Eugene Plytas with Flaming Flickers tournament

A great turnout and a great atmosphere

The latest Flaming flickers tournament was a real success as our greek friends decided to run their December event with three different categories. 26 players from many different clubs were taking part.

Eugene Plytas receiving his trophy

In the main event, Eugene Plytas was the best of 12 players after defeating Markos Kapsabelis (1-0) in the final. Alekos Apatzis and Manolis Papadakis were the semi-finalists.

Podium of the B category

The B category had 10 players with two groups of 5 and then knock-out games. Achilleas Bogdanidis took the honors after beating Vasilios Argyropoulos (3-0) in the final.

The Juniors

Finally, the Junior category consisted in a group of four with Christian Tsakalakis finishing on top of the table and Nikos Jr Psomiadis being runner-up.

Huge thanks to the Flaming Flickers for another amazing event!

December 2019: news from around the world

Here is a quick review of some events held under WASPA banner in December. We are waiting for the last few results of last month to publish the december rankings. Hopefully everything will be ready by the end of the week.

3 dedicated players in Javea

Spain: one more tournament in Javea
The Marina Citerior Club held a 15th "Tea Time Tournament" int he beginning of the month. Unfortunately the club is struggling to get new players but the usual members of the clubs are still very motivated to play together. italy's Pasquale Carrassi finished on top of a small league (with home and away games) with David Mc Aulay being runner-up and Bill Dunham taking the third place.

Presentation of trophies in Ilioupolis

Greece: Roligans Christmas Cup
The Roligans club organized a Christmas tournament on December 21. There were 13 competitors including a special guest of the new club of Ippovotes Chalkida Club. Evangelos Kotrotsos (U15) won the tournament while the runner-up was Tassos Priftis. This time the event was a knockout tournament and the players eliminated played for Category B. Therefore the winner of the B tournament was Dimitrios Rembis.

Players in Thessaloniki

Greece: Panorama still doing well
Also in Greece, the Panorama 1978 SC Thessaloniki organized a tournament with 6 players involved. This time Ioannis Terzidis took the honors after defeating Constantios Giapoutzis in the final (2-0) while Stavros Giapoutzis won the game for the third place.

Some good games in Donegal

Ireland: action in Donegal
Also the Republic of ireland saw some Subbuteo action in the end of December with three players competing in a group format in Donegal. Local organizer Brendan Rodgers finished on top of the table while clubmate Oisin McKeogh was runner-up and special guest from England Nick Pearson took the third place.

Richard Ruffolo - Howard Christie - Mike Sgro

Canada: Howard Christie does it again
This month's tournament in Toronto had a small turnout of three but there were many close games. Defending champion Mike Sgro could not win another event as Howard Christie won the final against Mike to win the "tournament of the decade".

Isle of Man: Joseph Kinrade is a winner
We have been extremely glad to see some action on the Isle of Man where Joseph Kinrade won the "Ellan Vannin WASPA Christmas Cup" after defeating brian Kinrade in the final. The tournament had a good turnout of four players including first time player Lisa Warren from England. The tournament was played as a group of five with the top 2 qualifying for the grand final.

Martin Wiesmann bringing Switzerland back on the WASPA map

Switzerland: Test match in Wil
Just a few days before the WASPA tournament in Eschenbach of January 5 (results coming soon), there was a test match between local player Martin Wiesmann and South Africa's Clinton Gahwiler from Cape Town. The game ended as a draw but more importantly it was a good way to have Switzerland coming back to the WASPA circuit with more good news coming up soon.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Rebis and Karachalios winners in Greece

The Roligans club organized a November tournament this Saturday with a good turnout of 10 players. After the preliminary phase, 5 players continued in category A and 5 players continued in category B.
The winner in the main event was Demetrios Rebis while the runner-up was U15 player Evangelos Kotrotsos (1-0 in the final).
In category B, the winner was Georgios Karachalios and the runner-up was U12 Panagiotis Skouros (3-2).
Thanks to the Roligans for a good day of Subbuteo!

Two more wins for Alekos Apatzis

A quick look at the latest results from Greece. The Kallithea Flame club had two tournaments in October.

The first one was played with the old rules and had a turnout of 12 players. Alekos Apatzis was in a great day, defeating Chris Panagiotides in the final (6-2) while Antonis Krysilas and Manolis papadakis made it to the semi-finals.

A few days later, the "Octoberfest" tournament was played in a German spirit with German teams and beers during the break. Alekos Apatzis (Bayern Munchen) defeated Antonis Krysilas (Monchengladbach) in the final (2-1) to win the event with 12 players taking part. Vassilis dragossis and Nikitas Apatzis finished in the top 4 of the day!

Thanks to our Greek friends for their continued support!

