Koutis wins the Major of Athens

Koutis (right) with Josef Camilleri from Malta

On June 21 and 22, the Athens Major took place in Ilioupoli sports hall. 97 different players took part in the individual categories. with the exception of three foreigners (Eddie Belloto, Josef and Mauro Camilleri) all the others are from Hellas.
In the open category (60), Giorgos Koutis was the winner. Nikos Beis reached the final. Kostas Seses and Spyros Hantzaras the semi-finalists
In the veterans (21) Periklis Dimopoulos was the winner, beating Lazaros Papakonstantinou in the final. Chris Aggelinas and Panagiotis Haratsis were the semi-finalists
we also had women category (6). Dionysia Koulosousa was the winner. Arkos Falelakis won both under 15 (9) and under 12 (6) categories. Both times he faced Vaggelis Kotrotsos in the final.
In the under 19 (6), Nikos haratsis was the winner.
Day 2 we had the team competition. 15 teams competed for the throphy. The home team of Roligans beat Falcons on goals in the final. Serenissima and Atlas reached the semi-finals.

(Report by Chris Aggelinas)

Nicos Beis is the king in Athens

Sunday, June 15th, the individual categories of the Acropolis Grand Prix were played with three categories in the agenda.

In the under 19 section, 4 players competed for the trophy. Manos Kapsambelis was the winner, Giorgos Vlassopoulos was second, Vasilis Nitis third and Michalis Apostolidis fourth.

In the veterans 16 players were present. Lazaros Papakonstantinou beat in the final Giorgos Aggelinas. Sotiris Korologos and Marcos Kapsambelis were the semi-finalists.

In the open category (44 players) Nicos Beis was the winner, Spyros Hantzaras was the runner-up. Kostas Seses and Dimitris Kosmopoulos were the semi-finalists.

In the team event of the saturday, 13 teams competed for the trophy. The final was close and the Falcons beat Roligans in the sudden death thanks to a goal of Spyros Hantzaras. Athinaikos and Olympia, reached the semi-finals.

(Report with the help of Chris Aggelinas)

Chris Short wins the English GP

The Open final between Chris Short and Mark Gauci (referee Nathan Dupont)

The FISTF Grand Prix of England took part last week in Enderby with a large field of 63 players from 12 nations. It was great to see many close games even if in the end the two top seeds of the tournament reached the semi-finals. At this stage, Chris Short beat Chris Thomas on shots while Mark Gauci beat Nathan Dupont (4-3). In the final, Short scored the only goal of the game in the sudden death to win the title. Other winners in the categories were Elliott Bellefontaine (U19), Connor Bowden (U15), Mauro Manganello (Veterans), Margault Delval (Ladies) and Kye Arnold (U12).. In the team event, 14 teams took part. In the final, the Maltese team of Valletta beat the Belgians of AS Hennuyer (1-0) to catch the title.

Bob Green was the only representative from Australia. He managed to reach the quarter-finals of the veterans section. Well done Bob!

Flores and Reggio Emilia are the kings in Bologna

The FISTF Major of Bologna took place on May 31 and June 1 in a beautiful sports hall in the nice city from the North of Italy. There were many players from foreign countries taking part and some surprising results. The Open category had only one Italian in the quarter-finals and in the end, there was a Spanish winner as Carlos Flores beat Giorgos Koutis (Greece) in the final while Samuel Bartolo (Malta) and Maikel de Haas (the Netherlands) lost in the semis.

The team event was an italian affair with four intalian clubs in the semis and the title for Reggio Emilia after beating Pisa in the final.

Paola Forlani beat Switzerland's Trisha Baumeler in the ladies section. Leonardo Giudica was the best U12. Fabio Bianco from Germany was the surprising U15 winner. David Gonzalez from Spain defeated Antonio Peluso in the U19 final.

The veterans section was also dominated by Italians. Gianfranco Calonico beat Francesco Mattiangeli in the final!

Congratulations to all the winners.

Eugene Plytas wins in Athens

42 players and 9 teams attended the FISTF Satellite of Athens held last week-end. In the Open section, Eugene Plytas (Atlas) took the honors after beating Panagiotis Vasilopoulos in the final. Spyrons Patrinos and Andrianos Dervis made it to the semis. Markos Fanellakis (Glyfada United) won the U19 tournament while Marcos Kapsabelis beat Dimitris Stamatopoulos in the final of the veterans (2-1). The team event saw a very tight final and Atlas TFC B beat Olympia B on goal-difference.

