Gauci Ousts Cremona

Mark Gauci won the 2nd National Ranking Tournament in Zabbar where in the final he defeated World Number 1, Massimo Cremona, in a thrilling encounter which ended 3-2 in Gauci’s favour.  Although Gauci lost a group match against Hamrun’s Kenneth Attard putting him in second place in his group, he managed to overcome this disadvantage and take home the silverware.

Gauci had a tough way to the final where he encountered several tough challenges. His Barrage match against Charles Aquilina seemed to be the determining factor of his day as this tough match gave him the boost of confidence he needed to defeat Derek Conti (5-1) and Samuel Bartolo (1-0) before joining Cremona in the final.

There were also a couple of surprises on the day, namely the early elimination of Hansel Mallia to make way for the qualification of Josef Camilleri, as well as the early elimination of Stefan Pace. A notable achievement seemed to be Joseph Zammit Pavia’s Barrage qualifications.

The U19 was won by Malta’s top Junior, Mauro Camilleri who defeated Andrew Abela 4-2 in the Final, while the Veterans was won by Patrick Pace who ousted Joseph Zammit Pavia in the final.

The Tournament was a great improvement on the previous one held both in the state of equipment and also in attendance.

Flores Defeats Cremona in Manchester

Carlos Flores won the Open event in Manchester where he narrowly beat Massimo Cremona 1-0 in the final of this highly-attended event.

Both players had a tough route to the final where they met high-quality opposition, however they both proved their abilities. In Flores’ route to the final he convincingly defeated former Junior World Champion, Joseph Borg Bonaci in the Last 32. He then had an encounter with England’s top player, Darren Clark, who he saw off 2-0. In the quarter finals he met another of England’s finest, Chris Thomas, who he convincingly beat with a 4-0 result. In the semi-finals he faced another tough test when he met, Dutchman, Eric Verhagen, this was to be another convincing result for Flores as he overcame the World’s Number 2, with a 4-2 scoreline.

Cremona had some superb results in Manchester, with extremely convincing wins against Austrian Stefan Sandner (5-1), Englishman Dave Pawsey (8-1), Austrian Hitman Markus Matzinger (6-0), before a much more realistic encounter against Portuguese, Sergio Loureiro, who he narrowly beat 1-0.

The other 4 Maltese players present in Manchester were all knocked out in the Last 32. These included Samuel Bartolo who was unconvincingly beaten by Markus Matzinger, Joseph Borg Bonaci who was eliminated by eventual winner, Carlos Flores, Joseph Mifsud who narrowly lost to Bologna’s Alberto Apollo and Hansel Mallia who came out to Austria’s Heinz Eder.

The U19 was won by strong favourite, Christian Haas, from Austria, who currently sits at the top of the U19 World Rankings. Haas’biggest challenge was his semi-final match against Manchester’s own Tom Motley, who he only beat by a 1-0 scoreline, he then made his way to play against Scotsman Daryl Shanks who provided a strong challenge and only lost 3-1 to the World’s Number 1.

The Veterans Event was won by Liverpudlian, Phil Redman who saw off all challenges to accumulate even more silverware. Continuing his domination of the veteran’s category in Great Britain, he came off on top once again in Britain’s most prestigious event. He defeated big names such as Marinucci and Hinkelmann, to prove he is currently the man to beat in the Veterans.

The team’s event provided a sweet double for Carlos Flores as his club, Bologna Tigers, took home the title. They were on top form throughout the day and eliminated big names like English Premier League, TSC Royal Kaisermuhlen and Catalunya FT before overcoming their final challengers, TFC Mattersburg.

Full Results: http://www.sfu.ca/~haasw/subbuteo/files/200607/GPOldham.pdf

Dejardin – On Fire

Recent success of Rochefort’s Star, Valery Dejardin, are really proving that this man is really one of the best players in the world right now.

His victory in Temploux did nothing but add more titles to this man’s name. Dejardin had a tough day, eliminating some top opposition to reach take the title (and 150 world ranking points) home with him. He defeated many big names like World Champion Efrem Intra, Spanish Champion Vincenc Prats Salat as well as the Italo-Belgian Mastermind Antonion Mettivieri, before eventually seeing off Dutch Protagonist, Maikel De Haas, in the final of a high-quality event.

