Thursday 28 February 2013

First tournament victory for Enrico Guidi


On February 27, the Table Soccer Club Black Rose ’98 Roma (www.blackrose98roma.com) organized the “Second Round”of the “WASPA Black League” at the “Black Rose Training Center” located in Fiumicino (Rome). It was a very nice evening tournament. Ten competitors played under Swiss system so that everyone could play four games. We saw the debut of three players in the WASPA tournaments: Nicola Giordano (SC Fiamme Azzurre Roma), Marco Scialanga (Associazione Subbuteo Roma) & Fabio Cocchi (Associazione Subbuteo Roma). At the end of the fourth round Enrico Guidi(TSC Black Rose ’98 Roma) collected 12 points so he was the undisputed tournament winner. Second place for the “Black Rose President” Roberto Utzeri (7 points and value opponents 25) and third place for Andrea Strazza (7 points and value opponents 15). Fourth place for Sergio Robertiello (6 points). In the months to come T.S.C. Black Rose ’98 Roma will organize other WASPA tournaments looking at the different needs (materials and rules) of F.I.S.T.F. and Subbuteo players. Thanks to all the participants and see you soon! (report from TSC Black Rose's Facebook page)
The tournament poster

The players

Tuesday 26 February 2013

Den Mulia wins the Leste Aquila Cup 2013!

Den Mulia, winner!

Antonio Carabillo from Hong Kong

Tan Kok Wee, runner-up

Group picture
The Leste Aquila Cup 2013 took place on sunday and was part of the WASPA circuit. There was a good field of entries and some very good players. Den Mulia beat Tan Kok Wee in the final while Antonio Carabillo from Hong Kong took the third place. Well done to everyone!

Monday 25 February 2013

The Harlem shake reaches the subbuteo world

Well done to our Singapore friends for these funny videos!

Finland's inaugural WASPA tournament

The final between Marko Karhunen and Miku Leppälä
The first WASPA tournament in Finland was played on sunday  with 8 players on 4 tables without referees. 7 rounds in a group were played first and then the final games. Miku Leppälä was the most positive surprise as he scored a last minute equalizer against Jani Mustonen on the last group game and therefore he reached his first ever final. (Anyway there was a rumour about him in a tournament final in year 1991). In the final Miku didn’t have a chance as Marko Karhunen beat him 5-1.

Sunday 24 February 2013

Uli Selsen (Germania Schwerte) did it gentlemen-like


The first 548-Cup took part at the youth club "Yellowstone" in Bergkamen 's suburb Oberaden on February 24th. The goal of the tournament system is to have five matches on four table for eight players (within four hours). A new name in the winner´s history of WASPA is Uli Selsen (SC Germania Schwerte 76) who managed to win the tournament in a very cool way. He lost no match, but in the group stage he just won only one match. In the semifinal and final he won both games in shoot-outs. Marcel Schulz (Borussia Bergkamen) was the other finalist. The semi-finalists were Daniel Badziung (Borussia Bergkamen) and Thossa Büsing (TSL Dortmund).
left Marcel Schulz, right Uli Selsen

Friday 22 February 2013

Interview: Justin Finch, president of the ESA


A nice interview with Justin Finch, recent semi-finalist of the FISTF Grand Prix of France (veterans section) and president of the English Subbuteo Association (www.subbuteoassociation.co.uk)

Q: Subbuteo is doing well in England for the moment. What is the influence of the subbuteo relaunch on the ESA?
A: One of the reasons why I became Chairman last year was because I could see a window of opportunity created by the relaunch of Subbuteo. Such opportunities have not been around for some time and we are trying to embrace the product relaunch. In addition the old website was becoming very tired and needed to be completely redesigned. With my expertise in web development I have created a new platform so that our members can now have a website to be proud of... although I would like to add it's not been easy and we still have many more planned improvements.


Justin Finch (in the middle) refereeing a game between Thierry Vivron (France) and Alfred Fenech (Malta) in Issy

Q: Since January, some WASPA tournaments are organized in England by the Essex Subbuteo League, Harrow Weald SC and Yorkshire Phoenix (and maybe more to come), do you think it's a positive move for the game and for the ESA?
A: Yes in England my view is that we need to promote all events and help support the lesser skilled players. WASPA focusses on the social element and lesser skilled players of the game as opposed to the fierce competitive nature of FISTF and we want to be part of all table football communities.

