Thursday, October 23, 2003

2003 Foosball UK Master Open



Goalie War 31 entries
Pos Name Winnings
1 Rob Atha £ 50 + Trophy
2 Eddie Edwards £ 25
3 Frank van den Eeden £ 15
4 Dave Oates £ 10
5 Charly Friessem
5 Benge McHugh
7 Clive Triplow
7 Stuart Cree
9 Martyn Harris
9 Imran Sharif
9 Dave Perrott
9 Dave Ziemann
13 Sandeep Jangra
13 Hans-Friedrich Kircher
13 Paul Ward
13 Dave Chow
17 Brian Harms
17 Wayne Dunderdale
17 Diane Blackwell
17 Boris Atha
17 Phil Cutcliffe
17 Peter Vogele
17 Mike Fowler
17 Heng Ho Cheung
25 Mark Dunderdale
25 Nigel Goodman-Smith
25 Juj Sohi
25 Michael Brandt
25 Mike Amsden
25 Dave Carter
25 Karl McGlynn

DYP 16 teams
Pos Players Winnings
1 Rob Atha & Paul Ward £ 40 + Trophies
2 Hans-Friedrich Kircher & Wayne Dunderdale £ 25
3 Boris Atha & Peter Vogele £ 15
4 Juj Sohi & Diane Blackwell £ 10
5 Brian Harms & Khalid Sharif £ 5
5 Stuart Cree & Mike Fowler £ 5
7 Dave Ziemann & Eddie Edwards
7 Clive Triplow & Martyn Harris
9 Karl McGlynn & Imran Sharif
9 Michael Brandt & Benge McHugh
9 Frank van den Eeden & Sandeep Jangra
9 Dave Chow & Phil Cutcliffe
13 Dave Carter & Dave Oates
13 Heng Ho Cheung & Nigel Goodman-Smith
13 Dave Perrott & Mike Amsden
13 Charly Frießem & Mark Dunderdale

Novice Doubles 12 teams
Pos Players Winnings
1 Paul Ward & Heng Ho Cheung £ 30 + Trophies
2 Imran Sharif & Davar Alipour £ 20 + Trophies
3 Alex Shovelton & Mark Melia £ 15 + Trophies
4 Mike Amsden & Phil Cutcliffe £ 10
5 Dave Carter & Richard Hocking
5 Nigel Goodman-Smith & Peter Lawrenson
7 Wayne & Mark Dunderdale
7 Dion & Geoff Kay
9 Ash Ghataaura & Emma Carter
9 Rob Bond & Frank van den Eeden
9 John Blanchard & Naeem Kaka
9 Sandeep Jangra & Ian Boardman

Open Singles 54 entries
Pos Player Winnings
1 Rob Atha £ 120 + Trophy
2 Juj Sohi £ 80 + Trophy
3 Charly Frießem £ 50 + Trophy
4 Boris Atha £ 30
5 Peter Vogele £ 20
5 Tich Degun £ 20
7 Rhys Roberts £ 10
7 Eddie Edwards £ 10
9 Hans-Friedrich Kircher
9 Stuart Cree
9 Paul Kalsi
9 Les Jones
13 Frank van den Eeden
13 Dave Ziemann
13 Phil Williams
13 Michael Brandt
17 Davar Alipour
17 Albert Tamou
17 Martyn Harris
17 John Blanchard
17 Dave Chow
17 Dave Perrott
17 Paul Ward
17 Tony Melia
25 Sandeep Jangra
25 Ash Ghataaura
25 Geoff Kay
25 Benge McHugh
25 Dion Kay
25 John Worthington
25 Dave Oates*
25 Wayne Dunderdale
25 Imran Sharif
33 Richard Hocking
33 Naeem Kaka
33 Chris Stevenson
33 Mark Dunderdale
33 Mark Melia
33 Dave Carter
33 Mike Fowler Winner of "Horse's Arse" trophy for worst pro performance in OS
33 Clive Triplow
33 Diane Blackwell
33 Heng Ho Cheung
33 Brian Harms
33 Dave Morgan
33 Karl McGlynn
33 Ian Boardman
33 Mike Amsden
33 Alan Bowers
49 Nigel Goodman-Smith
49 Rob Bond
49 Alex Shovelton
49 Phil Cutcliffe
49 Peter Lawrenson

