WHAT’S NEW – Page 15 – Glasgow Table Soccer Association

April 2, 2015

McCrea Financial Services Glasgow Grand Prix

GTSA are delighted to have the support of McCrea Financial Services for the Glasgow Grand Prix at the Normandy Hotel. McCrea FS are involved with many sporting sponsorships including golf, tennis and cricket but most notably with Partick Thistle and Glasgow Warriors. Therefore, as well as funding trophies for our competition they are also contributing tickets for games at Partick Thistle and Glasgow Warriors! You can read the McCrea take on their sponsorship by clicking here.

Entry to the tournament closes on Wednesday 8th April and currently we have 48 individuals signed up together with 9 teams on the Sunday. This compares with 43 individuals and 8 teams at the 2013 GP in Glasgow. For a pictorial reminder of that tournament click here.

The latest world rankings were released today and Chris Thomas saw his Open ranking drop from 12 to 23. This means that Angelo Borg is now the top ranked Open player at 17. Borg, from Malta was an Open finalist at last month’s Major de Frameries in Belgium. Greeks Kostas Seses (27) and Dimitris Kosmopoulos (60) will be seeded 3 and 4, Steve Bennett (73) will be 5 and Gareth Christie (110) 6. In the Vets, Giorgios Aggelinas (22) will be top seed then Colin Tarry (34), Brian Daley (46), Stephano De Francesco (48), Tom Burns (71) and Martin Hodds (78).

Chris Thomas referees Rob Conway’s match at the Major de Frameries

There will probably be 3 seeded teams on the Sunday. ACS Perugia (6) will be number 1 seeds, then Athinaikos (26) number 2 and London Essex (27) number 3.

Athinaikos at the Cardiff Grand Prix 2013

March 27, 2015

Club night 23/3/15

Baver Bari was full of confidence after finishing 5th in the Scottish rankings and tonight he added 4 points to his league total. He lost the first goal, however, against John Halpin. Halpin scorned a good chance to go two ahead but then allowed Bari to get back on level terms before half-time and to score the winner in the second half. Bari had beaten Colin Berry in their first league encounter but was not able to do so a second time, the match finishing 1-1. Berry then faced Dave Gladman with whom he had drawn 1-1 earlier in the season. This time Gladman got the upper hand but he had to wait until three minutes from the end before finally breaking the deadlock.

Willie Fleming had an indifferent start to the season but results have been improving recently with draws against Dave Butler and Tom Burns. Tonight he came up against Colin Day another who is coming in to form. Neither player was able to emerge victorious and both had to settle for a draw. One goal was sufficient, however, for Fleming to claim three points in a rather tetchy match against Dave Gladman.

The Handicap Cup first round saw John Halpin pitted against Colin Day. Day clawed back his two goal handicap but allowed Halpin to score. Halpin, therefore, goes into the quarter final courtesy of a 3-2 win.

League

Halpin	1	2	Bari
Fleming	1	1	Day
Berry	1	1	Bari
Berry	0	1	Gladman
Gladman	0	1	Fleming

Handicap Cup

Day

Halpin

March 27, 2015

Woodend Handicap Cup

After handicaps were agreed the first round draw was made for this competition.

Day	v	Halpin
Fleming	v	McKenzie R

Handicaps:

Burns	0
Day	1
Fleming	1
Gladman	1
Houston	1
McKenzie R	1
Bari	3
Berry	3
Halpin	3
McKenzie F	5

March 27, 2015

Association Cup Quarter Final Draw

The draw has been made for the quarter finals of the Association Cup:

Day	v	McKenzie F
Gladman	v	McKenzie R
Berry	v	Halpin
Burns	v	Houston

Colin Day should manage a comfortable win against Fraser McKenzie. Day has improved his form recently but the two have not played this season. It should be a close encounter between Dave Gladman and Ronnie McKenzie. Their most recent match was a 2-2 draw in the league but Gladman has two victories this season, 2-1 in the league and 5-1 in the Glasgow Cup. McKenzie will be keen for revenge for that cup defeat. The Colin Berry John Halpin contest is difficult to call. They have played twice and each time it has been a draw, 1-1 in the league and 4-4 in the Glasgow Cup. Tom Burns would be expected to defeat Dave Houston. Two league meetings have both ended 2-0 in Burns’ favour. Houston will need to score first to have any chance.

