Italy: results from Borgo Vercelli and Firenze

Riccardo Bruno receives his award for his victory

Italy has been active in the WASPA circuit in December with tournaments held in Borgo Vercelli and Firenze.

The Christmas Cup in Borgo Vercelli had two categories in the books. The Open section consisted in a group of five with Riccardo Bruno finishing on top to claim his first WASPA title.

Open category standings:
1. Riccardo Bruno
2. Ferdinando Marino
3. Andrea Gennari
4. Gabriele Montaldi
5. Alberto Cirio

The Junior players together during the presentation of prizes

Alessandro Cirio
receives his medal
from Paolo Milan

The Junior section had a turnout of 6 players with a group stage and then knock-out games. Alessandro Cirio defeated Edoardo Montaldi in the final (2-1) while Marco Tagliavini won the game for the third place against Gabriele Saveriano. Matteo Comello won the game for the 5th place against Edoardo Beccati.

Thanks to Andrea Lessona for the good work to organize the event!

Luigi Di Vito (Eagles Napoli) winner in Firenze

In Firenze, the local club had the visit of Luigi Di Vito in the beginning of the month and the tournament organized under WASPA banner was played in Swiss system by 9 players. Luigi Di Vito proved to be the best player after winning three game and sharing points against local organizer Marco Bonciani.

Final standings of the Firenze tournament:
1. Luigi Di Vito
2. Gabriele Casati
3. Matteo Cherici
4. Stefano Barducci
5. Mirko Masini
6. Marco Bonciani
7. Francesco Gori
8. Tiberio Becucci
9. Mirko Pasquini

Terje Ellefsen wins Romjulscup in Norway

Sørensen (on the left) and Schjølberg. The luckiest price winners

Brekke (left) against Schjølberg

The "Romjulscup '19" was played on the 28th of December in Kragerø, Norway. Organizers decided to go for a NBFF+WASPA tournament again. It was a very nice tournament played in a round robin format. Hosts had sponsored prices for all players that were randomly picked. The most lucky one was Sørensen who won a cruise for 4 people from Larvik to Bergen with Fjordline. Second most lucky was Schjølberg who won a wireless charger for cellphone. :-) The most exciting match was probably the narrow 4-3 win for Brekke against Sørensen. Sørensen who made a comeback last month after 10 years away from the sport is already showing signs of old greatness. Sørensen was the junior Champion of Norway in 1994 and played in the Paris World Cup the same year. It will be very interesting to see how his form develops in the coming weeks and months. The two other comeback players F. Ellefsen and Schølberg plus the beginner Aabøe are also making good progress for every game.

Finals standings:
1. Terje Ellefsen (Kragerø BFK)
2. Svein Arne Brekke (Skien Wildcats)
3. Fredrik Sørensen (Kragerø BFK)
4. Frode Ellefsen (Kragerø BFK)
5. Geir Kristian Aabøe (Kragerø BFK)
6. Kenneth Schjølberg (Kragerø BFK)

Noor Haikal wins Merlion Cup WASPA tournament

The Merlion Cup 2019 saw some interesting matches, together with some surprise eliminations from the main tournament. The eliminated players were eligible for the plates event.

After a series of knockout matches, it was seasoned player, Noor Haikal, against Hong Kong Dragons’ youngest player, Nicholas Carabillo in the Plates Final. Nicholas managed to hold off Haikal’s relentless attacks in the first part of the final, but Nicholas’ defence finally gave way, with Haikal bagging in 2 goals in the net. Well done to the players!

Dimitris Stamatopoulos wins Boxing Day tournament

The Piraeus Lions "Boxing day" took place on Sunday with a great field of 16 players. Dimitris Stamatopoulos was the winner and the finalist was Lazaros Papakonstantinou.

Leonidas Koutroumanos and Vasilis Argyropoulos reched the semis.

Many thanks to the Piraeus organizers for another good event.

Jean Carl Tabone wins Christmas tournament in Attard

Attard Subbuteo Club held a WASPA tournament on Sunday as a good way to celebrate christmas among flickers. 9 players were taking part and there was a very strong field with representatives of different clubs from Malta.

