News - February 2010

Pumpkin Patch (Sun Feb 28)

Continuing our occasional series featuring the pitches used by the Southern California Subbuteo Club you can now learn about the the newest pitch at the Hutchinson's home, the Pumpkin Patch.

You can view all of the other commonly used pitches in the Pitches section of this website.

Subbuteo across America update (Fri Feb 26)

Two more Subbuteo clubs have signed on to take part in "Subbuteo across America", which will be played on Saturday May 22.

• Boise Unemployed Subbuteo League
• Michigan Subbuteo Table Football Association

To date 14 Subbuteo clubs and six people have signed up to take part in this charitable event.  We would like to thank all of them for doing so.

It is not too late for you to sign up.  You can learn more in the "Subbuteo across America" section of this website.

ASA Open photos (Thu Feb 25)

The best of the photographs taken during the American Subbuteo Association Open on Saturday (February 20) have been added to a slide show.  You can view the slide show here»

As there were an even number of players participating in this tournament, most of the pictures are from the later rounds of the competition.

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

Western States Open/FISTF Satellite (Tue Feb 23)

The next "big" tournament is the "biggest" of the year and the 25th anniversary celebrations for the Southern California Subbuteo Club.

The Western States Open (WSO) is the "Major" tournament for the Western region of the American Subbuteo Association, and is second only to the ASA's National championship.  This year it will also be a FISTF Satellite tournament.  Each FISTF partner nation can host two Satellite tournaments per season, and we feel honored to be hosting one of those allocated to the ASA.  It is the first time a FISTF tournament has been held in California.

This season's WSO will be played on Saturday March 13 in Porter Ranch, and is open to all players.

As this is such a prestigious competition we need to get as many players to participate as possible.  In the 2008 WSO 12 players took part.  It would be great if we could equal or exceed that number this year.  Please check your calendars and make an effort to attend this tournament.

For more information check the Western States Open 2010 page.

New Subbuteo blog (Mon Feb 22)

The Southern California Subbuteo Club's Kevin Nieman has created a new blog about Subbuteo.

"Flick-Talk is a blog about Subbuteo/Table Soccer from a Southern California perspective," he announced in the first post.

"As the main content-provider of Flick-Talk, I hope to express the same amount of enthusiasm, good-humor, and sportsmanship in my blog that we have in our club meetings, and I hope you'll be entertained as you read the articles."

We feel that this blog compliments this website as Kevin will provide his own unique musings upon the "going-ons" within the SCSC.  You can find it at flick-talk.blogspot.com, and a link to it has been added to the "SCSC links" section of this site's Links page.

ASA Open (Sat Feb 20)

The first American Subbuteo Association Open of 2010 to be held as part of the Southern California Subbuteo Club's 25th anniversary celebrations was played today in Simi Valley.  The day start with six players, but finished with five as Dominic Hutchinson was taken ill after three games and had to withdraw from the competition.

Wayne Smith cruised through the Group stage winning all of his games to finish in first place.  Our host, Steve Tucker, was playing for the first time since August last year, and surprised himself and the others by finishing in joint second place.  Simon Hutchinson shared second place, played under the influence of pain medication which had a noticeable effect on his game.  These three players qualified for the Open barrage rounds.

Kevin Nieman's loss to Simon in the their last game of the Group stage meant he finished in fourth place and qualified for the "Mary Jane" competition, with David Jensen, who was winless.

The Open semi final was very close and it took a goal right at the end of the game to give Steve victory over Simon.  The Open final was not as an exciting game as Wayne romped to a big win to claim yet another Open title.

The "Mary Jane" final between Kevin and David was a close game, that took two overtime goals for Kevin to claim the win.

Congratulations to all the winners and finalists:

• Open
  • Winner : Wayne Smith
  • Runner up : Steve Tucker
  • Third : Simon Hutchinson
• Mary Jane
  • Winner : Kevin Nieman
  • Runner up : David Jensen

Results, Group table, match reports from this ASA Open»

Season 9 Match Day 3 (Fri Feb 19)

There was no clear pick for "Player of the Night" after tonight's third night of the Southern California Subbuteo Club's Season 9.

Wayne Smith's Wayner Bremen were held for a tie by Kevin Nieman's Inventus, before going on and crushing Simon Hutchinson's Simi City, Dominic Hutchinson's Kumba,  and Jason Mitchell's Hollywood Hammers.  These results move the Wayners into first place in the league table.

Dominic's second place Kumba beat Jason's Hammers before succumbing to the Wayners.