Q: Do you think FISTF and WASPA can help each other? How do you think both bodies can collaborate?
A: Yes, but I think the issue is that many of the lesser players have a problem with FISTF, so we need to make radical changes.
For far too long FISTF events have been about supporting the top players and this is wrong. If a player travels to Spain from another country and pay for a flight, hotel and entrance fee, I think these people need to get more value than 2 or 3 games in an individual event. FISTF needs to change this policy and start to look after the grass roots and not just the top players.
Another point here is that organisers sometimes forget that it is the lesser skilled players who contribute more revenue to our events and associations. Many people frown about the thought of using a Swiss System, but our English National Finals are going to be based on a 5 round swiss. Why? Because 75 English players have paid to enter and the majority of these have a slim chance of winning, but they have paid their money and we want to reward them with 5 guaranteed games.

Q: What about the youth? Do you think England might have a world champion in the next five years?
A: Attracting young players is a big problem with our game today. The emergence of online console games has changed the direction of todays children and this is a very difficult problem to overcome. However in England we are starting to look at holding tournaments which provide a level playing field for all new players. We want to bring back the excitement that I had in 1986 when I won the English National Junior Finals at Wembley and a FREE trip to Greece to play in the World Cup. Kids today would love this opportunity.
Obviously to achieve these goals we need financial support but this can be achieved and this is what we are aiming for. As for England having a World Champion. Coen Townsend is currently the Number 1 player in the FISTF U12 rankings, so yes we believe we can achieve this. but we are not taking anything for granted and we must work harder and smarter with the Subbuteo brand to attract more children to the game.

Q: Finally, as a player, do you think the general level of the players in the international tournaments is still improving?
A: I think this depends on the event. However the recent tournament in Paris was possibly the hardest days play I have ever faced and although I got to the semi-finals I had to role back the years to get there. Generally though I think the real answer is that the standard of equipment has helped improve the majority of players. Some of the flicking techniques are questionable though. Too many players seem to push and drag rather than flick these days and this is something I am struggling to deal with as an old school player

Thanks for your answers!

Thursday 21 February 2013

6th stage of the WASPA Lazio league for Trivelli

Well done Simone!
On wednesday, Simone Trivelli won the 6th stage of the WASPA Lazio League in Rome. 11 players were taking part and everyone had five games to play. Trivelli came on top of the table with 15 points while Simone Lo Iacono had 12, Giammarco Del Brocco had 10 points and both Paolo Barone and Matteo Del Brocco had 9 points.

Paul Lawrenson wins in Heckmondwike

Paul Lawrenson (left), winner and organizer of the tournament!
The first Heckmondwike tournament organized by the club of Yorkshire Phoenix was named "The Firstcall Gas Trophy" and nine players, including two from Manchester TFC and one from Kent Invicta, were taking part. Everyone was offered to play four games and Paul Lawrenson was the final winner with 12 points. Stuart Walsh was second with 9 points and a better goal difference than Russ Harker. Phil Rutherford (Manchester TFC) was 4th. Everyone had a good time and there are good chances to see more tournaments like this at the Yorkshire Phoenix club in the future!

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Presentation of the trophies in Attard

Attard SC had a small ceremony at the beginning of the week to present the trophies of the local leagues. Daniele Spadare is the championship league winner while Roderick Vassallo won the division 1 league and also got the trophy of "most dedicated player".
Roderick Vassallo is the winner of the Attard division 1 season

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Small turnout but big fun in Calgary

Four players but a lot of good fun!
Only four players attaneded the tournament held by the lubbuteo Club on sunday. Shane Hoopfer beat Josh Braun in the final while Benjamin Herrel and Logan Stevenson were also attending. Everyone had a good time, which was followed by a boardgame, dinner, and some rock band. The next tournament in Calgary will take place on March 10th.

Sunday 17 February 2013

Australian winner in Harrow Weald

5 players, 20 games, a lot of fun!
The first Harrow Weald tournament (England) was played on sunday. There were two last minute dropouts so there were only five players attending but everyone was offered to play 8 games, whcih is great. After the 20 games in the schedule, Gerald Brightwell from Australia (!) was the winner with 19 points while Rudi Peterschinnigg from Italy was second with 17 points. Mark Smith was 3rd, John Ellis 4th and Daniel Fox 5th.

Giorgos Zangylos wins again!


The final!

The players
10 players attended the Limassol tournament on sunday. As always, there were many close games but Giorgos Zangylos remains the king of the game in Cyprus as he deafeated Pambos Zorbis in the final (4-0). Marios Nikolaou and Fytos Ioannides reached the semis. Well done to all of them.

Thursday 14 February 2013

Another win for Enrico Giannarelli

Nine players attended the tournament of Viareggio on wednesday. Three groups of three players were formed and then three groups weremade to play for positions 1-3, 4-6 and 7-9. Enrico Giannarelli and Marco Bacci ended with 4 points in the decisive group. They tied (1-1) in their game but Enrico won on goal-difference. Alessandro Casanova took the third place while Roberto Conti was forth (better goal-average overall than Ruggero Torboli). This is already Enrico Giannarelli's third trophy in a WASPA tournament. Well done!

