Record turnout at Remembrance Day Cup

The Johannesburg Table Football Club aka 'Joburg Eagles' hosted their third in the series of 'Eagles Nite Series' Events on Thursday the 10th of November in their lavish and upmarket home venue of the Randburg Astro Hockey Club.

The tournament was aptly named the Remembrance Day Cup as an honour to all who fought and losy loved ones locally and overseas. Chairman of the Joburg Eagles presented a Roll of Honour before the event depicting names put forward by all attending players of friends and family who fought in conflicts all over the world including our local Border War in Namibia and Angola.

A record turnout of 14 people enhanced this very special tournament. All players were placed in 2 groups of 7 and 2 games per group were played on the 4 tables.

Once again 'Just for You Meals' sponsored delicious toasted curry chicken and chicken mayo sandwiches. Delicious doughnuts were also sponsored for all players rounding off a good meal.

Once again there were a lot of spectators watching resulting in great marketing value for the Joburg Eagles. There were 2 newbies, including one junior, namely Koketso, who were thrilled at flicking around on the field of dreams.

Carl Bolweg was a visiting player from ETS Subbuteo Club. The top 2 players from each group qualified for the Cup semi finals and position 3 and 4 qualified for the Plate Semis.

Tournament favourites, Sean and Clifford topped their respective groups and qualified along with Carl and Waynne for the Cup semis. Greg, Paul, Chris and Innocent qualified for the Plate semis.

Greg defeated Paul in the Plate Final on penalties to claim overall 5th place.

In the Cup semis, Sean and Clifford accounted for Waynne and Carl respectively. Carl capped off a good evening by edging out Waynne by the odd goal to claim 3rd spot.

Once again, old adversaries and great friends, Sean and Clifford squared off in yet another Final. Play was very tight and once again the game ended goalless and penalties had to separate the finalists.

Clifford saved Sean's first three penalties and scored two of his own to gain a massive advantage. Although Sean scored his fourth, Clifford saved Sean's fifth penalty for an unassailable lead and claim the special commemmorative Remembrance Day Cup.

The next event in the Eagles Subbuteo Nite Series is scheduled for the 1st of December once again the annual Father Christmas Cup will be up for grabs. A secret Santa will also be arranged during the event with a new and unique special Skills Tournament.

(Report by Clifford Graaff)

Fred Elesbao winner in Sankt Pauli

Three visitors met with three of our “Braun und weiß” regulars for our small monthly competition on Tuesday. Fresh from their World Cup exploits Leon Schneider and Carsten Bock made their debuts in Hamburg from the Berlin Subbuteo Club, with monthly regular Fred Elesbao travelling up from Hannover SG94. 

Every player recorded a win on the night in a tightly fought league, although winner Fred did win all 5 of his fixtures to finish 5 points clear of 2nd placed Simon. Berlin SC’s Leon is fast improving and finished 3rd with Andre 2 points above Carsten & Dimitrios who scrapped it out at the bottom. Thanks to our friends who travelled to us on another cold Hamburg night.

(Report by Simon Stewart)

WASPA rankings of October 2022 are out

Dear all, you will find in the attached files the updated rankins and results of the WASPA circuit.

PDF file with results 

Excel file with rankings and statistics

The Flaming Flickers and the Kallithea Flame clubs were back in action in October

Players at the National Championship in Dublin, Ireland

October was a really busy month with 37 regional tournaments, 1 National Cup, 5 tournaments with old rules, 1 tournament with advanced rules and 1 test-match.

Halloween tournament in Sydney, Australia

If you see some missing results, don't hesitate to contact me. The best way to send results is to send an e-mail to vincentcoppenolle@gmail.com

Players in Johanneburg, including two guys from Malawi

We had a total of 365 individual entries, which is much more than the average. England was once again the most active nation with 18 tournaments held over the country. That's not surprise to see English clubs dominating the rankings of clubs (Top Clubs and Development League) and Alan Lee taking the lead in the overall individual ranking. In the season ranking, Patrick de Jong from the Netherlands is the new leader. Congratulations!

It's amazing to see that the 23 “top clubs” have already scored ranking points in the season, which means a lot about the motivation of the different clubs. The fight against relegation will be extremely interesting this season.

Andrew Martini and Stéphane Lambert played a test-macth in Japan

It was good also this month to see more nations joining the circuit. We had the very first test-match in Japan between players from New Zealand and Belgium. Spain held their first event of the season and it was good to see the clubs of Trieste (Italy), Achaioi (Greece), Barcelona FT (Spain) and Maryland SC (USA) back in the circuit.