March 19, 2015

Scottish Circuit Event 4

The final Scottish Circuit Event took place in Abernethy on Saturday 14th March. The competition had been brought forward from the Sunday due to the Scottish League Cup Final between Celtic and Dundee United taking place that day. As it was, only 9 players attended the Saturday event. Steve Bennett had already been crowned Champion but it was Gareth Christie who emerged winner on the day. This was enough to gain him runner-up spot in the rankings and push Tom Burns into third place.

Tables ready in Abernethy

Players were drawn in three groups of three with Bennett, Christie and Burns seeded. Each won their group and they in turn entered a group to decide the winner. Christie won both his matches while Bennett edged out Tom Burns in a 9 goal thriller. Baver Bari made second place in his group, only losing 3-2 to Burns and defeating Dave Baxter 4-2. In the group of second placed players Bari lost out in a difficult group to Greg Dand and Malcolm Lees. John Halpin was drawn in a tough group with Steve Bennett and Malcolm Lees but performed well despite losing 4-1 to the former and 1-0 to the latter. In the group of thirds Halpin was victorious, winning the group on goal difference over Andy Beskaby and therefore achieving seventh overall.

In the Championship rankings therefore, Tom Burns was top Glasgow player in third spot, Baver Bari achieved fifth , Dave Gladman was seventh and John Halpin ninth.

Tom Burns and Baver Bari are the best placed GTSA players in the Scottish Championship

Results:

SCOTTISH CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT 4 of 4 – Abernethy, 14th March, 2015



Group 1

	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Steve Bennett	2	2	0	0	9	4	6		Steve Bennett	4	1	John Halpin
Malcolm Lees	2	1	0	1	4	5	3		Steve Bennett	5	3	Malcolm Lees
John Halpin	2	0	0	2	1	5	0		Malcolm Lees	1	0	John Halpin


Group 2

	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Gareth Christie	2	2	0	0	6	0	6		Gareth Christie	3	0	Greg Dand
Greg Dand	2	1	0	1	2	3	3		Gareth Christie	3	0	Andy Beskaby
Andy Beskaby	2	0	0	2	0	5	0		Andy Beskaby	0	2	Greg Dand


Group 3

	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Tom Burns	2	2	0	0	8	4	6		Tom Burns	3	2	Baver Bari
Baver Bari	2	1	0	1	6	5	3		Tom Burns	5	2	Dave Baxter
Dave Baxter	2	0	0	2	4	9	0		Dave Baxter	2	4	Baver Bari


Group 1st to 3rd

	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Gareth Christie	2	2	0	0	5	0	6		Gareth Christie	1	0	Steve Bennett
Steve Bennett	2	1	0	1	5	5	3		Gareth Christie	4	0	Tom Burns
Tom Burns	2	0	0	2	4	9	0		Tom Burns	4	5	Steve Bennett


Group 4th to 6th

	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Greg Dand	2	2	0	0	4	0	6		Malcolm Lees	5	0	Baver Bari
Malcolm Lees	2	1	0	1	5	3	3		Malcolm Lees	0	3	Greg Dand
Baver Bari	2	0	0	2	0	6	0		Greg Dand	1	0	Baver Bari


Group 7th to 9th

	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
John Halpin	2	1	1	0	6	5	4		John Halpin	3	2	Dave Baxter
Andy Beskaby	2	1	1	0	5	4	4		John Halpin	3	3	Andy Beskaby
Dave Baxter	2	0	0	2	3	5	0		Andy Beskaby	2	1	Dave Baxter




								Place			Points

								1	Gareth Christie		50
								2	Steve Bennett		45
								3	Tom Burns		42
								4	Greg Dand		40
								5	Malcolm Lees		38
								6	Baver Bari		37
								7	John Halpin		36
								8	Andy Beskaby		35
								9	Dave Baxter		34