Simon's Red Star remained in third place even though they did not play tonight.  Despite the effects of the medication Simon was taking to control the pain from the injuries sustained in a car accident last week, his Simi City moved up to fourth place, even though he was the first player "Mercy ruled" this season, thanks to victories over Jason's Hammers and Kevin's Inter Nieman.

Wayne's Left Hannover the Table 96 drop down to fifth as they did not play.

Jason's Hammers claimed sixth after beating Kevin's Inventus.  And Inventus took seventh thanks to their tie with the Wayners.

Kevin's Inter Nieman are still having a wretched time as they have not won a point, except for the four awarded for being a "B" team, and currently share equal last place with Jason's Valley Irons, who have not played a game this season.

Season 9»
Today's reports»

Season 9 photos (Thu Feb 18)

Photographs from last Friday's Season 9 matches, including Dominic Hutchinson's 300th game, can be seen here»

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

Swiss twins join Subbuteo across America (Mon Feb 15)

Thomas and Trisha Baumeler of the Subbuteo Players Aargau Süd, our Swiss twin club, have agreed to take part in the "Subbuteo across America" on Saturday May 22.  They become our third twin to say they will be part of this historic event.

You can learn more about this event and the clubs and players taking part on the Subbuteo across America page»

If you are a player in either the USA and Canada and would like to take part in this charitable event you can use the Contact page to let us know you are interested.

Dominic reaches 300 (Sun Feb 14)

On Friday Dominic Hutchinson played his 300th game with the Southern California Subbuteo Club, earning his third star on his player's profile page.

Dominic started playing with the club at the age of 11, in 2006.  In his first year he won the Maricopa Newcomers Cup, see the photograph to the right of him with the trophy.  The following year, 2007, he retained the Maricopa Newcomers Cup, and in the California State Championship he won the Sierra trophy and was runner up in Missions trophy.  In the 2008 Western States Open he won the Under 19 competition and was runner up in the "Mary Jane" portion of the competition, while in the California State Championship he finished runner up in both the Missions and Sierra trophies.  Last year in the California State Championship he was awarded the Sierra trophy.

"I'm happy I reached 300 games," he explained, "it was a very fun journey, and the next hundred are looking good too."

When we asked him what was the highlights of his time with the SCSC he did not hesitate.  "The LA Galaxy tournament was a very amazing showing off to a few hundred people.  Beating John Carroll 3-0 helped make it special."

You can see the number of games the other players have played with the SCSC on the Games played page»

Season 9 Match Day 2 (Fri Feb 12)

If there was a "Player of the Night" award it would have been given to Dominic Hutchinson.  His Kumba team won their three games, defeating his father's Red Star, Kevin Nieman's Inter Nieman, and Jason Mitchell's Hollywood Hammers.  Wayne Smith won his three games too, defeating Kevin's Inventus twice and Red Star, but as the best player in the Southern California Subbuteo Club it was not as a big achievement as Dominic's.

Having suffered defeat at the hand of his son, Simon Hutchinson's Red Star "bounced back" to defeat Jason's Hammers, before losing to Wayner Bremen.  For Jason and Kevin it was a wretched night as they lost all of their games.

The goal scoring rate was a lot higher tonight that the first night.  The seven games produced an average of 3.4 goals, compared to 1.2 last week.

Dominic's and Wayne's winning streaks puts them in joint first place in the league table.  Which is remarkable as Dominic was the only player to start with zero points, all the others having two teams started with four points.  Red Star moved above Left Hannover the Table 96 as the Lefties did not play tonight.  Both of Kevin's teams, Inventus and Inter Nieman, and Jason's Hammers have not won a point so far this season and remain in joint bottom of the table with Simon's Simi City and Jason's Valley Irons, who have not played a game this season.

Season 9»
Today's reports»

ASA Rolling Rankings (Tue Feb 9)

The American Subbuteo Association published the Rolling Rankings for this month.  These are what will be used for the seeding in the ASA Open on February 20.

As there have only been two ASA Opens in the past 12 months in California the players have risen or fallen by, in some cases, quiet significant numbers when compared to the last rankings, see here»

As there are six scheduled Opens in California in 2010 we should start to see the SCSC's players rising in the rankings again.

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.

The best photograph of 2009 (Mon Feb 8)

Southern California Subbuteo Club player Jason Mitchell is a professional photographer.  We asked him to review the Best photographs of 2009 slide show and pick what he considered to be the best photograph.

