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Gibraltar at table soccer tournament in Belgium
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Nine players of the Gibraltar Table Soccer Association (GTSA) recently returned from their participation in the 18th Major Mons (Belgium) International Tournament.
This tournament is one of the most prestigious event in the FISTF European Calendar and attracted a large number of top class players of all age and Groups, which divided the tournament into the following categories; U12, U15, U19, Ladies, Veterans, Teams
There were a total of 227 players representing a total of 39 teams from nearly every European Nation.
The GTSA squad participated in the following categories: Individual Open ? Guy Palmer, John Field, Lawrence Alvarez, Herman Lopez, Chris and Mark Muscat.
Due to the high level of skill and play the top players unfortunately none of the local players managed to progress to the next round.
The Veterans category was represented by Manuel Martinez, Alan Crisp and Hector Zammit.
In this event local players were more fortunate with only Manuel Martinez falling in the first round.
Alan Crisp went through as top of his Group whilst Hector Zammit qualifying second in his Group.
In the 2nd round both players were less fortunate falling to stronger opposition, Alan Crisp to
No. 54 FISTF ranked player Patrick Peltier of Belgium in a very tight score of 2-1, while Hector fell to No. 35 FISTF ranked Richard Stolwijk of Holland by a score of 6-0.
In the team event the GTSA participated with 2 teams:
GTSA ?A? ? consisting of Alan Crisp (Captain), Guy Palmer, John Field and Lawrence Alvarez.
GTSA ?B? ? consisted of players Manuel Martinez (Captain), Hector Zammit, Herman Lopez, Chris and Mark Muscat.
The GTSA ?B? team had a very strong opposition falling to the top FISTF ranking team TFC Mattenburg (Austria) and to No. 17 Brussels SCA (Belgium).
The GTSA ?A? was more fortunate in passing the preliminary stages managing a 2 all draw against no. 54 FC Flanders (Belgium) and losing 3-1 to No.12 CCT Eagles Naples (Italy) who topped the Group.
In the 2nd round GTSA ?A? played the current European Champions CCT Black And Blue Pisa (Italy) ranked No. 3
In FISTF who proved to be too strong for the local players by winning 3-1.
Even though our local players did not reach the top positions in the tournament the GTSA has been highly recognized by the European Table Soccer circuit with the majority of teams and players.
Manuel Martinez GTSA President and Alan Crisp GTSA treasurer presented a crystal Rock Of Gibraltar plus a GTSA polo shirt on behalf of all the members to the President of FISTF Vincent Coppenolle (see photo) for supporting Gibraltar back as a full member nation in the FISTF family.
Manuel and Alan spoke to the FISTF President about future and current plans to make Gibraltar once again a top table soccer nation as were once in the past. Vincent gave us a warm welcome
and was very happy that Gibraltar was participating in the Mons tournament.
Manuel and Alan talked to all other Presidents and top players from Greece, Belgium, Holland, England, Austria, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Malta, Wales and Spain meeting some good old friends from Spain such as Juan Carlos Granados Real Murcia and Ferran Coll from Barcelona.
The previous mentioned Nations have all invited GTSA to participate in their own Majors and Gran Prix tournaments.
Results:
The Individual Final was won by Carlos Flores (Spain) Reggina.
The U19 Final was won by Juan Noguera (Spain) Real Murcia Team.
The Veterans was won by Di Francesco (Italy) Bolonia.
The U15 Final was won by Manganello (Italy) Perugia.
The U12 Haggenkotter (Germany), Ladies was won by F Guyot (France).
The team event was won Reggio Emilia (Italy).
In addition there were also further awards one went to V.Prats (Spain) Fairest Player and Piero Capponi won Best Promotion and Best Organized Tournament FISTF Masters Madrid.
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