The only maltese representative at this event, Massimo Cremona, performed very well to reach the Quarter-Finals, where he lost out to Mettivieri. Cremona, who ended top of a hard group which included Portugese Tiago Sousa and Dutch National Robbert Thoen, came into his Last 32 Match as heavy favourite and managed to put 8 goals past Michael Dupret of Magic Team Tournai. He then had an encounter with one of Greece’s top players, Chris Aggelinas, who he also saw off with a convincing 2-0 result to qualify for the Quarter Finals.

The U19 event was won by Templeuve’s Kevin Drohsler who defeated Stembert’s Michael Denooz in the Final.  The semi-finalist include Ralf Gregoire of SC Temploux and another Stembert player, Jerome Herbecq.

The U15 event was won by another Templeuve player, Erwin Delaunoy who beat Rochefort’s Julien Dardenne on shots after a stalemate at full time. The U12 was won by Parisian Arnaud Le Teno who defeated Brussels’ Dany Timmerman in what was a competitive and rather large U12 competition.

The French made their presence felt in the Ladies category, when 5 out of 8 quarter finalists were French,  showing once again that they are the strongest nation out there in the Ladies category. The event was won by Boissy St-Leger’s Francoise Guyot who is currently seen as one of the top women in Table Football.

The Veterans, which is getting harder with each year that goes by, was won by Belgium’s top Veteran, Steve Gregoire, who defeated two-time Veteran World Champion, Thierry Vivron from France, in the final. The most notable result of the day for Gregoire seemed to be his narrow elimination of Dutchman, Henk Landzaat in the Quarter Finals. Although it is Landzaat’s first season as a Veteran, he has already achieved alot so far.

The team event was won by TSC Stella Artois Milano who beat Belgium’s top team, SC Charleroi, in the final. Home team, SC Temploux showed their stuff in reaching the Semi-Finals, and proved that they are still a very strong team. The other semi-finalists were DEVILS Austria who were narrowly eliminated to Milano.

Full Results: http://www.sfu.ca/~haasw/subbuteo/files/200607/IOTemploux.pdf

First Ever Argentinian International

The first ever FISTF event was held in Argentina on the 10th of December. This is the first tournament held in south america for over a year now, prior to this there were various events held in Colombia under the guidance of Italian, Andrea Lampis.

The International Open of Buenos Aires was won by Philippe Hipfinger of Belgium who took on local lad, Luis Fernando Rossi in the final. The semi-finalists were Gregorio Caro Solis and Fernando Soneira. Apart from Hipfinger, there were 8 local lads participating in the event, as well as Chris Wander, an englishman living in Buenos Aires.

Hopefully this will be the first of many events held in Argentina and South America, this tournament will prove as a spearhead for the Sport in South America.

Full Results: http://www.sfu.ca/~haasw/subbuteo/files/200607/IOBuenosAires.pdf

Berlin GP – Massimo almost did it again!

The Berlin Grand Prix was once again one of the largest and most organized tournaments in the world. Being tagged as the Wimbledon of Table Football for being the only large tournament in the world not to use Astropitches but instead Cotton Pitches, it has yet again attracted well over 100 players from 9 Nations and has again attracted some of the World’s top players like Eric Verhagen, Massimo Cremona and Efrem Intra.

This year there was a large field of top-class players, and once again in the Open Category, the Germans failed to do much in their home country, the best results coming from Berlin’s Micheal Stolzenberg who reached the meager Last 32 stage.

The surprise of the tournament was former Junior World Champion, Daniele Bertelli, who reached the Final of the open after eliminating Malta’s very own Massimo Cremona in the Semis on shots and Dutchman Martin Bom in the Quarters. Only to lose to Eric Verhagen in the Final.

The tournament is characterised for its tendancy to finish late due to the fact that a player is allowed to participate in as many categories as he likes. As a result there were many players who were participating in 3 or more categories.

In the U19 category, homeplayer Bjorn Kegenbein, who is becoming somewhat of a prodigy while still being in the U15 category, managed to defeat World Number One, Christian Haas in the U19 final. In the Semi-finals, Kegenbein eliminated Daniel Kosa, another strong Berlin Junior, whilst Haas overcame Kamen’s Dominik Schulz on shots after a thrilling 3-3 encounter.

Kegenbein made it a double when he beat Christian Haas’ younger brother, Alexander, to obtain the U15 title, in the semi-finals, Kegenbein beat fellow Berliner, Marcel Kwiatkowski while Haas beat England’s Samuel Curtis.

