Good chance for a subbuteo tournament in Sydney this winter

Brett Davis recently had an update as to the state of Subbuteo at the moment dead as a door nail, saw a lot of comments on the subbuteo Australia blog and upsetting but like all things I think it can be salvaged (he's a glass half full kind of guy). "I keep checking the Crown and Andrews website to see if it is out as yet but nothing is here. So I rang Crown and Andrews to find out. The game has been ordered and is coming to Australia. They have also ordered the extra sets as well eg referee's, ball sets and extra teams. I have set up a meeting with Crown and Andrews to see the game as soon as it lands and also to see if there is a way that my email address can be included in a slip of paper or something to let people know about clubs in Australia. I am hoping to set up a database of contact details like Robert was doing but with the purchase of new games means new blood and new clubs. I hope this is possible as with a central location of data we won't be in the dark from each other and new clubs will know about other clubs as well hopefully a return to inter club games", added Brett.


"I have also been invited on the Sunday 10th June and Monday 11th June to display Subbuteo at the Toy and Game Expo http://www.toyandgameexpo.com.au/index.php/whats-on/learn-to-play at the learn and play area. I will be taking some forms to get interested peoples details to add to the database here also. I think this will be a great thing to get the game out especially now Crown and Andrews are on board and if they can add contact details even better for us and the club scene.


I have spoken to Hubertus Country Club at 205 Adams Road Luddenham (a club I am a member of) and to see if they are willing to give us a room for league nights and tournements. Karen the lady there see's no problem with this and I am writing a proposal to this effect for the board. If this can become a reality then we will have a place to play with access to nice dinning and bar facilities.


Which brings me to my next point, about time for a tournement I am thinking August/September any dates that suit the bulk of us? Also a time to start if it can be late afternoon to night I am ok with that so as people can take kids to sport etc, I will have to confirm with the club exactly but all I need to do is drop off the proposal for the board to vote on (she let me know as it is not costing the club any money they should be fine and they might get a few more new members as well so win win I think.)


That's about it I am not ready for this great game to die and I am truely hoping and praying that with Subbuteo in shops again and my details in the box we can get new clubs up and running here again and make Australia the power house I know it can be."

Some players sent a positive feedback. Mike Newton is keen to play if we can get an event organised of any size, shape or form. He is likely to move to Sydney in a couple of months which could make it easier.

Simon from www.subbuteoz.com also keen to get playing again if we can organise it, if possible in September.

Paul Magee and Dominic Grenot are also ready to play in August or September, just like Steve Dettre who will be available after the Olympics.

Hopefully Eliot Kennedy will be available as well, just like Robert Green who will be back from Stockholm (Sweden) for his sister's 50th. Robert should be available between September 14 and September 25.

All this will be confirmed soon and a date will be set in the near future.

A big change for the WASPA circuit

There were a lot of comments in the last few days about the possible change to have WASPA tournaments with only three players instead of four. A mail has been sent to several tournaments organizers and players and, apart from two people who didn't really know if a change like this would be a good thing, everyone gave support. The idea is not to lower the standards of organisation but just to help smaller associations and isolated groups of players. In countries such as Australia, Canada or the US, it's difficult to get players together for a tournament because of the long distances between cities. Also, in the last few months some tournaments were held with only three players. Despite of the efforts made by the local organizers to have something great, the tournaments could not count for the WASPA ranking and archives. Hopefully the change will motivate more clubs and players to organize tournaments under WASPA banner. The idea is to have more nations involved in the near future. The decision is therefore taken with immediate effect.

For more details about the WASPA circuit, take a look at http://waspa-circuit.blogspot.com/ 

Gerald Brightwell is also in the FISTF rankings

We may have forgotten to mention that Gerald Brightwell is also in the FISTF rankings. Gerald doesn't appear in the open section but he will be in the veterans table at the end of the month. For those who don't know hiw, Gerald is born in Melbourne, Australia but later moved to Malta and now lives in London. He took part in the FISTF Open of Knighton (Wales) this saturday and lost in the semi-final of the plate tournament. He also finished third in a group of four players in the main event. Gerald plays at the Plumstead club in London, which meets once a month for a local tournament.

