A 15th WASPA title for Bevin Reed

Saturday 7 September 2019, Pretoria, South Africa : 
A very cold Pretoria spring day saw only 5 players take part as Conway Julie was absent due to a business trip. We witnessed a very low scoring event, but not due to lack of finishing but rather due to sound goalkeeping from all participants - there was enough goal mouth action as the players battled it out for 2019 PFC Champions League supremacy.
Bevin Reed raced to a 100% start as he exacted some sort of retribution from his first two matches - first beating Julian vd Merwe by 1-0 and then Kegan vd Merwe by 1-0 too. Retribution in the sense that these two players handed Bevin his only defeats during last month's League 2 event.
2018 defending Champion, Jayden vd Merwe could only come away with a 0-0 draw against Gary Downs in Round 2 - as Gary pulled off no less than 3 massive saves to deny Jayden.
The BIG match came as early as Round 3 when Bevin & Jayden played to a thrilling 0-0 draw, with Jayden squandering a clear cut chance at the death - but Bevin's goalkeeper got a slight nick to force the corner. Bevin remaining top at that stage.
Jayden then followed with a 1-0 win over Julian - again, some retribution as Julian had also beaten Jayden during last month's League 2 Cup.
Julian then took a 1-0 lead over Gary, but Gary got the equaliser close to the end as he kept the pressure on the two (Bevin & Jayden) front runners. Kegan then upset Jayden's chances of forcing a play-off final when their match ended 0-0.
The day's final match ended Gary (0) - (0) Bevin. If Gary had won that match, the event would enter a 3 way play-off, but Bevin kept calm and the draw was enough to hand Bevin the honours of 2019 PFC Champions League winner - this marks Bevin's 15th WASPA title to date!
This triumph for Bevin Reed then also sees Jayden vd Merwe relinquish the title he has been holding since 2017!

Individual acknowledgements on the day :
"Goal Blitz" : Bevin Reed ended the day as the top scorer
"Tough as Nails" : Jayden vd Merwe for sound goalkeeping and fighting until the end to hold onto his title, boasting an unbeaten run
"Player of the Day" : Gary Downs for an unbeaten run, rewarded by a 3rd place finish overall

As always, a big thank you to all who attended to make the day a great success. The next event - the PFC Players Cup (Europa League event).

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

(report by Julian vd Merwe)

David Wouters wins season opener in Hofstade

Last week the SC Flanders players met for their first tournament of the season, their 61st WASPA tournament already. As always the tournament was played in Swiss system with four sessions and David Wouters finished on top with four wins while four players ended the evening with 7 points. Geert Leys was runner-up on goal-difference while Johan Lourdan was first. It was a good evening with Stijn Carbonelle and Jens Dehaene doing their WASPA debut, almost ten years after having flicked a Subbuteo figure for the last time. Hopefully they will make it again next month.

Final standings:
1. David Wouters
2. Geert Leys
3. Johan Lourdon
4. Willy De Bandt
5. Jos Ceulemans
6. Stijn Carbonelle
7. Filip Van Hulle
8. Danny De Greef
9. Jens Dehaene

John Zammit wins Bormla Subbuteo Club tournament

The final 4 of the tournament

John Zammit (left) and finalist Josef Camilleri

On Sunday, September 1st, a WASPA tournament was organized at the St George Band club in Cospicua. 20 players took part with competitors coming from Maltese clubs of Cospicua, Valletta Lions, Attard and as well two maltese players registered with Palermo and Barcelona Mortelito in Italy.

After the groups phase, in the quarter-finals Tristan Fenech (Bormla SC) defeated clubmate George Ebejer (Bormla SC) After the extra-time (2-1). Josef Camilleri (Bormla SC) won against Stanley Farrugia Randon (Attard SC) by 4-0, Jamie Bonnici (Palermo CT) took the best on Claude Cuschieri (Attard SC) by a clear 5-0, John Zammit (Bormla SC) won against teammate Mauro Camilleri (Bormla SC) 2-1 after the extra-time period.

In the first semi-final the two Cospicuan players fought a close tied game with the winner Josef Camilleri edged Tristan Fenech 3-2 while Jamie Bonnici (Palermo CT) was eliminated by John Zammit (Bormla SC) (3-1).

In the final the new Bormla SC player John Zammit won against Josef Camilleri of Bormla SC 5-1. The semi-finalists were Tristan Fenech of Bormla SC and Jamie Bonnici of Palermo CT. The next competition organized by Bormla Subbuteo Club Malta will be a satellite tournament sanctionned by MTFSA and the FISTF in the last weekend of September 2019.

WASPA report of August 2019

Dear all,
you will find in the attached files the final standings of the WASPA circuit season 2018-2019.

WASPA Season results 2018-2019
WASPA ranking - August 19

August was a bit calmer than the previous months but we had 21 events held in many different countries.

Brian Daley (left) is our new number 1

The big news of the month come from England where Brian Daley becomes the new number 1 in the WASPA ranking. Geoffrey Marain has been on top for seven years but it seems like it's time for a new era.

Brian is also the season champion while the Flaming Flickers (Greece) are dominating once again the "top clubs" rankings.

Great job by our Australian folks as the Northern Falcons (Sydney) and the Western Flickers (Melbourne) take the first two spots in the Junior club ranking.