Jean Carl Tabone, who currently plays for the Italian squad of FCD Mortellito Barcellona PG, defeated Jason Pisani in the final while semi-finalists were Jamie Bonnici and Josef Camilleri. Spencer Conti and Mario Fleri Soler reached the barrage round.

"Thanks to Mario Fleri Soler for organizing all the fixtures", commented Joseph Debono after the event.

Brian Daley wins London Road Christmas Cup

The London Road Subbuteo Club MySubbuteo Xmas WASPA was held last Sunday at the Parrot in Drury. 7 players took part in a league format and there were many good games. Lothe event had a really mixed bag of results. Brian Daley wins again after winning every game, Chris Bedford came second but it great to see Ruby Matthews finishing third.

Final standings:
1. Brian Daley
2. Chris Bedford
3. Ruby Matthews
4. Raoul Newton
5. Cayne Matthews
6. Dave Merrilees-Kelly
7. Lucasz Whittle

Chris Kotrotsos wins Tavros Christmas Cup

Finalists Klaus and Christos

Nikos and Dimitris

As Christmas holidays are approaching rapidly, the Engineering department and the "Tavros Technical School Indoor Sports Club" organized a table tennis and table soccer tournament.

New students and new players were involved. As far as it concerns table soccer, eight players took place in a knock-out system tournament. The winner of “students/under 19” award and open 2nd place award was Berhanaj Klaus who was defeated in the final of the “open” cup by the “teacher” Christos Kotrotsos.

Nikos Marandidis and Dimitris Doukas reached the semi finals.

The results is below!

Round of 8
Nikos Marandidis - Orestis Tsaousai 3-0
Klaus Berhanaj - Giannis Maniatis 2-0
Chris Kotrotsos - Cristian Konti 4-0
Antonios Sklavounos - Dimitrios Doukas 0-3

Semi-finals
Chris Kotrotsos - Dimitrios Doukas 4-0
Nikos Marandidis - Klaus Berhanaj 0-0*

Final
Klaus Berhanaj - Chris Kotrotsos 0-3

Manolis Papadakis wins in Piraeus

Some late results from Greece where the Piraeus Lions club held a tournament a few weeks ago. It was the club's first event of the seaosn with 9 players taking part. Manolis Papadakis defeated Giorgos Karatarakis (3-2) in the final while semi-finalists were Stamatis Syrmos and Leonidas Koutromanos. The Piraeus Lions will hold their "Boxing Day" tournament on December 29. Interested players can contact Leonidas Koutromano for details.

Simon Stewart wins in Sankt Pauli

On December 10 Subbuteo St. Pauli held their monthly WASPA-tournament. This time only 5 players were taking part.

Because Sven was in his South Africa-holidays, everyone expected a fight between Simon and Marius for the tournament win.

Surprisingly Marius had a bad day and made only 2 points in his 4 round robin matches.

But Fred from Hannover showed his best performance since he started playing Subbuteo and gave Simon a hard fight.

In the end both rivals had 8 points, but Simon took the win with his 8 goals.

Final standings:
1. Simon Stewart
2. Fred Elesbao
3. Marcos Perianes
4. Marius Willhaus
5. Ralf Offenborn

Malcolm Lees wins first Edinburgh tournament

The first "WASPA Monday Night Subbuteo" action took place in Edinburgh on Monday. There were six players taking part and there were many good games between experienced and novice players. The group stage saw no surprise with favorites of the night qualifying for the next round. In the end, there was a final between Glasgow's Malcolm Lees and local organizer Marco Bevilacqua with Malcolm winning the game 3-0. John Mathieson was third, Martin Campbell fourth while Brian Spoors won the game for the 5th place on shots against French player David Curti.

"It was a great night for our first tournament. I thought that it might not be great if we only had 6 players, but because we only have two tables set up in the pub, it was actually a really good night", commented Marco Bevilacqua after the event.

Thanks to Marco for a great night of action! Hope to see the group playing more WASPA events in the future!

Jos Ceulemans winner in Hofstade

SC Flanders held their 64th WASPA tournament in Hofstade earlier this month with 7 players taking part. There was a beginner, Dirk Sercu, coming back to the game after a very long break and some players competing for glory. Jos Ceulemans finished the evening with 3 wins and a draw, it was enough to claim another victory. Johan Lourdon was runner-up with 9 points while Vincent Wouters was a surprising third. See you all after the New year for the next tournament in the Flanders!