Players at the Tournai tournament in Belgium

Some clubs or regional groups organize local circuits like for instance in Johannesburg (South Africa), Templeuve (Belgium) or Catalunya (Spain). That's a great idea to try to attract some new players and that's a great source of inspiration for others!

Thumbs up also for the Republic of Ireland as the Dublin club held a fantastic National Championship under WASPA banner. It's amazing to see a great field of 16 players and another title for Mark Farrell who defeated Martinog Bradley in the final!

We are aware that there are things to improve like:

- having more tournament reports on the WASPA blog;

- having more young players involved!

- having more tournaments in some countries where we feel the WASPA philosophy could really help to develop the game.

Ferran Coll, a big name winning the Barcelona tournament

Jason Christopher winner in Andover

We are looking for motivated organizers who are ready to become WASPA ambassadors in countries were there are no (or not many) WASPA tournaments for the moment. We would be pleased to have more contacts in France, Austria, Germany, Scandinavia, Southern Europe, South America, the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe. If you are interested to help, your ideas are more than welcome.

Your feedback is welcome. If you see more things to improve, please send a message to vincentcoppenolle@gmail.com

Don't hesitate to run tournaments under the WASPA banner. It's a great way to promote your club, to attract new players and to create local or regional development and we all agree this is what the game needs nowadays.

All your ideas to make the WASPA circuit more attractive are more than welcome. Don't hesitate to send your feedback. We also hope to see more and more clubs running events under the WASPA banner in the future.

We also take to opportunity to thank our partners:

- SubKits at https://www.facebook.com/subkits

- Flicks for Kicks at http://shop.flickforkicks.com/

- MAD ABOUT GAMES at http://subbuteo2012.co.uk

Well, that's all for now. 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 vincentcoppenolle@gmail.com

Please invite your friends to join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/waspasubbuteo/

We also have a WASPA page here: https://www.facebook.com/WASPA-World-Amateur-Subbuteo-Players-Association-231789816834700/

Keep in mind WASPA is also looking for new partners. If you know any company ready to support us (we don’t ask for money but we want some win-win agreements so that we can promote each  other), don't hesitate to contact me at vincent.cop@rsca.com or vincentcoppenolle@gmail.com

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Vincent Coppenolle, WASPA organizer

Eliot Kennedy wins Halloween WASPA in Sydney

Congratulations to Eliot on winning last Monday's Halloween WASPA. Also to Tony on making the final. Best for me was the fact that we got some long awaited returnees: Daniel's first appearance since January; Stefanos' first this year, and Louis' first since the AGP19. I think it's fair to say they all had a great time and the spirit on the night was excellent. Some truly amazing results, lots of goals and shows that these "less pressure" club nights can rekindle the passion for the game.

(Report by Steve Dettre)

First WASPA test-match in Japan

Andrew (left) and Stéphane

We are pleased to publish the report received by Andrew Martini, a New Zealand Subbuteo player based in Japan. Andrew played a WASPA test-match last week against Belgium's Stéphane Lambert and he's glad to share his experience. It's definately a great experience when two players from different countries meet for the first time, play competitive games and share the same love for the game.

"On October 27th I held a test-match series here in Kuki city, Saitama prefecture Japan with visiting Stephane Lambert of Belgium under the WASPA banner.

It was a great occasion to finally meet in person after 2 years of friendship on Facebook, and also it gave the both of us a chance to use and test some new bases.

We also had another reason to meet up, and that was to prepare for the upcoming Fistf Japan Autumn Satellite tournament which would take place on October 29th, I was eager to get some good solid games of Subbuteo table soccer in after being completely away from the sport for over a year, I hadn't even flicked once in around 14 months.

The bases Stephane wanted to try out for this test match series were the Tcha 2.0 arrows HW, Tcha 2.1 HW arrows and the Extreme works pro evo 1 bases.

I wanted to try the Astrobase cc5 tribases for the first time today under recommendation from Brian Andrews (United Kingdom).

The test match series was played on an Astrobase Astroturf pro pitch.

We assembled our teams, polished the bases, and got our beers ready...just before kickoff we cracked open a few pints of kirins classic Kirin Lager beer and commenced playing in the spirit of friendship and fun!

The games were indeed a fun-filled, good paced fairly close contest throughout that only became even more enjoyable as time went on, with the help of Japan's finest beers to keep the kovial atmosphere flowing, starting with Kirin lager classic before polishing off several more 500ml cans of Asahi Superdry.