A great tournament in Munich, Germany

August saw Australia being very active once again with six different tournaments held in different cities (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth).

There were also sad news as Belgium's Michaël Roberty took part in the latest event n Bande but passed away a few days later. He will remain in our memories forever. RIP Michaël!

We were glad to see action in Austria, Hungary, South Africa while the Wrexham club is growing and held another event in August.

Alex Haas winner in Vienna, Austria

There were two events in Greece with amazing turnouts of 16 and 32 players while in Germany the Munich tournament attracted 10 players and the format of the event was a league system so that every player had nine games!

Maybe a few results are missing in the PDF file. If you see missing data, please get in touch so that I can correct the files.

If some juniors (born in 2002 or later) don't appear in the ranking, it means we don't have their birthdates so please send your feedback. Please not from next month the Junior ranking will be for players born in 2003 or later!

Western Flickers tournament in Australia

We really hope to have more "top clubs" involved for the new season; If you have ideas to improve the different rankings, please drop me a line.

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 vincent.cop@rsca.com

Keep an eye on the WASPA blog at http://waspa-circuit.blogspot.com as there are updates almost every day.

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/

Players in Singapore

Keep in mind WASPA is also looking for 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

Ideas to develop the WASPA circuit, to get new clubs/nations involved 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

Alekos Apatzis wins Kallithea Flames tournament

On August 24, the Kallithea Flames organized a tournament with 16 players and as always, organizers decided to have the event under a "theme" , which was the "UEFA Regions Cup". Alekos Apatzis (aka the "North Riding Region" from UK) defeated Giannis Mpougiouris with "Castilla Leon Region" (Spain) in the final. Alekos's victory helps him to finish the season in third position in the WASPA ranking.

Brian Daley is the new number 1

The final WASPA rankings for the season 2018-2019 should be published on Monday as a few details are still to finalize but we can proudly announce that we have a new world number 1 in the individual ranking. Brian Daley from England is indeed the leader of the overall ranking. We can also congratulate Geoffrey Marain who has been on top of the ranking for seven years. Geoffrey has been and remains a real ambassador of the game.

Congratulations also to Olliver Ollnow from Australia who finishes the season as Junior number 1. Olli will have a new challenge in his Subbuteo carrer as he recently moved to Berlin, Germany and we hope he will continue to be a real ambassador of the game. Olli's club, the Northern Falcons from Sydney, managed to remain on top of the Junior team ranking and more importantly Australia managed to have 2 teams on top as the Western Flickers from Melbourne did a great job as well.

We would also love to congratulate the Flaming Flickers from Greece who are on top of the "top clubs" ranking for the second year in a row.

We are looking forward to have a great season 2019-2020 and all your ideas to make the WASPA circuit more attractive remain more than welcome.

Massimiliano Berselli in Munich

Last Saturday Munich in Germany was the place for a great day of Subbuteo table football. 10 players from Germany and Italy (but also Milan Knezevic from Serbia) were taking part and to make it a special event, everybody had the chance to play in a league format.

After nine games, Italy's Massimiliano Berselli was the clear winner of the day with 25 points while Roland Popp was runner-up.

Huge thanks to Renato Parussini for making an excellent work with the help of his friends. Reports say it was a great day for all players so congratulations to the winner but also to the organizers!

Final standings
1. Massimiliano Berselli (Messina) 25
2. Roland Popp (Schwalbach) 22
3. Michele Cerullo (Sparta Spreeathen) 20
4. Milan Knezevic (Gorizia) 17
5. Guido Cerullo(Gorizia) 16
6. Marco Pinausi(Gorizia) 12
7. Renato Parussini(Gorizia) 10
8. Matthias Stechern (-) 6
9. Maurizio Zironi (Modena) 1
10. Maurizio Mancini (-) 1

(Copyright pictures from Renato Parussini)

Tottenham wins the Champion's League in Greece

The Flaming Flickers organized once again their "Champion's League" in August and 32 players as always played the simulation of the tournament.

In the end the final was the same as the original CL competition but this time winner was Tottenham (Apatzis) against Liverpool (Psomiadis) after the penalty shootout.

The winner was Alekos Apatzis for a second time in a row in this competition.

Congratulations to all for this great tournament simulation and the great game series.

Two more trophies for Brian Daley

Brian (left) winner in Drury

Two events have recently been held in the UK. The latest London Road tournament in Drury had a small turnout of four with Brian Daley winning the event after home and away fixtures while Cayne Matthews was runner-up.

In Liverpool, the last tournament of the season saw an impressive number of dropouts due to several reasons but in the end Brian Daley took the honors once again, finishing on top of a group of five.

There will be more events in both London Road and Liverpool clubs next season. Beginners are always welcome to enter!

Marain wins final event of the season

Last Wednesday the Templeuve United players met for the last WASPA event of the season. Despite the very hot weather six players were taking part and competed in a round robin. Geoffrey Marain shared points against Vincent Coppenolle but the last session had a decisive game between Marain and Matthias Averlant. Averlant needed one point to win the tournament, scored the first goal but Marain was on fire again and won the game and the tournament, making his 101st WASPA victory. Matthias Averlant was runner-up, Coppenolle third, Eric Caillaux took the 4th place. Sébastien Sorge was 5th and Benjamin Marain finished on the bottom but proving to be a very improving player. See you all for more action during the new season!