In the Veterans, Martin Bom emerged victorious over Ron Corsten, in an all-Dutch final. Bom beat another dutchman, Richard Stolwijk, in the Semi-Finals, while Corsten beat Austria’s Gunther Bamberzky.

Milano’s Laura Panza took home the silverware in the ladies, when she beat home-player Johanna Zeisberg in the final. In the semi-finals she beat another Berlin player, Anna-Lisa Menzel on shots, while Zeisberg beat her team-mate Dania Schiller to qualify for the final.

Berlin youngster, Marcel Kwiatkowski made up for his Semi-Final defeat in the U15 after he won the U12 title where he trounced all opposition and put four past Kamen’s Victoria Busing in the final. The 3rd and 4th placed players in the U12 competition were Lisa Zejunc and Rene Frey, who are also Kamen players.

In the teams competition, Delft failed to make it three years in a row when they lost the final to the fairly-stronger Stella Artois team of Milan, a team which includes current world champion, Efrem Intra. Delft beat the Vikings of Denmark in the Semi-Finals while Stella Artois eliminated DEVILS Austria.

Full Results : http://www.sfu.ca/~wha7/subbuteo/results/files/200607/GPBerlin.pdf

Maltese Clubs: Hamrun TFC

                                                       

Back: S.Pace, M.Zammit, K.Attard, I.Zammit Marmara’, M.Camilleri, P.Pace

Front: D.Bezzina, M.Pace, G.Degabriele, A.Gatt, D.Dalli, E.Said, B.Farrugia, S.Degabriele

Hamrun TFC is once again one of the leading clubs on the island. After 2 years of its comeback from a few years of inactivity, it is looking stronger than ever now, with over 30 members participating in its weekly activities.

The club now has the strongest team in Malta with players like Kenneth Attard, Mario Camilleri and Patrick Pace on its books it is seeming stronger than Valletta, where all the strong players are registered with foreign clubs.

It is also a club which gives great importance to young players and the older players have been working alot to bring many young players into the game and the fruit of their work is now starting to become very evident because the club now has a handful of very strong juniors like Matthew Pace, Dennis Dalli, Adam Gatt, Brandon Farrugia, and Timothy Spiteri and many more, who will undoubtably bring alot of silverware to Hamrun in the coming years.

In all the club has almost 20 juniors registered as well as around 10 senior players. It is looking very bright for Hamrun TFC and a very beautiful future is on the way for the Red and Blacks.

For more information on Hamrun TFC go to http://sites.keyworld.net/hamrunTFC or contact the club’s administration on ilaizm@keyworld.net .

World Masters 2006

The World Masters here in Malta was a great success. This was a well organised tournament where the cream of the crop battled it out to see who is the real champion. This prestigious event which was held in Marsa, Malta, saw some of the World’s finest table football players come to the Mediterranean Island. In all there were 4 Italians, 4 Maltese, a Belgian and a Spaniard participating in this event, as well as two German referees.

All games were Final-Standard in themselves and some shock results kept everyone into the competition till the end. From the first session, when Francesco Mattiangeli overcame heavy favourite, Massimo Bolognino, one could notice that everyone had a chance to win the 800 Euros. Massimiliano Nastasi seemed the strongest player in the group stage, only dropping two points against eventual winner, Carlos Flores.

In group two, some surprise results ruled out world number one, Massimo Cremona, from the Semi Finals, his 2-1 defeat to David Fraikin from Belgium being the main cause of his elimination. However Joseph Mifsud made up for Cremona’s elimination and gave the home supporters something to be happy about.

The semi-finals paired Joseph Mifsud with Massimiliano Nastasi and Carlos Flores with Massimo Bolognino. The encounter between Mifsud and Nastasi was a very one-sided affair and the Perugian went through the match with ease ending in a comfortable 3-0 win. The other match however was a little closer and Flores, the Spaniard managed to beat Bolognino with the scoreline ending 2-1.

The final was a very exciting affair and the Spaniard took advantage of two early goals to mess with the Italian’s mind, and although the Italian managed to bring the score down to 2-1, another long-range goal from Flores secured the victory, and the 800 euros. Nastasi managed to get another one in before full-time, but it was too late for him. So indeed, Carlos Flores is the 2006 World Master.