« December 2008 : October 2008 »
California State Championship final video (Sun Nov 30 08)
The video clips that were recorded during November 9's California State Championship final, between Kevin Nieman and Wayne Smith, has been edited into two videos. You can watch them by clicking on the links below:
You will find links to more videos on the Photographs page»
Season 6 photos (Fri Nov 28 08)
Photographs from last Friday's (November 14) Season 6 games have been added to the Season 6 slide show. As the England national soccer team had beaten Germany in an international friendly the previous Wednesday (November 19) the players of English ancestry wore England shirts and hung their flags in the venue.
To view the large version of this slide show click here»
Updated ASA Rolling Rankings (Mon Nov 24 08)
The American Subbuteo Association (ASA) have updated their Rolling Rankings with the results from the California State Championship. The Southern California Subbuteo Club players are ranked, number of places changed since the last rolling ranking is shown in parenthesizes:
14. Steve Tucker (0)
33. Kevin Nieman (+22)
36. John Carroll (-2), Simon Hutchinson (+13)
57. Munir Merchant (-1)
63. Jason Mitchell (+14)
79. Dominic Hutchinson (+4)
84. David Jensen (+40)
91. Adam Carlson (0), Edward Nathan (+34)
94. Sean Daly (+31)
Under 19:
18. Adam Carlson, Dominic Hutchinson
What are the Rolling Rankings?
Only the ranking points won in the last twelve months are counted. If the player has played in more than five ASA tournaments in that time period only the points
won in their best five finishes are counted.
Simon reaches 400 games (Sat Nov 22 08)
Simon Hutchinson is the third player this month to pass a games played milestone. Last night his 0-1 defeat to Wayne Smith was his 400th game with the Southern California Subbuteo Club.
Having been a player in his youth in England he returned to playing in 2006 after a thirty year hiatus. Simon is a perennial ASA Open semi finalist been in five out of seven he has competed in, and he was a semi finalist in this year's Western States Open. He did go one better in the 2007 California State Open as the beaten finalist.
"I cannot believe that I have played so many games in three years," he told us. "It has been great to see the club grow in that time. I feel a bit like a bridesmaid by getting knocked out of so many tournaments in the semis, I aim to reach many more finals before I get to 500."
A full list of the number of games played by the members of this club can be found on the Games played page.
Season 6 (Fri Nov 21 08)
This was the first night's play after the split into the Championship and Wooden Spoon Play Off groups.
Wayne Smith's victories tonight were enough for him to win the Season 6 championship, with four games left to play. In his first game he beat Steve Tucker, and in the second while he struggled to get through Simon Hutchinson's defense he won by a single goal. Steve won the other Championship Play Off group match defeating Simon.
In the Wooden Spoon Play Off group Jason Mitchell won his two games against Adam Carlson. Both were closely fought affairs with Jason scoring his goals after rare defensive errors by Adam.
In Supplemental (friendly) games Simon defeated Jason by a single goal, and while Adam lost the Steve he was proud of the goal he scored.
Season 6»
Season 6 reports»
Season 6 supplemental games»
California State Championship photos (Thu Nov 20 08)
The almost 500 photographs taken during the 2008 California State Championship have been sorted through and the best have been placed in a slide show. You can view the slide show here»
David Jensen player profile (Tue Nov 18 08)
David Jensen has played the right number of games (more than twenty) and in enough events (more than three in a year) to qualify for his own player page.
You can now learn how David started playing Subbuteo and view his record in events to date on his page here»
Wooden Spoon play off clarification (Mon Nov 17 08)
Thank you to those who pointed out the omission in yesterday's announcement about the Season 6 Wooden Spoon play off group.
We forgot to say that the player who finishes in first place in the Wooden Spoon play off group will be declared the champion of that group.
Season 6 splitsville (Sun Nov 16 08)
Stage one of Season 6 has been completed, all the players have played each other twice, and now the split occurs.
The top four players are now in the Championship play off group and will play each other twice more, for a total of 20 games. The player who finishes in first place is declared the champion of Season 6. The players in this group are: Simon Hutchinson, Munir Merchant, Wayne Smith, and Steve Tucker.
The bottom four are in the Wooden Spoon play off group. In this group the players will be playing to avoid finishing in last place, and win the wooden spoon. They will play each other twice more. The players in this group are: Adam Carlson, Dominic Hutchinson, Jason Mitchell, and Kevin Nieman.
For a definition of what the Wooden Spoon award is in sports see here»
Kevin reaches 300 games (Sat Nov 15 08)
Last night Kevin Nieman played his 300th game with the Southern California Subbuteo Club, becoming only the third player to have passed that milestone. He earns his third star on his player profile page. A star is awarded for each 100 games played.
Kevin first started playing Subbuteo in 2005, and has won one ASA Open Mary Jane, and been a Mary Jane runner up once. He finished in third place in last year's California State Championship, and finished as runner up in this year's competition.
He chose his victory over Wayne Smith in this year's Maricopa Cup third round as his biggest achievement in his three years playing Subbuteo.
"Beating Wayne is the goal of all non-Wayne participants in the SCSC," he explained. "Given there are many non-Wayne participants is a widely held goal."
A full list of the number of games played by the members of this club can be found on the Games played page.
Season 6 (Fri Nov 14 08)
Tonight was the last night of play in stage one of Season 6. The only thing that was left to be decided was who would join Wayne Smith and Munir Merchant in the top half of the table.
