The Southern California Subbuteo Club welcomed back Sean Daly who had been on
an eight year hiatus from the game.
The eight participants in the
Bastogne Memorial Tournament were divided into two qualification groups of
four. The top two in each group qualified for the Open semi finals. The bottom
two went through to the Mary Jane semi finals.
Group A was won by
Simon Hutchinson with two wins and a draw.
Kevin
Nieman finished in second place, also with two wins and a draw, but with an
inferior goal difference. Sean Daly finished in third place with just a win over
Andrea Guarducci, who finished in last place.
No-one was surprised that
Wayne
Smith won all of his games to finish top of Group B.
John
Carroll finished in second place beating
Adam
Carlson, but was held for a tie by
Dominic Hutchinson. Carlson finished in third place as he had beaten Dominic
in the first round of games. Dominic finished in fourth place.
Guarducci’s victory over Carlson in the Mary Jane semi final was his first
ever win. The other semi final went to a shoot out before Daly beat Dominic.
Smith was victorious over Nieman in their Open semi final. Carroll beat Simon
with a late goal against the run of play in the other.
The third place play offs rematched players who had met earlier in the
qualification groups. Dominic made up for his 0-1 loss to Carlson in Group B by
‘mercy’ ruling him 4-0 in the Mary Jane play off. In the Group A game Nieman and
Simon had tied 2-2. The Open play off finished 2-1 in Kevin’s favor, with him
scoring the winning goal in extra time.
In the Mary Jane final Guarducci’s accurate flicking and his Italian
catenaccio defense kept Daly at bay. Andrea’s winning goal was from a shot
described as “exceptional” by his opponent. His winning this tournament is a
remarkable achievement as the final was only Guarducci’s seventh game. "Playing
as Fiorentina gave me an unfair advantage," was his explanation for how well he
had played.
The Open final ended with another win for Smith. Wayne took a two goal lead
against Carroll, before John pulled a goal back only for Smith to score his
third with less than a minute remaining.
- Open
- Winner: Wayne Smith
- Runner up: John Carroll
- Mary Jane
- Winner: Andrea Guarducci
- Runner up: Sean Daly
A full report and all the scores and tables can be found
here»
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