{"id":5432,"date":"2020-02-13T15:10:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T04:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/?p=5432"},"modified":"2020-02-13T15:10:05","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T04:10:05","slug":"rudy-hesty-adds-australian-gp-to-his-asian-cup-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/?p=5432","title":{"rendered":"Rudy Hesty adds Australian GP to his Asian Cup victory"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Players<\/a>
Players from the Australian Grand Prix 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Australian Grand Prix of Table Football kicked off on Friday 7th<\/sup> February with players arriving for the Dinner Draw held at 1959 Bar & Grill within South Melbourne FC\u2019s fantastic facilities.\u00a0 The draw threw up a couple of candidates for the dreaded Group of Death in the Open event, but with the depth in quality there would be no easy progression to the round of 16.<\/p>\n

Due to several players suffering from illness, the Juniors competition was reduced to a round robin competition between all competitors, and the women\u2019 event unfortunately had to be cancelled.\u00a0 All individual events were held on the Saturday, with the Club Teams and International Team friendly held on the Sunday, along with a WASPA for those players without Club Teams at the event.<\/p>\n

JUNIOR FISTF<\/p>\n

In the junior\u2019s event, the clash between the top two ranked players determined the title.\u00a0 Northern Falcons\u2019 Torben Pfister claimed the title with his 2-0 win over Western Flickers\u2019 Benjamin Ng who finished as runner up thanks to his 1-0 victory over clubmate Jayden Truter.<\/p>\n

OPEN FISTF<\/p>\n

Group 1 pitted top seed Bernard Lim against top ranked Central Victoria TFC Player Steve Wright and Western Flickers junior Jayden Truter.\u00a0\u00a0Bernard comfortably topped the group, scoring 7 goals without reply, whilst Steve progressed thanks to a 3-0 victory over Jayden.<\/p>\n

Group 2 drew current Asian Champion Rudy Hesty from Singapore with former European, English and Scottish Champion (plus World Cup runner up!) Michael Dent from Malaysia.\u00a0\u00a0Making up the group of three was ATFA President Adrian Connolly.\u00a0 The Group started with Adrian doing well to contain Rudy before succumbing to a 1-3 loss, before upsetting Michael 2-0 to progress.\u00a0\u00a0Rudy narrowly accounted for Michael 1-0 to ensure he topped the group.<\/p>\n

Group 3 was the most tightly contested.\u00a0\u00a0The 3rd seed Benny Ng seemed to be cruising to the round of 16, but a 0-1 loss to North Falcons\u2019 junior Torben Pfister in the final round saw the pair deadlocked with Northern Pheonix\u2019s Christos Garagounis on top.\u00a0\u00a0With all three players sharing 1-0 victories over each other, the 3-way head to head was deadlocked.\u00a0\u00a0This meant the unfortunate Christos was relegated to 3rd place on goal difference by virtue of his smaller victory over the remaining group member, Arjuna Hanafi.<\/p>\n

In Group 4 the clash between reigning AGP Champion Robert Green and 2018 World Cup junior Australian representative Benji Batten determine top place in the group.\u00a0\u00a0The reigning champ prevailed 2-1.\u00a0\u00a0Benji progressed in second place thanks to narrow victories over Italian Claudio Recinelli and Northern Pheonix\u2019s Paul Mercer.<\/p>\n

In Group 5 Jurong Subbuteo Club\u2019s Vikas Chandiramani comfortably progressed with three straight wins, scoring 11 goals without conceding.\u00a0 The top FISTF ranked women\u2019s player at the event, Beth Eveleigh, progressed in second place thanks to her win over newcomer Nathan Urbaniak of Melbourne TFC who took out third place after defeating Hipfingerz\u2019 Jeremy Simpson.<\/p>\n

Group 6 was one of the \u201cGroups of Death\u201d.\u00a0 Anthony Madiona had to forfeit his games due to illness, leaving Jurong SC\u2019s Rizal Taib, Northern Falcon\u2019s Eliot Kennedy, and Melbourne TFC\u2019s Luke Radziminski to battle it out.\u00a0 Luke started well, winning the first two games to top the group and putting his name forward as a dark horse for the title.\u00a0 5th<\/sup> seed Eliot progressed in 2nd<\/sup> place with a 6-2 win over Rizal in the final group game.\u00a0 Rizal can feel somewhat unlucky to have copped 10 goals in just two games by virtue of the tough group, and he would later show this by making the final of the consolation WASPA.<\/p>\n

