Big success for the Ballymena Open 20256

The 2026 Ballymena Subbuteo Open saw 23 players come from all over Ireland for Round 2 of the Irish Circuit. 19 competed in the Open event and 4 in the Junior event. The opening match in Group A produced an entertaining 2-2 draw between Derry’s Martinog Bradley and Barry Spence from Ballyclare. Marty Neill from the Belfast Retro Games Room, playing in his first competition, gained a creditable 0-0 draw with Ballymena’s Colin Perry in the other opening fixture. The rest of that group went as expected, with Martinog and Barry taking the top two spots to qualify for the Quarter-Finals.

Group B was a ‘group of death’ with four experienced players being drawn together, along with relative newcomer, John Kinsella. The Dublin man was up against it, suffering 4 defeats but he kept going and gained valuable experience. Ballymena’s Kenny Beggs topped the group with a 3-0 victory against Cork’s Italian player, Mario Frittelli, a close 2-1 win over Bangor man, Eoin Adams, and a 1-1 draw with John Moore from Wexford. Moore beat Adams 2-0 and Mario recovered well from his opening defeat to beat Moore 3-0. This result proved decisive, as he just pipped Moore to 2 nd place in the group on goal-difference to qualify for the Q/F.

Group C was topped comfortably by current Circuit Champion, Dublin’s Mark Farrell, while other Dubliners, Andy Fitzpatrick and Daniel Kaliszewski, battled it out for 2 nd place. They picked up 4 points each against Tralee’s Cian Hogan and Ian Greer of Cookstown, which meant it came down to their result between each other. It ended with a 2-1 victory for young Daniel – a terrific win against Andy, who had finished Runner-up in the All-Ireland Championships a few months ago.

Group D was a very tight group, with all 5 players having a realistic chance of qualifying. Maybe not one for the spectators, as seven of the matches were 0-0 draws! The stand-out fixture was a 3-2 win for Stephen Rodgers of Belfast against Dave Elton of Tralee. Donegal’s Brendan Rodgers and Derry’s Stephen McAllister also picked up a 1-0 victory each, against Dave Elton and Oisin Mor (Derry) respectively. This left 3 players on equal points and equal goal-difference at the top! Stephen Rodgers went through in first place, thanks to goals scored in his 3-2 win but Stephen McAllister and Brendan Rodgers were inseparable, so required a shoot-out, which Brendan won to go through in 2 nd place. An interesting detail abOut Stephen Rodgers, was that he topped the group using original Subbuteo lightweights! In the Quarter-Finals, Martinog Bradley had a narrow 1-0 win against Daniel Kaliszewski, Mario Frittelli beat Stephen Rodgers 3-0, Mark Farrell beat Barry Spence 3-1 and Kenny Beggs won 2-0 against Brendan Rodgers.

Farrell and Beggs, so often used to meeting in finals, were semi-final opponents this time. Farrell scored the only goal of the game with about 4 minutes remaining. The other semi between Frittelli and Bradley went to extra-time, with the Italian scoring a golden-goal to win 2-1 and reach his first final on the Irish Circuit. Mario gave a good account of himself in the final but Mark Farrell’s experience pulled him through with another 1-0 victory.

JUNIORS

There were 4 juniors in attendance, so they were able to have their own competition. They played each other in a round-robin, with the top 2 placings (Roisin Hogan & Elliot Fitzpatrick) qualifying for the final, which Roisin, from Tralee, won 2-0.

SHIELD

The Shield had some strong players, proving what a tough tournament this was. John Moore and Andy Fitzpatrick would normally expect to reach the latter stages of the Main Event. But they met each other in the Shield semi-final this time, with John winning 2-1 to set up a Final with the rapidly improving Ian Greer, who had been a semi-finalist in the previous two Irish Circuit events. John lifted the Shield with a 1-0 victory.

(Report by Kenneth Beggs)