Scottish Championship Final Table

		Event 1, Oct 12 Arbroath	Event 2, Nov 16 Glasgow	Event 3, Feb 22	Event 4, Mar 14	Total (best 3 events)
1	Steve Bennett	42	50	50	45	145
2	Gareth Christie	45	42	38	50	137
3	Tom Burns	40	45	45	42	132
4	Greg Dand	50	38	34	40	128
5	Baver Bari	32	0	40	37	109
6	Andy Beskaby	37	36	30	35	108
7	Dave Gladman	33	34	37	0	104
8	Dave Baxter	31	33	29	34	98
9	John Halpin	29	32	28	36	97
10	Craig Thom	28	27	27	0	82
11	Malcolm Lees	0	0	36	38	74
12	Rob Conway	36	37	0	0	73
13	Martin Campbell	34	29	0	0	63
14	Fraser McKenzie	0	30	26	0	56
15	Brian Daley	0	0	42	0	42
16	Barry Corr	0	40	0	0	40
17	Scott Fleming	38	0	0	0	38
18	Dave Butler	35	0	0	0	35
18	Colin Day	0	35	0	0	35
18	Ben Staples	0	0	35	0	35
21	Colin Berry	0	0	33	0	33
22	Conor Bowden	0	0	32	0	32
23	Ronnie McKenzie	0	0	31	0	31
23	Stuart Peacock	0	31	0	0	31
25	Martin Phee	30	0	0	0	30
26	Drew Orr	0	28	0	0	28

March 18, 2015

Club night 16/3/15

Four league matches were played this evening. Dave Butler has seven games in hand over Tom Burns and after tonight the gap is now 18 points. Burns has the points on the board and he added 3 after a 2-0 victory over Dave Houston, both goals coming in the first half. Houston saw his goals conceded column almost double as he went on to lose 5-0 to Butler. It’s hard having to play both the top two on the same evening. If Butler had a fine win over Houston, it was not the case against Willie Fleming. Fleming was a goal down at half-time but fought back to get a thoroughly deserved second half equaliser. Butler doesn’t have a huge margin for error as he seeks to make up ground on Burns. Then there is the enigma of Barry Corr. He needs to get back playing.

Also in the league Colin Day had a good victory over John Halpin. Day lost to Halpin in their previous encounter but Day’s form of late has been much improved. He was well in control of this match and the 4-0 scoreline was not undeserved. Halpin should have been back in the match at 2-0 when he found the Day net but unfortunately for Halpin he failed to notice an offside player.

Willie Fleming and Dave Gladman replayed their Association Cup match and it was Gladman who went through 2-0. Fleming dominated the first half but was making mistakes as he tried to set up scoring chances. Gladman improved a little in the second half but it was another Fleming error this time in his own shooting area which cost Fleming the first goal. Gladman was in two minds whether to shoot or play the ball through. He was pleased he chose the former as he found the corner of the goal. As Fleming drove forward looking for a leveller he inevitably left defensive gaps which Gladman was able to exploit and kill the game.

League

Houston	0	2	Burns
Day	4	0	Halpin
Butler	5	0	Houston
Fleming	1	1	Butler

Association Cup

Gladman

Fleming

March 16, 2015

Major de Frameries 2015

GTSA joined newly named Dundee United Table Football Club to represent Scotland at the Major de Frameries 2015 over the weekend of 7th-8th March. Tom Burns, Dave Gladman and John Halpin were GTSA’s players which meant that they were a man down in the Team Event on the Saturday. GTSA were in a group of 5 where the other teams were TSC Falcons Athens, SC Brussels, TSG Rain from Germany and SC Lions Eugies D from Belgium. Glasgow drew 2-2 with Lions but lost 4-0 in each of the other matches.

Dundee United were in a group of 4. They lost 3-0 to SC Fiamme Azzurre (Italy), 3-1 to SC Stembert B (Belgium) and 4-0 to AS Hennuyer (Belgium).

Only the first 40 in the FISTF Veteran rankings qualified automatically for the Veteran category on the Sunday. This meant that John Halpin, Dave Baxter, Andy Beskaby and Rob Conway had to play in a qualifying round on the Saturday. Unfortunately only Andy Beskaby managed through.

On the Sunday Tom Burns, Dave Gladman and Andy Beskaby all failed to win a match, Burns going down 7-0, 5-3 and 5-1, Gladman 7-0, 4-1 and 4-1 and Beskaby 5-0, 5-0 and 8-2. In the Open category Craig Thom also had 3 losses, 5-0, 4-0 and 10-2. Steve Bennett on the other hand won his group (3-0, 1-0 and 0-0), only to lose in the barrage.

The Major de Frameries is one of the biggest tournaments in Europe where many of the top players compete. The gulf between these players and most of the Scottish players who travelled to Belgium is a considerable one. Much thought about how that gap can be closed is needed.