The day belonged to Stephane though winning  1-0, 2-0 before I managed to hold him to a 0-0 draw, with the final game also belonging to Stephane by a slim down to the final minute1-0 margin. Although losing the series 4-0, I was quite satisfied with my defensive ability after such a long layoff away from the game, and the fact that I was able to pick up the game and get in the groove fairly quickly, with Stephane's help.

The most important thing though was that Subbuteo won the day in an atmosphere of light-hearted fun and good times had by both of us!

We were ready to head to the Fistf Autumn Japan satellite tournament on Oct 29th, where Stephane finished in the last 8 and I managed to surprise myself and go through to the last four and finish in 3rd place.

Oh, and I hope to have more test match series with visiting players...so ...

If anyone is planning on visiting Japan in the future, make sure to definitely visit me, and let's play some fun Subbuteo test-match series together too ( Japan beers will be free!) you can always reach me at andymartini1969@gmail.com.

Looking forward to seeing you for more games under the WASPA banner here in Japan!"

Floodlite Challenge Thriller

The Johannesburg Table Football Club aka 'Joburg Eagles' hosted their second in the series of 'Eagles Nite Series' Events on Thursday the 27th of October in their lavish and upmarket home venue of the Randburg Astro Hockey Club. The second series event was named the 'Floodlite Nite Challenge Cup'.

This is a new and exciting iniative by the Joburg Eagles in hosting numerous Nite Series Events during the season whereby points will be awarded to each participant for each event based on their finishing position. Overall Series Trophies and medals will be handed out at the end of the 'Eagles Nite Series' in August 2023.

The full list of Nite Series Events has been finalized and will be published on the Joburg Eagles facebook page shortly.

Once again 'Just for You Meals' sponsored delicious toasted curry chicken sandwiches and boerie rolls which were duly consumed.

A field of 7 players attended with 3 Subbuteo Clubs represented, Joburg Eagles, ETS and Easterns TFC.

Once again there were a lot of spectators watching resulting in great marketing value for the Joburg Eagles.

All players participated in the Swiss system format resulting in multiple games for all players.

Visiting players, Ian Clarke and Fernando Rodrigues from Easterns and ETS Subbuteo Clubs respectively, joined perennial home club favourite, Clifford to flick-off for the Floodlite Nite Challenge title.

Clifford, Ian and Fernando tied their respective games resulting in goal difference separating the three players in the closest

finish yet at a Joburg Eagles event. Clifford edged out Ian, who narrowly pipped Fernando in the final placings.

Ever improving Eagle, Paul Seemu claimed a creditable 4th place edging out teammate Chris to earn valuable Series points. Chris, Alex Rodrigues and newbie Innocent claimed the latter positions.

The next event in the Eagle Subbuteo Nite Series is the Remembrance Day War Veterans Cup to be held on the 10th of November at the Randburg Astro Hockey Club. A minutes silence will be held before flick-off in honour of all our fallen comrades.

Please wear a poppy to the event, if not, the Joburg Eagles will hand out poppies to all players.

See you at our next, very special event!

(Report by Clifford Graaff)

Belgium: results of recent tournaments held around the country

 Here is a brief summary of results of some events held in Belgium in the last few weeks. We were glad to see events held under WASPA banner organized by the clubs of Wamme SC, SC Flanders, Templeuve United and Magic Team Tournai.

September 9: Jean Grosdent winner in Bande

Final table (all Wamme players unless noted)

1. Jean Grosdent
2. Pascal Droeven
3. Noah Dirick
4. Henri Grosdent
5. Noah Janssens
6. Thomas Janssens
7. Maxim Grosdent
8. Lulani Verhoeven

October 3: David Wouters does it again in Antwerp

Final table (all Flanders and Belgian players unless noted)

1. David Wouters
2. Jos Ceulemans
3. Rinaldo van Dijk (the Netherlands)
4. Geert Leys
5. Johan Lourdon

October 14: Geoffrey Marain on fire in Templeuve

Final table (all Templeuve and Belgian players unless noted)

1. Geoffrey Marain (AS Hennuyer)
2. Michaël Dupret (MT Tournai)
3. Vincent Coppenolle
4. Benjamin Marain (AS Hennuyer)
5. Jocelyn Celton
6. Sébastien Sorge (France)

October 27: Noah Janssens surprising winner in Bande

Final table (all Wamme players unless noted)

