National Events

The society is dedicated to catering to the needs of all members, including those who wish to perform at a national level. To that end, we subsidise transport costs for any of our members who wish to attend national tournaments. At any national tournament (including our own, the Warwick Open) participants gain points that determine their placing in a national ranking list. On the right is a list of the national ranks of our members who have attended national tournaments. Below are reports from some of the more recent tournaments we have attended, as well as information on any upcoming tournaments we expect to organise a trip to.

2009/10 events

Keele University Open, November

Both the prize money and expectations were high for this big Garlando tournament. On the day it was the Warwick amateurs who really stole the show. Ankush, at his first ever tournament, took first place in Amateur Singles and second in Amateur Doubles, on top of winning both Junior Singles and Doubles - an amazing haul! Those hacks aren't to be underestimated, that's for sure. That's not to say Warwick's higher ranked players came home empty handed: President Chris bagged first place in Pro Doubles, partnering Warwick alumnus Dan Kingston. This was proof that despite its 'top' players graduating, Warwick can still deliver in prestigious events - nice work!

2008/09 events

Oxford International Open, April

This highly anticipated event boasted perhaps the largest prize fund seen at a UK tournament since many of us first twisted the rods. Though out of term time, many warwickfoosers of all skill levels travelled down and saw some of their best results. The all-warwick Semi-Pro Doubles final was surely a highlight, with Colin Fallon and Luke Ashley winning out over Tom Hampson and Chris Haigh, though the grudge match OD loser's final of Tom Burdett and Mike Amsden against Steve Lyall and Rob Davey was an epic - made all the more sweeter for eventual winner Tom Burdett who for the first time triumphed in doubles against Rob Atha and Joe Hamilton. A long-awaited victory I'm sure he will be proud of. Congratulations also to Chris and Steve Lyall who pick up the wooden spoon award of worst Pro and Pro-Master in the singles respectively!

UKFP Tour Kick Off, Altrincham, February

This first experiment into the format of a tour of large tournaments was a critical success for all involved , proving to be cheap to enter and play in with lots of games for everyone. Chris Lyall and Rich Marsh were the Warwickfoos representative, camping down with the usual crowd to enjoy some much desired Tornado play. Chris Lyall had a good run in No-Pro Singles reaching 2nd, then teamed up with Oxfoos President Graeme Addison to take 2nd in the Ltd event. Steve Lyall took some impressive silverware with 3rd in Pro Singles, 2nd in Pro Doubles and 2nd in Mixed. Tom Burdett meanwhile took 2nd in OS and 2nd in OD.

Liverpool Open, January

The Liverpool tournaments in January have been many burgeoning Warwickite’s first forays into the game, and this one proved no exception. Warwick brought 13 people, comprising 3 newcomers – Rob Chesworth, Scott Spearman and OJ Hemmings – who all performed admirably. While flawed this time by the intolerant nature of any Riley’s establishment, this tournament had its ups and downs. Fortunately, much fun was had both playing table football and other typical Warwickfoos games. ‘I’m thinking of’, anyone?

TUKC, Bristol, November

The newly conceived Tornado UK Championships in Clevedon, near Bristol, proved a little too far for some, but not so for Josh Eilon, Rich Marsh and Chris Lyall who went in hoping for gold. Josh performed spectacularly to adapt to a table he’d never seen before at his first ever tournament, winning Beginner’s Doubles and coming 2nd in the Beginner’s DYP. Team Lyall’s first ever outing also met with some success with Steve and Chris finishing 5th in a very strong field but never losing heart along the way. Tom Burdett also scraped a large portion of the prize fund with 2 silvers and a bronze in 3 of the 4 major events. A brilliant tournament.

Reading Charity Tournament, October

The first tournament of the new season saw Chris Lyall, Rich Marsh, Christian Glaus and Luke Ashley head down to Reading for some Charity Tournament fun in the local shopping mall. Andrew Nubbert tore up OS to take the 12 bottles of wine while the younger Lyall managed to surge to his best ever OD performance finishing second with Mike Amsden after fighting through the loser’s bracket, but eventually losing to Tom Burdett and Jon May. Christian, Warwick’s newest and oldest foos prodigy took home the trophy in Amateur Singles. Meanwhile, the Lyall’s, Simon Yeung and Rich came 3rd in the Team Event. A great tournament for everyone involved!

2007/08 events

Roberto Sport World Championships, 12-14 September

Chris Lyall tore it up at the RS worlds and wrote a marvellous report, which you can read here.

