News - December 2009

Noughties photos (Thu Dec 31 09)

The best of the photographs from Sunday's Farewell to the Noughties tournament have been uploaded to a slide show.

You can view the slide show here»

There are many more slide shows and videos of the Southern California Subbuteo Club playing on the Photographs page.

ASA Rolling Rankings (Tue Dec 29 09)

The American Subbuteo Association published the Rolling Rankings for December on the 28th.  Last month's can be found here»

All of the Southern California Subbuteo Club players fell in the rankings for the second consecutive month.  As there were only three Opens held in California in the twelve months window of the Rolling Rankings the So Cal players drop in relation to other players in the country who have played in more Opens in the past year.

With six scheduled Opens in 2010, starting on February 20, the SCSC's players should start to rise in the rankings after that.

The current rankings of the SCSC's players are:

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.

Farewell to the Noughties (Sun Dec 27 09)

The "noughties" is a word that was coined in the 1990s to describe the first decade of the 21st century.  Of the five players taking part in the "Farewell to the Noughties" only two, Wayne Smith and Sean Daly, were regulars at the start of the decade.

It was a treat for the three "regulars", Wayne, Kevin Nieman and Simon Hutchinson, to face Sean and John Carroll across the green felt of a Subbuteo pitch again, as they live so far from the regular venues used by the Southern California Subbuteo Club in the western San Fernando Valley and eastern Ventura county.

No-one was surprised that Wayne finished in first place, winning all four of his games.  Kevin claimed second place by a point, defeating Simon in the penultimate game.  John and Sean met in their last game and John had to win it to finish in fourth and consign his opponent to the foot of the table, which he did in a four goal thriller.

The SCSC can now look forward to a new year, a new decade, and its 25th anniversary.

Farewell to the Noughties report and table»

2010 Tournaments (Tue Dec 22 09)

Next year, 2010, is the twenty fifth anniversary of the founding of the Southern California Subbuteo Club.  As part of the celebrations the SCSC will be holding six American Subbuteo Association tournaments, two are also FISTF (Federation International Sports Table Football) sanctioned events.  This is the first time that there will be FISTF tournaments played in California.

They will be held on the following dates:

• Saturday February 20 : ASA Open in Simi Valley
• Saturday March 13 : Western States Open (ASA Open and FISTF Satellite) in Porter Ranch
• Saturday May 22 : ASA Open in Simi Valley
• Saturday August 7 : ASA Open in Porter Ranch
• Saturday September 25 : California State Championship (ASA Open and FISTF Future) in Simi Valley
• Saturday November 13 : ASA Open in Simi Valley

The prestigious tournament is the Western States Open in March.  The WSO is the "major" tournament for the ASA's Western Region, and will be one of the two permitted FISTF Satellites in the USA in the 2009-10 season.

Put all of these dates in your calendars, and let's try and get as large a turn out of players as possible for each tournament.

ASA Rolling Rankings (Sun Dec 20 09)

The American Subbuteo Association published the November's Rolling Rankings on December 19.  The previous rankings from last month can be found here»

All of the Southern California Subbuteo Club players dropped in the rankings, except two, and some who have not played recently have dropped off the rankings completely.  There were only three ASA Opens held in So Cal in the past year, therefore, players' rankings dropped as points won in prior competitions were no longer eligible.  The three Opens held in the past twelve months were:

• ASA Open of January 25, 2009
• ASA Open of April 4, 2009
• California State Championship 2009

The current rankings of the SCSC's players are:

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.

Friday Subbuteo (Fri Dec 18 09)

Dominic Hutchinson fell sick prior to the start of tonight's games which left four players.  As the futsal games last ten minutes the "Indoor Edition" games were shortened to two periods of five minutes, this allowed the players to play each other once in each version of the Subbuteo game without having to wait too long between games.

Wayne Smith won both the "Indoor Edition" and the futsal for the night.  He played his first three games on the "Indoor Edition" pitch.  He beat Simon Hutchinson and Jason Mitchell, and played out a goalless tie with Kevin Nieman.  He repeated this record on the futsal pitch, defeating Simon and Kevin, and drawing with Jason and then winning the shoot out.

Simon finished second in the futsal, with a straight victory over Kevin and a shoot out win over Jason.  He struggled on the other pitch failing to adapt to the smoother surface, losing to Kevin and drawing with Jason, and finished in last place in the "Indoor Edition" table.

Kevin faired the reverse of Simon.  On the "Indoor Edition" pitch the win over Simon and tie with Wayne was undone by a defeat at the hands of Jason.  And he finished in joint second place with Jason.  He struggled on the futsal pitch and lost all three of his games to finish without a point.

Jason's second place finish in the "Indoor Edition" was complimented with a third place finish in the futsal, only a point behind Simon.

And so finished the Southern California Subbuteo Club's last night of play before Christmas, which is next Friday.

Express 1 results and tables»
Fut•Cal One results and tables»

Subbuteo futsal photos (Thu Dec 17 09)

Photographs from last Friday's (December 11) Fut•Cal One, Subbuteo futsal, games have been made into a slide show.  They give a good impression of how small the pitch is and the roughness of the surface.

