A tournament in Australia in January 2012?

There are big chances a tournament will be held at Cancon in January 2012, this is Australia's biggest games convention and there are hopes it will be the Australian Championship as well. Contact Ron Shipp at ronshippau@yahoo.com.au for more details.

Robert Green back in action

The recently created WASPA circuit (http://waspa-circuit.blogspot.com/) is likely to have the very first tournament ever held in Sweden. The O'Leary restaurant in Stockholm will be the place for the event held on August 21 and players from Finland are thinking to travel to play. Robert Green, who is living in Sweden for a couple of years now, might be taking part to represent Australia. He would therefore be the first Australian to play in the WASPA circuit! Well done!

News from Sydney

Trevor Hogden and his neighbor are still playing every week, spending a few hours on the astroturf. They would love to meet other players as despite the numbers are low, their enthusiasm is high. Feel free to contact Trevor at trevricnegro@msn.com

New club in South Australia

Ron Shipp from Clare, SA is trying to start a new club at Penfield sports centre near the Air base. Players meet Wednesdays at 7pm, all welcome. Contact: Ron Shipp on 0415686995 or ronshippau@yahoo.com.auRon has 4 pitches and about 10 teams and wants to have a game soon, then he wants to get involved nationally and have a competition at Cancon games convention in Canberra in January.

Another final for Rob Smith

Rob Smith reached the final of the last Singapore Satellite. Rob lost to Yusni Den Mulia (1-2) in the last game.

New player in Sydney

Colin Brown from Sydney is back in action After a 30 year break, Colin Brown decided to start playing again. He contacted Robert Smith and let him know he would be interested to meet some players for a game. Colin lives in Sydney and will hopefully make new friends around his beautiful table. Feel free to contact him at yorkie68@bigpond.com for more details.

A great time for Robert Smith in Belgium

During his stay in Europe, Robert Smith decided to play some subbuteo for the first time in five months. Robert travelled to Belgium to play the International Open of Rochefort. Luckily, Robert was offered to play for the team of Rochefort Table Soccer and he could therefore compete in both the team event and the individual tournament. "I learned a lot", commented Robert after his first games at the Rochefort club night on friday evening. Robert could play two official games during the team event and a couple of friendlies. On sunday, he had a very difficult groupe, meeting a former european champion (David Ruelle from Belgium) and a dutch top player, Maikel de Haas (top picture). Even if he didn't manage to win many games, Robert had a great week-end and mùet many new friends, including Titi Giaux (bottom picture), the president of the Rochefort club.
You can see a video of the tournament at http://www.matele.be/content/view/7207/399/

Yet another final for Rob Smith

Rob Smith took part this week-end in the Singapore Open. The player from Australia was in another great day as he beat Antonio Carabillo (Hong Kong) in the semi-final and met Yusni Den Mulia (the guy with the Brazil jersey) in the final. Den Mulia won the game 2-1 and took the title but Rob's performance was amazing again. Well done!

The "World Cup" in Western Australia

How much fun can you have celebrating the 2010 World Cup whist raising monies for the Bobby Moore Cancer Fund? Hoping to set up a Bobby Moore Australia Fund. Not sure if Australia is aware that the 2010 World Cup is ONLY 39 sleeps away? Entertainment + = more fund raising activities. Guaranteed: Western Australia will see the biggest opening ceremony ever on Friday 11th June in and around Football Emporiums HQ Cannington Perth. Check out: www.socceremporium.com.au
Additional Fund Raiser: West Australia’s 1st ever Subbuteo World Cup Comp coming to you live and direct from Football Emporium’s HQ June/July 2010.

Some news from Western Australia

Robert Smith has been in contact with a sports store called the Football Emporium and he has managed to put set up a table in the middle of their shop. While he was there, he has been contacted by many people who used to live in the UK and used to have material. There was some really good feedback and Robert is now hoping to organise a league or cup to coincide with the world cup.

Peter Thomas wins the Challenger of Sydney

The FISTF Challenger of Sydney took place on March 20th and it was a great success. Peter Thomas, an english guy based in Canberra (he's the brother of Chris Thomas, one of the best british players) beat Robert Smith (3-1) in the final while Eliot Kennedy beat Antonio Carabillo (who had travelled from Hong Kong for the tournament) in the game for the third place.
Ten players were present and they were divided in three groups. In group 1, Robert Smith defeated Tony Credentino (8-0) and Scott Gannon to take the first place and qualify for the semi-finals. Tony and Scott drew (1-1). In group B, Eliot Kennedy won both games against Antonio Carabillo (3-1) and John Palamara (10-0). Antonio beat John (6-0) to qualify for the barrage round. Group 3 was a group of 4. Peter Thomas and Steve Dettre qualified for the next round while Mike Newton and Jon Ball finished in the bottom of the table.
In the semi-finals of the plate tournament, Scott beat Jon and Miken beat John. In the final, Mike Newton beat Scott Gannon (4-1).
In the main event, the barrages gave no surprise as Peter Thomas beat Tony Credentino (5-1) and Antonio Carabillo beat Steve Dettre (2-0). The semi-finals were close games as Robert Smith beat Antonio Carabillo by a single goal (1-0) and Peter Thomas beat Eliot Kennedy (2-1). After the game for the 3rd place and Eliot's victory over Antonio, the final between Robert Smith and Peter Thomas was quite interesting. Peter finally won (3-1) to take the honors!
Let's hope this tournament will be the first of many others to come in Australia!
Special thanks to Steve Dettre for providing the venue and John Palamara for bringing the tables!