Open Doubles 26 teams
Pos Players Winnings
1 Hans-Friedrich Kircher & Charly Frießem £ 200 + Trophies
2 Rob Atha & Dave Perrott £ 120 + Trophies
3 Rhys Roberts & Juj Sohi £ 80 + Trophies
4 Les Jones & Tony Melia £ 50
5 Tich Degun & Paul Kalsi £ 30
5 Stuart Cree & Boris Atha £ 30
7 Dave Chow & Khalid Sharif £ 20
7 Peter Vogele & Michael Brandt £ 20
9 Dave Ziemann & Albert Tamou
9 Dave Morgan & John Worthington
9 Martyn Harris & Mike Fowler
9 Karl McGlynn & Frank van den Eeden
13 Richard Hocking & Dave Carter
13 Wayne & Mark Dunderdale
13 Phil Williams & Alan Bowers
13 Ian Boardman & Alex Shovelton
17 Sandeep Jangra & Chris Stevenson
17 Paul Ward & Heng Ho Cheung
17 John Blanchard & Naeem Kaka
17 Ash Ghataaura & Mark Melia
17 Davar Alipour & Imran Sharif
17 Dave Oates & Brian Harms
17 Eddie Edwards & Benge McHugh
17 Diane Blackwell & Clive Triplow
25 Phil Cutcliffe & Mike Amsden
25 Nigel Goodman-Smith & Peter Lawrenson

Semi-Pro Doubles 14 teams
Pos Players Winnings
1 Michael Brandt & Karl McGlynn £ 60 + Trophies
2 Alan Bowers & Chris Stevenson £ 40 + Trophies
3 Dave Chow & Frank van den Eeden £ 30 + Trophies
4 John Blanchard & Naeem Kaka £ 20
5 Ian Boardman & Nigel Goodman-Smith £ 10
5 Mike Amsden & Phil Cutcliffe £ 10
7 Paul Ward & Heng Ho Cheung
7 Davar Alipour & Imran Sharif
9 Wayne & Mark Dunderdale
9 Dave Morgan & John Worthington
9 Diane Blackwell & Clive Triplow
9 Ash Ghataaura & Mark Melia
13 Sandeep Jangra & Alex Shovelton
13 Richard Hocking & Dave Carter

Thursday, July 3, 2003

2nd VIFA Asia Open Foosball Championship 2003 Result

Rookie Singles
1. Ali Al-Shamsi
2. Saeed Al-Attar
3. Sang Lee
4. Ali Al-Kamda

Rookie Doubles
1. Ahmad Al-Ali & Saeed Al-Attar
2. Ali Al-Shamsi & Ali Al-Kamda
3. Ong Choong Leo & Roy Wong Seong Zeng
4. Anirudh Jain & Yong Min Jie

Mixed Doubles
1. Mak Choong Moon & Vivien Tan Bee Bee
2. Raymond Kan Cheah Jong & Aunnie Teh
3. Pietro Ambrose Felix & Joanne Seaton
4. Miqdad Suwaidi & June Cheah

Pro-Am Doubles
1. Miqdad Suwaidi & Ali Al-Shamsi
2. Ali Helal Al-Mutawa & Ahmad Al-Ali
3. Yaqoob Ali & Saeed Al-Attar

Open Singles
1. Miqdad Suwaidi
2. Hamid Barahouei
3. Shaun P’ng Chun Jinn
4. Ali Al-Shamsi
5. Michael Tan Boon Keong
6. Ali Helal Al-Mutawa

Open Doubles
1. Miqdad Suwaidi & Ali Helal Al-Mutawa
2. Shaun P’ng Chun Jinn & Ng Eng Hwai
3. Hamid Barahouei & Saeed Al-Attar
4. Ali Al-Shamsi & Yaqoob Ali
5. Adil Sayeed & Bobby Tham
6. Ahmad Al-Ali & Ali Al-Kamda

