News from around the world

South Africa: Johannesburg will hold another tournament on February 10, 2013. Interested players can contact Clifford Graaff for details at Clifford@worldsviewsports.co.za or c.graaff@vodamail.co.za
People interested to hear about Subbuteo in South Africa can follow the updates on the South African Subbuteo website at www.premiersubbuteoleague.leaguerepublic.com

Singapore: Leste Aquila Subbuteo club will be hosting a WASPA 'Leste Cup' challenge on February 24, 2013 at 10.00 am at Jurong Central Zone D RC centre. Contact Rudy Norita for details at norrud@singnet.com.sg

Australia: a new club is ready to start in Brisbane. John Sexton, who recently attended a tournament in Hamilton (Canada), is trying to set up something. his astropitch is ready for games and he has already recruited an ex-Scot. Contact at John.Sexton@camelon.com.au

England: the Harrow Weald Subbuteo Club is trying to organize a first WASPA tournament on February 10 or 17, 2013. The event and the date are still to be confirmed to but there are good chances things will happen soon. More details can be found on the club's Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/HarrowWealdSubbuteoClub

Zach Walker is the the king of California

Zach Walker won the second WASPA tournament of the week-end held by the Southern California SC. On sunday, the player from Colorado beat Paul O'Donovan in the final (7-0) after another impressive win against Wayne Smith (8-0) in the semi. 9 players were taking part and there were dropped in two groups. Rob Tuckers also reached the semi-final but lost to Paul (3-1).

Welcome Harrow Weald SC

Welcome to the new club of Harrow Weald Subbuteo Club, based in the London area. The new club is expecting to run a league and possible WASPA tournaments in the future. You can join the Facebook page of the club at the following link: http://www.facebook.com/HarrowWealdSubbuteoClub

Looking for a bright future

After a very promising year 2012 with 61 tournaments played under WASPA banner, it is time to speak about the future of WASPA with Vincent Coppenolle, the organizer and founder of theWASPA circuit.

Vincent Coppenolle, did you expect such a development?
Definately no! Last year in Januay, WASPA was still very small with only 15 tournaments held in a few different places. Month after month, there was more interest shown for WASPA by different subbuteo clubs from around the world. It was very exciting to hold the first tournaments in Italy because it's really the "country of subbuteo" and suddenly more italian clubs have been attracted by WASPA.

Italy is not everything. There were some other interesting developments...
Absolutely. I was very happy that WASPA contributed to relaunch subbuteo tournaments in Canada and Australia. Right now things remain small in Australia because tournaments are only held in Penrith (near Sydney) but there are good hopes that more events will be held in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide in the future. As for Canada, the development has been huge.. Thanks to Shane Hoopfer's efforts, tournaments have been hald in four different cities (Vancouver, Toronto, Hamilton and Calgary) and there are good hopes that more cities and clubs will be involved in the future. We can not forget that the very first tournament in Hong Kong was held in April 2012 under WASPA banner.

Some other nations have also supported the WASPA circuit...
I was extremely happy to have more tournaments in the US. I remember the very first WASPA tournament was held in California but since then we have had events in Michigan, Delaware and Maryland. There will be a tournament in Florida in March. Some other nations have also supported WASPA by organising tournaments. South Africa, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Northern Ireland and Ireland are happy to be part of our family. I also believe there will be many tournaments in the UK in 2013.

What are the goals of WASPA for the future?
2013 can be the year of development with more tournaments and more regular organizers. I hope nations such as Sweden and Denmark will be organizing tournaments again and hopefully we will have the first tournaments in Malaysia and South America. Hopefully more locations will be added in the "WASPA circuit map".

Do you think the relaunch of the gameSubbuteo will help to boost WASPA?
I think we have to help each other. The fact that Subbuteo material will be available in shops in many countries will create interest and many new players will be interested to join tournaments in the future. WASPA can also help Subbuteo by organizing tournaments in shopping malls or shops. The tournaments held at the Mega Games shop in Penrith (Australia) are just the way to go! One of my dreams is to reach some agreement with Subbuteo in the future. We don't need money from them but it would be great if Subbuteo could announce our tournaments and add a link to our blog. We have had support from Superfooty and hopefully we will have more partners in the future.

There will also be more types of tournaments in the future, right?
Since January 1, 2013 organizers can not only host regional tournaments and tournaments with the old rules. It is also possible to organize some "promotional tournaments" for players who are not in the top 50 of the ranking. Nations will also have the possibility to host a "National Cup Challenge" that should be bigger than a "Regional tournament".

Do you think FISTF and WASPA can live together?
Absolutely, FISTF is made for elite players and players who take the game very seriously. If some players are not scared to travel to play only two games, they can go to FISTF events. WASPA is made to offer more games to weaker players and to the players who can not afford to travel very often. It is also very positive to see some top players such as Mark Gauci or Joseph Mifsud taking part in WASPA tournaments just because they love the game!

