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.

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

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

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

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

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 .

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.

Despite having the strongest team in Europe for some years now, Eagles Napoli never won the most prestigious Club honour table football has to offer. However, this year was  different, for the first time in history the Eagles won the FISTF Europa Cup held in the city of Almada in Portugal.

The group stage of this competition provided some top-quality matches and in each group it was hard to predict the outcome, mainly due to the high-quality field of clubs participating in Almada.

GROUP 1

Eagles Napoli were clear favourites to finish top of the group. Despite ther being strong teams such as Murcia, Atlas and Dias Ferreira, none of them could measure up to the great Eagles. Eagles won all of their matches, without conceding a lost match. Despite beating Asociacion Murciana, Atlas lost their match against Belgium’s Stembert, in what can be seen as a shock defeat, however they still managed to place second ahead of Murcia only on goal difference. Stembert lost a decisive match against GD Dias Ferreira, therefore counting them out of the latter stages and fixing them in a group fighting for the 17th to 20th place.

GROUP 2

Group 2 was a group where you couldn’t figure out who would finnish top, there were 4 teams of an equal level all fighting for the top spot. Amongst these were Belgian Giants, AS Hennuyer, 2004 Champions Reggiana and Portuguese National Champions, Orfeao de Foz do Douro. The first clash of the titans was between Hennuyer and Reggiana, this ended in a 2-2 draw. Hennuyer then went on to beat Foz do Douro and lost narrowly 2-1 against DEVILS. Reggiana lost 2-1 to the DEVILS to secure the Austrian’s the top place in the group. Hennuyer and Reggiana finnished equal on points, with Hennuyer ousting Reggiana on goal difference, while Foz do Douro finnished fourth.

GROUP 3

The favourites in this group were TFC Mattersburg and Stella Artois Milano, however San Siro and Roligans provided worthy challenges and some big upsets. Although Mattersburg lost the most important match against Stella Artois, they still came round to finnishing top in the group, mainly due to Stella Artois defeat to San Siro and draw against Roligans.  San Siro came through their encounter against Roligans unscratched and won all four matches leading to a 4-0 thrashing of Roligans.

GROUP 4

Group four was the group packed with the most quality and talent. The favourites to win this group wer Charleroi and Perugia and it seemed very unlikely that one of the two wouldn’t win it. However the Europa Cup is full of surprises and the Parisian club of Issy-les-Molineaux managed to take the top-spot. Issy were made to fight hard for their success and 3-1 and 2-0 wins against Perugia and Charleroi respectively were the key to their success. However Charleroi’s draws against Delft and Os Pastilhas and Perugia’s defeat at the hands of Catalunya did nothing but help their euopean conquest. The decisive 2nd place match between Charleroi and Perugia ended 3-0 in the Italian Club’s favour.

LATTER STAGES

In the last 16 stage we saw very little surprises, CS Reggiana overcame their Italian Rivals, Stella Artois Milano. Hennuyer defeated the newly-formed San Siro Worthing with a comfortable 2-0 scoreline. Charleroi of Belgium thrashed the mighty Atlas Athens with a score of 3-0 while the other greek team, Roligans Ilioupolis lost only by goal average to the highly-rated DEVILS Austria.

In the Quarter-Finals, the most closely-fought match was that between TFC Mattersburg and Charleroi, in which the Carolos came out on top in a 2-1 victory.  Elsewhere the Italian giants, Perugia and Eagles trounced DEVILS Austria and Reggiana respectively, both by an identical 3-0 scoreline.

The Semi-Finals were very closely fought and where not as predictable as the previous matches. The hard-working Charleroi squad had to bow to the expertise of the reigning European Champions, ACS Perugia, however the Italians were made to work hard for their win and only came up with a narrow 2-1 win. In the other match, the Eagles had an easier time beating Hennuyer from Mons in Belgium, where they came out of the match in a comfortable 2-0 win.

Once again, the final was an all-Italian affair, and like last year it was between Perugia and Eagles Napoli. It was a closely-fought match and both sides showed strength, however in the end the Eagles had their way and won 2-1. The only win for Perugia came from their new signing, Maltese Massimo Cremona, who beat Antonio Mettivieri. The Eagles’ wins came from Vasco Guimaraes (against Andrea Di Vincenzo) and Vincenzo Varriale (against Francesco Mattiangeli), while the die-hard Napolitano, Massimo Bolognino settled with a 2-2 draw against Massimo Nastasi and Stefano De Francesco.

Timothy Spiteri won the Open and U19 categories at the Birkirkara Challenger at St Martin’s College on the 27th of October. Spiteri beat Dane Xuereb 3-0 in the final of the competition, however he faced tough challenges from Micheal Wright, who he beat on shots in the Quarter Final and Kurt Causon, who he beat 2-0 in the Semis.

Xuereb also had a tough route to the final, beating Keith Sacco 1-0 in the Quarters and beating Kurt Ricci on shots in the semis, before meeting Spiteri in the final.

In the U19 competition, Spiteri beat Julian Mifsud 4-0 in the final while in the U15 competition, Kurt Causon beat Thomas Camilleri by a golden goal, after the full-time score ended 2-2.

Eighteen players participated in this competition, all of who are under 16 years of age.

RESULTS: challenger-pembroke.doc

Pembroke Subbuteo Club won the first ever Satellite competition for teams in Birkirkara. The tournament was played between 4 teams, all made up of junior players. The teams present were Pembroke A, B and C as well as a selection from St Martin’s College TFC.

Pembroke SC “A” finished top of the group obtaining the maximum 9 points while St Martin’s College finished second on 6 points. The final which was played between the two teams turned out 2-1 in Pembroke’s favour.

GROUP STANDINGS:

Pembroke SC A                       9pts
St Martin’s College TFC        6 pts
Pembroke SC B                       3 pts
Pembroke SC C                      0 pts

FINAL RESULT: Pembroke SC vs St Martin’s College TFC 2-1

Thomas Camilleri vs Ezio Buffa 1-0

Micheal Wright vs John Galea 1-0

Kurt Causon vs John Cuschieri 0-0

Kurt Ricci vs Keith Sacco 0-2