First WASPA tournament in Quévy

There was a small turnout of 8 for the very first WASPA tournament organized by the club of SCAF Quévy (Belgium). The local club has only 2 active players and three tables but a great spirit. 3 players from Eugies and 3 guys from Templeuve travelled to the small town of Quévy and games were played in swiss system. After the first four games, Geoffrey Marain easily came on top. He later beat Anthony Lispet in the semi while Alain Flament beat Vincent Coppenolle in the other semi. In the final Marain gave o chance to Alain Flament to win his 18th WASPA title.

Big scoreboards were put on top of every table

Stelio Tsangouris vs Renald Deloose

Greg Spilmont vs Anthony Lispet

Alain Flament (finalist) and Geoffrey Marain (winner)

Which country will win the football world cup?

Any idea which country will win the football world cup? June and July will be the perfect time to organize subbuteo tournaments with the theme of the football world cup.

17th WASPA title for Geoffrey Marain

Nine players attended the WASPA tournament held in Templeuve on thursday. The first round was made to create seedings for the quarter-finals and in the knock-out games there were some surprises as John Verfaillie reached the semis for the very first time and Michaël Dupret beat Vincent Coppenolle. In the semis there was a much more logical issue as Geoffrey Marain beat John Verfaillie and Renald Deloose beat Michaël Dupret. Marain later beat Deloose (3-0) to claim his 17th WASPA title. Here is the ranking of the evening:
1. Geoffrey Marain (SC Lions Eugies)
2. Renald Deloose (Templeuve United)
3. Michaël Dupret (Magic Team Tournai)
4. John Verfaillie (Templeuve United/SCU Cominoise)
5. Alain Flament (SCAF Quévy)
6. Matthias Averlant (Templeuve United)
7. Vincent Coppenolle (Templeuve United)
8. Philippe Godart (Templeuve United)
9. Julien Stekelorum (Templeuve United)

The presentation of the trophies

The finalists

Geoffrey Marain vs John Verfaillie

Subbuteo is alive in Malaysia

Things are moving in Kuala Lumpur where the new club of "Hartamas Tigers" intends to become the first active subbuteo club in the country. Mr. Jamie Kong, who used to play subbuteo in his youth in Singapore, has already started in August 2013 when he met up with Edwin Wong from Imagine Games, the distributor of Subbuteo table soccer in Malaysia. The club has already six stadiums and the help of Mike Dent, a former English international player and national champion (1976) who is working now in Kuala Lumpur and has attended several tournaments in Singapore in the last few years.

Hartamas Subbuteo Club has a venue for weekly training sessions and matches with Subbuteo players. The Club will organize outings to Singapore where players will be playing with members of the tfas.sg

The club has no organizational experience yet but they already started playing and soon will hold some friendly matches at the shopping mall below their tuition centre on December 28th, 2013. Here are some recent pictures as the club recently did a mini game at the TGIF restaurant during the Manchester vs Tottenham game and it was great fun with food and beers. After all, that's how table football should be.

Interested people can contact Mr. Jamie Kong at igcsetuition@gmail.com

Marco Bacci wins the "Anteprima White Cup"

The first tournament of the season - the "Anteprima White Cup" - was played in Viareggio on monday with 10 players taking part, including 2 of the club of Pistoia. After the group stage, the three group winners played for the title and Marco Bacci beat Ruggero Torboli and Massimo Goldoni to claim the title. Roberto Pacileo won the group stage for places 4 to 6. Salvatore Ghiselli is 5th, Andrea Mazza 6th.

Flavio Watzka wins in Barcelona

Seven players attended the tournament held on sunday in Barcelona and organized by the club of Palomar FT. The events was played in a double league system with every player meeting everyone twice. Flavio Watzka was the big winner with 26 points while Marc Barceló had 25, Josep Sobré 20, Alex Maspons 17, Guillem Alsina 12, Daniel Muñoz 11 and Martí 3. Well done to everyone involved in a great day of promotion of the game!

Peter Sexton wins St. Andrews Day Tournament

There was another exciting fun filled day on Saturday with 11 players attending the Hamilton tournament at "The Pheasant Plucker". The Hamilton guys were missing some regulars but introduced some new and returning players. Matt Mule had an exceptional first tournament, playing the semi-final and losing only to Peter Sexton. Sexton later beat Stephen McNab (3-0) to win the trophy. Brodyn Sexton was the other semi-finalist.

Monthly report of November 2013

Dear all, the monthly report of the WASPA circuit can be seen here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4_PpphlADgVeDFLdUZ6S25DQTQ/

a) Events in November 

This month we had 17 regional tournaments, 3 tournaments with the old rules and 2 promotional tournaments.

For the first time we had a tournament in Scotland. Thanks to the Tayside Kickers for their support.

