{"id":1574,"date":"2015-08-02T18:32:45","date_gmt":"2015-08-02T08:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/?p=1574"},"modified":"2015-08-02T18:32:45","modified_gmt":"2015-08-02T08:32:45","slug":"western-flickers-mtfc-2nd-waspa-promotional-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/?p=1574","title":{"rendered":"Western Flickers (MTFC) 2nd WASPA Promotional tournament!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>Reported by Benny Ng (Melbourne, Australia)<\/i><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1577\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1577\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11822419_10206412922257408_8236137516715688353_n.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1577\" alt=\"Group Photo\" src=\"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11822419_10206412922257408_8236137516715688353_n.jpg\" width=\"960\" height=\"639\" srcset=\"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11822419_10206412922257408_8236137516715688353_n.jpg 960w, http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11822419_10206412922257408_8236137516715688353_n-300x199.jpg 300w, http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11822419_10206412922257408_8236137516715688353_n-624x415.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1577\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Group Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The <b>Western Flickers<\/b> &#8211; a sub-group of the Melbourne Table Football Club \u2013 was formed to to cater for players living on the north\/west side of Melbourne and provide more opportunities to play the wonderful game of table football.<\/p>\n<p>We held our 2<sup>nd<\/sup> WASPA event today and there was much excitement building up to the event with first timers and returning old friends expected to attend. Despite a couple of last minute pull-outs, I am happy to report that the day was another great success!<\/p>\n<h2>Continued Growth<\/h2>\n<p>Growing upon the inaugural Western Flickers tournament in May, 7 players took part in the WASPA promotional tournament today. A very big welcome to the following Western Flickers first timers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fauzi Rahmen \u2013 A newcomer to the game but very keen to try it out<\/li>\n<li>Martin Sarnecki \u2013 A Subbuteo Melbourne early pioneer but who has been away from the game for a while since<\/li>\n<li>Aidan Deverall \u2013 only started playing Subbuteo very recently<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To mix things up a bit, the players were randomly split into 2 groups.<\/p>\n<h2>The Group Stages<\/h2>\n<p>In the group stages, defence and caution was the order of the day with more than half of the matches drawn and the rest mostly decided by a single goal. Only Benjamin achieved a winning margin of 2 goals and this proved to be decided as he topped his group with Benny coming in second.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1576\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1576\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11822317_10206412903736945_726810717404263863_n.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1576\" alt=\"Multi-Table Action in Altona\" src=\"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11822317_10206412903736945_726810717404263863_n.jpg\" width=\"960\" height=\"639\" srcset=\"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11822317_10206412903736945_726810717404263863_n.jpg 960w, http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11822317_10206412903736945_726810717404263863_n-300x199.jpg 300w, http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11822317_10206412903736945_726810717404263863_n-624x415.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1576\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Multi-Table Action in Altona<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A special congrats to Fauzi who showed great promise and displayed excellent defensive flicking. He managed to get 2 deserved draws in his very first table football tournament (and would also later score his first goal in the 4<sup>th<\/sup> placing play-off match). Well done mate!<\/p>\n<p>In the other group, experience prevailed with Adam and Martin finishing 1<sup>st<\/sup> and 2<sup>nd<\/sup> respectively despite a strong showing from ever improving Christos using his brand new Sniper 2.0 LW AEK Athens team.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1575\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1575\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11811571_10206412904656968_5613956037444087770_n.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1575\" alt=\"Youth in Action!\" src=\"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11811571_10206412904656968_5613956037444087770_n.jpg\" width=\"960\" height=\"639\" srcset=\"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11811571_10206412904656968_5613956037444087770_n.jpg 960w, http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11811571_10206412904656968_5613956037444087770_n-300x199.jpg 300w, http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11811571_10206412904656968_5613956037444087770_n-624x415.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1575\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Youth in Action!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>The Semi-Finals<\/h2>\n<p>The semi-finals were a totally different affair with goals aplenty and excitement galore. Young Benjamin\u2019s dream run was ended by a clinical Martin in the first semi-final. In spite of Benjamin deploying a Chelsea-inspired \u201cpark the bus\u201d strategy, Martin managed to blast his way through the wall of defenders to win 3-0.<\/p>\n<p>In the other semi-final between Adam and Benny, it was another tense affair the closely matched players. In a game of half-chances, Benny managed to snatch the lead with a nicely worked attack through the middle helped by a defensive error clearing the way. And just as Benny thought he was through to the final, Adam equalised with a tremendous goal from the wing right into the top corner with a minute or so to spare!<\/p>\n<p>A shootout it was then and Benny finally broke his 4-shootout losing streak to get to the final 2-0. Wearing his lucky Singapore jersey (to commemorate Singapore\u2019s 50 years of Independence celebration week) probably helped!<\/p>\n<h2>The Grand Final<\/h2>\n<p>So, it was Benny vs Martin in the grand finale. And what a memorable match it turned out to be with some truly excellent goals. Benny took the lead with the classic but difficult corner-and-shoot-on-the run into the bottom corner not giving Martin any time to react. It didn\u2019t take Martin to draw level with a stunning long distance strike that chipped the ball into the top corner giving the keeper no chance. 1-1!<\/p>\n<p>The third goal though was a complete fluke with Benny mis-flicking the player who ended up flying towards Martin while the ball trickled slowly into goal with the keeper stunned motionless. Martin then went on a full scale offensive to equalise and was duly rewarded with less than a minute to spare. Taking advantage of a needless free kick given away by Benny on the right edge of the penalty area, Martin scored a brilliant free-kick-and-shoot-on-the-run goal!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1578\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1578\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11828810_10206412999339335_8576271498560107872_n.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1578\" alt=\"Benny breaks his shootout duck\" src=\"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11828810_10206412999339335_8576271498560107872_n.jpg\" width=\"960\" height=\"639\" srcset=\"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11828810_10206412999339335_8576271498560107872_n.jpg 960w, http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11828810_10206412999339335_8576271498560107872_n-300x199.jpg 300w, http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/11828810_10206412999339335_8576271498560107872_n-624x415.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1578\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Benny breaks his shootout duck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>2-2 and on to another shootout. In a tale of misses, it went all the way with Benny winning by the solitary single shootout goal to achieve his 2<sup>nd<\/sup> Western Flickers WASPA tournament win in a row.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>All in all, it was a great fun day of table football that was enjoyed by all. Thanks to everyone for making this a successful event. A very special thanks to Adam Deverall for allowing us to use this home and arranging the boards.<\/p>\n<p>With a couple of regulars to return, the future is looking bright indeed for the Western Flickers. GO WEST!<\/p>\n<p>Final standings are:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Benny Ng<\/li>\n<li>Martin Sarnecki<\/li>\n<li>(Joint) Adam Deverall &amp; Benjamin Ng<\/li>\n<li>Christos Garagounis<\/li>\n<li>Fauzi Rahmen<\/li>\n<li>Aidan Deverall<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>P.S. If anyone is interested in taking part in future Melbourne TFC\u00a0events (at the clubhouse in Brighton or with the Western Flickers) or just popping by for chat and look-see, feel free to send Benny Ng an email at <a href=\"mailto:bennidokk@yahoo.com\">bennidokk@yahoo.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reported by Benny Ng (Melbourne, Australia) The Western Flickers &#8211; a sub-group of the Melbourne Table Football Club \u2013 was formed to to cater for players living on the north\/west side of Melbourne and provide more opportunities to play the wonderful game of table football. We held our 2nd WASPA event today and there was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-results-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1579,"href":"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574\/revisions\/1579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}