Monday, 25 September 2023

Youth in action in Genova



 This Saturday the Rebels Genova had their first WASPA tournament, open only to young players. It was a great day of table football for confirmed and new players. It was good also to see how the club's top players would be doing after their trip in Gibraltar for the European championship. The 14 players were divided in two leagues of 7 players. Samuele Bignardi was with no surprise the winner of the main category while Andrea Ferretti won the "Silver League".

"Golden League"
1. Samuele Bignardi
2. Alberto Capoferri
3. Tommaso Sani
4. Alessandro Gandin
5. Lorenzo Fazio
6. Giacomo Alessi
7. Filippo Careddu

"Silver League"
1. Andrea Ferretti
2. Teo Peretti
3. Davide Uva
4. Andrea Bolioli
5. Andrea Ferrari
6. Filippo Sottili
7. Emma Pisu

Wednesday, 20 September 2023

More WASPA results of September 2023

A quick look at the results collected in the second third of September. We had WASPA events in England, Wales, Ireland, Australia and the Netherlands.

Action in Leicester

Bob Varney Open champion

Mick Hammonds was Plate winner

The most amazing event of the month was held in Leicester (https://www.facebook.com/groups/571403958031872), England and had a fantastic turnout of 32 players coming from 11 different clubs!

Players were divided into 8 groups and then knock-out games were played to decide the winners of the main event and the plate event. Bob Varney (The Glide, Slide, Dip & Chip Club) defeated Yorkshire's Sam Curtis in the main event on shots while Aaron Skinner (Bristol) and Jeremy Bradley (TSPA White Star) made it to the semis. Mick Hammons (Wolverhampton) won the plate final against Nick pearson.


Brian Daley (winner) and Cayne Matthews (runner-up)

In Wales, this month's London Road SC (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1699324517049032) tournament was played by 7 players in a league format. Brian Daley won the tournament on goal-diffrence after sharing the first place on points with Cayne Matthews. Ruby Matthews was 3rd. Other involved players were Brendan Ashley (4th), Lucasz Whittle (5th), Yorkshire's Ian Sharp (6th) and Brian Hall (7th).

In Ireland, the first Tralee and Munster (https://www.facebook.com/groups/382626976190248) event of the season was played by 4 players. After 5 sessions, David Elton won the event with 11 points while Jeff Murphy was runner-up, Cian Hogan third and William Magnier fourth.

In Surrey (https://www.facebook.com/groups/858264647945999), the first event of the season was played by 5 players in a league format. Simon Goodman took the honors while other contestors were Lee Fenton (2nd), London SC's Tony Banks (3rd), Mark Hammersley (4th) and Alex Fenton (5th).

Alan Kimber (in red) was the special guest of the night

The first Solent (https://www.facebook.com/groups/2759539824274495) tournament of the season was also a success as 15 players attended the nigh played in Swiss system. The special guest of the night was australia's Alan Kimber who proved to be a strong competitor, finishing in fourth place. Jason Christopher was undefeated and won the tournament while Malcolm Jamieson was runner-up and Andover's Chris Burford was third.

While Alan was in Europe, the other Perth (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1233903783292458) players had their monthly event. 4 players competed in home and away fixtures and Tan Yew Loy won his 6 games to win the event. Noel Mani was runner-up, Chris Thorn 3rd and Ron Byrne 4th.


In Brisbane (https://www.facebook.com/brisbanesubbuteoclubinc), 5 players attended the second chris Scoles Memorial tournament. Home and away fixtures were played so that all players had 8 games. Giuseppe Tardiota was the winner of the day while other players were Kevin Halliday (2nd), Gus Gillespie (3rd), Gareth Whalley (4th) and Wayne Miller (5th).

Jarno marks vs René Bolte

Finally, the first tournament in the Netherlands this season took place last Wednesday in Gouda (https://www.facebook.com/Subbuteonederland). 11 players were taking part and legend Patrick de Jong took the first place while Nico Marks was runner-up. Maurice Montone was third and René Bolte was fourth. The next events in Gouda will be held on October 11, November 15 and December 20.

