Dario Passadore takes the Suncoast Open

Dario and Alex

Craig and Alex

The Suncoast Open 2016 took place this Sunday in Tampa, Florida with the presence of Craig Thom from Dundee United TFC. Dario Passadore, who recently joined the Italian team of Aosta, won the tournament, after finishing on top of the table while usual winner Alex Batacchi was runner-up. Congratulations to all.

A very international event in Prague

This Saturday there was another tournament in Prague, Czech Republic. It was a great day with seven players playing a league format so that everyone could play six games. Organizers, who prepared sandwiches and cakes and hosted the event in their "Subbuteo Hotel", were happy to host Anika Hentrich and Filippo Vitali from Berlin but also Martin Novotny who was back on the pitch after a break of 20 years and beginner Cedric Farrugia from Malta. In the end, Marco Zucchi finished on top with 16 points to take his second WASPA title. David Young (14) was runner-up and Filippo Vitali (13) took the third place. Jiri Uchytil finished on 4th place, Martin Novotny was 5th, Anika Hentrich 6th and Cedric Farrugia 7th. Thanks to all the players for their fair spirit.

3 in a row for Chessray Jooste

(report by Julian vd Merwe)

Saturday 5 November 2016, Pretoria, South Africa : 
The 2016 edition of the PFC League 3 Cup attracted a small field of 6 entries, with a return of Subbuteo action in Pretoria after a 2 month break due to various postponements of this event. Two time winner (2014 & 2015) of this event, Jayden vd Merwe got the event off with a bang - scoring after only 59sec of play against Julian vd Merwe in Match 1. Jayden then added a second goal after 11min to make the final score 2-0, with Jayden making the early statement of intent to hold onto his League 3 title? Another big result in Round 1 was when Chessray Jooste dispatched of Bevin Reed by 1-0, with the 2 month break evident as Bevin's shooting was not up to his usual standard! In Round 2 action, Bevin hit the target as he beat Kegan vd Merwe by 1-0 in an early contender for match of the day - an action packed match where Kegan's shooting was left wanting this time. Conway Julie then held the high flying Jayden vd Merwe to a 0-0 draw, paving the way for Chessray to go top as he (Chessray) beat Julian by 2-1.
Round 3 saw Conway score his first ever goal as he managed to force a 1-1 draw by scoring after 10min of play against the much fancied Chessray Jooste ! Jayden was once again left frustrated by elder brother Kegan in a 0-0 draw, and Jayden sensed his chances slipping of holding onto his title. Elsewhere Julian recored an impressive 1-0 victory over Bevin to lift himself off the foot of the standings.
Round 4 saw two heavyweights in Jayden & Bevin clash for the runner-up spot, as the match ended 1-1 with the draw being enough for Jayden to secure 2nd spot and Bevin had to settle for a dissappointing 4th palce overall !! Elsewhere Conway held Julian to a 0-0 draw. The match of the day then unfolded as Chessray beat Kegan by 2-1, with Chessray leading by 2-0 and only 5min left to play Kegan suddenly sprung into action taking the game to Chessray - his efforts rewarded by a goal with still 3min left on the clock, but Chessray held out & the win ensured that Chessray captured his 7th WASPA title to date!
Finally, a word on the effort from Conway Julie on the day - Conway managed an unbeaten run to capture 3rd place overall, an impressive result as Conway battled against the 5 most seasoned players within the PFC ranks! For his exploits, Conway was rewarded with the new PFC club shirt as well!
As always - thanks to all for attending and making the day a success once again.