Western Flickers Christmas Cup

Despite a wave of illness causing a few last minute dropouts - including our original host - a small dedicated group of flickers decided to carry on with our year ending WASPA.

MTFC's Luke Radzminski and Nathan Urbaniak made the trip west to join Pelicans Benny, Benjamin and Peter Benholm in a round robin competition.

Junior Pelican Benjamin continued to show he could contest against Open category adult opponents. He played well to finish 3rd by goal difference over rising star Nathan - the surprise WASPA winner at last year's Melbourne IO. No doubt that given time, Nathan will be competing for trophies against Melbourne's best players. Relatively new player Peter also did well against strong opponents and the experience will help him progress on his table football journey.

As expected, Luke and Benny easily won their games resulting in their match-up in the last round being a "Cup final" of sorts. In a tight game - that was well adjudicated by accredited football referee Nathan - both players had numerous chances to win the game. In the end, Benny edged Luke 2-1 to clinch the final WASPA of 2019.

Thanks to all who came - especially our MTFC friends - and made it another enjoyable event.

GO WEST !

Final placings
1. Benny
2. Luke
3. Benjamin
4. Nathan
5. Peter

WASPA standings of November 2019

Dear all, here is the monthy report of the WASPA circuit. We had 30 tournaments and 2 test matches in November and we have a lot of updates in the rankings.

WASPA Season results 2019-2020
WASPA ranking - November 19

First tournament in Chalkis (Greece)

First of all, welcome to the new organizers. We were glad to have the IJsselmuiden tournament in the Netherlands counting as a WASPA event but also 1. STV Hohenlohe (Germany), Kragerø BFK (Norway) and Ippovotes Chalkis (Greece) held their first events! Special thanks to our friends from Norway who helped to get a new nation in our big family.

We had more than 300 entries this month, which means tournaments had an average of more than 10 players taking part, which is fantastic.

Jon Henning Bergane (left) winner in Norway

Good news also from the Development league with the Central Victoria club (Australia) joining the project and we can see more and more clubs are part of the rankings.

Huge thanks to all organizers who give their continued support and we are hope that many more clubs and players will join this season.

First stage of the Irish Championship in Donegal

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.

A good turnout of 19 in the Netherlands

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 or vincentcoppenolle@gmail.com

We stay at your disposal for more info.

Yours sincerely,
Vincent Coppenolle

Alberto Di Maggio wins Game of Thrones tournament

Family celebration for Alberto Di Maggio

Silver medal for Yiorgos Karavas

On Saturday, November 30 the much awaited "1st WASPA Game of Thrones" themed tournament took place in Kallithea, Athens, Greece. 24 players from various clubs followed the houses of the TV show in their subbuteo versions in one of the best tournaments ever!

There was a group stage (6 groups of 4), then barrages, quarter-finals, semi-finals and a big final between Alberto Di Maggio (who plays this season for Bologna Tigers and who played for "Unsullied" in the tournament) and Yiorgos Karavas (Greyjoy). Alberto won the game on shots while semi-finalists were Alekos Apatzis and Nikos Psomiadis.

You can find a video of the event here.

Congratulations to the winner Alberto, the finalist Yiorgos and to all the participants for one more great WASPA event.

First WASPA tournament in Chalkis

On November 30, WASPA was more than happy to see another new club hosting a first tournament. In Chalkis (Greece), the "Ippovotes Chalkis" tournament had a good turnout of 12 players with guests from Thessaloniki, Noctuas and Rolligans. The winner was Konstantinos Chanos of the local club after many dramatic games played in the WASPA spirit. He defeated Anastasios Priftis (Rolligans) in the final. The tournament took place in a lovely hall and all players had a great time.

A warm welcome to Ippovotes from the WASPA family and congratulations to all those who attended the event!

Sven Schilling wins in Pretoria

Saturday 7 December 2019, Pretoria, South Africa
The 2019 Pretoria season came to an end this weekend, and PFC was honoured by the visit of German player, Sven Schilling from St Pauli SC.