Only Steve Bennett showed that he could compete at the top level.

More pictures from Major de Frameries

%%wppa%%
%%slide=25%%

March 5, 2015

Club night 2/3/15

It was a very poor turn-out tonight with only 4 players attending. As a result only one competitive match took place. Colin Day returned to face Dave Gladman in the league. Gladman scored practically from the kick-off to lead 1-0. But Gladman, although hitting the post twice in the first half, was not to take advantage of Day’s lack of practice. Gladman was twice ahead but was twice pegged back and it was Day who scored the winning goal. Day, having won a throw just inside the shooting area after some Gladman indecision set the ball up for the decisive strike.

Day

Gladman

March 2, 2015

Scottish Circuit Event 3

GTSA played host for this tournament at the Normandy Hotel, Renfrew on Sunday 22nd February. This time Glasgow players made up 7 of the 17 competitors. Tom Burns once again reached the final, once again played Steve Bennett and once again lost, 4-0 being the losing margin. Burns won his qualifying group and then beat Englishman, Brian Daley 3-2 to make the final. Bennett with one event still to go, cannot be caught and therefore retains his championship. Burns is in a good position to finish runner-up. Next best for GTSA was Baver Bari. He won his group edging out Dave Gladman by virtue of having scored one more goal. Bari’s reward was a crack at Steve Bennett where Bari did score 2 goals but unfortunately conceded 6. Defeat then to Daley meant a 4th finish for Bari, an excellent performance.

Dave Gladman qualified for the 5th-8th place finals where he had a 1-0 victory over Malcolm Lees before succumbing 3-0 to Gareth Christie. Sixth place was Gladman’s best finish so far. Colin Berry and Ronnie McKenzie both finished 3rd in their groups. Berry had started well beating John Halpin 4-0 but then slumped to two 3-0 defeats to Gladman and Bari. McKenzie had lost by a single goal to both Tom Burns and Ben Staples in his group. The result was that Berry and McKenzie were drawn to play each other in the 9th-12th placings finals. Locked at 1-1 the game went to shots and it was Berry who was victorious. Berry was to finish 10th after finding Greg Dand just too strong. But for McKenzie it was another 1-1 draw and another defeat on shots, this time to Conor Bowden and he had to settle for 12th.

As already reported John Halpin lost 4-0 to Colin Berry in the all Glasgow group. His other two matches were closer but ended in single goal defeats. In the 13th-16th finals he lost to Dave Baxter but finally managed a victory when he overcame Craig Thom 2-0, thus finishing 15th. Unfortunately for Fraser McKenzie he was drawn in the ‘group of death’ with Gareth Christie, Greg Dand and Brian Daley. This meant he had the poorest 4th place finish (but by only one goal) and had to play off with Andy Beskaby who had finished 5th in the group of five. Beskaby won 2-0.

%%wppa%%
%%slide=24%%

Full Results

SCOTTISH TABLE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION



SCOTTISH CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT 3 of 4 – Glasgow, 22nd February, 2015



Group 1
										Steve Bennett	6	v 3	Malcolm Lees
	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Pts			Dave Baxter	2	v 1	Andy Beskaby
Steve Bennett	4	4	0	0	18	3	12			Steve Bennett	5	v 0	Dave Baxter
Malcolm Lees	4	3	0	1	11	9	9			Conor Bowden	1	v 2	Malcolm Lees
Conor Bowden	4	1	1	2	3	8	4			Conor Bowden	0	v 5	Steve Bennett
Dave Baxter	4	1	1	2	3	9	4			Malcolm Lees	3	v 1	Andy Beskaby
Andy Beskaby	4	0	0	4	3	9	0			Andy Beskaby	1	v 2	Conor Bowden
										Dave Baxter	1	v 3	Malcolm Lees
										Steve Bennett	2	v 0	Andy Beskaby
										Dave Baxter	0	v 0	Conor Bowden


Group 2

	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Pts			Gareth Christie	1	v 0	Greg Dand
Brian Daley	3	3	0	0	9	1	9			Brian Daley	6	v 1	Fraser McKenzie
Gareth Christie	3	2	0	1	5	2	6			Gareth Christie	0	v 2	Brian Daley
Greg Dand	3	1	0	2	6	3	3			Fraser McKenzie	1	v 6	Greg Dand
Fraser McKenzie	3	0	0	3	2	16	0			Fraser McKenzie	0	v 4	Gareth Christie
										Greg Dand	0	v 1	Brian Daley