We stay at your disposal if you want to join the WASPA circuit. Our doors are open. Contact us at vincentcoppenolle@gmail.com

Tuesday, 19 September 2023

Eric Lienhardt wins Swiss Cup tournament

The players: Hervé Rakowski, Clinton Gähwiler, Peter Erb, Milan Knezevic, Giovanni Attianese, Pietro Pietrantonio, Pierre Troestler, Eric Lienhardt, Jérôme Deffolin, Luigi Del Pozzo.
Front: Hervé Fino, John Imbrogiano.

The winning trio: Milan (2), Eric (1), Pietro (3)

The Swiss Cup played on September 17, 2023 in Birsfelden/Basel (CH) was a great success. The organisers of subbuteo.ch managed to attract 12 players for the tournament. There were also 4 players in new kit from the Guebwiller Alsace Subbuteo Club. Fair play, fun and friendship always come before victory!

Group A was won by Milan Knezevic (Serbia) ahead of Eric Lienhardt (France), Hervé Fino (France), Peter Erb (subbuteo.ch), Luigi del Pozzo (Switzerland) and Pierre Troestler (France).

Group B was won by Pietro Di Pietrantanio (Italy) ahead of John Imbrogiano (subbuteo.ch), Clinton

Gähwiler (South Africa), Hervé Rakowski (France), Jérôme Deffolin (France) and Giovanni Attianese (Switzerland).

In the semi-finals, Milan won 5:1 against Hervé Fino and Eric won 2:0 against Pietro.

Winner was Eric Lienhardt, he won 1:0 after shots against Milan. Third place went to Pietro with 3:2 against Hervé Fino.

Huge thanks to Peter Erb for compiling results and sending us a great report and nice pictures.

We hope Subbuteo.ch will be able to host 3 tournaments this season to be included in the new WASPA Conference League.

Saturday, 9 September 2023

Superb pictures from our young number 1 Juniors



Superb pictures from Italy where the Rebels Genova received their certificate for finishing as number 1 junior club in the WASPA (World Amateur Subbuteo Players Association) circuit 2022-2023. The club has an amazing youth section and must be a source of inspiration for other clubs in the world.

Also young local talent Samuel Bignardi received his certificate for being the number 1 junior player 🏆 in the WASPA circuit 2022-2023.

Thanks to Luca Bignardi for the pictures!

We hope the Rebels Genova will have another great season and hopefully it will boost interest for the youth development among other clubs in Italy and in other countries!

#WASPA #Subbuteo #tablesoccer #tablefootball

Thursday, 7 September 2023

First results of the season 2023-2024

Here is a quick look at the first tournament results collected for the new season.

First of all we collected some "old" results from Australia as the Hipfingerz clubs in Sydney (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1063342333730453) had a tournament a few weeks ago. 9 players were taking part and Geoff Sirmai took the honors after defeating Jeremy Simpson in the final. Neil Brener and Francis Cozzarin made it to the semi-finals.

A nice venue in Pedmore



Mick Hammonds receiving his certificate

In England, the Pedmore tournament played last week-end was an amazing success with 31 players taking part. Players were dropped in 8 groups and then knock-out games were played to decide the big winner and the Plate winner. Mick Hammonds (Wolverhampton) defeated Kevin Cordell (Stanway) in the big final. Jason Christopher (Solent) and Richard Badger (Wolverhampton) made it to the final 4. Cayne Matthews (London Road) defeated Gager Badger (Wolverhampton) in the Plate final. Congratulations to the organizers (and Richard Roper in particular) for an amazing event!

The Stanway Rovers Flickers (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063670742239) players their monthly event on Tuesday with 8 players from several different clbus taking part. After the five sessions of Swiss ladder, host Kevin cordell took the honors while Alan Lee (Wobbly Hobby SC) was runner-up and Martin Hodds (Yorkshire) took the third spot. Peter Holmes (4th), Mike Williams (5), Adam Douglas (6th), Jamie Samuel Warren (7th) and Paul Matthews (8th) were the other entries of the evening.

