WASPA monthly standings of August 2018

Dear all, here are the monthly standings of the WASPA circuit after the events held in August 2018. There is the Excel file with rankings, statistics and recap of winners but the season file with results will be sent in a few days with extra statistics!

Christian (right) from WASPA world cup to FISTF world cup

Before I comment about the monthly results and the yearly statistics, I would like to point out Christian Filippella's amazing performance at the FISTF world cup in Gibraltar. Christian, who lives in California, is our current WASPA champion holder after his win in Hungary in June but what he did in Gibraltar was simply amazing as he reached the semi-finals of the Open tournament and helped the US team to reach the quarter-finals of the team event. Congratulations!

Juniors in Sydney

We had a great month with 34 events (30 regional & 4 promotional) held in many different nations, including the first tournament for over one year in Indonesia. Huge thanks to all the clubs who gave their support once again to make the WASPA great again!

We also had some test-matches during the visit of Cezar Stoilescu from Bucarest in Belgium, a good way to remind people that when two players from different nationalities meet, they can play some games under WASPA banner.

Attard players in Malta

As this is the end of the season, we can have a look at the different rankings.
- Geoffrey Marain (Belgium) is still on top of the Open ranking but Anas bin Rahamat, Benny Ng, Rudy Hesty Roselan and Brian Daley deserve respect for collecting more than 400 points and finishing the season in the top 5.
- Benny Ng (Australia) is the season champion and deserves also credit for the amazing job with his club of the Western Flickers. Alekos Apatzis and Geoffrey Marain finish on the podium.
- Kye Arnold (England) is our junior champion. He finishes the season with many good results in tournaments where many older players are taking part. Matthias Averlant and Olliver Ollnow finish in the top 5 and proved to be rising talents for the future.
- Belgium is still the number 1 nations but the gap with both Singapore and Australia is getting closer!
- The ranking of the "top clubs" was probably one of the most attractive to follow this season as many clubs took things very seriously to try to finish on top of the table. The Flaming Flickers SC (Greece) are our new champions but London Road Subbuteo Club (Wales) and last year's winners of Farrer Park Flickers (Singapore) are less than 100 behind them. Great job by the Western Flickers TFC and Northern Falcons TFC from Australia who manage to finish in the top 5.
- Our ranking of clubs for Juniors was a test as we launched it during the season. Kye Arnold's club of Kent Invicta (England) is the logical winner after Kye took the individual title with authority. the presence of two Australian clubs in the top 5 (Western Flickers TFC and Northern Falcons TFC) proves there is a great job done Down Under. Good job also by London Road Subbuteo Club (Wales) and Wamme SC (Belgium) who collected more than 100 points to finish in the top 5. Hopefully more clubs will be involved next season. Please remember you only need three juniors to be in the club ranking!

Test-match between Matthias Averlant and Romania's Cezar Stoilescu

Some numbers of the last season
To be noted we have played a total of 409 tournaments this season (367 last season), including 351 "regional" events (328 last season).

The total number of individual entries this season is 3755 instead of 3328 last season, which means a growth of almost 13%.
Greece was the most dynamic nation with 652 individual entries, just before Australia (634) and Belgium (558).

Australia had the largest number of events (79), just before Belgium (64), England (39), Greece (35) and Wales (31).

Youth in action in England

Some notes for the new season
- Junior ranking: from September, we are starting a new season, which means only players born in 2002 or later can see their name in the rankings. If you don't see your name in the junior ranking, it probably means we don't have your birthdate!
- Top clubs: we had 28 "top clubs" this season instead of 17 last season. Only 3 clubs will not be eligible anymore to be in the rankings next season: Manchester TFC (England), TFK Niederösterreich (Austria) and Johannesburg TFC (South Africa) but they can send a request if they want to continue being involved.
Some clubs have filled the criteria to become a top club. As a reminder, criteria's are :
* having organized 5 WASPA events in the previous season (*);
* having 5 WASPA events in the agenda for the new season;
* having premises for local development;
* having at least 8 players in the WASPA ranking.
(*): new clubs can also join if they have players ranked in the FISTF rankings.
The clubs who can send their request are: Subbuteo Triestina (Italy), Harrow Weald SC (England), Knighton TFC (Wales), Club Subbuteo Firenze (Italy), Subbuteo Budapest (Hungary), JSC Rochefort (Belgium), Attard SC (Malta), Northern Phoenix (Australia), Bristol Subbuteo FC (England), Toronto SC (Canada).

We stay at the disposal of the players for any info regarding the WASPA circuit

Subbuteo friends in Cape Town, South Africa

As for next season, there were plans to have the second edition of the WASPA "world cup" in Belgium on June 29 and 30 but FISTF just decided to hold the European Championships at the same date in Frameries, Belgium. We are now looking for other options. Any idea is welcome.

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

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.

Subbuteo and friendship in Spain

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

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