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!

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!!!

Rob Smith wins in Singapore!

The Singapore association hosted two tournaments this week-end. Besides the great field of local players, representatives from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Australia were taking part. In the Satellite, Den Mulia confirmed he's still the best local player as he beat Rob Smith (Australia) in the final. Smith was in a great shape though as he won the other tournament of the week-end, beating Den Mulia in the semi-final and Tan Kok Wee in the final. This is the first international victory for Australia! Let's hope many more will follow and hopefully the next victory will be celebrated after a tournament held in Australia.

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.

Australian players in the FISTF world rankings

Robert Smith is now 654th in the FISTF Open World ranking of October 2009.

More events in Singapore

The Singapore association will organize some more FISTF events this year. It might interest many players around Asia & Oceania to travel there. The events will be as follows:
- Future tournament on October 18
- Challenger on November 20
- Satellite on November 21
For more details, feel free to contact Tan Kok Wee at tfasingapore@gmail.com
As a reminder, the top 100 players in the Open world rankings can not play Satellites, the top 200 players in the Open world rankings can not play Challengers and the top 300 players in the Open world rankings can not play Futures.