![\"untitled-1\"](\"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Untitled-1.jpg\")
<\/a>On a beautiful Melbourne spring day, the Western Flickers family headed up north to the little town of Willowmavin (about 1.5 hours north of Melbourne CBD).\nThus far, all the table football events have been held in metropolitan Melbourne. However, community engagement and promotion of the game in regional Victoria is very much part of the long term development roadmap for Western Flickers TFC.
\nDespite the long trek, there was a great turnout of 8 flickers in the Open category and 3 kids in the Junior category. There were also a few non-players \u2013 like locally renowned Subbuteo memorabilia collector Paul Hindmarsh \u2013 who came to watch the exciting games and join the social activities.<\/p>\n
JUNIOR CATEGORY OPEN CATEGORY FINAL STAGES CONCLUSION The final Junior category standings are: Report by Benny Ng
\n<\/a>With a number of junior players unable to attend, it meant that Benjamin and the Briffa boys \u2013 Harrison and Alex \u2013 would compete for honours in a short simple single-leg round robin format.
\nBoth Harrison and Benjamin won their match against Alex by an identical score line, which meant that the final match between the two would decide the winner. It was a tight match where gilt-edged chances fell to both players. On the day, Benjamin\u2019s clinical finishing was the difference and he emerged victorious. The final score was 2-0 though it did not reflect the close balance of play.
\nOf special note is that the games were played with 2 x 15 minute halves, as opposed to the usual 10 minute halves. With the three juniors possibly competing at the Australian Grand Prix 2017 event in Sydney early next year, this was a good introduction (or refresher in Benjamin\u2019s case) to the longer format.<\/p>\n
\nThe 8 players in the Open category were split evenly into 2 groups, with the top 2 WASPA ranked players \u2013 Benny Ng and Benji Batten \u2013 spread across the groups. The rest were allocated randomly with the draw broadcast on Facebook Live. You can watch a repeat of the live broadcast draw video on the Western Flickers Facebook page (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WesternFlickers\/).
\n\u00a0
\n<\/a>GROUP STAGES
\nThe group results went pretty much as the rankings indicated.
\nIn Group 1, Benji steamrolled through the opposition scoring big wins. On the other hand, Christos just managed to scrape through to the next round on a slightly better goal difference over the senior Briffa (Simon).
\nIt was a much closer affair in Group 2 where former WASPA tournament winner David Simpson made an eagerly anticipated return to the sport after over a years\u2019 absence. Despite being away for so long, he showed no signs of rustiness and held tournament top seed Benny to a goalless draw. With both David and Benny winning their remaining matches, it was to come down to goal difference. Thanks to Kevin\u2019s masterful defending in his tie with David that kept the score down, Benny edged through to the semi-finals in group top position thus avoiding an early showdown with Benji in Group 1.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>The semi-finals were all extremely close affairs. Benny defeated Christos is a tightly contested match 2-1, while Benji only got past David Simpson via a penalty shootout.
\nIt was no different in the grand final with not much between the players. Both players managed to break through the opposing defence with some magnificent goals, but it was tied 2-2 at full time. A penalty shootout ensued and Benny emerged victorious, continuing on his recent run of good form to complete a hat-trick of WASPA titles in a row. <\/p>\n
\nThanks to all who attended for helping to make it another extremely successful Western Flickers WASPA event. Everyone had loads of fun playing the beautiful game and also enjoyed the camaraderie and food during the following BBQ. Table football was indeed the winner.<\/p>\n<\/a>GO WEST!
\nThe final Open category standings are:
\n1. Benny Ng
\n2. Benji Batten
\n3. Christos Garagounis
\n4. David Simpson
\n5. Simon Briffa
\n6. Chris Hirst
\n7. Kevin Grant
\n8. Tim Kee<\/p>\n
\n1. Benjamin Ng
\n2. Harrison Briffa
\n3. Alex Briffa<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0
\nP.S. If anyone is interested in taking part in future Western Flickers events or just popping by for chat and look-see, please visit the Western Flickers Facebook page (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WesternFlickers\/<\/a>)\u00a0and send us a message.<\/p>\n