Group 7 pitted Australia\u2019s Italian Tony Credentino against Singapore\u2019s Italian Luca Maida.\u00a0 Both started well with strong wins over their other two opponents \u2013 Central Victoria TFC founder Kevin Grant and Western Flickers\u2019 newcomer Peter Benholm.\u00a0 With the final clash between Tony and Luca ending 1-1 it was Luca who topped the group on goal difference.\u00a0 Kevin took out third place with his 2-0 win over Peter.<\/p>\n

In Group 8, Giuseppe Tardiota quickly established himself as the main threat to 8th<\/sup> seeded FISTF President Steve Dettre.\u00a0 Both Giuseppe and Steve had comfortable wins over Juliette Browne and Benjamin Ng to set up the final game to decide the group.\u00a0 Giuseppe took out the clash 1-0 to top the group, whilst Benjamin defeated Juliette 3-0 to finish 3rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

The round of 16 saw several familiar clashes.\u00a0 Giuseppe Tardiota was out for revenge against Adrian Connolly who defeated Giuseppe 4-1 at this stage of last year\u2019s AGP, whilst Melbourne TFC\u2019s Benji Batten and Luke Radziminski resumed their friendly rivalry, and the experienced Northern Falcons duo of Eliot Kennedy and Robert Green renewed acquaintances once more.\u00a0 Luke and Adrian perhaps suffered a little from the long breaks after games in their small groups prior to the round of 16, but credit to Benji and Giuseppe who were both playing well by this stage and took out their clashes.\u00a0 Robert Green was also looking strong in his 4-0 over clubmate Eliot.<\/p>\n

In the other clashes, top seed Bernard Lim overcome Tony Credentino 2-1, Torben Pfister defeated Beth Eveleigh 4-0, Luca Maida defeated Steve Wright 4-1, Rudy Hesty defeated Steve Dettre 4-1, and Benny Ng narrowly took out his clash with Vikas 1-0.<\/p>\n

The quarter finals were tight affairs, with the exception of Rudy Hesty\u2019s 7-2 win over Benji Batten – Rudy confirming his early favouritism.\u00a0 Torben beat Luca 2-1, with the junior FISTF Australian Grand Prix winner now advancing to the semi finals of the Open event.\u00a0 The other two clashes went to sudden death golden goal extra time.\u00a0 Benny Ng and Robert Green scored the crucial goals that took them through to the semis, with Giuseppe and Bernard bowing out.<\/p>\n

In the semi finals, Rudy was again in ominous form, defeating Torben 5-0.\u00a0 The other clash was much tighter.\u00a0 Benny Ng holding on for a 1-0 win over 2019 Australian Grand Prix winner Robert Green.<\/p>\n

This set up an all Singaporean final, meaning that for the first time a Singaporean would be taking out the title.\u00a0 The final was a tight and tense affair.\u00a0 Both players didn\u2019t give an inch.\u00a0 The title needed to be decided on a penalty shootout.\u00a0 Rudy kept his nerves and won the shootout 3-0 to claim the 2020 Australian Grand Prix Open title.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/a>
Australian Grand Prix winner Rudy Hesty (left), celebrates with runner up Benny Ng<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OPEN WASPA CONSOLATION PLATE<\/p>\n

A Consolation Plate WASPA event was held for other those competitors eliminated from their groups in the FISTF Open.\u00a0 The players from the Groups of 3 were given a bye into the \u00bc finals, along with the best 3rd<\/sup> place from the remaining groups, Christos Garagounis.\u00a0 In the barrage, Benjamin Ng overcame Peter Benholm 3-0, Nathan Urbaniak beat Juliette Browne 3-1, Arjuna Hanafi beat Kevin Grant 2-1, and Claudio Recinelli defeated Jeremy Simpson 3-1.<\/p>\n

The \u00bc finals saw narrow wins for Michael Dent, Nathan Urbaniak, and Benjaim Ng.\u00a0 All three won 1-0 over their respective opponents.\u00a0 Razil\u2019s clash with Claudio was a more open affair, with Razil prevailing 5-2.<\/p>\n

The semi-finals saw Rizal narrowly defeat Nathan Urbaniak who did well to make the WASPA Plate semis in his first FISTF event.\u00a0 Meanwhile Michael Dent looked good in his 3-0 win over Benjamin Ng.<\/p>\n

The final was again a tight affair.\u00a0 Michael controlled much of the tempo of the game and scored the only goal of the game to take out the title.\u00a0 The result meant that the FISTF Open winner and the WASPA Consolation Winner both came from Group 2 of the FISTF Event, perhaps unofficially giving it the title of the Group of Death!<\/p>\n

