Anas bin Rahamat takes day 1 of the TFAS League

The TFAS League 2017 kicked off on 8 January with 10 players competing in a 4-round Swiss Format System, where the player with the most points after 4 rounds will emerge as the winner. Match Day 1 saw returning players from the 80s, such as Ashley and Yew Loy, and also our Italian player based in Hong Kong, Antonio.

The results after the four rounds were as follows:
1. Anas bin Rahamat (Jurong Central)
2. Antonio Carabillo (Hong Kong Dragons)
3. Rudy Hesty Roselan (Jurong Central)
4. Tan Yew Loy (Kebun Baru SC)
5. Ashley Tan (Singapore Lions)
6. Nic Tan (Jurong Central)
7. Noor Haikal (Jurong Central)
8. Vikas K. Chandiramani (Jurong Central)
9. Michael Choong (Jurong Central)
10. Chandru Chugani (-)

A first tournament in Burgdorf

The first WASPA tournament in Burgdorf (Germany) was a success. The event took place on Friday, January 6 with five players taking part in a group format. The mood was excellent and all games were totally fair. The results were very close and also the ranking at the end of the games. The winner was Frank Stiller and in the evening, players met in the restaurant to finish a perfect day. There are good hopes to see some more WASPA events in Burgdorf.


The final standings were as follows:
1. Frank Stiller
2. Uwe Stiller
3. Tom Horn
4. Klaus Fritz
5. Charis Chatziplaton

2017 starts well for Geoffrey Marain

There was a great field of 14 players for the first tournament of the year in Belgium. Templeuve United managed to attract reprensentatives from several different clubs to play a great tournament in Swiss format. Geoffrey Marain won his four games to claim the title while Jos Ceulemans and Geert Leys tied for the second place with 9 points and the same goal difference. Thomas Somers was playing his first tournament and will soon become a real good player.

Top 3 of the night: Ceulemans-Marain-Leys

The final standings were as follows:

1. Geoffrey Marain (Flickers Milano) - 12 points
2ea Geert Leys (London & Essex United) - 9 points
2ea Jos Ceulemans (London & Essex United) - 9 points
4. Matthias Averlant (Templeuve United) - 9 points
5. Stéphane Lambert (Templeuve United) - 9 points
6. Vincent Coppenolle (Templeuve United) - 6 points
7. Noah Denne (SC Eugies) - 6 points
8. Corentin Boltz (SC Eugies) - 6 points
9. André Boltz (SC Eugies) - 4 points
10. Florian Renaut (Templeuve United) - 4 points
11. Eric Caillaux (France/-) - 3 points
12. Sébastien Denne (SC Eugies) - 3 points
13. Benjamin Marain (SC Warcoing Ducks) - 3 points
14. Thomas Somers (SC Flanders) - 0 points

Paul O'Donovan Rossa wins in Thousand Oaks

Paul and Varant

Some more results from 2016 come from California where Paul O'Donovan Rossa won the Thousand Oaks tournament after defeating Varant Kurkeyerian in the final (1-0).

Bruno and Joao Casaca were the other competitors of the day.

California Subbuteo CLub will host another tournament on January 11 in Newbury Park, CA.

Promotional event in Templeuve

Geoffrey Kelner - Fabrice Guyaux - Jean-Luc Platiaux - Damien Urbain

On December 17 the club of Templeuve was holding a national tournament with a total of 45 players. Players were divided in three categories according to the skill of the players. Rémy Huynh (Rochefort TS) was the Serie A champion while Bruno Timpano (Seraing) won the Serie B. The Serie C tournament was also a WASPA promotional event with 19 players competing in Swiss system. Fabrice Guyaux took the honors after winning his five games while Jean-Luc Platiaux, after losing his first games, won four games in a row to finish runner-up. The final standings were as follows:
1. Fabrice Guyaux (Etoile Sarthoise)
2. Jean-Luc Platiaux (Templeuve United)
3. Geoffrey Kelner (SC Seraing)
4. Damien Urbain (SC Eugies)
5. Dany Timmerman (Etoile Sarthoise)
6. Basile Magermans (JSC Rochefort)
7. Noah Denne (SC Eugies)
8. Aurélien Feye (JSC Rochefort)
9. Sébastien Denne (SC Eugies)
10. Matthias Averlant (Templeuve United)
11. André Boltz (SC Eugies)
12. Florian Renaut (Templeuve United)
13. Benjamin Marain (SC Warcoing Ducks)
14. Henri Grosdent (Wamme SC)
15. Charlotte Bouchez (SC Eugies)
16. Alex Genart (SC Eugies)
17. Lucas Raison (SC Eugies)
18. Roman Vincke (SC Eugies)
19. Rafaël Midoux (AS Hennuyer)

Kostas Seses wins Boxing Day tournament

A second WASPA success for Kostas Seses (right)

The club of Proteas Athens had a successful "Boxing Day" tournament on January 31 with 24 players from 9 different clubs competing in a special format of 8 groups of 3 players with then 8 barrage games before the last 16 round. Kostas Seses (Olympia) was the winner of the final after a close game against Kostas Pappas (CCT Roma). George Papadopoulos (Olympia) and Yannis Salamouris (Atlas) reached the semi-finals. Kostas Seses wins therefore his second WASPA title and reaches the 77th place of the WASPA ranking.

