Jérôme Heyvaert did it again in Auvelais

Players: Fabrice Guyaux and son, Dany Timmerman, Bruno Timpano, Richard Boulanger, Geoffrey Kelner.
Bottom: Jérôme Heyvaert and Vincent Guyaux

Final between Coppenolle and Heyvaert

This week-end there was Subbuteo action again in Auvelais (Belgium) where the local club "Etoile Sarthoise" was hosting a tournament that attracted 8 players. The group stage consisted in two groups of 8 and Jérôme Heyvaert (Charleroi) and Bruno Timpano (Seraing) ended as group winners. In the semis, Timpano lost to Vincent Coppenolle (Templeuve) while Heyvaert defeated Richard Boulanger (Seraing). The final did not deliver any surprise as Jérôem heyvaert took the best on Coppenolle (4-1). Special thanks to brothers Vincent and Fabrice Guyaux for hosting a good day of table football in a positive and fair spirit.
More action in Belgium is expected for this Sunday in Vresse, for July 8 in the premises of the "Black devils" and in Templeuve on July 15.

Brisbane Euro 2016 report

The Brisbane Subbuteo Club held it’s very own Euro 2016 Tournament on a cold day in Redcliffe. Eight countries were represented by our flicking hero’s.  The format was to be 2 groups of 4 with the top team of each group playing the runner up of the other group, and a Plate for the 3rd and 4th players.
Group A, aka the “The Group of Death” had Italy (Giuseppe Tardiota), Belgium (Andrew Bennett) , England (Gus Gillespie) and Wales (Gareth Whalley).
Group B had Germany (Rik Bland), Iceland (Rob Bennett), Northern Ireland (Andrew Ridgen) and Sweden (Wil Gillespie U12).
England took on Belgium in a very tight contest. England took the lead early in the first half and made it to half time in front. Belgium came out fighting and equalised. At 1-1 the game was poised nicely and both countries went looking for a winner. With less than 30 seconds on the clock Belgium broke through the English defence and chipped a nice shot over the keeper. In the other game of Group A Wales (first tournament for Gareth) were facing the mighty Italian (not in height that is) Giuseppe. Wales managed a goal but lost 4-1.
In Group B the Germans saw off Iceland 3-2, after taking a 2-0 lead within the first 2 minutes. Iceland surprising the Germans with a couple of tasty goals. Sweden (Wil’s first tournament) lost to a determined Northern Ireland 4-0.
Next round of Group A games had Belgium see off Wales 6-0 and Italy beat England in the last minute 1-0. These results meant that Italy and Belgium were through. Over in group B Northern Ireland ruthlessly beat Iceland 5-1, and Germany beat Sweden by the same score (Wil registering his first ever competitive goal).  So Germany would go through with N Ireland.
So the last round of games would determine 1st from second, and 3rd from 4th. Italy claimed top spot with an exciting 4-2 win over Belgium. England finally managed a win, though against green opposition, 5-1. Wales (Gareth) scoring a very good goal. Germany edged N Ireland 2-1 in a tight battle.
The semis were pretty conclusive results. Italy continuing in great form despatched Northern Ireland 3-1 whilst Belgium humbled the Germans 4-1.  The German manager Rik Von Bland was suffering from Flu and reckoned it went through the team aswell.
The Plate was abandoned because Wales had to go home early. Mrs Wales was heading off to work.
The Final produced some great goals and a fair amount of controversy. With the score at 1-1 after a Belgium equaliser, Italy went into the lead after a contentious decision.  The game ended 3-1 to Italy and though Belgium felt hard done by, they were gracious in defeat. Another great day of flicking fun, and only two years to wait for the World Cup Tournament.
Oh, and the 3rd 4th play off went to Northern Ireland, 5-4, so N Ireland finished 3rd, and boy did we get reminded of that a lot. Special thanks as always to our great host Giuseppe, and well done to our new bloods Gareth and Wil, it’s a big ask to play your first tournament and represent a country……

David Busch wins again in Vienna

WASPA Tournament 24th of June 2016 in parish hall Mariabrunn, organised by TFC Wien West
The same 7 players aslast week in Ebreichsdorf, the same modus (1x15min, everyone against everyone), the same winner, but a different tournament! This time David Busch had no problem to win all his 6 games, Strommer’s were weak and Joni Nichtenberger was the real winner as runner-up behind ‘Ghost David’.

Final standings:
1. David Busch
2. Jonathan Nichtenberger
3. Alfred Strommer
4. Thomas Eppensteiner
5. Marios Strommer
6. Lukas Eppensteiner
7. Peter Nichtenberger

First event coming up in Romania

Exciting news! The first WASPA tournament in Romania will take place on August 7 in the citry of Lasi. Interested players can contact Salvatore Camma at salvatore.camma@libero.it for details. The event has been added in the WASPA calendar.

Martin Hodds wins in Chingford

This Sunday there was a great tournament in Chingford, London (England) with a superb field of 24 entries. The London & Essex players were there in mass with some guests from other clubs and Paul O'Donovan Rossa from the US as guest star. After the group stage (6 groups of 4), serious things started in the last 16 round. Till the end, there were many close games. Both semi-finals ended on sudden death with host Martin Bellefontaine  taking the best on Victor Jones while Martin Hodds defeated Elliott Bellefontaine. In the final, Hodds and Bellefontaine tied (1-1) but Martin Hodds took the honors after winning on shots. Jonathan Lopez-Real won the plate event, Kye Arnold defeated Joseph Kinrade in the Junior final and Rachel Shelley won the ladies tournament. Congratulations to the organisers for an amazing event!