Bob Green's visit in Perth

The Western Australian Subbuteo Club was the home of a few games between local player Rob Smith and australian legend Bob Green. Bog finally won 3 games while Rob won one. Rob Smith reported after the games: "We tried and tested a few different bases from old style 00 Heavyweights to modern Profibases and he was quite partial to the Raptor G2's. He's still got the touch, although to be fair, we were both a bit rusty!"

Bob Green was happy as well: "It was great to play again after not flicking a figure for around 10 years. I played better than I thought I would, I guess after all the games I've played over the years you don't forget everything. For both of us I think the mind was sharp but sometimes it seemed as if somebody else's hand was doing the flicking. I did manage to score one particularly nice goal. "I was mesmerised" was Rob's comment on the quick flicking that led to it. Rob and I had a great day (and also watching Perth Glory the night before) and it definitely gives me the taste for more! It won't be another 10 years until I flick again that's for sure."

Roll on March 20th!

Eliot Kennedy plays in Finland

Legend Eliot Kennedy is currently spending a few weeks in Finland with the family and the finnish boys organised a tournament last wednesday to coincide with his visit, so Eliot got to play for the first time since leaving Finland in July 2007, which was great and has further fired his enthusiasm to play again in Australia, even if only semi-regularly. Eliot reports: "The tournament was played using the 'Swiss' system, where you draw names out of a hat, play the first round of games, do a league table, then 1 plays 2, 3 plays 4 etc, then you do another table and repeat the process (except you cannot play the same player twice). We had 13 guys and played 6 rounds on the day (1 or 2 too many for my old back, but great practice!). I managed to come 6th out of 13, about as expected. Won 3, drew 1 and lost 2. I did not play too badly given the long break, but the Finnish guys are definitely better than when I left, having benefitted from regular play in Finland (and for some of them in FISTF events elsewhere including the World Cup) and better figures (mainly C3 Profibase and Extreme Works figures. I was using my old Sureshot figures which are quite good, but not I think of the same quality). One indication of their progress is that I lost my last game 0-4 to a fellow I beat 2-1 just before leaving here in 2007. I was maybe a little unlucky and pretty tired, but he was clearly better than me on the day. When I was herebefore, I was in the top 2. Now, even with more regular play, I'd be very happy to be in the top 5."

2010, next meet in Sydney

There should be a meet in Sydney for the New year. Interested players can contact Rob Smith for more details. More news soon...

Some pictures of the FISTF events in Singapore

Congratulations again to Robert Smith for becoming the 2nd Australia player to win a FISTF tournament, 15 years after Gary Hosie's triumph in the Australian Grand Prix. Well done Robert! On the pictures, Robert was wearing the green subbuteo t-shirt during the Challenger and the yellow jersey during the Satellite. Great job!!!

Flicking on the 31st just gone

There was some action last saturday at Brett Davis's place in Penrith (Sydney) as Mike Newton and Steve Dettre paid a visit to have some games. Steve beat Brett (2-0) in the first game. Brett learned a lot from his opponent and he knows the offside rule by heart now (!) before Mike beat Brett 6-1. In the last game, Steve beat Mike (1-0). There should be another meeting again in december, probably at Steve's work, as it is more roomie and in a more central location. All players in the area are welcome to join.

Australia at the World Cup

Steve Dettre was in Rotterdam as a visitor during the FISTF World Cup this week-end. the former organizer of australian table soccer and FISTF Director was impressed by the event and was very enthusiast about the possibility to have an australian team in 2012 if the world cup is held in London. Steve also mate Laurent Garnier (France) and Willy Hoffmann (Switzerland), two of the other co-founders of FISTF. A good time to remember a lot of souvenirs...

Database of players

Thanks guys, I've had a good response recreating a database of players, just need to find some more equipment and we are well on our way.
Robert Smith

Robert Smith reaches the semis in Singapore

Robert Smith (Perth) attended the FISTF Satellite tournament in Singapore on June 28. 29 players including one from Hong Kong were competing int he tournament. Robert Smith managed to reach the semi-finals, losing in a close game to final winner Yusni Den Mulia. This is a very encouraging result for the current australian number 1 player in the world rankings.