Australian players in the FISTF world rankings

In the new rankings (april), Robert SMith is 203rd, Eliot Kennedy 796th, Tony Credentino and Steve Dettre 1004th, Jon Ball, Scott Gannon and John Palamara 1180th. The english players based in Australia, Peter Thomas and Mike Newton, are 522nd and 1180th.

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.

Australian players in the FISTF world rankings

The world rankings of march have been released and there are now several australian players involved. Robert Smith is still leading as 203rd player in the world with 82,05 points. Eliot Kennedy is 800th (9,6 points), Tony Credentino and Steve Dettre are 1014th (4,8 points) while Jon Ball, Scott Gannon and John Palamara are 1176th (2,40 points). Peter Thomas from Canberra is 519th with 24 points while he's still officially playing for England. Same for Mike Newton who is 1176th with 2,40 points.

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!

Australian players in the FISTF world rankings

In the world rankings of February 2010, Rob Smith is 243rd (-4). He will be the first seed in the FISTF Challenger tournament in Sydney, on March 20th.

There are other good news as it is now confirmed that Antonio Carabillo (468th in the world rankings) from Hong Kong will attend the tournament.

Australian players in the FISTF world rankings

Rob Smith remains 239th in the world rankings of January 2010.

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."

Australian players in the FISTF world rankings

Robert Smith is 239th in the open world ranking of December 2009.

Australian players in the FISTF world rankings

After his victory in the Singapore Challenger tournament, Robert Smith is now 246th in the Open world rankings of November. It's a huge improvement as Rob was 654th in October. Well done!