1. Noah Janssens
2. Bruno Mottet (SC Temploux)
3. Jean Grosdent
4. Maxim Grosdent
5. Noah Dirick
6. Thomas Janssens
7. Philippe Thys
8. Lulani Verhoeven

October 28: Vincent Coppenolle wins Tournai club night

Players in a friendly atmosphere

Top 3 of the night

Final table (all Tournai and Belgian players unless noted)

1. Vincent Coppenolle (Templeuve)
2. André Flémal (BX Subbuteo Club)
3. Michaël Dupret
4. Didier Moons (Templeuve)
5. Pascal Flémal (BX Subbuteo Club)
6. Sébastien Sorge (France/Templeuve)

Facebook Links

Templeuve United: https://www.facebook.com/groups/25637672693 and https://www.facebook.com/TempleuveUnited
SC Flanders: https://www.facebook.com/groups/479038732231303
Wamme SC: https://www.facebook.com/groups/180520979012248

Next events

Tournament in Templeuve on November 11 (2.00 pm)
Tournament in Antwerp on November 21 (8.00 pm)

Latest WASPA results from Greece

Big success for the Octoberfest tournament

October was a month to remember for Greek Subbuteo. In Kallithea, 16 players competed in the traditional "Octoberfest WASPA tournament" in two categories, modern and old. German teams were used, beers and sausage in the catering section, and as always great fun and super games for the Subbuteo Flaming Flickers.

In the modern rules event, Mike Tastsoglou defeated Vassilis Dragossis in the final while Ioannis Stergiopoulos and Makis Kazatzoglou were the losing semi-finalists.

The old Subbuteo event was won by Nikos Probonas who was playing his very first WASPA event. The Noctuas player defeated Vaggelis Scotiniotis by a single goal in the final. Vasilis Tsakalakis and Antonis Krysilas made it the semis.

Later in the months, the Kallithea Flames held their "Copa Libertadores" with 16 players competing with original Subbuteo teams. Vaggelis Giantais (Ibis, Brazil) defeated Mike Tastsoglou to claim the title while Vaggelis Scotiniotis and Vasilis Tsakalakis made it to the final 4.

Earlier in the month, the club of Achaioi TSC had a tournament with FISTF rules. Panagiotis Sotiropoulos finished on top of a group of 5 while Dimitris Sotiropoulos was runner-up. Nikos Vasilopoulos was 3rd, Georgios Verganelakis 4th and Manolis Sotiropoulos 5th.

Manolis Sotiropoulos had more luck a few days later, winning the club's first old rules event while Dimitris Sotiropoulos was runner-up.

Clinton Gahwiler wins Cape Town tournament

After is participation at the FISTF World CUp in Rome, Clinton Gahwiler was back ina ction last Saturday in Cape Town, South Africa. Clinton had three visitors from Johannesburg visiting to play a small tournament with old Subbuteo equipment. The event was played with modern rules though. It was a lovely afternoon, with great banter and some superb goals! In the end, after home and away games, Clinton Gahwiler took the best while Ian Clarke (Easterns TFC) was runner-up, Jason Kennedy (ETS SC) was third and Gary Downs (Easterns TFC) was fourth.

The next Cape Town event will be played on November 26.

Mark Farrell retains All-Ireland title

Players in Dublin

The All-Ireland championship took place on Saturday and was once again a WASPA event! There was a fantastic turnout of 16 players and Cherrytree Walkinstown was a fantastic venue for the games. All players had a great time and Mark Farrell retained his title after beating Martinog Bradley in the final (2-1). Kenny Beggs and Barry Spence made it to the semi-finals while John Moore, aka the godfather of Subbuteo in Ireland, won the plate final against Donegal's Brendan Rodgers.

Runner-up Martinog Bradley and champion Mark Farrell

Daniel Kaliszewski was the junior champion and Elliot Fitzpatrick was runner-up.

Thanks to Andy Fitzpatrick, John Moore and Mark Farrell for the organising and planning.

Organizers are happy to announce there will be the Wexford open in Gorey on November 26th.

Players in Derry

Earlier in the week, Derry City TFC had their monthly tournament. Kenny ‘The Butcher’ Beggs took the Frightening Flicks ‘22 title with a 2-1 win over the Bearded Bradley. The Fearsome Frankie Connolly won the plate with a 2-1 comeback win over newcomer Dastardly Danny Toye.

Useful links

Cherrytree Dublin Subbuteo Club: https://www.facebook.com/cherrytreedublinsubbuteoclub

Derry City TFC: https://www.facebook.com/DerryCityTableFootball