Date
Saturday August 7, 2010
Participants
John Carroll, Dominic Hutchinson, Simon Hutchinson, David Jensen, Kevin Nieman, Wayne Smith, Steve Tucker
Winners
- Winner: Wayne Smith
- Runner up: Simon Hutchinson
- Third: Steve Tucker
Report
Before the start of this American Subbuteo Association Open the players agreed to use a "round-robin" format, were every player would play everyone else.
The "regulars", Dominic Hutchinson, Simon Hutchinson, Kevin Nieman, and Wayne Smith, welcomed three "tournament only" players, John Carroll, David Jensen, and Steve Tucker. Steve observed that he had not flicked since the tournament he had hosted in February [see here for the report of that Open]. The players drew numbers, and their names were entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that determined the order of the games.
Despite his lack of flicking in the past six months Steve's "speed play" allowed him to score in the first minute and he went on to make short work of David by scoring three unanswered goals. Dominic was using his new team on clear Raptor G2 bases and Kevin was using his Italy team that he had not used this year. It showed as the players agreed they struggled to get use to their bases, taking twelve shots that did not seriously threaten their opponent's goal. Wayne's and Simon's game was fast and furious with five goals in the first five minutes. The goalkeeping at the start of the game was nonexistent as neither player made a save until the tenth minute. Wayne stormed forward and took the lead in the first minute, Simon equalized, Wayne scored again, Simon leveled it again, and Wayne scored a third all in the first third of the first half. A fourth goal from Wayne in the second half secured his first win of the day.
John was crushed by Wayne 2-6, but he was proud that he scored the first and last goals of the game. Steve scored in the first minute again as he took the lead against Dominic just a few seconds after kick off. He became increasingly frustrated as the game wore on that he could not score a second goal. Dominic's defense managed to disrupt his "speed play", and when he did force his was through the defense Dominic's goalkeeping would perform one after another save to deny him a goal. In a very tense game full of missed flicks Simon won his first game defeating David.
The third round of games was the lowest scoring of the tournament, with just three goals being scored. In a tense game that both players felt they had to win Kevin beat Simon by a single goal. David beat John by single goal, winning his first points of the competition. And Wayne made it three wins in three games, beating Steve 1-0, which would be his lowest scoring win of the day.
David took an early lead against Dominic, who equalized late in the second half to share a point. This was Dominic's first goal of the tournament. No-one was surprised that Wayne's winning ways continued with a three goal victory over Kevin. Steve bested John, in the game between the players who "speed play", by a single early goal. One of Steve's quick moves and shots from the right, took John so much by surprise he did not have time to grab the handle of his goalkeeper. The figure was lying on its side in the middle of the goal, and fortunately for John the shot ricocheted off the stationary keeper and out for a throw in.
In the game that threw the race for second place wide open Simon beat Steve by 3-2. Steve took the lead midway through the first half, Simon equalized within two minutes and went on to take the lead a couple of minutes later, leaving Steve to equalize before the end of the first half. Simon scored the winner with four minutes left in the second half, and managed to deny Steve a shot at goal for the remainder of the game. Dominic's and John's game ended in a tie as both players struggled to convert their few shots into decent shots on goal, and when they did their saves with their keepers were good enough to deny their opponent a goal.
John won his second point in a 2-2 tie with Kevin, which doubled the number of goals he scored this tournament. Wayne rolled on to victory number five, defeating David. Who could console himself with the fact that while he lost, 1-2, he was only the third person to score on Wayne today. The battle of the Hutchinsons started fast as Simon took the lead early in the first half and was leading 4-0 by half time. Perhaps Dominic had gone into this game rather too confident, as he proclaimed to the spectators that there was no way that Simon could get a shot on target from where the ball was on the pitch. Simon managed to slice the ball perfectly into the goal between the near post and Dominic's stationary keeper for his first goal. In the second half Dominic managed to regain some of his pride by denying his opponent another goal, and pulling one goal back.
By the last round of games Wayne had claimed first place. He made it six wins out of six beating Dominic 4-0 in a game Dominic described as "typical Wayne". The battle for second was between Simon and Steve. Both players had the same number of points, and Steve had one goal more in goal difference. This meant that Simon would have to beat John by two more goals than Steve could beat Kevin by. Things started well for Simon who was two goals up by the time Steve scored his first goal. And by the time Steve scored his second goal, just before the end of the first half, Simon was 4-0 up. Steve and Simon failed to score in the second half, and were repeatedly checking the score of the other game to see whether their rival for the runners up spot had scored. Right at the end of the game Kevin scored which meant Steve had won by just one goal, and Simon's 4-0 victory gave him second place.
Table
| Pos | Name | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| 1 | Wayne Smith | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 5 | +15 | 18 |
| 2 | Simon Hutchinson | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 8 | +6 | 12 |
| 3 | Steve Tucker | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 5 | +4 | 12 |
| 4 | David Jensen | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 8 | -3 | 7 |
| 5 | Kevin Nieman | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 9 | -4 | 5 |
| 6 | Dominic Hutchinson | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 10 | -8 | 3 |
| 7 | John Carroll | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 14 | -10 | 2 |
Results
| Steve Tucker | 3 | v | 0 | David Jensen |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 2 | Simon Hutchinson |
| Dominic Hutchinson | 0 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman |
| Wayne Smith | 6 | v | 2 | John Carroll |
| Steve Tucker | 1 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| Simon Hutchinson | 1 | v | 0 | David Jensen |
| Kevin Nieman | 1 | v | 0 | Simon Hutchinson |
| David Jensen | 1 | v | 0 | John Carroll |
| Wayne Smith | 1 | v | 0 | Steve Tucker |
| Dominic Hutchinson | 1 | v | 1 | David Jensen |
| Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman |
| Steve Tucker | 1 | v | 0 | John Carroll |
| Simon Hutchinson | 3 | v | 2 | Steve Tucker |
| John Carroll | 0 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| David Jensen | 2 | v | 1 | Kevin Nieman |
| John Carroll | 2 | v | 2 | Kevin Nieman |
| Wayne Smith | 2 | v | 1 | David Jensen |
| Simon Hutchinson | 4 | v | 1 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| Simon Hutchinson | 4 | v | 0 | John Carroll |
| Steve Tucker | 2 | v | 1 | Kevin Nieman |