Date
September 9, 2007
Participants
Adam Carlson, Brian Hook, Dominic Hutchinson, Simon Hutchinson, Edward Nathan, Kevin Nieman, Wayne Smith
Report
Edward Nathan made the two hour journey from Loma Linda to take part in his first SCSC event. He had not played for years and when he turned up with teams on the old “cereal bowl” bases and with the small Subbuteo goalkeepers we decided he should be classed as a newcomer. How wrong we were.
Edward used the curling of the old type bases to get around his opponents’ defenses and his fast shooting proved too much for the other newcomers. In his first game he beat Dominic Hutchinson 3-0, and he went on to record ‘mercy rule’ wins over the other two newcomers, Brian Hook and Adam Carlson. The ‘mercy rule’ stops the game when one player takes a four goal lead over their opponent.
Picking himself up after losing his first game Dominic went on to win his next two games beating fellow newcomers Carlson 5-1 and Hook 2-1. He was visibly glowing after his win against Carlson and he proudly told us, “This is my first mercy rule win.” In the last all newcomers game Carlson won his second ever game beating Hook 2-0.
While these newcomer games were being played the experienced players played each other. Wayne Smith ‘mercy ruled’ Simon Hutchinson and beat Kevin Nieman 4-1. “I played well and was lucky,” Smith said after his game against Simon. “I had two lucky goals. The first bounced off a defender, then just in front and over the goalkeeper. The second bounced off the goalkeeper onto the underside of the crossbar and into the goal.”
The elder Hutchinson, Simon, made up for his earlier defeat by Smith by scoring a goal in either half to defeat Nieman 2-0.
In the first round mixed experienced versus newcomer games Nathan was paired with Smith. The first two and half minutes of the game were frantic as Nathan scored, and just 20 seconds later Smith equalized. Despite lots of end-to-end action, and a 2-1 score at half time, Smith’s skill and experience slowly got the better of his opponent and the game ended 5-1.
In the other games the newcomers, Hook and Carlson, used the Maricopa Vase rules. While these rules give the newcomers plenty of opportunity to take defensive flicks, they do frustrate the experienced players as it disrupts the normal flow of their game. Despite their frustrations Simon Hutchinson beat Hook 1-0, and Nieman did one better beating Carlson 2-0.
In the next round of games Dominic shunned the newcomer rules in the game against his father, Simon. The younger Hutchinson stunned his opponent by taking and early lead, and it was not until midway through the first half that his father equalized. It continued to be a hard fought game despite Simon scoring another goal in the first half and one in the second to win the game.
Nieman’s game with Nathan ended as a 1-1 tie. Both players had chances to score as the play raged from end-to-end. At the end of the game Nieman was ‘saved by the bell’. “I stranded my spare keeper,” Nieman explained “and he (Nathan) was setting up his shot when the time expired. I was lucky to get the tie.”
Carlson, using Maricopa newcomer’s rules, changed his tactics in his game against Smith. “Adam played with eight back and two up,” was how Smith explained his opponent’s tactics. “The result of that was I did not have the space on the shooting line.” Even though he was beaten 1-3 Carlson was happy, “It was a fun game and the best game I have played. I am very, very happy I scored”.
Carlson continued these tactics in his next game against Simon Hutchinson. “It took me pretty much the whole of the first half to disrupt Adam’s defensive line,” Hutchinson commented. “Only then could I get a clean shot to score my goal.” Adam agreed, “My new tactics and my defensive wall worked well”.
Having faired so well earlier Dominic Hutchinson went down to back-to-back 0-4 defeats, to Nieman and Smith.
In the final game of the day Simon Hutchinson beat Nathan by 3-0. Nathan pulled off a string of impressive saves with his small Subbuteo style keeper that stopped him from being ‘mercy ruled’. “His (Simon’s) defense played well and I thought I played well,” Nathan said after the game.
Final table
| Pos | Name | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| 1 | Wayne Smith * | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 3 | 18 | 18 |
| 2 | Simon Hutchinson | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 16 |
| 3 | Edward Nathan | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 13 |
| 4 | Kevin Nieman * | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 13 |
| 5 | Dominic Hutchinson | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 16 | -8 | 10 |
| 6 | Adam Carlson | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 15 | -11 | 8 |
| 7 | Brian Hook * | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 11 | -10 | 6 |
Newcomers table
| Pos | Name | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| 1 | Dominic Hutchinson | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 6 |
| 2 | Adam Carlson | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | -2 | 4 |
| 3 | Brian Hook | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | -3 | 2 |
Results
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | Simon Hutchinson |
| Adam Carlson | 2 | v | 0 | Brian Hook |
| Edward Nathan | 3 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| Edward Nathan | 4 | v | 0 | Brian Hook |
| Dominic Hutchinson | 5 | v | 1 | Adam Carlson |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 1 | Kevin Nieman |
| Simon Hutchinson | 2 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman |
| Dominic Hutchinson | 2 | v | 1 | Brian Hook |
| Edward Nathan | 4 | v | 0 | Adam Carlson |
| Simon Hutchinson | 1 | v | 0 | Brian Hook V |
| Wayne Smith | 5 | v | 1 | Edward Nathan |
| Kevin Nieman | 2 | v | 0 | Adam Carlson V |
| Simon Hutchinson | 3 | v | 1 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| Edward Nathan | 1 | v | 1 | Kevin Nieman |
| Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 1 | Adam Carlson N |
| Kevin Nieman | 4 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| Simon Hutchinson | 1 | v | 0 | Adam Carlson V |
| Simon Hutchinson | 3 | v | 0 | Edward Nathan |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson N |
| N Player used Maricopa newcomers rules V Player used Maricopa Vase rules As Brian Hook had to leave early the following games were awarded as forfeits | ||||
| Kevin Nieman | 1 | v | 0 | Brian Hook |
| Wayne Smith | 1 | v | 0 | Brian Hook |