Draw Your Team
1. Saeed Al-Attar, Tan Kok Aun, Siti Baizura & Zaryn Lana
2. Ali Helal Al-Mutawa, Ong Choong Leo, Raymond Kan Cheah Jong & Senthil
3. Ali Al-Shamsi, Ewan Azlyyuzry, Roy Wong Seong Zeng & Sunil Vijayan
4. Lee Ho Sang, Mak Choong Moon, Nur Azlin & Yaqoob Ali

DYP
1. Bobby Tham & Ong Choong Leo
2. Adil Sayeed & Tan Kok Aun
3. Azlan Ahmad & Ahmad Johanuddin

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

To be the Best, drink like the best!!

Byline: Oliver Yong.

It has been a fact that foosball is and will be a part of the "infected" parties. Let me cut-and-paste from an F-1 article.

"The Federal Republic of Germany is situated in the heart of Europe. It has nine neighbours and covers an area of about 357,000 square kilometres.  Germany has a population of approximately 82.1 million (including 7.3 million foreigners) and is one of the most densely populated countries in all of Europe. In Germany, there are about two million more women than men. The most popular sport in Germany is soccer, called "Fussball" and is played at thousands of clubs which have more than 6.3 million members. The German national soccer team has won the World Cup three times and came close in 2002 before losing to Brazil in the final. Germany is now gearing up to host the 2006 World Cup."

What is required from a foosball player? What do we do to train for an event?

Ability to withstand crap talking (trash talk) from opponent, how do we train?

Simple solution for simple task, for the women. Irritate your mom, and a full day scheduled 24hr nagging will be guaranteed. Married man? Ask for Jack Hii, he would just ignore all calls from his mobile. To an extent, he would just leave his obsolete mobile lying around table top, praying hard that it would be stolen; save the hassle!! (** psst.. it's a Nokia 6110. Grandfather generation phone lah!!.. )

How the great players train. Got this training regime from Alex Hing, Alex Chong and our expert, Albert Cheok. We can see all of them in training mode every Monday at our friendly local pub; Barcode. They will report for duty @ 6pm onwards, punch their employee card and proceed to their work desk (high bar table ). What do they do to train up their games?

WARM UP with warm mug, it will circulate the blood in your body, warming it up just like a pre-warmed F-1 tyre, ready for racing!! Dump all unwanted fluid at the boys room, make coin changes, play Bee Gees songs and we are ready to roll.

STAMINA training by ordering 2-3 jugs of super chilled beer. It will allow non stop beer flow, creating the best mug-mouth-refill action. This will greatly enhance the ability to make dead shots and accurate Lafredo's. Note: happy hour training rates are from 6pm-9pm. After that, a different rate will be for casual training. Tips: If the beer happens to be warm, get our trusty Amir or Carol to get a bucket of ice, it will do the trick. A cold beer-action will stimulate the brain to go the distance. Ask Jack Hii, he knows best after a few rounds. His eyes would be an indication that it is time for him to stop training. It shows dedication and full effort by him. It is a strenuous training regime, but someone has to do it.

Psychology is an important factor in this game. Training in this aspect would require a stable mindset and shut down to the external factors. Alex Hing is the extreme crap-body language sensei. He has repeatedly made the opponent offset their games with cramps and spasm. A remedy to counter back this onslaught of crap talking is by laughing it off. Cant?? try to imagine him being a chimp inside a zoo cage, it will do the trick.

We should prepare ourselves for an onslaught of tournaments by doing more training session. I anticipate beer supplying company will have a higher share market price if our practise is persistent.
To our dear Prime Minister, We are doing our part to stimulate the market too!!

Sunday, June 22, 2003

Where do we go from here? One fooser's perspective.

Byline: Din Syazman Isham.