Double victory for Antonio Montaño in Gibraltar

The Gibraltar International Open took place last week-end with a small turnout of 15 players from Gibraltar and Spain but also Dave Gladman from Scotland. The Open category saw the victory of Spain's Antonio Montaño (Tuburones FM) who beat local player Jason Cano in the final (2-1) while Jesus Moreno and Antonio Casin reached the semis. David Gonzalez won the U19 section while Antonio Montaño also won the veterans category as he beat John Field by a clear 4-0 in the final. Only three teams took part in the team event. The host club of Gibraltar took the honors.

Big promotion in Budapest

There was a two days sport festival in Budapest (Hungary), where the children could try all kind of sports. Subbuteo had a great success, hundreds of children tried it and enjoyed the game. We expect some of them will come to our club to play with us regulary. I send you some pictures about the festival.

You can find more pictures on the Budapest Subbuteo blog: http://budapestsubbuteo.blog.hu/2014/05/26/a_subbuteo_elbuvolte_a_gyerekeket

Poster of the Open of Eugies

Alberto Mateos wins in Mallorca

Noguera, Napolitano and Mateos had great results in the Spanish GP

54 players from 10 different nations attended the FISTF Grand Prix of Spain in Mallorca on May 10 and 11. The Open category had 24 entries and Alberto Mateos won the final against Juan Noguera (1-0), offering the first two places of the event to the club of Fiamme Azzurre. Carmine Napolitano and Justin Leroy made it to the semis. Antonio Casio won the U19 section while the veterans category had another big field of 24. Vicenç Prats Salas finally beat Robert Lenz to win the title while Daniel Scheen and Juan Carlos Granados made it to the semis. The team event was played by seven teams. The belgian side of Rochefort TS and Fiamme Azzurre tied in the final (2-2) but the Belgians won the game as the Italian side was only fielding three players.

English GP

As a reminder, details for the English Grand Prix to be played on June 7 and 8 are available here.

Open of Gillingham

You can find here details about the forthcoming Open of Gilligham in England.

Peter Alegi wins in Grand Rapids, Michigan

There was a tournament in Grand Rapids, Michigan last saturday with a field of 8 players competing for a lot of points as the event had the double status (FISTF Satellite/WASPA) and the host club had the chance to meet players of the Chicago Area Subbuteo Club as well as Erik Haefke who has spent the last few months in France and played in several tournaments in Europe. Haefke made it to the final after defeating Mike Ewer in the semi. In the other semi, Peter Alegi beat Ilias Gikias on shots. The final was very close but Peter Alegi made the difference in the final to beat Erik Haefke in the sudden death.

Two trophies for Flavio Riccomagno in Argentina

The Grand Prix of Argentina took place on sunday with a field of 11 players including Flavio Riccomagno, an Italian ranked 166 in the Open ranking. The representative of the Flickers Milano was the top favorite of the event and didn't miss the chance to win his first FISTF Grand Prix as he beat Sebastian Pesci in the semi-final and Claudio Murcilli in the final. Fabrizio Bertolini, the top seed of the tournament, lost to Murcilli in the other semi-final. Flavio Riccomagno also won the veterans section hile Agustín Ortega finished on top of a group of five to win the U19 trophy.

The 5th victory in a Major for Wolfgang Leitner

Wolfgang Leitner wins his 5th Major. Gil Delogne, Bessim Golger and Sami Targui are also on the podium

The FISTF Major of Stembert took place this week-end with a good file of more than 150 players. The Open tournament had 69 entries and many interesting games with four players of the home nation against four top foreign players (Leitner, Rouis, Benita and Donval). Wolfgang Leitner (Austria/Mattersburg) took the honors after beating Gil Delogne in the final in sudden death (1-0) while Bessim Golger and Sami Targui lost in the semis. Alain Jadot was the surprising winner of the veterans after beating Karl-Heinz Haider on shots in the semi and Fabio Belloni in sudden death in the final. Lydie Pinchart had a great day in the ladies section as she defeated Emilie Despretz in the final. Margault Delval helped the ASH team to put three girls in the semis while Victoria Büsing from Germany was the other semi-finalist. In the U19 section, Marcel Kwiatkowski came on top of a group of 7 but he lost in the final against David Vantassel. Nicola Borgo frm italy beat Theo Modeste from France to win the U15 tournament. In the same time, it was the clash of the titans in the U12 category with Noé Scheen beating Marios Strommer during the sudden death of the final.