Jean Carl Tabone, Vincent Mifsud, Gerald Brightwell and Derek Conti in a recent subbuteo evening at the Valletta Subbuteo Club in Malta

Australia in the different rankings of April 2012

There are not many names involved in international subbuteo. In the FISTF ranking, Robert Smith is now 396th in the Open category. More than 1170 players are involved in the rankings.

In the WASPA ranking, there are only 154 players involved. Robert Green is ranked 30th. Australia is also in 11th position in the WASPA ranking of nations.

What about the game in Australia?

The last few months (and years) have been difficult for the game in Australia. I recently got some reactions from different players all over the country and some points are really interesting.

Myron Shipp says: "the game has collapsed in Australia. FISTF are thinking of dropping us as only Robert Smith is in the rankings and he doesn't live in Australia. Brett tried to get a tournament going in Sydney with no takers and I tried to get one going at Cancon (Australias biggest games convention) and didn't get one entry. I am going to put on a display game at Bugle Call in June and if that doesn't attract 4 players to a competition I may give up and just play with who ever I can find through the club link. I hope when the game is released in Australia a few more will do internet searches and find me. A player recently got in touch after seeing my name on the blog but he just wanted to donate his stuff to the club so now I have more stuff to not play with."

Steve Dettre also insisted on the fact he's still interested to compete but his time as an organizer is over. Steve tried to get both his boys interested but they have been grabbed by a different 'bug'.... Warhammer (Games Workshop). "They model, paint and play. The emphasis in competitions is on sportsmanship, involvement etc. in tournaments. You can win a tournament without winning all your matches. As a parent, the emphasis on sportsmanship, the extremely detailed "player packs" with pre-tournament information and rules etc are way ahead of what we ever did in subbuteo. There's an emphasis on training, guidance etc by older players too. I still love the game of table soccer and a few of us get together for beer and subbuteo, but I have no clue what's happening with the others."

Eliot Kennedy didn't know Robert Smith is back in the UK: "Without him here maybe things will not happen in a hurry, but you never know. Bob Green is in Australia at the moment for a visit - I am in Malaysia for work this week so may not get to see him. But he mentioned he will be back in September for another visit so you never know, maybe we can get a tournament to happen for his visit."

Finally, Mike Newton also reacted: "I hope we will see some action here soon, I have forgotten what my index finger is for! On a different subject, I keep seeing things from FISTF that look like some real improvements. Obviously the game going back into the shops is good news but there seems to be improvements all round with regular meeting, skype meetings, invitations to various nations to have their say at the meetings."

Hopefully there will be some developments once the gameis available again in the shops. let's hope there will be some more players interested to play.

Robert Smith is still there!

It's been two years already since the last tournament took place in Australia. The FISTF Challenger of Sydney was organized on March 20th, 2010 and as world ranking keep the records of the last 2 years of activity, it means most australian players have now left the ranking. Robert Smith, who lives now in Great-Britain, is the only australian plaer in the FISTF table. He's now 395th (he was 271st last month). So hopefully there will be some more tournaments in the near future. otherwise Australia might disappear of the FISTF map.

Subbuteo is available again in the UK

Today is the official launch day for the new subbuteo range at the famous store Hamleys in London. The official launch of the iconic sports game takes place at 10.30 on the 5th floor with four top England under 12 table football players demonstrating the beautiful game!

Subbuteo is also available now in UK stores nationwide including Toys R Us, John Lewis (Oxford Street in London), selected Waterstones and Toymaster branches...

This is the new AUSTRALIA subbuteo team

Well done to the makers of the new subbuteo range for preparing a brand new Australia kit for the local market. Can't wait to find some of these in the shops!

Australian players in the FISTF world rankings

In the FISTF world ranking of February 2012: 271 SMITH Robert 49,28 619 THOMAS Peter 12,00 875 KENNEDY Eliot 4,80 1009 CREDENTINO Tony 2,40 1010 DETTRE Steve 2,40 1116 BALL Jon 1,20 1117 GANNON Scott 1,20 1118 PALAMARA John 1,20 1119 NEWTON Mike 1,20

Excellent news for Subbuteo in Australia

The game Subbuteo will soon be back in the shops. The Netcam company, that recently managed to get the rights of the game from Hasbro, has just anounced that Crown & Andrews (http://www.crownandandrews.com/) will be the distributor of the game in Australia. More news will follow soon!