« December 2009 : October 2009 »
Home field advantage achieved (Mon Nov 30 09)
Wayne Smith has been analyzing the results from Season 8 and has come to an exciting conclusion:
The results for Season 8 included that the home team won 52.5% of the games, with 22.5% ties and 25% road wins. These
percentages mirror, almost exactly, the percentages seen in the Bundesliga over the past 15 years or so. We also
averaged 1.54 goals per game, which is about 0.2 goals a game higher than seen in Germany or about 0.4 goals a game higher
than seen in England in the past few seasons. Go back about 20 years and 1.54 goals per team per game is just about
what was being scored in Germany and Spain.
I think that the results are fantastic. I think we’ve tailored the rules to our collective skill set perfectly.
It’s good to see that our league scoring average is up.
Wayne Smith
Rest of Season 8 photos (Sun Nov 29 09)
The photographs of the Season 8 games held on the last night of the season (November 20) have been added to the season's slide show. You can see them here»
To see many more of the Southern California Subbuteo Club's photographs and videos go to the Photographs page.
Season 8 photos (Sat Nov 28 09)
Photographs of the Season 8 presentations, taken on the last night of the season, have been added to the season's slide show. You can see them here»
We hope to add photographs from the last games of the season shortly.
There are more photographs and videos from earlier Southern California Subbuteo Club events on the Photographs page.
Mitchell Player of Season 8 (Fri Nov 27 09)
Jason Mitchell has been voted the Southern California Subbuteo Club's "Player of Season 8" by the season's participants.
Mitchell finished in fourth place in the league, and was the only player who did not to lose to Wayne Smith at "home". In the League Cup he beat the league runner up, Simon Hutchinson, in the first round, Dominic Hutchinson in the semi final, and lost a close game with Smith in the final.
When hearing that he had been selected by his peers Mitchell was magnanimous:
I am very flattered to be Player of the Season, my game has improved dramatically since I began playing again in 2008 and feel I can compete against the best
players in SoCal now. Thanks to all those that voted for me.
Jason Mitchell
Subbuteo Indoor Edition pitch (Tue Nov 24 09)
Subbuteo Indoor Edition was a variation of Subbuteo developed in the 1970s to emulate the popular Daily Express five-a-side tournament, which featured some of the top teams in England and was shown on the BBC TV's program Sports Night.
Jason Mitchell has acquired one of these sets, you can see photographs of the pitch on the Subbuteo Indoor Edition pitch page.
We will be playing Indoor Edition and Subbuteo Futsal before the start of Season 9.
You can view all of the other commonly used pitches in the Pitches section of this website.
Season 8 video (Sun Nov 22 09)
Kevin Nieman shot this video of Simon Hutchinson scoring his second goal against his son, Dominic, during the last league game of Season 8. Simon went on to win 5-0, and save a penalty.
You can see the clip of the goal here»
If you want to watch more videos of the Southern California Subbuteo Club in action go to the Photographs page.
Season 8 ends (Fri Nov 20 09)
Tonight was the last night of Season 8, and there were still two issues that remained to be determined.
The first was who was going to finish in third place. Kevin Nieman had played all of his games, Jason Mitchell had one game left which he had to win to move above Nieman. This game was an "away" game against Simon Hutchinson, who was already assured of finishing in second place. It was not to be as Simon scored a goal in either half. Mitchell finished the season in fourth place, two points behind Nieman. Dominic Hutchinson was the whipping boy in the remaining two league games losing by six goals to league champion Wayne Smith, and by five to his father.
Final table
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The last game of the season was the League Cup final between Smith and Mitchell. Despite being the "away" player Smith was victorious scoring two goals, the first early in the first half and the other with just seconds left in the match.
Smith had done the double, league champion and League Cup winner, for the second consecutive season. Dominic won the wooden spoon for the second consecutive season too.
Season 8 photos (Tue Nov 17 09)
There is always a problem when there are an even number of players at a Subbuteo night and free tables, to have someone be photographer. We had that problem last Friday, therefore, there were only three good photographs taken during the first game between Dominic Hutchinson and Kevin Nieman. You can see these in the Season 8 slide show here»
There are lots more slide shows and videos from this season and other Southern California Subbuteo Club events on the Photographs page.
ASA Rolling Rankings (Mon Nov 16 09)
The American Subbuteo Association published the latest Rolling Rankings on November 10. The previous rankings were released last month, you can see them here»
There was only one ASA Open last month, and even though they did not play in it most of the Southern California Subbuteo Club players rose one or two positions in the rankings.
| 21 | Wayne Smith | N/C | 89= | Dominic Hutchinson | +2 | |
| 47= | Simon Hutchinson | +1 | 89= | Steve Tucker | +2 | |
| 47= | Kevin Nieman | +1 | 103= | Edward Nathan | +2 | |
| 52 | David Jensen | +2 | 103= | Adam Carlson | +2 | |
| 55 | Jason Mitchell | +1 | 120= | Munir Merchant | +1 | |
| 82 | John Carroll | +2 | 120= | Sean Daly | +1 |
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.