Tuesday 12 February 2013

Some new good Internet links


In Canada, there is a club under construction in Montreal, Quebec. They started a blog and should have some tournaments as soon as the numbers are growing. Link: http://subbuteomontreal.blogspot.ca/

In Germany, there is a new club called "Sankt Pauli Subbuteo" and this is good fun because Sankt Pauli is also a popular football club over there. Hopefully it will become a strong club in the future. See link at http://www.subbuteostpauli.de/

In England, Manchester TFC is now up and running. The website http://manchestertfc.co.uk/ is just brilliant and deserves a look!

In Switzerland, subbuteo was on TV and there is a direct link to the show at https://www.telebasel.ch/de/tv-archiv/&id=366818937 -> Subbuteo starts at 14.35 with interviews of Trisha Baumeler, Maxwell Gautschi and Leonardo Cavallaro.

Monday 11 February 2013

Andrea Di Vincenzo wins in Manoppello

Andrea Di Vincenzo, another great name winning a WASPA tournament
Subbuteo legend Andrea Di Vincenzo (Bologna Tigers) won the tournament of Manoppello held on sunday in Italy. Andrea beat Fabrizio Fedele in the final. Well done!

Sunday 10 February 2013

Great turnout in South Africa

The Randburg club had a great turnout of 18 players this sunday for their WASPA tournament. For the first time, there was an international player taking part in a WASPA event in South Africa as Elvis Tshabalala (Zimbabwe) was playing. Players were dropped in four groups and there were not many surprises. In the semis, Clifford Graaff beat Tristan Berry while Ryan Mather beat Bryan Shenkyl. The final was another easy win for Clifford Graaff who is the number 1 player in Africa! Well done!

15 goals in the final in Templeuve

The final was an international game between figures of Belgium (Geoffrey Marain) and Australia (Vincent Coppenolle)

Geoffrey Marain vs Stéphane Lambert

Geoffrey Marain is still on fire!
We had a small turnout of 4 today for the Templeuve tournament as some players had flu, some others couldn't travel because of the snow (for some of them there was the risk to have very bad weather on the road so they didn't take the risk) and a few people had to work. It was good fun though with everyone playing five games. Geoffrey marain won as always but tied in his first game against renald Deloose (1-1). The most amazing final ever in a WASPA tournament had 15 goals (!!!) with Marain beating Vincent Coppenolle on sudden death (8-7). There was a lot of fun but hopefully we'll have a larger turnout next time.

Thursday 7 February 2013

Enrico Giannarelli wins again

Enrico Giannarelli won the tournament held in La Spezia on wednesday. The turnout was poor with only four players but Enrico won all 3 games. There will be some revenge in the air on February 13 in Viareggio and the players of Spezia NFBC and those of Versilia Ct will meet in Viareggio for another event.

Tournaments in Cyprus and Northern Ireland

Two more tournaments have been added to the WASPA calendar. The Limassol tournament will take place on February 17 and will be hosted by the club of Famagusta TFC. In Northern Ireland the Bangor Open will take place on March 23. It will also count for the Irish circuit.

Monday 4 February 2013

9 players at the Hamilton tournament


Nine players competed in the February HSC tournament. Super Bowl Sunday may have been a  factor on a day when 12 were expected to turn out. Big news though as finally there was an HSC tournament final not played between Peter and Shaun. Stephen forced his way into a final for the first time since the Toronto Tourney in September. Winner was as usual though, Peter with a 2-1 victory in the final. Beaten Semi-Finalist were Shaun and Brodyn. Next tournament date to be announced soon, looking at mid March. Can someone knock Peter off his perch?
(report from the Hamilton Subbuteo Club blog)

Friday 1 February 2013

January monthly report


The monthly report of the WASPA circuit is now available BY CLICKING HERE.

January was a good month again with several important with 14 regional tournaments and 1 tournament with ETF rules. We have now 528 ranked players from 28 nations!

There is a special mention for the Essex Subbuteo League in London as the tournament held in London had 16 players from 10 different countries, which is amazing!

The first WASPA tournament in Ireland was also more than welcome so special thanks to John Moore.

California had two tournaments were every player was offered to play many games. Well done.

There are still good tournaments in Canada and huge developments in Italy with many tournaments in many different cities.

The sad news this week also come from England as Geoff Luke passed away. Geoff attended the very first WASPA tournament held in England with ETF rules. He will be missed by many of us.

February will be a good month again as we are extremely pleased to see the first WASPA tournament in Finland.

Well, that's all for now. Please keep a regular view on the WASPA blog.