Family Final in Panorama Challenge

Monday the 21st of March, A PUBLIC HOLIDAY IN South Africa, saw the first Series event in the Just For You Meals Super Series. The sunny weather after a week of rain in Johannesburg had an adverse affect on the turnout with a number of players spending time with families and friends. The above did not detract from a voiceferous field of 10 players with 4 debutants. The players were divided into two groups with the more seasoned players offering support and help in  their group games. The two seeded players, namely Clifford and his son Richard Graaff, who has returned from a sabbatical, progressing as group winners. Steward Makgatha and Abraham Siame, recent converts to our great game, showed vast improvement and claimed the runner-up positions. A pleasing aspect was the entry of 3 young ladies who enjoyed themselves against the male opposition. A new member was also Caper Steenekamp, the manager of Panorama Senior Football Club who play in the Premier Division of the DSL Football League. Clifford and Richard qualified unscathed for a friendly but fierce family final.
Clifford proved a bit too strong for his son who claimed he was tired after conducting a high performance rugby training camp in the morning:). Steward triumphed in the 3rd place play-off by defeating Abraham in an exciting penalty shoot-out. Thanks must go to all the participants in making the inaugural JFYM Series an exciting and enjoyable day.

(Report by Clifford Graaff)

The Paella and The Plate

The extra long weekend saw the opportunity to sneak in some extra Subbuteo and 11 players turned out to take advantage. With players competing for The Paella Plate, a Spanish theme was used for the tournament, with play preceded by lunch of paella, tortilla and vino, then players each choosing a Spanish club to represent in the Swiss format competition. 10 players competed, while newcomer, Bay, elected to watch and play a few friendly games to get himself acquainted with the rules and techniques.

Highlights of the day’s play included AGP U/15 champion, Jonty Brener (Villarreal), win one of his first senior matches in the first round, Harley Ullrich (Espanyol) scoring one of the goals of the day with a low, drilled far-post rocket from a tight angle, Adrian Elmer (Hércules) picking up his first competitive points against Fabrizio Coco (Athletic de Bilbao) in 18 months and Dave Sultana (Celta de Vigo) firstly scoring his first competitive goal, then picking up his first competitive points with another goal in a 1-1 draw in the following match.

After 3 rounds, 3 players were level on 7 points. So, heading into the 4th and final round, Daniele Lombardi (Atletico de Madrid) was ahead on goal difference from Steve Dettre (Valencia), who he would face, and Eliot Kennedy (Barça) who was paired with Neil Brener (Málaga). Daniele came out victorious in the first of those match-ups 2-0, including a trademark goal on the run to finally settle the very tight match, while Neil’s ‘keeper was in inspired form, keeping Eliot out for large swathes of the match. While Eliot picked up the result to keep him level with Daniele, he was unable to beat Neil’s ‘keeper enough times to rein in Daniele’s superior goal difference. Meanwhile, both Tony Credentino (Deportivo de La Coruña) and Adrian, hoping to slip past Steve into a minor placing, cancelled each other out in their tight 0-0 draw, relegating them both to mid-table obscurity.
Maybe it was the food, maybe it was the wine, maybe it was the holiday, but the afternoon was one of the most relaxed tournaments in recent memory, with all players competing sportingly in great spirits. Many thanks to those who played, making it a great afternoon.

Full results here: http://subbuteoaustralia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/2016-March-Paella-Plate-WASPA.html

(Original report by Adrian Elmer here: http://subbuteoaustralia.com/?p=2423)

The Eggs Cup for Domenico Tassone

Last week-end the club of Savona in Italy organized a tournament won by Domenico Tassone (Savona Ponente). A real "ghostbuster" in Subbuteo 2016 Italian events.
Domenico "Eagle" Tassone beat El Buitre (Cavalieri di Moneglia) 4-2 after shoot-out in final, and Davide Santoro (Savona Ponente) took the third place after winning against Enrico Demutti (Savona Ponente) (4-3 after shoot out). Ettore Molino was the fifth, winning the "Chaltrons Cup". 14 Subbuteo players were taking part! it is a great success for the event, especially with the gift of 20 chocolate eggs, furnished by the premium chocolate firm "Lavoratti".

(Report by Enrico Demutti)

March Flickoff: Road to the Championship

Benjamin and Daddy Benny Ng

A turnout of 5 senior players and 3 juniors attended in March where 2 separate WASPA categories were formed so the juniors could maximise their enjoyment playing against each other with the same skill level. Chris Hannington was also a brand new entrant and played his first ever Subbuteo games with the junior players.

Juan had returned for a second stint which solidified his interest in the game and had begun investing into his own teams already! Although it proved to be a difficult outing for him against the more experienced players, he managed to score a goal against Adam losing 2-1 in a tight contest.