SUNDAY WASPA<\/p>\n

On the Sunday a WASPA event was held between those players not involved in a club team.\u00a0 A strong field was available.\u00a0 The players were divided into two groups.\u00a0 The final places were decided in a straight clash of 1st<\/sup> vs 1st<\/sup> from each group so that players could watch the final of the FISTF Club Team event. \u00a0This put added pressure on each group game, particularly in Group 2 where Giuseppe and Tony were battling it out for top spot.\u00a0 Their clash finished in a 0-0 draw, meaning that Tony took out the group on goal difference to set up a title clash with Bernard Lim, who comfortable won the other group.\u00a0 Both Tony and Bernard had not conceded a goal in their group games, but both had been scoring freely as well so it set up an interesting final.\u00a0 Tony pushed the top FISTF ranked player at the event all the way before ultimately going down 2-3 to Bernard.<\/p>\n

In the remaining playoffs, Giuseppe defeated Arjuna 2-1 to take out 3rd<\/sup> place, whilst Nathan defeated Peter 1-0 to finish 5th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

FISTF CLUB TEAMS<\/p>\n

Six clubs contested the team event \u2013 all four Victorian clubs, plus Northern Falcons from Sydney and Jurong Subbuteo Club of Singapore.\u00a0 Unfortunately, due to flight cancellations resulting in an earlier flight home than planned, Torben Pfister was not available to play for his club in the event.<\/p>\n

In Group 1, as expected, the North Falcons progressed, their only defeats being virtue of the forfeits caused by Torben\u2019s unavailability.\u00a0 Western Flickers narrowly overcome Northern Phoenix to progress with the Falcons to the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

In Group 2, Melbourne TFC and Jurong Subbuteo Club were too strong for Central Victoria TFC competing in their first FISTF event as a team.\u00a0 \u00a0 The clash between Melbourne and Jurong determined top spot, with Melbourne prevailing.<\/p>\n

In the semi-finals, the forfeited 4th<\/sup> tie proved too much a handicap for Northern Falcons to overcome in their narrow defeat to Jurong, whilst Melbourne proved too strong for the Western Flickers after some high scoring clashes, including Benji Batten\u2019s 4-3 win over Adrian Connolly (after Adrian gave him a 4 goal head start early in the clash!).\u00a0 The Melbourne team, with Carl Young and Peter Thomas back in its ranks, looked to be hitting its stride nicely for the final.<\/p>\n

The final was filled with goals and drama.\u00a0 Two individual contests were level at 2-2, and a narrow win to each team in the remainder meant that the teams clash progressed to golden goal extra time.\u00a0 Benji Batten scored the golden goal that gave this club the title and couldn\u2019t hide his delight!<\/p>\n

INTERNATIONALS<\/p>\n

Firstly, a B international friendly was held between Australia and Singapore.\u00a0 Adrian Connolly, Giuseppe Tardiota, Tony Credentino and Paul Mercer were pitted against Bernard Lim, Luca Maida, Rizal Taib, and, Arjuna Hanafi, respectively.\u00a0 With two individual wins each, and an equal goal difference, the friendly ended in a draw.<\/p>\n

The A international was almost as close.\u00a0 With two draws, and a win apiece, the clash was decided on goal difference.\u00a0 Rudy Hesty was again the hero for Singapore, with his larger victory than that of Benji Batten giving the win to Singapore who once more prevailed over Australia in an A international.<\/p>\n

This concluded the weekend\u2019s event.\u00a0 A big thank you to all players who competed and helped out throughout the weekend in various official and unofficial capacities to ensure the tournament delivered on expectations, and more.\u00a0 Special thanks must go out to Paul Mercer for his great organisational skills, and Kevin Grant for all his heavy lifting and transporting of all the boards (as well as building them in the first place!).\u00a0 We hope to see you all at future events, be it a FISTF event on the international calendar or a local WASPA.<\/p>\n

Adrian Connolly<\/p>\n

ATFA President<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Australian Grand Prix of Table Football kicked off on Friday 7th February with players arriving for the Dinner Draw held at 1959 Bar & Grill within South Melbourne FC\u2019s fantastic facilities.\u00a0 The draw threw up a couple of candidates for the dreaded Group of Death in the Open event, but with the depth in […]<\/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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5435,"href":"https:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5432\/revisions\/5435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/subbuteoaustralia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}