Merchant resigns from Season 8 (Sat Nov 14 09)
After weeks of speculation on whether he could finish all of his outstanding games, Munir Merchant withdrew from the Southern California Subbuteo Club's Season 8. In an email received on Friday he gave his reasons:
I've thought long and hard about it and don't think it's reasonable to continue while holding everyone else up waiting for me. As a result I think the right decision is
for me to resign from Season 8. If you need some friendly competition as the season winds down I'd love to participate. Please express my apologies to
everyone for dropping out of the season, I really didn't want to and I hope to see everyone as my life hopefully returns to some sense of normalcy.
Munir Merchant
Munir had played seven league games:
| Date | Home | Away | |||
| Fri Sep 25 | Munir Merchant | 1 | v | 1 | Simon Hutchinson |
| Munir Merchant | 2 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson | |
| Kevin Nieman | 3 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant | |
| Fri Oct 9 | Simon Hutchinson | 3 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Munir Merchant | 1 | v | 4 | Wayne Smith | |
| Thu Oct 29 | Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Simon Hutchinson | 2 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant | |
His league record this season was:
| Home | Away | Total | ||||||||||||||||
| Pl | W | D | L | F | A | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 11 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 16 | 4 |
The rules for this season are that if a player has played less than 50% of their fixtures the results are expunged. All of Merchant's league games are now consider Supplemental (friendly) games.
The removal of these results has settled several issues. Wayne Smith was already confirmed as champion. Simon Hutchinson is now confirmed as runner up. Dominic Hutchinson is confirmed as finishing in last place, and is winner of the "wooden spoon".
The only issue that remains to be decided is third and fourth places. Kevin Nieman is third, and has played all of his games. He has a slender two point lead over Jason Mitchell. Jason's last game is an "away" game against Simon, which he has to win to claim third.
With Munir Merchant
| Pos | Player | Pl | Pts |
| 1 | Wayne Smith | 17 | 43 |
| 2 | Simon Hutchinson | 17 | 31 |
| 3 | Kevin Nieman | 17 | 23 |
| 4 | Jason Mitchell | 15 | 18 |
| 5 | Munir Merchant | 7 | 4 |
| 6 | Dominic Hutchinson | 15 | 3 |
Maximum of 20 games
Without Munir Merchant
| Pos | Player | Pl | Pts |
| 1 | Wayne Smith | 15 | 37 |
| 2 | Simon Hutchinson | 14 | 24 |
| 3 | Kevin Nieman | 16 | 20 |
| 4 | Jason Mitchell | 15 | 18 |
| 5 | Dominic Hutchinson | 14 | 3 |
Maximum of 16 games
With only three league games and the League Cup final left to play, Season 8 will be finished in one more night of play.
Season 8 (Fri Nov 13 09)
There were only two league games tonight, Dominic Hutchinson and Kevin Nieman played back-to-back games. The first was Dominic's "home" game, which was a tie with Dominic scoring an equalizer in the last minute. Nieman won his "home" game with two second half goals.
The four points Nieman won just keeps him in the race for second place. Simon Hutchinson, currently in second, needs to win four more points to claim the runners up spot. Nieman and Jason Mitchell can still pass Simon if
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There were two Supplemental games played tonight. Season 8 champion, Wayne Smith, beat Simon Hutchinson in both games.
Season 8 photos (Thu Nov 12 09)
Photographs taken during the first two games of last Friday's Season 8 matches between Jason Mitchell and Dominic Hutchinson, and Wayne Smith and Kevin Nieman have been added to this season's slide show.
You can view the Season 8 slide show by clicking here»
There are many more slide shows and videos from this and other Southern California Subbuteo Club tournaments on the Photographs page.
Season 8 (Fri Nov 6 09)
Munir Merchant's absence from tonight leaves Season 8 in a state of confusion. He is running out of time to fulfill his fixtures, and the other players have only a couple of games with each other. At this time we have to assume that he intends to play his remaining games.
After beating Kevin Nieman and drawing with Jason Mitchell, Wayne Smith only needs to win one more point to be declared champion.
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Simon Hutchinson beat his son, Dominic, and Nieman, and only needs four points from his remaining three games to claim the runners up spot. Nieman, third, now only leads Mitchell, fourth, by a single point, both players five game remaining. Mitchell's tie with Smith gives him the distinction of being the only person not to lose a "home" game with Wayne this season. Merchant is the "wild card" as he has thirteen games left to play, and could still claim second place. Dominic's only hope of not winning the wooden spoon is for him to win three more points than Munir in the seven games he has left to play.
Season 8 photos (Mon Nov 2 09)
Photographs taken during last Thursday's Season 8 match between Wayne Smith and Munir Merchant have been added to this season's slide show.
You can view these photographs and others taken during the rest of Season 8 in the slide show here»
You will find many more slide shows and videos of the Southern California Subbuteo Club in action on the Photographs page.