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