Group 3

	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Pts			Tom Burns	2	v 1	Ronnie McKenzie
Tom Burns	3	3	0	0	10	3	9			Craig Thom	0	v 4	Ben Staples
Ben Staples	3	2	0	1	6	2	6			Tom Burns	6	v 1	Craig Thom
Ronnie McKenzie	3	1	0	2	5	3	3			Ben Staples	1	v 0	Ronnie McKenzie
Craig Thom	3	0	0	3	1	14	0			Ronnie McKenzie	4	v 0	Craig Thom
										Ben Staples	1	v 2	Tom Burns





Group 4

	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Pts			Dave Gladman	0	v 0	Baver Bari
Baver Bari	3	2	1	0	5	1	7			Colin Berry	4	v 0	John Halpin
Dave Gladman	3	2	1	0	4	0	7			Dave Gladman	3	v 0	Colin Berry
Colin Berry	3	1	0	2	4	6	3			John Halpin	1	v 2	Baver Bari
John Halpin	3	0	0	3	1	6	0			John Halpin	0	v 1	Dave Gladman
										Baver Bari	3	v 0	Colin Berry







								Semi-finals		Steve Bennett	6	v 2	Baver Bari
										Tom Burns	3	v 2	Brian Daley

								Final		Steve Bennett	4	v 0	Tom Burns

								3rd/4th		Brian Daley	3	v 0	Baver Bari


								5th-8th		Gareth Christie	3	v 0	Ben Staples
										Dave Gladman	1	v 0	Malcolm Lees

								5th/6th		Gareth Christie	3	v 0	Dave Gladman

								7th/8th		Malcolm Lees	5	v 2	Ben Staples


								9th-12th		Greg Dand	2	v 1	Conor Bowden
										Colin Berry	1	v 1	Ronnie McKenzie	6-5 shots

								9th-10th		Greg Dand	3	v 0	Colin Berry

								11th-12th		Conor Bowden	1	v 1	Ronnie McKenzie	1-0 shots


								13th-17th	play-off	Andy Beskaby	2	v 0	Fraser McKenzie

								13th-16th		Andy Beskaby	3	v 0	Craig Thom
										Dave Baxter	3	v 0	John Halpin

								13th-14th		Andy Beskaby	0	v 0	Dave Baxter	2-1 shots

								15th-16th		John Halpin	2	v 0	Craig Thom

								17th		Fraser McKenzie


									Place			Points

									1	Steve Bennett		50
									2	Tom Burns		45
									3	Brian Daley		42
									4	Baver Bari		40
									5	Gareth Christie		38
									6	Dave Gladman		37
									7	Malcolm Lees		36
									8	Ben Staples		35
									9	Greg Dand		34
									10	Colin Berry		33
									11	Conor Bowden		32
									12	Ronnie McKenzie		31
									13	Andy Beskaby		30
									14	Dave Baxter		29
									15	John Halpin		28
									16	Craig Thom		27
									17	Fraser Mckenzie		26

March 2, 2015

Club night 23/2/15

Only four players attended this evening, the low turn-out in part due to the Circuit Event the previous day. It was disappointing nevertheless. As a result only four competitive matches were played, three in the league and one in the Association Cup. But the cup match between Willie Fleming and Dave Gladman will have to be played again, neither player being able to find the back of the net. It was a game of two halves with Gladman dominating the first and Fleming the second.

Tom Burns played two league matches and unfortunately for him his league title hopes took a dent. With Tom Burns two goals ahead and only three minutes left on the clock, it looked as if three points were in the bag against Willie Fleming. But two late goals for Fleming were a hammer blow to Burns’ title chances. In his second game against Dave Gladman, Burns had to wait until two minutes from the end before finally breaking the deadlock. Burns is still well ahead in the league, his two challengers Dave Butler and Barry Corr having many games in hand due to their poor attendance.

In the final league match Dave Gladman defeated John Halpin 3-0. Gladman moves into second place in the league, albeit temporarily.

League

Fleming	2	2	Burns
Gladman	0	1	Burns
Halpin	0	3	Gladman

Association Cup

Gladman

Fleming