A cold, wet & rainy December day saw 8 participants compete for the 2019 PFC Copa del Clausura - we had two Groups of 4 players, where the top 2 from each Group were to progress to the knockout rounds. The bottom 2 from each Group would go on to contest the Plate section.

Group 1 delivered no surprises as Sven Schilling and Jayden vd Merwe progressed to the Copa del Clausura knock-out round. Perhaps the only surprise was that Kegan vd Merwe ended 3rd in Group 1 as he battled to find the superb form he had shown over the past 3 months. The pick of Group 1 action was the final Group match which ended Sven 1-1 Jayden. A match where Sven took the lead, and Jayden (patient as always) got the equaliser. In real time, it appeared as if Sven got the winner late on for a 2-1 win - with what seemed as if the ball struck the inside netting on it's way out again, but VAR operator (Bevin Reed) intervened to clearly point out that the ball struck the upright on it's way out instead! All academic in the end as both players were happy with the draw to progress to the semi finals.

Group 2 delivered a "mixed bag" of results, with Bevin Reed and Gary Downs progressing to the Copa del Clausura knock-out round. But there was enough drama in this Group - as Gary showed excellent goalkeeping skills to post an unbeaten run to justify his progression to the semi final. In Match 7, Julian vd Merwe caused an upset by dispatching of Chessray Jooste by 1-0. In Match 11, Chessray took a 1-0 lead over Bevin, but Bevin got the equaliser to top the group and confine Chessray to a Plate semi final!

The Plate Semi Final 1 produced an epic clash between Kegan vd Merwe and Chessray Jooste - with Kegan taking the lead after 5 min of play, for Chessray to equalise 2 min later. Chessray then took the lead with 5 min left to play, with Kegan getting the equaliser 3 min from the end. In the end, Chessray progressed by 2-1 on penalty shots. The Plate Semi Final 2 only came to life in the last 5 min of play as both Julian vd Merwe and Conway Julie started probing and attacking - drama unfolded as Julian got the winner with just 3 seconds left to play to progress to the Plate Final!
In the Plate Final, both Chessray and Julian made some good saves to keep the score at 0-0, then one defensive error by Julian allowed Chessray in to clinch the Plate Final by 1-0. Perhaps some "revenge" for Chessray as he overturned the 1-0 Group 2 loss to Julian!

The Cup Semi Final 1 saw Gary Downs score a stunner to take the lead over Sven Schilling after 9 min of play, with Sven producing an immediate response to score on 11 min and then on 13 min again to progress to the Cup Final. In the other Cup Semi Final, Bevin Reed scored after 6 min of play, with Jayden vd Merwe equalising 4 min later to force the match into a shoot-out. In the end, Bevin prevailed by 3-2 on shots over Jayden, for Bevin to set up a Cup Final against Sven.
A tense Cup Final then unfolded, with Bevin holding his own against our German visitor, but in the end Sven scored twice in the last third of the allocated time to run out as 2-0 winner, and in so doing Sven Schilling captured the 2019 PFC Copa del Clausura title!

In the end, a memorable and enjoyable day as the curtain drops on the 2019 PFC Season!

Individual acknowledgements on the day :
"Goal Blitz" : Sven Schilling ended the day as the top scorer, including the fastest goal on the day - timed at 45 sec vs Conway Julie
"Safe Hands" : Gary Downs for good goalkeeping skills all day
"Moment of the Day" : Kegan vd Merwe had the goal of the day in his final Group 1 match vs Conway Julie
"Player of the Day" : Bevin Reed - posting an unbeaten run on his way to the final vs Sven Schilling

As always, a big thank you to all who attended to make the day a great success. A BIG thanks goes out to Sven Schilling for competing in his first Pretoria event !!!!
Next - the PFC 2019 Season Awards on Saturday 14 December 2019.

The PFC website & 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)

November 2019: news from around the globe

Here is a brief summary of several events held around the globe in November.

In Northern Ireland there was a very small turnout for Derry City TFC' 3rd anniversary cup and a venue mix up led to a fantastic evening of craic in the DCTFC spiritual home ‘The Shed’. 4 players battled it out in a league format with Derry’s Martinog Bradley the winner on the night. Brendan Rodgers took runner-up. Brilliant fun for our 4th November meet!