More images from the event can be viewed here :
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B24jpUVAP3Rkd0hvTFhpTDFYTTQ?usp=sharing

Final Standings - Points
Chessray Jooste 10
Jayden vd Merwe 6
Conway Julie 4
Bevin Reed 4
Julian vd Merwe 4
Kegan vd Merwe 2

The PFC website & facebook page will be updated shortly with photo's & news content at :
http://pfctest.leaguerepublic.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/PFC-SA/519566284755728

Number 62 for Geoffrey Marain

Winner Geoffrey and runner-up Matthias

Last Wednesday the Warcoing Ducks had to move their tournament to the premises of templeuve United as their own room in Pecq was being repainted. 8 players competed in a group stage so that everyone played 7 games of 20 minutes. Surprisingly there was no draw during the 28 games and Geoffrey marai (Flickers Milano) ended on top of the table while the young Matthias Averlant, who was celebrating his 15th birthday, was a surprising runner-up, a few days after lifting the National U15 Cup in Rochefort. Matthias improved a lot over the last few weeks and managed to win important games against Vincent Coppenolle (3rd in the final table) and Corentin Boltz (4th). John Verfaillie also proved he's improving by taking the 5th place while André Boltz won his decisive game against Florian Renaut to take the 6th places. The young Benjamin Marain ended in last position but he's also showing great improvements. There will be a Templeuve United tournament in November 11 in the afternoon while on the same day, Templeuve will also host the first leg of the provincial league in the morning.

WASPA updates of October 2016

Dear Subbuteo friends,

here are the monthly updates of the WASPA circuit with statistics, results and rankings.

Excel: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4_PpphlADgVZFpzLTkzVjJIV28/
PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4_PpphlADgVbGMzYTZOQzR4ems/

We are pleased to announced October was a fantastic month for WASPA with 33 events held in many different countries. We had 31 regional events and 2 tournaments with the old rules (one was "off-records" due to the fact every player played in three different categories over the same day).

Pete Alegi from the US paid a visit to the Cape Town flickers in South Africa

Among the good surprises of the month, we can notice:
- Japan made a come-back in the WASPA circuit with the presence of a player from Nepal who... won the tournament (!);
- Canada is back after a long hyatus and we are very happy to welcome back the club of Montreal;
- It was very exciting to see the first WASPA tournament in the North of Portugal as players from Orfeao Foz do Douro organized their first tournament;
- the new club of Kebun Baru SC in Singapore hosted their first tournament this month;
- WASPA was present again in Crete with a tournament held in Heraklion (Greece);
- In Greece the Pireaus Lions hosted their first WASPA event. Welcome to them;
- We were glad to see action in Prague, Czech Republic;
- Belgium and England had 6 different tournaments;
- Australia was very active with tournaments in Parramatta, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne;
- Italy had no tournament in September but we were glad to see events in Milano, Firenze and Catanzaro in October;
- the young Kye Arnold from England is on top of the Season ranking.

Japan and Nepal in action in Tokyo

47 players played for the first time in the WASPA circuit and we now have more than 1600 ranked players from 45 different nations.

9 clubs have joined the "top clubs" project and we really hope to see some more clubs joining soon.

Hallowween cup in Singapore

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

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

A good turnout of 14 in Melbourne

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)

England: New players in WASPA Subbuteo Action!

Kent Invicta travelled down to Torbay, Devon to the NBTA Twirling National Championships to get some new players involved in flicking whilst their sisters were busy twirling. Over 3 days, including a day to learn the rules and how to play, 8 new players tried the game and got trophies at the end of 3 days intensive competition whilst representing their twirling teams.

The 2 WASPA tournaments saw Kye and Louis play out finals on both days, winning one each but the trophies and attention must go to all the new flickers who really applied themselves and enjoyed the tournaments with great enthusiasm throughout across nearly 70 matches in 2 days.

Many thanks to Torbay Leisure Centre, NBTA and Tony McCann for his fields for what proved to be an excellent opportunity to bring new players into the game in the Under 12’s and Under 15’s age groups from around Southern England.

(Report by Terry Arnold)

Adrian Davies wins in Kent

Rhys vs Finn

A 9 man field including Milano’s Adrian Davies played an exciting Kent League WASPA night with some close games. The 3 groups included a new player to the game, Simon Keane, who will certainly coming back for more. The group stages and barrage round saw Kye beat Terry 2-0 and Adrian beat Finn by the same scoreline before Adrian edged out Kye 2-1 in the final.