You can view the slide show here»

You can find many more slide shows of photographs and videos of the Southern California Subbuteo Club playing on the Photographs page.

Most bizarre goal ever! (Mon Dec 14 09)

Two weeks ago (December 4) while playing Subbuteo Indoor Edition Dominic Hutchinson scored what must be the most bizarre goal captured on video.  His opponent, Jason Mitchell, did not stand a chance of saving the ball.  You can see the start of the third quarter and the goal here»

We would like to thank Kevin Nieman for sending us the video.

There are links to many other videos of less bizarre goals on the Photographs page.

Milestones reached (Sat Dec 12 09)

Last night Kevin Nieman and Wayne Smith both passed milestones in their playing with the Southern California Subbuteo Club.  It was coincidence that the "speed Subbuteo" game they played was the 600th game for Wayne and 400th for Kevin.

Wayne is the only one of the founding members of the SCSC, in 1985, who is still an active member of the club.  While Kevin joined the club in 2004.

Congratulations to them both.  You can see the number of games all of the SCSC players have played on the Games Played page.

Friday Subbuteo (Fri Dec 11 09)

It was a wet Friday night as the latest wave of storms brought heavy rain to So Cal.  The decision was made not to transport the Subbuteo Indoor Edition pitch to the venue.  As it made of cardboard there was the danger it might get wet and become damaged.

The Subbuteo futsal pitch was transported, so the night was a mixture of futsal and "speed Subbuteo".  "Speed Subbuteo" was played on a regular pitch with full teams, with two halves of five minutes.

Wayne Smith took the honor of being the Fut•Cal One winner of the night, with an average of three points per game.  Simon Hutchinson scored the most goals of the night, seven in four games, and finished the in second place.  The younger Hutchinson, Dominic, finished in third place, and won by the largest margin beating Kevin Nieman by four goals.  Kevin struggled and only won points from two shoot out victories.  The second shoot out lasted eleven shots before Kevin saved Simon's shot, and scored his penalty.

Playing "speed Subbuteo" caused the players to change tactics.  They had to attack straight from the kick off.  The three games played were all 1-0, Wayne beat Simon, Simon beat Dominic, and Kevin beat Wayne.

Fut•Cal One»
December friendlies» includes "speed Subbuteo"

Indoor Edition photographs (Thu Dec 10 09)

Photographs from two of last Friday's (December 4) Express 1 matches have been put into a slide show.  You can see the Express 1 slide show here»

There are many more photographs and videos of the Southern California Subbuteo Club in action on the Photographs page.

Subbuteo Indoor Edition rules summary (Tue Dec 8 09)

There was so much confusion on Friday (December 4) with the rules for the Subbuteo Indoor Edition that everyone felt each of the games was played with a different version of the rules.

To help make it easier to make the transition from standard Subbuteo rules to Indoor Express rules a summary sheet of the differences has been created.  You can see it here» (you will need Adobe Reader)

Subbuteo futsal video (Mon Dec 7 09)

The highlights of last Friday's (December 4) Fut•Cal One game between Dominic Hutchinson and Jason Mitchell, including the penalty shoot out, can been seen here»

There are links to other videos of the Southern California Subbuteo Club on the Photographs page.

Friday Subbuteo (Fri Dec 4 09)

It was an exciting night of "short sided" Subbuteo with the start of the Express 1, the Subbuteo Indoor Edition, and Fut•Cal One, Subbuteo Futsal.

Express 1 produced 28 goals in five games, living up to its promise of a faster and higher scoring version of Subbuteo.  The first game of the night was the most exciting.  By the end of the first quarter Dominic Hutchinson was 3-0 up against Jason Mitchell, the second and third periods ended 4-1 and 5-2, and while Jason made a come back in the last period he still lost 6-4.  In another high scoring game Mitchell lost to Simon Hutchinson.  Dominic did not fare as well in his second game losing to Kevin Nieman, who in turn lost to Wayne Smith.  And Wayne and Simon played out the only tie.

As a game is only two halves of five minutes Fut•Cal One produced a much lower goal ratio, twelve in six games.  As games cannot end in ties, three were decided by shoot outs.  Dominic beat Jason in the first shoot out, Wayne beat Kevin and Simon in the other two.  The other three games were won by Simon, defeating Kevin, Jason, and Dominic.

Express 1 results and tables»
Fut•Cal One results and tables»

Season 8 Cup final video (Thu Dec 3 09)

The League Cup final was the last game of Season 8, and pitted Jason Mitchell against Wayne Smith.  The game was videoed, and highlights can been seen here»

There are many more videos of the Southern California Subbuteo Club, and you can find links to them on the Photographs page.

Rules for Subbuteo Indoor Edition (Tue Dec 1 09)

We now have the rules for the Subbuteo Indoor Edition variation of the game to go with the pitch.  You can see scans of the pages of the rule book:  Pages 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8.