July.

We stay at your disposal for any info regarding the circuit or for ideas on how to improve things!
Please don't forget to send all results of your events (possibly with pictures and a short story for the blog) to my home address at vincent.cop@rsca.com

Visit of Cezar Stoilescu in Belgium

Well, that's all for now. 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.

Cyprus is back in the WASPA circuit

Please invite your friends to join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/waspasubbuteo/
We also have a WASPA page here: https://www.facebook.com/WASPA-World-Amateur-Subbuteo-Players-Association-231789816834700/

Keep in mind 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

Action in Virginia, USA

Ideas to develop the WASPA circuit, to get new clubs/nations involved or to make things more attractive are always welcome. We stay at your disposal for more info.

Yours sincerely,
Vincent Coppenolle

Bougiouris, Seses and Apatzis winners in Kallithea

Kallithea has been the Center of the Greek WASPA circuit in the last few weeks with three events run by the neighbor clubs of Flaming Flickers and Kallithea Flame.

In the first week-end of November, 20  players attended the first tournament of the month under the theme of "Anglo-Italian Cup".

Despite the last minute droputs of two players, the tournament took place normally and Yannis Bougiouris defeated Markos Kapsabelis in the final on shots.

The winner defended the colors of Arsenal despite his favorite team in the real life is Liverpool while Kapsabelis was playing under "Cremonese". Semi-finalists were Costas Meleas and Vassilis Dragossis.

There was a local pizza break before the semi-finals to make it a special day.

Congratulations to Giannis for the title, to Markos for the close final and to all the participants for another great WASPA event!

Kostas Seses winner on November 17

On November 17, the Kallithea Flame club has another event with 20 players but this time it was decided to play two categories to give more good games to everyone. In category A, 8 players were divided into 2 groups.

Kostas Seses (Olympia) took the honors after defeating Nikos Psomiadis in the final while Alekos Apatzis and Giorgos Pitihoutis reached the semis.

In Category B Christian Tsakalakis was the winner of the day after a close final against Petros Kleonakos.

Finally, the Flaming Flickers finishing their "long term tournament" under the theme of the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018. It was a really special event with 32 players taking part with many close games and some surprises. Alekos Apatzis (Argentina) defeated Markos Kapsabelis (Poland) in the final. Nikos Psomiadis and Klearhos Sarikakis reached the semi-finals. You can see action in the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcxnaw89hQc

Rudy does it again in Singapore

Farrer Park Friday flicks - 30 Nov 18
5 club players played in a round robin games where Rudy edged out undefeated Michael by 2 points to win the club November event. 

Games 
Rizal 3 - 1 Bolkiah
Rizal 0 - 1 Rudy
Bolkiah 0 - 6 Rudy
Michael 0 - 0 Nic
Michael 0 - 0 Rudy
Nic 1 - 1 Rizal
Nic 2 - 0 Bolkiah
Rizal 0 - 2 Michael
Michael 2 - 0 Bolkiah
Rudy 3 - 1 Nic

Player - Pts. G. 
Rudy 10. +9
Michael 8. +4
Nic 5. 0
Rizal T 4. -1
Bolkiah 0. -12

Nikolaos Skordas winner in Thessaloniki

The Greek club of Panorama 1978 SC is very active and had another WASPA tournament with 11 players in 3 groups on the 21st of November.
The winner was Nikolaos Skordas (Larissa TS). Second place is a player from the host team, Stavros Giapoutzis, and 3rd place is for Dimitrios Karpouzos of the newly found Thessaloniki Utd TSC. Congratulations to the winner and to all the participants for a very nice tournament.

Clifford Graaff retains the SA Championships Title!

Saturday 24 November 2018, Pretoria, South Africa:
The 2018 edition of the South African Championships was hosted by Pretoria Flickers Club - an event which turned out to be special in more ways  than one. The event attracted 16 entries with visitors Pedro Araujo (PORTUGAL) and Nich van der Berg (NETHERLANDS) adding an international feel to the day! The field also included 2009 SA Champion, Sean Morgan - making his first competitive appearance since 2010. A very special effort from newly elected SATFA Chairman, Clinton Gahwiler - making the trip from Cape Town for this event!
Preceding the event, Gary Downs from Pretoria Flickers Club made two very special presentations - firstly to Ramona (PFC Chairman, Julian vd Merwe's wife) for her patience and sacrifices throughout the year during PFC's monthly events. Then secondly, a customised wooden plaque was presented to Clifford Graaff in recognition of JTFC (Johannesburg Table Football Club) being the oldest Subbuteo Club in South Africa - JTFC are well into their 11th year of existence!