In South Africa, the Easterns TFC (https://www.facebook.com/EasternsTFC) players met this week-end and Ian clark was the best of the six players taking part. Gary Downs was runner-up and Craig Smith was third. Rui Dos Santos (4th), Keegan Paolini (5th), Christopher Paolini were also taking part.


Derry City TFC (https://www.facebook.com/DerryCityTableFootball) had the "Last of the Summer Wine Cup" tournament on Monday. Seven players played in a lague format and Martinog Bradley was the man of the night, finishing with 5 wins and a draw to take the honors! Barry Spence took the second place while Ernie Bickerstaff was third. Other involved players were Oisin Mór (4), Frankie Connolly (5), Lawrence Watson (6), Sean Connolly (7).

Finally, we received the results of the first WASPA promotional tournament organized in England by the Leicester Foxes Club (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083610377617). Mark Weaver won the league format with Alex Ashcroft being runner-up, Scott Hunt 3rd and Paul Taylor 4th.

Monday, 4 September 2023

Finals rankings of the WASPA season 2022-2023

Dear Subbuteo friends, here comes the time to reveal the file rankings of the WASPA season 2022-2023.

Excel file (rankings)

PDF file (results)

Subbuteo was back in Helsinki in August

I know many of you are excited to discover the final tables. The season has been amazing with 519 WASPA tournaments held in 21 countries. Almost 50% of the events were held in England, which proves the amazing work of development done by the English Subbuteo Association must be a source of inspiration for other Subbuteo nations.

That's no surprise then if England is dominating the different rankings. Solent Subbuteo Club's Jason Christopher is the absolute number 1, not only in the rolling ranking but also in the season ranking. We have 9 English players in the top 9 of the season ranking, which is totally unbelievable.

Thumbs up for Italy's Samuele Bignardi for being the number 1 junior player while samuele's club, "Club Rebels Genova", is also the number 1 junior club!

Solent Subbuteo Club (England) finishes the season as number 1 in the "Top Clubs" section while Yorkshire Phoenix (England) dominated the Development League.

Subbuteo players in Singapore

Congratulations to the winners but please never forget rankings are not the important thing in the WASPA circuit. Playing Subbuteo under WASPA banner should more importantly be a question of fair-play and fun!

As for August, we had another cracking month with 37 events added in the records. We have been pleased to see our friends from Finland playing again and the first tournament held by Athinaikos SC in Greece! The Netherlands continue their development with more local events and their great job offers them a place in the top 3 of nations. Norway is also back in the circuit and there will hopefully be more developments in Oslo soon. Besides all great events in the UK and Ireland, we had good events run in Singapore, Australia, Belgium, Italy and South Africa.

Once again, I want to thank all those who put energy to keep the WASPA circuit going. It's really awesome to have support from so many clubs around the world!

Subbuteo action in Oslo, Norway

Please note more news will be posted in the next few days:

- final season file with more statistics;

- updated WASPA handbook for the new season;

- list of clubs in the "top clubs", Development League" and "Conference League" for the new season.

Quick reminder:

How to send results?

This is a question I often receive and the easiest way to send results is to keep individual scores of all games (group stages, knock-out games) + a list of players taking part (first name, name, club, country, birthdate also if there are new juniors). Once we have that, it's usually easier to keep records.

The first Athinaikos SC WASPA tournament

Once again, I insist on the fact clubs should not hesitate to run tournaments under the WASPA banner. It's a great way to promote your club, to attract new players and to create local or regional development and we all agree this is what the game needs nowadays.

All your ideas to make the WASPA circuit more attractive are more than welcome. Don't hesitate to send your feedback. We also hope to see more and more clubs running events under the WASPA banner in the future.

We also take to opportunity to thank our partners:

- SubKits at https://www.facebook.com/subkits

- Flicks for Kicks at http://shop.flickforkicks.com/

- MAD ABOUT GAMES at http://subbuteo2012.co.uk

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 vincentcoppenolle@gmail.com

Keep an eye on the WASPA blog at http://waspa-circuit.blogspot.com as there are updates almost every day.

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 new 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 vincentcoppenolle@gmail.com

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Vincent Coppenolle, WASPA organizer