(Report by Terry Arnold)

Ross Mcnulty does it again

Subbuteo Perth organized the finals of the recent "July & August FA Cup Competition" last week-end. Ross Mcnulty defeated Alan Kimber in the final to take the title. Chris Thorn ended in third position while Hugh Best was fourth, rookie Ron Byrne was 5th and John Harty was 6th.

Andrew Bennett wins the Brisbane October tournament

Eight competing players and one senior 'looker on' (to help out with any rule confusion, thank you Rob) showed up at Woody Point on a beautiful morning in paradise. We decided to change the format a bit, with 2 seeded groups of 4 playing a round robin, with the top 2 from each going into a Premier round robin, and the bottom four into a Championship league.
Group A consisting of Andrew B, Gus, James and Gareth saw a total of 26 goals scored. James playing his first competition at the tender age of 9 managed to get on the score sheet and against a very in form Andrew B. Andrew topped the group with 3 wins and only conceding twice, with Gus runner up, with Gareth 3rd and James in 4th.
Group B saw Giuseppe, Rik, Shane and Wil fight it out, and this group was a lot closer. The top two, Rik and Giuseppe who fought out a 0-0 draw finished with 5 points each, Wil getting a very credible 2-2 draw with Rik, and Shane doing well to keep Giuseppe to 1-1.
So the Championship group featured Shane, Gareth, Wil and James. Shane topped the group by a point over Wil & Gareth, Wil having a better goal difference over Gareth claimed second spot. James in his first competition manged 2 draws and scoring three, a great start. Shane will look to keep on improving and will soon be challenging the power houses.
The Premiership was not so close. One player strode away with the title, and had actually secured it with a game to go. Andrew B finished the day with a 100% record and amassing 26 goals whislt conceding 6. Giuseppe got closest only losing 3-2, whilst Gus suffered another 5-1 (after getting back to 1-1 and pressing before Andrew changed gear) and Rik suffered a 4-1 defeat. Andrew's 4 month absence had obviously improved his appetite, and we suspect he was practicing 4 hours a day !!! The other games in the Premiership were all very tight affairs, Gus drew with Rik and Giuseppe, whilst last months winner lost in his last game to Rik to finish 4th.
All agreed the new format had worked well, as everyone got to play against all levels, then got to play some very competitive games.
A big well done to all the players who survived 6 full games in the heat, another brilliant job by our great host Giuseppe and a big congratulations to Andrew B who was just unstoppable.
Should also thank Wil and James for bringing the average age way down (and some bewilderment, as everyone sought a seat and rest between games whilst Wil and James chased each other around with boundless energy..... wish we could share it !).

(Report by Giuseppe Tardiota)

Chris Kaberry wins the WASPA Cup in North Shields

Chris Kaberry wins the WASPA Cup in North Shields, by the skin of his teeth
This mini tournament kicked of with the first semi final between Chris & Nigel. Two goals in the first 10 minutes by Chris effectively killed the tie off and Nigel struggled to get into the game thereafter. Nigel nearly scored a consolation just before the end of the game but a well positioned keeper kept him out. 2-0 to Chris.
Dave played Andy in the second semi final. This was always going to be a tight game between two players who play and practice together regularly. Possession was 50/50 and Dave had the best chances hitting the woodwork twice. 0-0 at full time, the game went into a shoot out which Dave won with ruthless efficiency 3-1.
Nigel & Andy then contested 3rd & 4th place. An intriguing game saw Nigel try to frustrate Andy with possession play whilst Andy tried the more aggressive and direct route to goal. The only goal of the game came midway through the second period with some neatly controlled passing play by Nigel creating an opening centre left which he coolly netted. Andy piled the pressure on but to no avail. Nigel finally 'parked the bus' without a scratch. 1-0 to Nigel.
Chris played WASPA Cup holder Dave in the final. Chris dominated possession throughout the game and limited Dave to sporadic snap shots that went wide. Chris created some excellent chances, but Dave made great saves to keep him out. With the clock ticking, a shootout beckoning and less than 2 minutes on the clock Chris, with some quick flicks broke through to net bottom left. Chris 1-0 Dave.
A great evenings play, competition, refereeing and entertainment, with some excellent hosting from Andy Mill. Well done lads!