Kevin Nieman had to win all three of his remaining games and hope that either Simon Hutchinson or Steve Tucker would lose all of theirs. His hopes were dashed in his first game as he was beaten by Simon. Kevin went on to beat Dominic Hutchinson and tie with Jason Mitchell. Steve moved into second place with victories against Adam Carlson (twice), Jason, and Simon. Simon moved into third place beating Adam. Munir, who had finished all of his games last week, rounds out the top half of the league.
The order of the bottom three did not change. Jason remains in sixth place after beating Adam, drawing with Kevin, and losing to Steve. Seventh place Dominic's strong defense frustrated Wayne in their first game, restricting him to just one second half goal. He lost by the same margin to Kevin in another defensive display. It all went wrong in the third game and Wayne scored four goals against him in their second game. Adam lost his four games, but did score a goal and only by one goal to Jason.
FISTF newsletter No. 230 (Thu Nov 13 08)
The following is taken from this week's Federation International Sport Table Football (FISTF) newsletter.
9. USA: California State Championship
Sunday was the second annual California State Championship, hosted by the
Southern California Subbuteo Club. Kevin Nieman reached his first major
final beating second seed, Steve Tucker, in the semi final. Wayne Smith
beat Kevin in the final to retain the title he won last year. Edward Nathan
won the Mission Trophy, with Dominic Hutchinson losing in the final for the
second year in a row. The Under 19 Sierra Trophy final was a repeat of last
year's final. This year Adam Carlson beat Dominic Hutchinson by a single
goal, in the best game these two players have played against each other.
All of the results and a detailed report can be found here ->
California State Championship
Welcome to Highbury (Tue Nov 11 08)
Last month we introduced the first two pitches used by the Southern California Subbuteo Clubs in competitions.
This month we have the skinny on Steve Tucker's Highbury pitch, the home "field" at San Jacinto, Simi Valley.
California State Championship (Sun Nov 9 08)
There were a number of surprises in this year's California State Championship. While there are winners and losers in every tournament there are games in this tournament that every player can be proud of their performance in.
In the group stage Dominic Hutchinson took the lead twice against his father, Simon, who had to fight back against Dominic's resolute defense to tie 2-2. Jason Mitchell beat second seed Steve Tucker in the other group. Adam Carlson then held Jason to a goalless draw to prevent his opponent from winning the group. In the semi finals Kevin Nieman defeated Steve in a shoot out to reach his first final.
Congratulations to all the winners and runners up:
California State Championship- Winner: Wayne Smith
- Runner up: Kevin Nieman
- Winner: Edward Nathan
- Runner up: Dominic Hutchinson
- Winner: Adam Carlson
- Runner up: Dominic Hutchinson
All of the results and a detailed report can be found on the California State Championship page.
Dominic earns his second star (Sat Nov 8 08)
Last night Dominic Hutchinson became the fourth Southern California Subbuteo Club player to have played 200 games with the club, and earn his second star. A star is awarded for each 100 games played. Dominic is the youngest member of the club and first started playing Subbuteo in 2006.
Since then he won the California State Open Sierras Trophy (under 18) in 2007, Mary Jane runner up and under 19 winner in the 2008 Western States Open, and Giblets winner in the 2007 Cold Turkey tournament.
"I am happy that I have reached 200," he said after his 200th game against Adam Carlson, "and I am going to try to reach 300 by the end of 2009."
A full list of the number of games played by the members of this club can be found on the Games played page.
Season 6 (Fri Nov 7 08)
In the penultimate night of state one of Season 6 Munir Merchant bacame the first player to complete all of his games with victories over Adam Carlson (twice) and Dominic Hutchinson, and a tie with Jason Mitchell. Adam won his first points of the season in a bad tempered game with Dominic. Jason also beat Dominic, adding to Dominic's wretched evening. Wayne Smith kept up his 100% record with a win over Adam.
Going into the last week of stage one play Wayne and Munir, who moved into second place, are guaranteed to finish in the top half of the league table. The remaining two places in the top half are between Kevin Nieman, Simon Hutchinson, and Steve Tucker. If Kevin fails to win his remaining three games he will finish in the bottom half, where he will join Jason, Dominic, and Adam.
While the last league game of the night was played Jason surprised Wayne by scoring the first goal in their "Season 6 Supplemental" game. At the end of the game Wayne was complimentary about his opponent.
Season 6»
Season 6 reports»
Season 6 supplemental games»
Remaining games»
Season 6 = Andorran Primera Divisió (Thu Nov 6 08)
Just like the Southern California Subbuteo Club's Season 6 the Andorran First Division (Primera Divisió d'Andorra) is made up of eight teams. The teams play each other twice, 14 games, then the eight teams are divided into two groups, just as Season 6 will be doing later this month. The best four teams play a competition between them to decide the champion (play off per al títol), while the other four play to avoid relegation (play off pel descens).
You can see the final tables for the 2006-07 season on the Andorran Football Federation's (Federació Andorrana de Futbol) website here»
It is interesting to find that the SCSC and the FAF have devised the same league format. It goes to show that great minds think alike!
Season 6 photos (Tue Nov 4 08)
Photographs from Halloween night's Season 6 games have been added to the competition's slide show. Don't worry there is no-one in costume, unless you count Wayne Smith in his Werder Bremen kit. To view the slide show click here»