What do you say to people who think WASPA is made to divide the table football community?
It's totally wrong. We have to learn from other sports. As a big fan of cyclo-cross, I have learned that sometimes a sport can be very popular in one country and much less popular in other nations. The cyclo-cross world cup has 7 or 8 races in different nations. In the belgian races, there are sometimes 20.000 spectators while there are sometimes less than 1000 spectators in Italy, Czech Republic or Spain. In Belgium, many races that don't count for the world cup have created their own "challenges of regularity" to attract more attention from the medias. Even if these events don't count for the world cup, there are always most of the top riders taking part, many spectators and TV channels covering the races live! We can do something similar with subbuteo. Having many small events being "part of something" because they can not be part of the FISTF circuit can only be positive for organizers and players.

What would be the final word?
I just want to say to organizers that they should not be scared to be part of the WASPA circuit. Once they will be part of the family, they will just enjoy it! Subbuteo remains the most beautiful game on the planet and WASPA would like to help new players to feel welcome in tournaments.

The Eureka Cup for Zach Walker

Zach, a big champion

Zach travelled from Colorado to play in California!

Nice group picture

The first of the two tournaments held in Simi Valley, California this week-end was the Eureka Cup. The tournament was played on saturday by seven players and it was played on a single program, "so that everyone could get the honor of getting crushed by Zach", reported Wayne Smith. Zach Walker won all his game and was the final winner while Wayne Smith ended second and Paul O'Donovan was third.

Farrell Wins Celbridge Open

Mark Farrell won the second Irish Circuit event of the season on goal-difference, ahead of Kenny Beggs. Six players competed in a League format, playing each other twice. Despite gaining a victory and a draw against Farrell, Beggs had to settle for 2nd place due to a rare defeat by Nicky Moore. It was the very first WASPA tournament in Ireland.

Small tournament but good fun

The second WASPA tournament played with the old ETF rules was held on friday in Modena, Italy. Unfortunately there was a poor turnout of three players, which is not so bad after all as this type os events is still very unusual. Marco Di Francesco ended as winner in a group stage with 2 wins and 2 draws while Stefani Cirillo was second and Marco Berselli was third.

Paulo Gouveia is the first WASPA winner from Portugal

Paulo Gouveia

Paul Andreas congratulates the young Hayden Osbourne

The final

Paul Andreas congratulates Paulo Gouveia

16 players attended the WASPA tournament held in Chingford (near London) on January 2. The event was organized by Paul Andreas and the Essex Subbuteo Club and had an amazing field of eight different nations taking part with 9 players from England but also representatives from Portugal, Wales, Cyprus, Australia, Pakistan, Jamaica and Italy. Every player was offered the chance to play six games and there were many close matches. After the group stage, players had to play the quarter-finals of the main event or the consolation tournament. The final was another international match with Paulo Gouveia (Portugal) beating Paul Andreas (Cyprus) 2-1. Elliot Bellefontaine and Kevin Dyson were the semi-finalists. Colin Tarry from Yorkshire Phoenix beat Adrian Davies in the consolation final. it was definately a great evening. The first WASPA tournament in England with FISTF rules was a success and hopefully many more events like this will follow in the future!

Final standings:
1 Paulo Gouveia (POR/net)
2 Paul Andreas (CYP/fam)
3 Kevin Dyson (ENG/tsp)
4 Elliot Bellefontaine (ENG/kei)
5 Martin Bellefontaine (ENG/kei)
6 Gerald Brightwell (AUS/wes)
7 Rudi Peterschinigg (ITA/-)
8 John Turpin (ENG/tsp)
9 Colin Tarry (ENG/yor)
10 Adrian Davies (WAL/kei)
11 Kevin Mason (JAM/ess)
12 Stuart Osbourne (ENG/-)
13 Lee Ulatowski (ENG/-)
14 Adam Douglas (ENG/kei)
15 Naweed Zaman (PAK/-)
16 Jayden Osbourne (ENG/-)

First tournament of the year in Canada

The year 2013 already started with a first tournament played in Calgary on January 1. Four players of the Calgary Subbuteo Club where present and Shane Hoopfer did it again by beating Logan Stevenson int he final. It was Shane's third title and Logan's first final. Josh Braun couldn't find a goal but his defense was stingy other than the first half of the first game. Ben Herrel also racked up his first two draws and only gave up one goal in regulation in four games!
Next event in Calgary will be Sunday February 10th at noon. Contact: Shane Hoopfer at Hoop27@gmail.com

Tournament in England

Last minute announcement: there will be a tournament on January 2 held by the Essex Subbuteo club in England at the Tom Oakham Centre, 6A Weale Road, Chingford. Flick-off at 7.00 pm. Confirmed enrants so far are: Paul Andreas, Rudi Peters, John Turpin, Kevin Dyson, Martin Bellafontaine, Elliot Bellafontaine, Kevin Mason, Matthew Neill, Stuart Osborne, Jayden Osborne, Naweed Zamen, Paulo Gouveia, Colin Tarry, Geraldo Brightwell, Adrian Davies, Adam Douglas. Trophies for the Winner & Runner Up.
Club link: http://essextablesoccerassociation.webs.com/