British Foosball Association

Match Reports

Tornado Tournament at the Scotsman - 26 October 2002

Comments by Martyn Harris and Mike Fowler

The Scotsman Tournament

I must add my thanks to Tich for organising the day, (again), to the helpers who put up/took down the tables, to Boris & Mike Fowler on the charts, the pub for excellent facilities and to all who turned up to make this tournament, once again, a great way to spend a windy Saturday......err Sunday morning also, (we left London at 2.30 am old time).

MY HIGHLIGHTS

Singles.....usually a poor run in competitions, I favour OD, but this time, did put some effort in practising with Mike Fowler at the Bush when we are on our own.

OS victories included Clive Triplow, then Boris...(haha, my first win as he reminded me), then Rhys, (ditto as I have also never beaten him at OS). I then was well beaten by Tich in the SF Winners and then met that young Atha kid in the losers, who creamed me. They went on to finish 1st and 2nd, so cant feel so bad as to be beaten by the top two on the day.

Moral of this story - if you really want something badly, sometimes it really does happen.....my best OS results on Tornado thus far.

Open Doubles: Extremely flattering words from my friend and partner, Mike Fowler yesterday. He was the Rock of Gibraltar at the back on many occasions, and as every attacker knows, that itself gives you the impetus and momentum to lift your game and, of course, vice versa. An awesome display, and great to have him as my partner. The only downside is that I really wanted 2nd or better, to get that elusive trophy for him.......one day maybe, just maybe.....watch this space.

Fantastic games, 2 epic victories over Rhys and Declan and also another tough win, this time over DZ and Albert Tamou. This followed a win over Mitch and Ashley. Defeats were by Rob and Sanjay, who were awesome and did us 2-0, and then Boris and Stuart in the battle for 2nd place and a trophy. We did win the first game and had chances later, but on reflection, the better team won. We came third.....and once again, happy, I suppose, in the fact that we only lost to the teams that placed 1st and 2nd.....so 3rd place was well earned.

MY LOWLIGHTS

None

MY OBSERVATIONLIGHTS (not a real word)

Rob, seemingly unphased at starting in the losers, then calmly kicking butt to take OS in the most impressive way.Mike Pearce, jittery about the thought of not taking a trophy home, (which he later did)....I wonder if its proof to 'er indoors that he is where he says he is?

Mitch....welcome back to a good player and a nice guy.

In summary.....to those who could have come along and didn't, you really missed another good day and well run (long) event. I was chatting to Tich in the wee small hours and am pleased to see that he still has intentions to run more tournaments. I used to play TS with him 25 years ago, and still find it funny that we are still playing this crazy sport. He is still a player firstly and foremostly, and I for one am very pleased to support him and our sport wherever and whenever I can. If anyone knows anymore ways to promote our game, then this list is a good way to post ideas.

Soapbox over - heres to our next meeting - lets hope for more of the same.

Martyn

29 October 2002

Scotsman Tourney - a few thoughts and things

Highlights

-Beating Rhys and Declan twice in Open Doubles to get to third place -Playing Rob and Sanjay in Open Doubles and getting hammered by a very powerful team - great performance guys!

Lowlights

-Getting third and finding trophies only for 1st and 2nd place :( Heh, if it had been trophies to 3rd, I bet we'd have got 4th! So I guess I will be happy to settle for that.

-Tournaments do seem a bit empty these days without the familiar baseball cap and cheery smile of our old mate Tanny. Missing him :(

Funnies:

-Rob Atha turning up so late ('cos he'd rather foolishly agreed to travel down to 'the smoke' with Dave Chow, and they had managed to get lost :)) that he forfeited his first match. The guy who thus 'beat' the best player in the UK (Lolly) was then cheered and applauded. Cue jokes like - not only did he knock Rob into the losers, but Rob didn't even get a goal!

-Dave Chow doing Bruce Lee 'Weeeeoooow!!' shouts when he scored the winning goal to take the SPD title, ably assisted by Dave? Mitchell.

-In the second of the titanic matches in Open Doubles, between myself with Martyn Harris and Rhys Roberts with Declan Egan, there came a crucial point - I am going to embellish the event a little, naturally, for the entertainment of you all, dear readers, because this was soooo cool! :

We were winning, with just ONE more goal needed for victory. Rhys was a man possessed, blocking Martyn's passes, stealing the ball and grinding away at our lead with his murderous pull shots - Ow! Martyn called a timeout with the ball on his five bar. He turned to me and said "Get me the ball at the front" Grinning like the idiot I am, I said "Right!" and went to the forwards position, looking for all the world as though getting the ball past one of the best defensive 5-bars in the UK was going to be a snip! I can only say, in all the frantic flapping and crashing that ensued, that it was pure, sweet, wonderful JAM that enabled me to wack the ball at the exact moment to pin it under the foot of my forwards row!

With great pleasure, I called the last timeout. Everybody watching knew what was coming, Martyn 'Bomber' Harris was going to come forward to set up his dreaded Pull-kick.

In that moment of hushed expectation, as we players were returning to the table, Declan looked at Rhys, to see if he wanted to take over the defensive job for this crucial shot. Rhys then said, in a voice that everyone heard: "No - YOU block it!" and everyone fell about laughing - a wonderful moment :)

Martyn set it up, waited to create just the right amount of tension, then blasted in the winner! It was wonderful.

Player of the Tournament

Albert Tamou - Big Al turned on the power and showed true determination to take a well-deserved 3rd in Open Singles - his highest ever placing (If I'm wrong saying this, sorry Al:)). It took a masterful performance from Tich Degun to stop him. Whatever you've been doing with your game, Albert, keep doing it! :)

Terror of the Tournament

This has to be Martyn's Pull-kick. Very few people shoot this shot. Even fewer shoot it well. Martyn is the best at it. He has transferred the shot from the Tournament Soccer table to the Tornado and polished it to a thing of beauty. It is still not consistent enough to take titles, but it is geting closer! Speaking as a goalie myself, I can only sympathise with the hapless defenders faced with a shot that they've never seen before, that can rocket into any part of the goal, slice through the helplessly flapping feet of the goalie bars, or dink maddeningly slowly in *just* behind the defenders.

Monster of the tournament

Heh, I've just invented this title to remind you all about the guy who totally dominates the game in the UK. Rob Atha really is a class above everyone else. Arriving late and thus starting off in the Loser's Bracket in Open Sinlges simply meant he had to beat even more people to blast his way to a win. People, if you want to see how to play this game at real World Class level, then come to see him play. His dad, Boris, summed it all up so neatly, when he said "Next time you're late arriving, Rob, we will put you into the Loser's bracket, one game down and 4 goals down in the second game!"

Heh, you know, I reckon he would still win it! :)

Mike F

27 October 2002