It was decided to have a 5 match "Club Challenge" between Pretoria and Johannesburg to start the day. After the draws and match up's were concluded, it
was PFC who triumphed by 3-2 over JTFC. The playing field was then separated as follows - 10 players in the open Section and 6 players in the Plate Section. There were so many memorable matches in both sections - too much to mention all, but below are the summaries from each section.

Open Section Summary
Clinton Gahwiler (CTCSC) was leading the standings after 2 Rounds of play - thanks to a 1-0 victory over Sean Morgan (JTFC), followed by another 1-0 victory over Jayden vd Merwe (PFC). Round 2 also saw a shock 1-0 victory for Gary Downs (PFC) over Chessray Jooste (PFC). As the day progressed, it was clear that the "heavyweights" would soon be squaring up to each other. As the draw would have it, in Round 5, some massive results shaped the day - Sean Morgan dispatching of Bevin Reed (PFC) and Pedro Araujo (Portugal) beating Jayden vd Merwe by 1-0 effectively put an end to Pretoria's chances of delivering a National Champion. The "tie of the round" saw Clifford Graaff (JTFC) dispatch of Clinton Gahwiler (CTCSC) by 2-0. This then meant that Clifford and Sean were top of the standings heading into the final Round 6.

Then, we saw 2009 finalists Sean Morgan and Clifford Graaff play out to a 2-2 draw, with Clifford getting the equaliser with the last flick of the match! Clinton then recorded a 3-0 win over Chris Dimmer to tie Clifford on 9 points overall. However, due to the "head to head" ruling, Clifford Graaff secured his second National title due to the 2-0 victory over Clinton Gahwiler earlier in Round 5.

Final Standings - Open Section
Clifford Graaff (JTFC) - 9
Clinton Gahwiler (CTCSC) - 9
Sean Morgan (JTFC) - 8
Pedro Araujo (POR) - 8
Jayden vd Merwe (PFC) - 6
Bevin Reed (PFC) - 6
Gary Downs (PFC) - 6
Chessray Jooste (PFC) - 4
Carl Bollweg (JTFC) - 2
Chris Dimmer (JTFC) - 2

Plate Section Summary
Kegan vd Merwe (PFC) elected to play in the Plate Section - due to a back injury he sustained at work, during the same week of the SA Champ's. However, it was Imtiaz Ahmed (PFC) - playing only in his second full season in Pretoria - who was really impressive. The Plate Section also included visitor, Nich vd Berg (NETHERLANDS).
On the day, two players posted unbeaten runs - Imtiaz Ahmed and Conway Julie (PFC). Conway's unbeaten run was preserved thanks to a hard fought 1-0 victory over Stanton Nortjie (PFC) in Round 3. When Sherwin Reed (PFC) posted a shock 1-0 victory over Kegan in Round 4, the Plate Section also ended on a dramatic note (much like the Open Section did) - as Sherwin tied Imtiaz and Conway on 5 points overall, forcing the Plate Section into a 3-way shoot-out.

3-way Shoot Out :
Sherwin Reed (5) - (4) Conway Julie
Imtiaz Ahmed (1) - (2) Conway Julie
Sherwin Reed (2) - (3) Imtiaz Ahmed
In the end, all 3 players recorded a win each, and the organisers decided to have a 3-way split for the Plate Section honours - awarding each player with a prize of their own!

Final Standings - Plate Section
Imtiaz Ahmed (PFC) - 5
Conway Julie (PFC) - 5
Sherwin Reed (PFC) - 5
Kegan vd Merwe (PFC) - 4
Stanton Nortjie (PFC) - 3
Nich vd Berg (NED) - 2

In the end, a well supported and totally enjoyable end to the Subbuteo year as far as Pretoria Flickers Club is concerned!
Congratulations to Clifford Graaff on defending his SA Championships title!
Well done to the Plate Section players for delivering a memorable event as well!
Thanks goes out to Gary Downs and his wife Carol-Lynne Downs for providing lunch to all participants on the day.
A BIG thank you to Carol-Lynne and her company DN Accounting Solutions for sponsoring the prizes on the day - could not have done this without you guys!

Finally, thank you to all who attended PFC's hosting of the 2018 SA Champ's. Looking forward to Johannesburg 2020!

The PFC facebook page will be updated shortly with photo's & news content at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/PFC-SA/519566284755728

(report by Julian vd Merwe)