The team event of the saturday had a good strarting list of 28 teams but despite the good performances of the Belgian teams, only SC Stembert managed to reach the semis with thre italian clubs. In the final 4, the Bologna Tigers beat Stembert by a close 2-1 while Perugia beat Sanremo (1-0). the final was an italian affair but Perugia took the honors by beating Bologna (2-0) with individual wins of their foreign players Bessim Golger and Fayçal Rouis.

Congratulations to the club of Stembert for a fantastic show with a really fantastic venue and an amazing live coverage of the event.

Cédric Garnier wins again in Yokohama

The third Satellite of the season in Japan took place this sunday with 10 players taking part in the Open category. There was no surprise as Cédric Garnier took the honors after he beat Kenzo Koi (3-0) in the final. Yasuhiro Suzuki and Hideaki Wada reached the semi-finals. Taichi Kato beat Makoto Miyake to win the U12 final (1-0).

Major of Verviers

Just 2 weeks to go before the Major of Verviers

Perfect week-end for Axel Donval

The club of Puylaurens in the South of France organized their International week-end on April 12 and 13 with players from five nations taking part. There was only one team event with 6 teams competing and FTC Issy (France) beat SC Eugies (Belgium) in the final thanks to a decisive goal of Axel Donval a few seconds before the final whistle. The Open tournament on saturday had a field of 19 players. Axel Donval beat Jean-Marie Amberny in sudden dearh to win the title. Emmanuel Gorgette and Olivier Père were the semi-finalists. In the other categories, the winners were David Vantassel (U19), Emilie Despretz (U15), Ferran Coll (veterans) Margot Diradourian (Ladies) and Lucas Père (U12). On sunday, only two categories were in the agenda. Axel Donval beat Axel Modeste in sudden death to win his third trophy of the week-end while Ferran Coll and Jean-Marie Amberny lost in the semis. Margot Diradourian beat Emilie Despretz in the final of the U15 tournament.

Poster of the next Gibraltar Open

Details of the Gilligham Open

Some good links:

http://subbuteoassociation.co.uk/events/international-open-2014-2/

http://www.subbuteoplayersforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=105&t=12865

http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/kentinvictatfc/calendar/event/kent-invicta-tfc-gillingham-international-open-149909

Summary:

Date & Categories:-
Saturday 5th July 2014 – Individuals – Open, Vets, U19s, U15s & Ladies
Sunday 6th July 2014 – Teams & U12s Individuals

U12s can play in U12s & U15s but not in teams, unless a team is short on players.
Ladies can play in U12s or U15s if in that category too.
Depending on numbers & schedule, U15s may be able to play U19s as well.

Perfect week-end for David Gonzaléz

The Open final between Nuno Noronha and David Gonzalez (referee is Sergio Ramos)

Last week-end the small city of Oeiras in the Lisbon area hosted the grand prix of Portugal. 8 teams and 49 players from 5 different countries were taking part. In the open category, David Gonzaléz was the only spanish players in the last 4 but he managed to beat Portuguese legend Filipe Maia in the semi and Nuno Noronha in the final to claim the trophy. It was a perfect week-end for Gonzaléz who also won the U19 tournament and the team event as Tiburones beat the Portuguese team of GRD 1º Maio Tires in the final. In the other youth sections, Vasco Henriques was the best U12 player while Ricardo José won the U15 group stage. In the veterans, Filipe Maia took a revenge as he beat another Tiburones player, António Montaño, to win the final.

Marcelo Ramalhete wins in Rio

The Grand Prix of Brazil took place this week-end in Rio de Janeiro. There was a small field of 8 players but a lot of motivation from the local club of Vasco de Gama. Marcelo Ramalhete took the honors after defeating Daniel De Matos in the semi and Igor Quintaes in the final. Congratulations and good luck to the players in Brazil for their continuous efforts to develop subbuteo in South America.

Poster of the Satellite of Athinaikos

Juan Noguera takes the honors in Rome

The International Open of Rome took place last week-end (March 22 and 23) with a strong field of 33 players in the Open category. Italian players were very strong but there were three foreign players left in the quarter-finals. Hansel Mallia (Malta) beat Filipe Maia in the quarter-final but lost to Juan Noguera (Spain) in the semi. In the other semi, Nicky Napolitano beat Andrea Di Vincenzo. Juan Noguera won the final in the sudden death against Napolitano. Lorenzo Bonomo was the U15 champion and Lorenzo Maresca won the U12 section. In the veterans, Mauro Manganello (Pisa) defeated top seed Gianfranco Calonico (Sanremo) in the final to claim the title. The host club of SC Fiamme Azzurre CM won the team event after a close final against CCT Roma. It was really a "Rome derby", probably as tragic as AS Roma against Lazio in the Serie A.