Our friends of Perth Subbuteo Club in Australia held their monthly gathering on November 16. Only 4 players could make it this time but there were many close games. Ross McNulty finished on top of a group of 4 thanks to more goals scored than Chris Thorn. Adam Taylor was third and Ron Byrne was in 4th position.

In Canada, Toronto players met also once against and Mike Sgro managed to end Howard Christie's winning strek by winning the final by a clear 3-0. Richard Ruffolo and Mike Chieffallo were the other players taking part. The first full year of Toronto Subbuteo Club action finishes off on December 28th!

The Western Flickers in Melbourne (Australia) held a tournament with five players competing in a round robin. Benny Ng finished on top of the league while Benjamin Ng was runner-up. Peter Benholm, Jayden Truter and Benedict Ng showed great improvement. The Western Flickers are working hard at growing the club again and already got a couple of new players. So onwards and upwards with WTF 2.0!

The Norhern Falcons in Sydney also held a tournament this month with a smaller turnout than usual but with some great games. Fabrizio Coco finished on top of a group of 5 to bring back the trophy to sydney TFC while local player Eliot Kennedy was runner-up. Torben Pfister, Adrian Grunbach and Benedetto Forcina were also taking part.



Finally, during the recent International Open of Rochefort (Belgium). There was a WASPA tournament besides the FISTF Open. Greek player Yannis Salamouris (Noctuas Athens) was the only of the 12 players to win his three games to lift the title while French player David Zaki (Issy) was runner-up. Among the competitors there were five French players of FTC ST Symphorien sur Coise who made their WASPA debut. Thanks to JSC Rochefort for a great week-end and for having some games under WASPA banner.

Full standings:
1. Yannis Salamouris (Greece)
2. David Zaki (France)
3. Thierry Magermans (Belgium)
4. Mickael Blanc (France)
5. Hervé Fino (France)
5. Frank Lannoy (Belgium)
7. Jean-Pierre Genart (Belgium)
8. Daniel Polsinelli (France)
9. Geert Leys (Belgium)
10. Mathieu Marlair (Belgium)
11. Daniel Guyot (France)
12. Rudi De Smet (Belgium)

Ilias Galanopoulos winner in Thessaloniki

The Greek Club of Panorama Thessaloniki held a WASPA tournament on November 20 with 8 players taking part.

Ilias Galanopoulos (AEL TFC) took the honors after defeating Nikiforis Giapoutzis in the final.

Thanks to the Panorama players for their continuous support!
There will be more results from Greece coming soon.

Jon Henning Bergane and Christian Schulze win first WASPA events in Norway

Jon Henning Bergane (on the left) Astro Cup 2019 winner. On the right is Frode Ellefsen who was the main organizer of the tournament together with Terje Ellefsen and Svein Arne Brekke. Photo taken by Martin Eikeland.

Last week-end was a very important date for the WASPA circuit as the first WASPA tournaments in Norway took place in Kragerø. over the week-end, two tournaments with seven players each but a total of 11 different players were held. It was nice to see representatives of different Norwegian clubs as Kragerø BFK, Skien Wildcats, TFC Wildgrizzlys but also Yorkshire Phoenix (England).

The "AstroCup '19" (for "elite" players) saw the domination of national Legend Jon Henning Bergane who defeated Svein Arne Brekke in the final while semi-finalists were Christian Schulze and Terje Ellefsen.

The "Lumbago Cup '19" (for beginners and players making a comeback) had Christian Schulze dominating the games and winning the final against Birger Hokholdt (2-1). Semi-finalists were Geir Kristian Aabøe and Fredrik Sørensen.

Both tournaments counted as NBFF events but also got WASPA status as decided by the Kragerø BFK representatives.

Also the big news in Norway is that Norwegian table football players now have a new president: Thomas Flaaten Fredriksen. The whole community has to thank Anders Grorud for his 26 years as president of the NBFF.

Link to the official article: http://bordfotball.no/article/1506

Huge thanks to Terje Ellefsen for making things happen and for the constructive talks with WASPA. We hope to see more events like this in the future in Norway!