6 years ago, I started playing foosball. I took to it like a newly hatched turtle finding its way to the sea. Many of those I played with had already been playing for a while. Many have since quit. But those that remained have gone to reach great heights and along the way have passed their knowledge and experience on to a whole new generation of foosers. And foosball has become more than just a spin-the-rod and hope game but has become a sport in its own right with rules, organizations, clubs and tournaments. Even before I started playing, there were those who pushed the sport. Pushing to see the sport become mainstream & accepted by the public not as a game where people pretend to be Pele or Maradonna but as a sport where people will try to reach the standards set by people like Terry Moore, Todd Loffredo et al.

Foosball in Malaysia has grown, expanded and touched so many people over the past 6 years. What was once "just something to do on a boring Friday" became "the only thing to do EVER". I see it in the faces of many people - their complete obsession with the sport, their absolute commitment to it.
We, the foosball community of Malaysia, have many to thank for the growth and expansion of the sport here in Malaysia but a few key names come to mind. These people have pushed the sport hard. They have their own reasons but whatever it is, I would like to say thank you for all your efforts and may you not give up on us.

Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor have seen the birth of many brilliant foosers. The Mild Seven Nationals and the FM tourneys have highlighted a few key players and it is up to these key players to push foosball's expansion onwards by passing some of their knowledge, wisdom and experience to a new generation and hoping that this new generation will carry the sport to heights and territories as yet untouched.

It took me about a year to get my basics down. I had foosers who were willing to sit with me and discuss how I can improve my game and strengthen my weaknesses, they showed me what the basics were, ball control, anticipation, timing and all that, to these people, a big thank you. The new generation of foosers today have advantages that I never had and as a result, their improvement and mastery of the basics can be measured in a matter of months. The internet, club competitions, DYPs, a growing community of friendly and helpful foosers as well as an expanding level of exposure to the sport has critically reduced the time for someone new to the game to achieve their goals (pun intended).

The ladies deserve special mention here. When I started playing, the number of female foosers playing competitively was virtually zero. Times have changed. Female players have shown that they have what it takes physically and mentally to play the game at the highest level. And the numbers are growing. It was only a matter of time.

And that's where we are today. Foosball joints have sprouted all over the Klang Valley and I hope this is not just a trend. More people are being exposed to the sport than ever before and it would be a shame if all this progress were for naught.

But as the title of this article states where do we go from here? How do we bring this revolution (and I do sincerely mean a revolution) to its climax and bring about a phenomenal change in the public's attitude towards the sport as well as expanding the current base of players? How do we reach the other states within Malaysia? Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor have seen an explosion in new foosers, but is this enough? What about Terengganu, Negri Sembilan, Kelantan, Kuantan and so on? What is the foos scene like in these areas? How exposed are they? And the big question, are they ready? Will they accept foosball as a sport?

It would be great to go to the next M7 nationals and seeing whole new faces. You never know, if the numbers keep growing then M7 might revert to its old practice of rotating cities for the finals instead of having it only in KL (*sigh* those were the days).

Only time will tell where foosball will go from here. 6 years ago, foosball seemed like just another pub game destined for nothingness. Here I am today, playing foosball with people from all over Asia and the middle east. How times have changed.

I pray that the only way to go from here is forward.

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

Expressions Open 2003 and VIFA World's Championship Singles Selection


Jana and Ng Eu Hock versus Mike Tan and Lim Yen Seng fighting for 2nd or 3rd placing in the Open Doubles.


Veteran Kenny Lee as strong as ever!


Ray Ng with the score card ready for his next game.


Veteran CM Mak deep in concentration in the Worlds Selection single game.


Patricia weaving her foos magic...


The Trekkie is excited!!


And the lunch goes to..... Mr Jana!!! Speech! Speech! LOL...


Sean P'ng, Danny Boy, Ben Neo and Leo taking a break.


Sean Yeap talking to the table as usual.... LOL...


Ray Ng setting Junior up for the next pix...


There... that's sportsmanship... dude.


Weng Yee and Ray, a pix for posterity. Little do they know that Junior wants a piece of it as well... way to go Junior... LOL.