West Midlands Subbuteo Club WASPA Tournament

The inaugural West Midlands Subbuteo Club tournament took place on 25 June 2016.  With 10 players competing for cup and plate trophies, the initial format saw 3 groups competing to see which trophy they would compete for.  The winners of each group, plus the best finishing 2nd placed team would compete for the cup, controversially called “The Brexit Cup”.  The remaining team would plate in the plate competition, aptly named “The Summer Shield”.

Results from the group stages were as follows:

Group 1
Adam Washbrook 0 – 1 Tim Lovell
Simon Donadel 2 – 0 Chris Cooke
Adam Washbrook 0 – 1 Simon Donadel
Tim Lovell 2 – 0 Chris Cooke
Adam Washbrook 2 – 0 Chris Cooke
Tim Lovell 1 – 5 Simon Donadel
Simon finished top of the group, Tim finished highest placed second.  Both went through to The Brexit Cup.  Adam and Chris progressed to the Summer Shield.

Group 2
Richard Tubb 2 – 1 Peter Sleeth
Richard Tubb 0 – 3 Adam Lundy
Adam Lundy 3 – 1 Peter Sleeth
Adam topped the group, obtaining qualification for The Brexit Cup.  Richard and Peter qualified for the Summer Shield.

Group 3
Owen Shelley 0 – 0 Bill Whitehouse
Andrew Garbutt 2 – 0 Owen Shelley
Bill Whitehouse 0 – 3 Andrew Garbutt
Andrew topped the group, qualifying for the last place in The Brexit Cup.  Owen and Bill moved into the final places for the Summer Shield.

The Brexit Cup
Rather than play a straight knockout competition, it was decided all 4 players would play each other once, with the best performer winning the trophy.

Results:
Simon Donadel 0 – 2 Andrew Garbutt
Tim Lovell 0 – 3 Adam Lundy
Andrew Garbutt 1 – 0 Tim Lovell
Adam Lundy 4 – 0 Simon Donadel
Simon Donadel 1 – 1 Tim Lovell
Adam Lundy 0 – 3 Andrew Garbutt
After an impressive performance of winning all of his games and not conceding a goal all day, Andrew Garbutt lifted the trophy.   Adam Lundy took runner up spot, narrowly missing out on the trophy in the final game of the day.

The Summer Shield
We adopted a slightly different format for the shield , with 2 groups of 3 playing each other once, with the winners of the group progressing to the plate final.

Group 1
Owen Shelley 0 – 3 Adam Washbrook
Adam Washbrook 1 – 0 Richard Tubb
Richard Tubb 2 – 1 Owen Shelley

Group 2
Bill Whitehouse 0 – 2 Peter Sleeth
Bill Whitehouse 2 – 0 Chris Cooke
Chris Cooke 0 – 1 Peter Sleeth

Final
Peter Sleeth 2 – 1 Adam Washbrook.

Goal of the tournament by Shaqiri

Geoffrey Marain wins the Euro 2016 tournament

Some of the players during the presentation of the trophies

The final

The top 4 of the evening

Geoffrey Marain receiving his proze

Despite of four late dropouts, there was an interesting field of 18 yesterday in Templeuve (belgium) for the "Euro 2016 Subbuteo tournament". To respect the agenda of the real football event, players were put in six groups. Only Matthias Averlant and Benjamin Marain didn't manage to qualify for the last 16 round. The main problem for players was to fight against the heat and the high level of humidity in the hall but you can't change the weather. In the end, there were some unlucky draws in the last 16 games as 4 of the 5 players coming from Seraing were put in the same half of the table. Ahmed Choukri (who was Albania in the tournament) managed to qualify for the semi-finals but lost int he last second of the game against Vincent Coppenolle (Ireland). In the other semi, Geoffrey Marain (England) and Jérôme Heyvaert (Czech Republic) tied but Marain won on shots. Marain later won the final against Coppenolle by a single goal. Who could believe England would win the Euro 2016 final?

The first event in Mattersburg

Last Saturday the club of Mattersburg (Austria) awas holding their very first WASPA tournament. 12 players, including two players from TFC Wiener Neustadt, were taking part. Robert Lenz defeated Markus Matzinger in the final (2-0) while semi-finalists were Erich Hinkelmann and Bettina Lenz. The event was followed by a barbecue and watching the Euro 2016 games on TV (in particular Austria vs Portugal). Another great day of table football :-)

Simone Trivelli again in Rome

In the latest leg of the WASPA Lazio League in Rome, Italy 8 players were competing in Swiss format. Simone Trivelli was on fire and won his four games while Patrizio Lazzaretti was the only one to finish with 9 points. it was necessary to calculate the "value of opponents" to decide the third place but finally Simone Lo Iacono was on the podium of the evening. In the general classification of the WLL 2015-2016, Patrizio Lazzaretti is the leader with 160 points while Simone Trivelli is second with 144 points. There is one more tournament to play to know the season winner.

Final standings of the evening:
1. Simone Trivelli
2. Patrizio Lazzaretti
3. Simone Lo Iacono
4. Luigi Aniballi
5. Sebastian Cima
6. Lorenzo Lazzaretti
7. Mario Lo Iacono
8. Alessandro Spoto