The Warwick Gophers

The Warwick Gophers are the official team of the Table Football Society. We play against table football groups from across the country, including other universities and well established teams, with matches both home and away. The squad is very accessible to all members of the society (and has always contained first year students) as well as having great strength (first team never defeated in a home game) and depth (30 players competed in 06/07).

The BFA League

We have no less than four teams entered in the 2007 National League. The league has sixteen teams from across the country competing for the title of UK champions.

Friendly Matches

As well as our teams in the national league, we also play larger friendly matches. Each year Warwick and Oxford's top 8-10 players compete in the autumn, with Warwick winning in 2005 and 2006. Warwick's 2nd team also plays annually against the Chetwynd Arms, a local pub team.

Upcoming Matches

Completion of 2007 BFA National League Group Stages

Warwick 'A' vs. Oxford: November 2007

Warwick 'B' vs. Chetwynd Arms: November 2007

Recent Matches

Warwick's 1st team qualified for the quarter finals with convincing home-and-away victories over Oxford Town and Chetwynd B. Whether they come 1st or 2nd in the group will be decided by their final group match against the Bush.

The 2nd team qualified for the quarter finals in 2nd place in their group with a convincing 18-2 away win against Chetwynd A.

The 3rd team have not played many matches and their qualification hangs in the balance with an away match against Zeb Bar in October '07 looking to be decisive.

The 4th team lost all their games but gained valuable national experience.

Check out the 2007 National League Tables to see where each team stands.

Cotty Invitational 19 - 1 Warwick Gophers IV

Our fourth team, consisting mostly of freshers, were thrown in at the deep end with a game against Cotty Invitational, a very experienced team including the top two players in the UK rankings (Alex Shovelton and Rob Atha - one of the best few players in the world). The scoreline was not entirely unexpected, but the match was a great learning experience for a team consisting mainly of players who had not competed on a national level before. A win in the final game was a very welcome bonus and a great end to the match that allowed the team to finish in high spirits. Full results in the captain's match report.

Warwick Gophers A 16 - 9 Oxford

The standard of all the games was pretty impressive, and all were highly competitive: No pair on either side won or lost all of their games. In the end though, Warwick Gophers A triumphed very convincingly over Oxford, who have long been regarded as the best university in the country. Good performances all round meaning a great result in a match we weren't sure we'd win at all. Full results.

Chetwynd 21 - 15 Warwick Gophers B

It was a great game, as we knew it would be. We pulled off a respectable result considering over half the team had never played a match for us before. We're very pleased with how well our freshers performed, with many of them getting consistently good results against strong competition. Full results.

We lost 6-2. We were very very unlucky, and a bit rubbish at times...

Singles:

Mike A 2-1 Tom B (5-4, 1-5, 5-4)
Dave B 2-0 Dan K (5-1, 5-4)
Joe 2-0 Steve (5-3, 5-4)
Dave T 0-2 Tom H (2-5, 0-5)

Doubles:

Mike A / Dave T 2-0 Tom B / Dan K (5-3, 5-4)
Mike A / Dave T 2-0 Tom H / Steve (5-3, 5-4)
Joe / Dave B 2-0 Tom H / Steve (5-3, 5-4)
Joe / Dave B 1-2 Tom B / Dan K (5-3, 4-5, 3-5)

We generally didnt play very well and were also pretty unlucky managing to win only 1 sweat ball out of 8. A good win vs JH and DB on Tornado though (Dan fortunately started playing seriously in the 2nd set). TH won his singles and Tommy B & Dan won a game of double, leaving Steve with an impressive score that we'll let you work out yourselves.

Away: 1-7, Home: 4-4, Aggregate: 5-11

After a long journey culminating in a sight-seeing tour of Bristol's city centre (apparently a car-filled building site), the B team eventually found their way to The Bush to face up to Bristol's finest. Strong performances in the opening doubles games didn't translate into results on the unfamiliar table. The singles games were better, with both The Nubbert and Gerald taking their sets to a deciding game, Gerald just missing out on a win in his debut match on a deciding sweat ball. Harry finally woke up in the next doubles game as he and Gerald pulled back to three-all after being three-nil down, but the Tornado veterans dominated in the end. It was Way and Nubbert who, after some strong performances all-round, finally pulled of the win the team deserved in the last doubles game, ending the night on a high. A draw at home saw Warwick B exit the league at a respectable placing. Nobody on either team won or lost all of their games on the return leg, which shows how competitive it was.

Away: 2-6, Home: 7-1, Aggregate: 9-7

Following the 6-2 1st leg defeat three weeks ago, the A team had it all to do in this return leg if they were going to make it through to the league final, so all the players were extremely nervous, at least to begin with.

The Chetwynd fielded the same line-up that had been victorious in the first leg, but the A team understandably made some major changes. Out were young pretenders Sun-ho Kim and Joe Latimer, replacing them were the usual A team suspects Tom "mummy's boy" Hampson and Dan Kingston, returning from sprained wrist, and Folkestone, respectively.

Singles games were played first, and Warwick started well, Tom Burdett proving too good for Chaddon and delivering a comfortable win. Dan was taken to the wire but just edged it against an on-form Bill, in possibly the most important game of the evening. Hampo struggled for form but still overcame a fired up Patrick Dunleavy, whilst Steve struggled with nerves but beat Scott Walding; leaving the A team 4-0 going into the doubles games.

With the old partnership re-united, it was unlikely that Tom B and Dan were going to lose a game all night, and despite a few nervous moments under great pressure they managed to win both their doubles games, including the eventual winner.

The "dream team" pairing of Steve and Hampo started well enough, with Tom finding form at last and dominating Paddy and Chaddon for a comfortable victory. However, it seems his "injured" wrist couldn't endure much more snaking that night, and coupled with some inspired shooting from both Bill and Derek, the dream team succumbed to a 5-4 5-4 defeat, the only loss of the night.

With the final aggregate score at 9-7 in Warwick's favour, the A team now proceed to the final where they'll face either Warwick B or the Bush.

Thanks to the Chetwynd for a superb tie, it is always a pleasure to play them and a good time is always guaranteed. Hopefully next time the atmosphere will be much more relaxed!

To celebrate, everyone apart from under the thumb Hampo went to Evolve, including a rather intoxicated Adam Baker. Thus followed the "wine all over Steve's jeans/Tom's car incident", the obligitary "bottle smashing incident(s)", and Baker's disappearing act to hunt some unfortunate girls. All in all a good if rather tired night.