Australian players in the world rankings

In the FISTF rankings of August 2013, a few Australian players are mentionned.
Robert Green is 597th in the Open category. Robert is also 142th in the veterans while Gerald Brightwell is 211th.
The top 5 Australian players in the WASPA ranking of August 2013 are: Carl Young (55), Mike Newton and Brett Davis (64), Eliot Kennedy (66), John Devaney (70).
Australia is 12th in the ranking of nations.

First tournament in Toongabbie

There were two tournaments in Australia this week-end and the one in Toongabbie attracted nine players. It was a good tournament and not only because it was a way to celebrate Adrian Elmer's birthday. Imojjen Elmer was also playing her first tournament. She's only 12 and was introduced to the game by her father. In the end, after the group stage, host Adrian Elmer lost on shots to Alex Jennings in the first semi while Phill Parker beat Costa Kamarados. In the final, Phill and Alex tied (1-1) but Alex won on shots to claim the trophy. Congratulations to everyone involved!

Adrian in the semi

Alex Jennings is the winner of the tournament

Nice group picture!

Robert Green at the world cup

Congratulations to Robert Green who was the Australian representative at the FISTF world cup in Madrid (Spain). Robert was supposed to come as a spectator but was invited to replace a last minute drop-out in the veterans. Robert lost to Juan Carlos Granados Cuellar from Spain (0-4), Manfred Pawlica from Austria (0-7) and Thomas Vulpes from Germany (0-2) but he met a lot of old and new friends. Well done!

Bob with Ben staples from England

A tournament in Toongabbie

WASPA has just been in touch with another group of players in the Sydney area. Adrian runs a subbuteo tournament every year in september for 15 years now. As a coincidence, the date of this year's tournament clashes with the Penrith tournament as it will be held on September 14. The good thing is that Adrian and his friend might be able to attend other tournaments in Penrith or in the area in the future. Anyway, Adrian's tournament will have the WASPA status this year.

Adrian reported he has been a subbuteo fan for many years: "Subbuteo has been very quiet in Australia for a long time. I went to a tournament once as a teenager in the late 80s and there were 50 or so competitors, but there hasn't really been anything much since then! Every year around september I have a look around online to see if anything is around and was very happy to see the australian website, which has only appeared since the last tournament my friends and I had! So, I've been in contact with them and will hopefully be able to get involved."

Interested players should get in touch with Adrian at ajebec@netspace.net.au to try to arranger more games in the future!

Robert Green played in Finland

Robert Green recently attended the FISTF Grand Prix of Helsinki in Finland. Robert played int he Open category and finished in the third place of his group after beating Ile Tuominen from Finland (3-0), losing to Marko Karhunen from Finland (0-5) and Gabriele Silveri from Italy (0-1). Robert was allowed to play also in the veterans. He tied with local player Kari Hakkarainen (1-1) and beat Ile Tuominen (4-0). In the semi-final, Robert lost to George Papadopoulos from Greece (0-4).

Robert will attend the FISTF World Cup in madrd this week-end as a spectator and will later play again in Finland on October 19.

Australian players in the world rankings

FISTF have released the world rankings of June and July. In the ranking of June, Gerald Brightwell was 205th in the veterans. In July, Gerald was 204th.

In the WASPA ranking of July 2013, the Australian players are ranked as follows:
52 Carl  Young Subbuteo Melbourne 42,00
61 Brett Davis Emu Heights Bundesliga TFC 38,40
62 Eliot Kennedy Northern Falcons TFC 38,00
82 Steve Dettre Northern Falcons TFC 30,80
82 Gerald Brightwell West London TFC 30,75
85 John Devaney Lincoln Flickers SC 29,60
124 Robert Green Team Subbuteo Stockholm 20,00
138 Anthony Ilacqua (no club) 18,40
209 Jay Porter (no club) 11,80
210 Paul Magee (no club) 11,60
242 Searle Batten Subbuteo Melbourne 9,00
242 Eial Donnenfeld Subbuteo Melbourne 9,00
277 Luke Radziminski Subbuteo Melbourne 7,60
282 Adam Deverell Subbuteo Melbourne 7,00
282 Rick Piccinelli Subbuteo Melbourne 7,00
329 Tom Nowacki Subbuteo Melbourne 6,00
336 Martin Sarnecki Subbuteo Melbourne 5,80
340 Nick Drage (no club) 5,60
349 Martin Murgolo (no club) 5,00
391 Benji Batten Subbuteo Melbourne 4,40
399 Trent Fernandes (no club) 4,20
403 John Sexton Hamilton SC 4,00
459 Aaron Daniels (no club) 3,40
473 Matthew Murgolo (no club) 3,00
491 Cameron Toazell (no club) 2,80
564 Marlon Faner (no club) 1,00
564 Alex Fleig (no club) 1,00
564 Braiden Graw (no club) 1,00
564 Mitchell Schroder (no club) 1,00

Australia is now number 13 in the WASPA ranking of nations (32 nations ranked)

Semi-final for Gerald Brightwell in Belgium

Gerald Brightwell travelled to Belgium to play the WASPA tournament of Templeuve. Six nations were represented and Gerald was in a great day as he reached the semi-finals after defeating Kevin Cordell (England) in quarter-final. Gerald lost the semi to the final winner, geoffrey marain (Belgium) but that's definately a good performance for him.

Gerald in action

The final 4 of the event: Grégory Puissant (France), Paulo Gouveia (Portugal), Geoffrey Marain (Belgium) and Gerald Brightwell (Australia)

Well done Socceroos!

Well done to the Socceroos for qualifying for the soccer world cup 2014 in Brazil. Hopefully this will be a source of inspiration for Soccer... and Subbuteo (!) in Australia.

Gerald Brightwell unlucky in Chingford

8 players attended the WASPA tournament in Chingford (England) last wednesday. Gerald Brightwell lost his three group games against Paul Andreas (0-3), Rudi Peterschinigg (1-2) and Elliot Bellefontaine (0-1). Gerald is likely to attend the Templeuve tournament in Belgium on June 23.

Australian players competing in Harrow Weald

Two Aussies attented the WASPA tournament in Harrow Weald (England). 18 players from 5 nationalities in total were taking part and players were divided in four groups. Both John Devaney and Gerald Brightwell ended third in groups of four players. John lost to Steve George and Terry Arnold and tied with Jonathan Lopez-Real. Gerald lost to Kevin Cordell and Vasilis Vavourakis from Cyprus but beat Matthias Peterschinigg. In the consolation tournament, Gerald lost his quarter-final to Matthew Henry while John beat Kye Arnold and then lost to Matthew Henry.