See more pictures hereunder.

Monthly report of December 2016

Dear all, like every month, here are the monthly standings of the WASPA circuit.

PDF file
Excel file

It has been another busy month with records of 31 extra tournaments (29 "regional", 2 "promotional").

Four clubs have organized their very first WASPA event:
Palmerston North SC (New Zeland)
JSC Rochefort (Belgium)
Sydney TFC (Australia)
Proteas Athens SC (Greece)

The first WASPA event in New Zealand

For the very first time, we have players from 47 different nations in the rankings. Since the WASPA circuit started in 2011, 50 different nationalities have been involved. Welcome to Mexico and India and thanks to Ignacio Campbell for introducing players from several nationalities during the event held in New Zealand (the very first "official" tournament ever held in the country).

Thanks to all the organizers who have helped to make WASPA a success story in 2016. The circuit has been growing and the Subbuteo community takes WASPA more and more seriously as our tournaments are more and more attractive.

Action in Melbourne, Australia

We have now 15 "top clubs" even if we are still waiting the full details for 3 of them.

In December the "WASPA Test Matches" have been launched. It's a new project to promote friendly relations between players from different countries or different areas. Sometimes, when two players from different countries meet, they find it difficult to know the standards of play in their respective countries. As WASPA is a good way to have players meeting for some games, we have started the idea of “test match series”. For instance, if a player from South Africa is travelling to Sydney, Australia on holiday, there is sometimes no opportunity to attend a tournament but it’s possible to contact a player from the home club to arrange a “test match series”. The “distance” criteria will remain open to interpretation (for instance 2 US players from different States can play “test match series”). See more details on the WASPA blog!

Christmas tournament in Auvelais, Belgium

Well, that's all for now. I hope you will love the statistics, results and rankings.

Please remember you only need 3 players to register your tournament. Don't be scared to join. It's free and tournament requests can be sent by e-mail to vincent.cop@rsca.com

Flickers in Yokohama, Japan

Keep an eye on the WASPA blog at http://waspa-circuit.blogspot.com as there are updates almost every day.
The FISTF website can be found here: http://www.fistf.com

Ideas to develop the WASPA circuit or to make things more attractive are always welcome. We stay at your disposal for more info.

Yours sincerely,
Vincent Coppenolle (vincent.cop@rsca.com)

Dimitrios Stamatis is the Volos Christmas cup winner

The Greek club of Argonaftes 2004 TSC based in Volos was organizing a Christmas cup for the second time under WASPA banner. It was a good experience for the local club who managed to get a good turnout of 10 players. Dimitrios Stamatis defeated Alekos Prigkos to claim the title. Haris Chatziplaton and Spyros Kourias reached the semi-finals. It was another good day of Subbuteo. Congratulations to the Argonauts!

Nic Tan takes the honors in Singapore

Lim Ding Heng, Mohd Rizal Taib, Mohd Faizul Jaafar, Galvin Ho, Muhd Fadhly Fahmi, Mohd Farhan Jaafar, Nic Tan, Muhammad Salihin

The finalists: Muhd Fadhly
Fahmi (L) and Nic Tan (R)

The Jurong Central Subbuteo Club held its last WASPA tournament for the year, the Residents’ Committee Cup (RC Cup) in the evening of Friday, 30 December 2016. Besides celebrating another year of active table football activity at the club, the tournament coincided with a potluck party at the venue with the residents of the area in which club players actively participated as well.

While a number of regulars and top players were absent, there was a decent participation of eight players. This included a surprising re-welcome to four of the club’s former youth players and now young men, Fadhly, Galvin, Farhan, and Faizul. They were active players in their schooling days in the days of Jurong Central Subbuteo Club’s predecessor entity, the Leste Aquila Subbuteo Club. They are currently performing or have recently concluded their national service obligations.

Players were divided into two groups of four with the group winners meeting in a final to decide the tournament winner. Nic Tan was the winner of Group 1 with three wins out of three. In Group 2, Fadhly, Farhan, and Galvin enjoyed close games between them, showing little signs of table football rust with Fadhly edging out Farhan for the top spot. In the final, Nic Tan beat Fadhly 3-0 to end off table football activities at the club for the year, and win the RC Cup.

Do join us next year for the club’s league sessions / WASPA tournaments, and the club’s regular Friday flicks sessions! All are welcome!

Best wishes for 2017

Just a quick note to send my best wishes to all our players and group members. May 2017 bring you a lot of positive things, good health and more love for our great hobby. 2016 has been a fantastic year for the WASPA circuit. We have seen a lot of new clubs hosting events and many nations being involved in the tournaments. The development must continue and hopefully numbers will be bigger withing a year. May Subbuteo bring joy and happiness in your life as this hobby will continue to connect people together. Whether you want to become a top player or just play for fun with friends, Subbuteo will remain in our hart forever! Thanks to everyone for the continuous support. We know now that WASPA is a really important circuit for the promotion of the game so let's keep the faith in what we are doing! Have a great year!

Best regards from Belgium,
Vincent Coppenolle