The first tournament of the season in South Africa was held on saturday in Pretoria.

There was a tournament on November 30 in Hamilton (Canada) but it will be counted as a December event. Limassol (Cyprus) will have their November tournament played in December.

Thanks to all the clubs who support the WASPA circuit. Having 22 tournaments in one month is just incredible.

We will have envents in Melbourne (Australia) and Valdivia (Chile) in december and we have the first tournament in Switerland scheduled for January :-)

b) Rankings 

Geoffrey Marain (Belgium) is still on top of the ranking, Canada is leading in the ranking of nations. Portugal is now 7th (+4). 954 players (+25) from 32 nations are ranked. Geoffrey Marain (Belgium) is the leader of the season ranking. In reality we had 51 new players but we also lost 26 players who have not played for 2 years now. In total 1006 different players have played in WASPA tournaments in the last 31 months. For the first time we have reached the amazing number of more than 1000.

c) WASPA and FISTF

Last month we announced that any WASPA organizer interested to host a tournament with the double status (FISTF and WASPA) should contact me. There are are already positive talks with Australia and the Netherlands about it. Hopefully FISTF and WASPA can still improve their work together in the forthcoming months.

d) Useful links 

The WASPA blog has been improved with fresh new pages for the calendar of events ("forthcoming events"), the list of tournaments winners and a page about the philosophy of WASPA and the different types of events. Hope you like it!

Here are the few links to check when you have time:

the WASPA blog: http://waspa-circuit.blogspot.com
the WASPA map: http://goo.gl/maps/MP4gu
the WASPA Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/127530464069377/?fref=ts
the WASPA Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/WASPA-World-Amateur-Subbuteo-Players-Association/231789816834700
the FISTF website: http://www.fistf.com
the independant table football forum: http://tablefootball.friendhood.net/

To add tournaments or to send results, please use this e-mail address: vincent.cop@rsca.com

e) Help needed for interviews 

REMINDER:
For the future, we will try to have more interviews on the blog. If you are interested to be interviewed or if you want to interview one of your friends, you cans end a picture to vincent.cop@rsca.com and answer the following 5 questions:
- can you introduce yourself as a player? When did you start playing?
- why do you like subbuteo table football?
- what are your greatest achivements in the game?
- If you had to improve something in table football tournaments, what would it be?
- What are your thoughts about WASPA? Why do you like (or dislike) it?

f) WASPA is waiting your feedback 

Any idea on how to improve WASPA is more than welcome. A new season is going to start and we are looking for ideas to get more players involved, more nations taking part and more clubs organizing events. Your ideas to improve things can be sent by e-mail to vincent.cop@rsca.com

g) If some of your friends want to receive the monthly report by e-mail, they can drop a line to vincent.cop@rsca.com to be added in the mailing list

Have a great month!

Vincent Coppenolle

Adrian Otto wins his first Title!

Saturday 30 November 2013, Pretoria (South Africa) : The Pretoria Flickers Club hosted their third WASPA event, the PFC League 3 Tournament Cup.
The event attracted a small field of 4 entries only and the format ensured that each player would play 6 matches, playing each other twice.
Adrian Otto was the only undefeated player on the day and topped the standings with 8 points (W2:D4:L0).
The tournament burst into life during Round 2 matches, with Adrian posting a 1-0 win over the much fancied Jayden van der Merwe.
The other Round 2 match kicked off at a blistering pace, with Kegan beating Julian by 2-1, all 3 goals being scored after only 7 minutes of play !
In Round 5, Adrian proved that his round 2 win over Jayden was no fluke.....beating Jayden by 1-0 again ! Certainly Adrian knew that by beating
PFC's most consistent player (Jayden), he stood a good chance of success in this tournament !
The last match of the day saw Kegan vs Jayden....and the mission was clear : Kegan had to win the match to equal Adrian on 8 points, and thus
force a final match play-off against Adrian. In the end Jayden triumphed 2-0 over Kegan (the goals coming at 11 minutes & 12 minutes respectively).
The result saw Jayden claim some consolation in taking 2nd place on the day !
Well done to Adrian, for winning his first ever title......well deserved.
The PFC website & facebook page will be updated shortly with photo's & news content at :
http://pfctest.leaguerepublic.com/l/league/298369156.html
http://www.facebook.com/pages/PFC-SA/519566284755728

Final Places
1st - Adrian Otto
2nd - Jayden van der Merwe
3rd - Kegan van der Merwe
4th - Julian van der Merwe

(report by Julian van der Merwe)

Shane Hoopfer dominates in Calgary

There was some subbuteo action again this saturday in Calgary (canada). Four players were present and everyone had many good games. In the final, Shane Hoopfer beat Tom Stevenson (3-0) to claim the title. Well done to all the players involved! Josh Braun and Riad Kadri lost in the semis.