Benny managed to finish first place in the 5 man round robin format, where defeating Benji proved to be crucial, finishing two points above second placed Luke. A play-off final was formed between 2nd and 3rd place to decide the 2nd grand finalist where we saw Luke up against Benji, their previous game finishing in a 0-0 draw in the round robin. It turned out to be a slug fest with Luke dominating possession and shots in the first half in which he found himself 1-0 up at halftime. The second half saw Benji slowly getting back into it where he managed to find holes in Luke’s iron curtain but was kept at bay from his goalkeeping. It was the same case on the other end as Benji’s goalkeeping frustrated Luke and looked as if it would be impossible to score another. It was a heated contest with moments of confusion on the pitch with the complexity of the rules, which only ran down the clock and adding salt into the wounds of Benji as this marginally diminished his momentum of searching for an equaliser. It ended 1-0 to Luke.

Benny and Luke faced each other in the grand finale, both remaining undefeated on the day. It turned out to be a 0-0 draw with both Benny and Luke equally matched. It was unfortunate that neither managed to find the net compared to their previous bout ending in a 1-1 draw in the round robin. It was however, decided on penalties where Benny won scoring the only goal. This marked a significant win for Benny, who had won his second WASPA tournament and also witnessed his son, Benjamin, taking the junior crown in his tournament, marking March 2016 as the month of the Ng family victorious in Melbourne.

Anas takes the champion belt in Singapore

Anas won the tournament

The Jurong Central Subbuteo Club (JCSC) League WASPA for the month of March saw 13 ‘wrestlers’ battling it out for glory in this wrestling-themed tournament. Players were represented by well known wrestlers, and are random drawn into 4 groups, with the top 2 in every group qualifying for the quarterfinals. The quarter and semi finals saw intense matches, and the’final showdown’ was between Rudy a.k.a Mankind and Anas a.k.a The Rock. Anas ‘The Rock’ slammed Rudy ‘Mankind’ with an early goal. With victory almost certain for Anas ‘The Rock’, Rudy ‘Mankind’ managed to score a goal in the dying seconds of the match, bringing it to sudden death extra time. With no goals scored in extra time, a sudden death shootout proceeded. Rudy’s shot was saved, while Anas’ shot found the back of the net. The Rock wins the title! Congrats to the winners!

(Report by the organizers)

The Copa Libertadores for Andrea Pagano

This friday evening the club of Catanzaro was holding a tournament with the old rules under the theme of the "Copa Libertadores". Estudiantes (Andrea Pagano) finished on top with 14 points after playing a round robin of 6 games for every player. Vasco de Gama (Alessandro Corigliano) was runner up (11 points) while Penarol (Davide Colace) was third (8) and Boca Juniors (Salvatore Scalise) ended in last position.

A nice win for Tan Kok Wee

Sunday TFAS WASPA were participants who did not progress to the 2nd rounds of the International open event. The plates event had several senior players namely John Ho, Tan Kok Wee, Chandru and Sham who were grouped with several of our promising under 19s and adult players where the 10 players dished out several fierce games in the 4 rounds of swiss games.

In the end, Tan Kok Wee emerged as the WASPA champion while John Ho came in 2nd.

The end of the Kingdom?

Big suprises at Breda club last night: the "King" Massimo Lapucci is resoundingly eliminated by an astonishing Alfredo Granato who played an amazing offensive strategy. Final match for Stefano Braschi and the "Maestro" Pierluigi D'Amico, qualified after a long series of shoot-outs over Granato (he also lost the 3rd place at shoot-out lottery). A shocked Lapucci also lost the consolation final. Lapucci still stands at the top of ranking, now threatened by the round winner Braschi.

(Report by Alfredo Granato)

Gagliardi wins the provincial championship

 

This week-end the "provincial championship" was played in Macerata (Italy) with 12 players competing with the old rules.

Alberto Gagliardi defeated Paolo Guidara in the final. Mario Marcolini and Massimo Garbuglia reached the semi-finals.

Another good night in Sydney

Only six players, but some good competition on a Tuesday night at the Northern Falcons’ ‘home’ at GoodGames. Fabrizio Coco took the title unbeaten, though he had a couple of scares. He only beat Johnny Ball with a goal  seconds from time, then did the same against Steve Dettre. Eliot Kennedy found his shooting finger after a sluggish start against Fabrizio (0-2), before beating Steve 2-0 and Simon 5-0. Simon Cole continued his impressive performances with his mighty West Ham Snipers, pipping Johnny. Quote of the night had to go to Johnny, after a delightful move and chip to score against Steve. “I love playing this game.”

(Report by Steve Dettre)