He chose the photograph of Wayne Smith playing Steve Tucker (right), you can see a larger version of it by clicking here»

"I choose this picture as the concentration on Steve's face is immense as he faces what we all face, an attack by Wayne," Jason explained.  "Did he score ? Who knows..."

CSTFA mentions Subbuteo across America (Sun Feb 7)

We would like to than Shane Hoopfer, the webmaster of the Canadian Sports Table Football Association web site, for adding a story to their web site about the "Subbuteo across America".  You can see the CSTFA's home page here»

Shane has also signed up to take part with his friends in Calgary, Alberta.

If you are a player in either Canada or the USA you can join Shane and all the other players in these two countries who have signed on to this historic event by using the Contact page to let us know you are interested.

For more information check the Subbuteo across America section of this website.

Season 9 League Cup draw (Sat Feb 6)

The draw for the Southern California Subbuteo Club's Season 9 League Cup was made, yesterday, during the first night of the season.  As there are nine teams competing in the league there had to be a Round One of one game, and then four games in Round Two.  Only "B" teams were eligible for Round One.

The draw was performed by Wayne Smith and Dominic Hutchinson.

In Round Two the home team is the team that is lower in the league table at the time the tie is played.

Last night the Round One tie was played and Red Star won, therefore, they face the Hollywood Hammers in Round Two.

Season 9 kicks off (Fri Feb 5)

The Southern California Subbuteo Club's new season, Season 9, started tonight.  It was a low scoring five league games, with only six goals scored.

Dominic Hutchinson's Kumba had a good evening, winning four points in three games to catch up with the other players' teams.  First they defeated Kevin Nieman's Inventus, then played out a tie with Wayne Smith's Left Hannover the Table 96, before losing to his father's, Simon, Red Star.

Left Hannover the Table 96 moved into first place winning five points from ties with Kumba and Red Star, and a victory in a game of many missed opportunities with Inventus.  Red Star are second, one point behind first place and with a game in hand.

The League Cup first round tie produced as many goals as all the other games.  After a goalless first half between Red Star and Kevin's Inter Milan, the second half came alive with four goals to end 2-2.  The first five minutes of extra time were nervy before the Reds scored in the fifth minute and added another goal with just seconds remaining.

Season 9»
Season 9 League Cup»
Today's reports»

Subbuteo Across America date (Thu Feb 4)

We finally have the date for the "Subbuteo Across America", it will take place on Saturday May 22.

Now is the time for you and/or your club to decide that you will be taking part in this historic event and help us raise money for the Red Cross.  Go to the Contact page of this web site and let us know you want to take part.

So far the following clubs and individuals have said they are interested in taking part:

Come join the fun and take part in this truly memorable event.

English twins sign up (Tue Feb 2)

Having extended the invitation to take part in "Subbuteo across America" to our Canadian twin club, WestCoast Table Soccer Club, we thought it was only fair to make the same invitation to all of our twins.

With promise of being made honorary Americans for the day the North East Table Football Association Teesside, England, said they would take part.

"Sounds like a great idea," Ben Staples stated in his email.

"Not sure how 'big' our event will be but we will give it a go!", agreed Mike Parnaby.

More information about this historic event can be found at http://SubbuteoAcrossAmerica.tk

Ready for Season 9 (Mon Feb 1)

After lengthy a discussion and two rounds of voting last Friday (January 29) the Southern California Subbuteo Club is now ready for the start of Season 9 next Friday (February 5).

"With only five players the season would have been only 16 games," Season 9 Organizer Simon Hutchinson explained.  "I wanted a minimum of 20 games in a season, so I said I would run a second team.  Kevin, Jason, and Wayne decided they wanted to do the same, we now have nine teams in the season.  What took so long on Friday was trying to find a way to handicap the 'B' teams that everyone would agree with.

"Rather than call the second teams Simon 'B' we decided to come up with names for all the teams."

The teams that were used in Season 8 are now called:

The new "Expansion" teams are:

You can see how each of the 'B' teams are handicapped on the Season 9 rules page.

"Another issue that had to be resolved was what to do with the 'A' versus 'B' fixtures," Simon continued.  "We could not have players playing solo games.  The majority agreed that to declare all of these games 0-0 ties.  All of the players with two teams will start the season with four games 'played' and four points.  Only Dominic's Kumba starts with zero games played and zero points.

"All that is left to do on first night is to finish off taking photos of the teams, and to make the draw for the first two rounds of the League Cup.  I am looking forward to the start of the new season."