The ladies whom have been providing us with the score cards, change and updates. Thanks!!


Sean Yeap and Oliver Yong resting in the corner of the tournament area.


Mike Tan, Edwin Ng and Ryan Felix in a Lowen doubles game.


Taking a break, Sean P'ng, June, Vivian and Lim Yen Seng.


The tournament area.


Another view of the tournament area.


The organiser, Jimmy Lim, getting the trophies ready.


The trophies and prize giving area.


Another view of the trophies.


Another close-up view of the trophies.

Photo credits: Sara Siow. Thanks for the photos Sara. We really appreciate it... :-)

Results:

Lowen Singles
1st  - Shaul Maricar
2nd - Shaun P'ng
3rd - Jack Hii

Lowen Doubles
1st  - Shaul Maricar/CM Mak
2nd - Gobinath/Edgar Phang
3rd - Edwin Ng/Michael Tan

Tornado Singles
1st  - Shaun P'ng
2nd - Raymond Kan
3rd - Michael Tan

Tornado Doubles
1st  - Edwin Ng/Shaun P'ng
2nd - Ng Eu Hock/Janathan
3rd - Michael Tan/Lim Yen Seng

Tornado Mixed Doubles
1st  - Edwin Ng/Nina
2nd - Mawar/Bobby Tham
3rd - Pietro Feix/Joanne Seaton

Tornado Team Event
1st  - CM Mak, Kenny Lee, David Hogan Junior and Ng Eu Hock
2nd - Edgar Phan, Lim Chia Soo, Shaun Lung and Chris Geh
3rd - Cheong Heng Ho, Albert Cheok, Sean Yeap and Raymond Kan

World's Singles Selection
1st  - Ng Eu Hock (Dallas, Texas)
2nd - Michael Lee (Dallas, Texas)
3rd - Adil Sayeed
4th - Jack Hii

Sunday, February 23, 2003

Toshiba Foosball Challenge 2003


Albert Cheok deep in concentration.


Ben Neo trying his best to get the jersey.


4 on 4 game on the Torpedo.


Albert Cheok getting some English Premier League goodies.


There... he's got it... :-)


Pietro, Cyrus, Albert Cheok, organiser Henry Long and Ben Neo for a group pix.


Dancers performing in on stage.


Doesn't that look like the three men bar?


Ben taking a break.


More dancing. Shak'in up baby now... come on.. and twist n shout...


Erra Fazira, one of Malaysia's most talented singer, performs for the crowd.


Erra Fazira, u da best!!


Erra Fazira woos her fans.


Erra Fazira in her groove.


Kok Aun quiz on the English Premier League by Erra Fazira.


Did he get the answers right?


Erra Fazira and her dancers... professional!


Them watching the dance or the foosball game... ?


More of Erra and her dancers.


Erra... give us more...



Cyrus, Pat and Kok Aun.


One of the Toshiba Premier League promoters.... Michelle?


Another  Toshiba Premier League promoter.


Pat and she.


Leo having a game with Simon.


Albert and Robert... the two berts... :-)


Robert and Pietro... checking out the Torpedo Table.


Albert and Leo... celebrating?


Leo and Albert in mortal combat!!!


Groupie... Edmond, Robert, Cheong, Ryan, Lucy and Pietro.



Simon and Albert fighting for the Toshiba TV... Henry Long looking on.


Michelle.... my belle...


Leo and Michelle.


"I did it again" Albert Cheok receiving the Toshiba TV from organiser Henry Long.


And more goodies for Albert Cheok.


Leo congratulating Albert.


The participants... and the promoter... :-P


Another one....


A view from the top of the competition area.


Another angle...



Well... another...


More of the competition area...


Some more...


Some shoppers trying out the game.


Now... they are getting into it...


Forget shopping... lets foos.


In deep concentration...


Eh...


Looking at one of the Toshiba Premier League promoters.


Ahh... the guy providing the music and the groove... the DJ.

Photo credits: Leo