« February 2009 : December 2008 »
Steve reaches 200 games (Fri Jan 30 09)
Last night Steve Tucker played his 200th game with the Southern California Subbuteo Club, becoming the fifth player to have passed that milestone. He earns his second star on his player profile page. A star is awarded for each 100 games played.
He started playing Subbuteo in 1971 after being given a set by his grandmother. After playing for many years with his brother and neighborhood friends he put the game aside. In 2005 his brother, Rob who is a member of the Maryland Subbuteo Club, rekindled Steve's passion with the game and put him in touch with the Southern California Subbuteo Club.
Steve won this first competition with the SCSC, Season 3, and finished in second place in Season 4 and Season 6. He has been runner up in five of the eight American Subbuteo Association Opens hosted by the SCSC since 2005, and finished runner up in the Mary Jane tournament at last year's ASA Nationals.
A full list of the number of games played by the members of this club can be found on the Games played page.
Thursday night friendlies (Thu Jan 29 09)
Steve Tucker was declared the "winner" of tonight's friendlies, with victories in closely fought games with Simon Hutchinson and Wayne Smith, and a tie with Kevin Nieman.
Wayne spent two games getting use to the wrinkles in the pitch he played his three games on. He was beaten by Steve, and came back from a goal down to beat Munir Merchant. By the time he played his third game he knew which parts of the pitch to play to and where the ball curved. As a result he crushed Simon who spent the game coming to terms with the wrinkles in the pitch.
Earlier Kevin beat Simon by scoring an early goal in the first half, and then hung on to his lead coming under considerable pressure as his opponent pushed for an equalizer. Simon and Munir played out a goalless draw where, again, Simon could not turn possession into shots on goal.
Reports on the friendly games»
ASA Open photographs (Wed Jan 28 09)
All of the photographs taken during Sunday's ASA Open have been sorted through, and the best have been compiled into a slide show.
You can see the slideshow here»
ASA Open (Sun Jan 25 09)
Today's Open was the first major tournament to be held in Steve Tucker's garage, with a new pitch making its debut and another being used for only the second time.
David Jensen won through to his first tournament final, coming second in Group A, and defeating John Carroll in their semi final. John had won Group B, beating Dominic Hutchinson, hanging on for a goalless draw with Simon Hutchinson, and defeating second seed Steve Tucker. As Steve finished second he had to face the winner of Group A, Wayne Smith, in the other semi final. It was a closely fought game that Wayne won. In the final Wayne adapted to the pitch faster than David and won comfortably.
In the Mary Jane semi final Kevin Nieman beat Dominic, and lost Simon in the final.
Open- Winner: Wayne Smith
- Runner up: David Jensen
- Third: Steve Tucker
- Fourth : John Carroll
- Winner: Simon Hutchinson
- Runner up: Kevin Nieman
- Third: Dominic Hutchinson
A full report and all of the results can be found on the ASA Open page.
Friday Friendlies (Fri Jan 23 09)
Three of us met in Porter Ranch for an evening of Subbuteo. It opened with wins for Simon Hutchinson over Kevin Nieman, and Wayne Smith over Adam Carlson. Simon and Wayne continued their winning ways in the second round of games beating Adam and Kevin. In the third round Wayne beat Simon, and a strong second half performance gave Kevin the victory over Adam. The final round of games was a repeat of the third. Wayne was victorious against Simon again, while Adam and Kevin's game ended goalless.
Season 6 photos (Tue Jan 20 09)
Photographs from Friday's last few games of Season 6, and some of the Supplemental games, have been added to the competition's slide show. There are also pictures of the various winners being presented with their "trophies".
To view the slide show click here»
Conclusion of Season 6 (Fri Jan 16 09)
The last three games of Season 6 were played tonight. Only third and fourth places in the Championship play off group were left to be determined and it went down to the last game. Earlier Munir Merchant was denied the chance of moving into third place after suffering two defeats at the hands of Steve Tucker. The final game pitted third place Simon Hutchinson against fourth place Munir, there was only two points separated the two players. While the game did not have many shots on goal it was closely fought and Simon won it with a goal in the first half to claim third place.
After the last league game presentations of glass trophies were made to Wayne Smith, the Season 6 champion, and Kevin Nieman, for first place in the Wooden Spoon play off group. Adam Carlson was presented with a wooden spoon for finishing in third place in the Wooden Spoon play off group.
We welcomed back Dominic Hutchinson, who had missed all of Stage Two of the season, for his first games since November. He was beaten in his first game by his father, Simon, and almost beat Adam until Adam equalized with just 48 seconds remaining in their game.
In other Supplemental games Wayne beat Munir and Kevin by the same scoreline. Kevin tied with Adam, and Simon beat Adam.
Season 6»
Season 6 reports»
Season 6 supplemental games»
Season 6 (Fri Jan 9 09)
Wayne Smith beat Munir Merchant, leaving the battle for third place in the Championship play off group open. Munir and Simon Hutchinson agreed to leave their game to be the last game of Season 6 as it will probably be the one to decide third place.
In Supplemental (friendly) games Wayne played Simon twice. Wayne won the first game by a single goal, and the second ended as a goalless draw. Simon went on to beat Munir 3-0, and was left regretting his idea to make the game between the two of the them the last game of Season 6.
Season 6»
Season 6 reports»
Season 6 supplemental games»
Updated ASA Rolling Rankings (Mon Jan 5 09)
The American Subbuteo Association published the latest Rolling Rankings yesterday, January 4. This is how the Southern California Subbuteo Club players are ranked this month:
| 6. | Wayne Smith | 67. | Jason Mitchell | |
| 14. | Steve Tucker | 74. | Edgar Flores, Ian Sayer | |
| 38. | Simon Hutchinson | 80. | Dominic Hutchinson, David Jensen | |
| 40. | Kevin Nieman | 85. | Edward Nathan | |
| 56. | John Carroll | 87. | Adam Carlson | |
| 61. | Munir Merchant | 121. | Sean Daly |
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.
These rankings will be used for seeding players in the upcoming ASA Open.
Season 6 Supplemental games (Fri Jan 2 09)
There were only two players present, Simon Hutchinson and Wayne Smith, and as they had played all their league games against one another they played three Supplemental (friendly) games.
The first game ended in a tie. Thereafter, they decided to test the possibility of the "away" player using the Subbuteo/Zeugo smaller goalkeeper. Two more games were played as a two-legged competition, and both players had a turn to be the "home" player, using their choice of goalkeeper, and their opponent was the "away" player using the smaller goalkeeper. Eleven goals were scored in the games, and both players had to admit that using the smaller goalkeeper did make a big difference in the way they could tend goal.