The winners of the team event

Manganello wins the veterans section

Juan Noguera, Open winner

Singapore is still growing

Last week-end the Singapore Association was the host of several tournaments. After a WASPA tournament held on friday and won by local legend Den Mulia, there was a FISTF Future on saturday with U19 players taking part in a event run in swiss format. 10 players took part and there were many close games. After the six first sessions, Mohd Azhar (Leste Aquila SC) beat Giovanni Choong (Singapore Lions) in the final (1-0) to claim the title.

Winners of the FISTF Future tournament

On sunday, 20 players attended the FISTF Satellite. There were 17 representatives from the host nations but also players from Hong Kong (Antonio Carabillo), Malaysia (Mike Dent) and France (Ouabi ROuis). After the groupe stage, the first surprises occured in the barrage round when Anas Rahamat defeated Antonio Carabillo. In the quarter-finals, Michael Choong managed to beat Rudy Hesty on shots. There were no surprises in the semis as Tan Kok Wee beat Micheal Choon and Ouabi Rouis defeated Den Mulia. In the final, Ouabi Rouis proved to be the most experienced player by defeating Tan Kok Wee (3-0).

Youth in action

Cédric Garnier is on top in Japan

14 players attended the FISTF Satellite of Yokohama held on March 21 in Japan. There was no surprise in the Open category as top favorite Cedric Garnier beat Kenzo Koi (3-0) in the final. Naoya Koide and Naruhisa Horino lost in the semis. Kosuke Watanabe was the U12 champion after winnign all his games in a group of 4. Finally, Tomoko Miyake beat Ryoko Wada on shots to win the ladies trophy.

Ladies category

U12 category

Open podium

FISTF tournaments in Brazil

Two events will be held in Brazil this season. The Grand Prix should take place on March 29 and 30 in Rio de Janeiro while the International Open of Nilópolis, Rio de Janeiro will take place on June 22. Here are the posters of the two events.

Grand Prix of Portugal

Here is the poster of the 18th Grand Prix of Portugal. All details are available on the blog http://grandprixportugalenu.blogspot.pt/

Hat trick for Reggio Emilia players in Frameries

The Major of Frameries took place this week-end with more than 220 players from 17 nations taking part in a wonderful event. On saturday the team event had an amazing of more than 50 teams taking part but in the end, the reigning european champions of Reggio Emilia (Italy) took the honors after defeating Austria's TFC Mattersburg in the final. It was not enough for the club of captaim Marco lamberti as Carlos Flores also won the Open category after a close final against Belgium's Valéry Dejardin. It was another Reggio Emilia player, Malta's Massimo Crmeona, who made a sensational debut in the veterans section. The former world number one had to play the qualification round but was in a hot day to beat Nuno Noronha in the final. The other winners of the week-end were Antonio Jesus Casin (U19), Marco Di Vito (U15), Noé Scheen (U12) and the Swiss princess Trisha Baumeler in the ladies section.

Flores, Lamberti, Licheri, Crmeona and Monica, a team "on fire" in Frameries

Subbuteo action at the Hamleys in Kuala Lumpur

On February 22, the players of the Hartamas Tigers Subbuteo Club in Kuala Lumpur had an exhibition at the famous Hamleys store. Two tables were set up for demos and friendly games and there will be more demos like this every last saturday of the month from now on. Stadiums were decorated with decals of the Hamleys brand but also with stickers of the current clubs partners (FISTF, WASPA, Singapore Subbuteo Association, Imagine games and the Minister of youth and sports). Coach Mike Dent and five young players were present to show the game to the visitors. The demo had a big impact as the "Star Newspaper" was present to cover to event and Mike Dent was interviewed by the reporter. On every subbuteo product sold in the shop, a sticker mentionned the existence of the Hartamas Tigers club. Well done for a great promotion!

Coach Mike Dent (right)

Promotion stickers on the boxes

The honors for Gareth Christie in Glasgow

Yorkshire Phoenix beat Tayside Kickers in the team event final in the Glasgow International Open at the Normandy Hotel this sunday. On saturday, the individual tournament was full of surprises. Gareth Christie of the Tayside Kickers won the Open final against Bristol's Paulo Gouveia (2-1 in sudden death) while Daniel Scheen from Stembert (Belgium) won the veterans and his son Noé Scheen won the U15 section. Well done to all.

Gareth Christie and Paulo Gouveia