More results from around the World - September 2019

Some more results from September. Sometimes we receive reports of small events played in different countries and pictures and not always available to but it's great to see games played under WASPA banner in many countries.

Christos Agrios winner in Greece
Earlier in September the Greek club of Panorama 1978 SC Thessaloniki had their first tournament of the season in Thessaloniki. 9 players were taking part with three groups of three players in the first round and then a fin round between the top players of each group. Christos Agrios won the tournament after finishing on top of the final group while Stavros Giapoutzis was runner-up and Ilias Galanopoulos took the third place.

Howard Christie winner in Toronto
In Canada Howard Christie won this month's tournament in Toronto. Unfortunately there wer eonly three players taking part this time. Howard defeated Mike Sgro in sudden death in the final (2-1).

A good turnout in Stockton
In Stockton, England the NETFA players had a good event with 8 players taking part. After the group sessions, final were played to decide the winners. Neil Beeforth defeated Mike Parnaby (1-0) to claim the title while Ben Staples won the game for the third place on shots against Nick Pearson.

Action in st. Petersburg

Eliot Kennedy wins in Russia
During his visit in St. Petersburg, Australia's Eliot Kennedy had the please to meet local players Andrey Vlasov and Evgenii Vlasov. A small WASPA event was played and Eliot was the winner but the fact new friends were made was much more important!

Players at the Sparta Spreeathen tournament

Two events in Berlin
Since Herman Kruse moved to Germany, there might be some WASPA developments in the country. The Northern Falcons players first attended a tournament played in the premises of the Sparta Spreeathen 74/82 club. A group of six players was taking part and after the league format the rankings was as follows:

1. Marcus Tilgner
2. Marian Flemer
3. Hermann Kruse
4. Daria Prazynski
5. Andreas Guhr
6. Wilfried Pretzel

Small event but good games at SC Berlin

The other Berlin tournament took place at the SC Berlin club with a small turnout of three players with Hermann Kruse finishing on top of the group while Nico Müller was runner-up and Erik Klossowski was third.

Cayne and Cameron in Wrexham

Brian Daley winner in Wrexham
Algy Taylor of BCCM Border Collectables hosted a Wrexham Subbuteo Club last Sunday. Wrexham player Cameron Ramage was joined by London Road SC players Cayne, Ruby, Brian and Lucasz and a league format was played. Brian Daley finished on top while Cayne Matthews was runner-up.

Alberto Di Maggio wins Europa League tournament

Alberto Di Maggio winner in the main events

Vasilis Tsakalakis

The first tournament of the season in the premises of the Flaming Flickers was the "Europa League" event held on September 21 with 16 players divided into two categories of 8 players.

The main event saw the victory of Bologna Tigers's Alberto Di Maggio (Benfica) who defeated Nikolas Psomiadis in the final (2-1).

The final of the second category was Vasilis Tsakalakis's business after beating Klearhos Sarikakis (3-0).

Congratulations to the winners and to all players for a great subbuteo Saturday.

Alekos Apatzis wins Kallithea Flames tournament

On August 24, the Kallithea Flames organized a tournament with 16 players and as always, organizers decided to have the event under a "theme" , which was the "UEFA Regions Cup". Alekos Apatzis (aka the "North Riding Region" from UK) defeated Giannis Mpougiouris with "Castilla Leon Region" (Spain) in the final. Alekos's victory helps him to finish the season in third position in the WASPA ranking.

Tottenham wins the Champion's League in Greece

The Flaming Flickers organized once again their "Champion's League" in August and 32 players as always played the simulation of the tournament.

In the end the final was the same as the original CL competition but this time winner was Tottenham (Apatzis) against Liverpool (Psomiadis) after the penalty shootout.

The winner was Alekos Apatzis for a second time in a row in this competition.

Congratulations to all for this great tournament simulation and the great game series.

More trophies for Apatzis and Mesonisanakis in Greece

Three regional tournaments have been held in July in Greece.

Stavros Mesonisanakis was the surprising winner of the Roligans tournament, finishing on top of a group robin with Dimitrios Rebis taking the second place. Thanks to organizer Christos Kotrotsos for the great job!

The club of Kallithe Flame had a great event with 16 players involved. The theme of the tournament was the "AfCon cup" and Alekos Apatzis defeated Christian Tsakalakis in the final to claim the trophy. Yannis Bougiouris and Nikos Jr Psomiadis made it to the semi-finals.

Finally, the Flaming Flickers also held a tournament with a good field of 18 players. The first round of the "Gold Cup" consisted in two groups of four and two groups of five players and in the knock-out games, there were many close games. Rising star Giorgos Karavas defeated Kostas Seses in the semi-final while Alekos Apatzis won the other semi against Yannis Bougiouris but Apatzis later beat Karavas in the final to claim the honors!