Garlando World Championships, 23-27 July

Six Warwickfoosers made the trip to Vienna for the Worlds this year, joining up with the masses of UK players at the tournament. Our best result came courtesy of Tom Burdett who played with Rob Atha in Pro-Am and won the event! Coming first in an event at the worlds is something we could never have dreamed of until recently, another sign of Warwick's progress. In fact, in terms of results it was our best ever World Championships, with every Warwickite doing well in at least one event, and some of us representing the UK at the highest level.

UK Open, 4-6 July

We all endured the traffic-filled journey up to Bolton for the multi-table UK Open. Most of the weekend was spent trying to get to grips with the Roberto Sport table which was new to us - but we eventually pulled a good result out of the bag, with Tom and Steve coming second in Open Doubles behind Rob Atha and Joe. Luke also took home a trophy, coming second in No-Pro Singles. The results (or some of them anyway) are here.

Holywell III

Tom Burdett... er, I mean Warwickfoos put on another spectacular Holywell tournament in June. Mr. Burdett himself took home the most trophies, and surprised everyone by not coming second in anything - he won Open and Masters' Doubles with Joe Hamilton, and took third place in Masters' Singles. But the real story of the tournament was Dan Kingston and Thom Hampson, who (despite Thom not having been to a tournament in living memory) came second in OD, beating hordes of pros along the way. Great job! Full results here.

Oxford Open

Despite all the trains being cancelled, we managed to find our way to Oxford for the first Open in two years. And in the end we were glad we made it, especially Tom Burdett who finally won a trophy that he won't leave at the venue - First Place in Open Singles! Warwick now has two players who have won OS, as well as two who've won Open Doubles - there really is no bigger uni for foosball in the UK. Other trophy winners include Steve, who came 2nd in OD and 3rd in Masters' Doubles with Tom; Luke and Chris, who placed in both the semi-pro doubles events (2nd and 3rd in NPD and SPD respectively); and Dan T who came 3rd in Amateur Doubles with Tom Keevill. It was a very smoothly run tournament, and a welcome return of one of UK foos's most regular events. Check out the full results here.

Holywell Open

We are pleased to announce that the second Holywell Open was a massive success, thanks to all those who came, all those who helped organise it, and especially the Holywell pub for having us! There were lots of trophies for Warwickites all round, with Tom Burdett walking away with the most, a total of 4. (2nd in Masters and Open; Singles and Doubles.) Steve Lyall grabbed 2 (2nd in OD and MD), while Rich walked away with 1st in Semi-Pro Singles. Elliot Cole won second in Amateur Singles, and Dan Tipton was the Warwick half of the Amateur Doubles winning team alongside Tom Keevill. Team Chris (Lyall and Haigh) came second in Semi-Pro Doubles, and finally our own Holywell singles champ Andrew Nubbert came a respectible third in Masters Doubles. An impressive trophy count in a strong field consisting of 9 of the UKs top 10 players! Other highlights included of 4-Ball-Roller-Roto on saturday evening, (coming soon to a tournament near you!) and watching the UK #1 play. Bring on the next one, as we all practise 2-Bar Pull Shots so we can be like Rob Atha!

Liverpool Open, 25-27 January

The second Liverpool Open was far bigger than the first, taking place over 2 days. And it was a great weekend, full of frantic action and little sleep (probably something to do with the alarm clocks we kept finding in our room). There were plenty of criminally under-ranked European players in the running for the major trophies - but that didn't discourage the all-Warwick team of Tom Burdett and Steve Lyall, who went all the way to win Open Doubles for the second Garlando tournament in a row! It's a fantastic win and proves just how good Warwick players (or two of them, at least) have become. They weren't the only Warwickites to win an event - Nik Doran and Dan Tipton won Novice Doubles at their first full tournament. Congrats, guys. The full results are here.

Manchester Tornado Open (November 2007)

After a late start, the first Manchester Open finally got under way - and it turned out to be a cracker. Tom Burdett, celebrating his last ever tournament of being under-ranked. kicked things off by winning the Friday DYP and never looked back from there: he came second in Open Singles, only losing to Rob Atha, and third in Open Doubles. He also won Semi-Pro Doubles with Rob Davey, and breezed through to first place in Semi-Pro Singles. Not bad for a weekend's work, eh? Steve, our other Garlando Pro-Master, was also proving his worth as he came an excellent 5th in both Open events. With plenty of events for us all and an excellent venue, Manchester was a great tournament - bring on the next one!

The Holywell Open (November 2007)

The first tournament organised by Warwick at the new venue of Holywell was a huge success: despite only having short notice, around 70 people turned up for the event. On the day, Nubbert made history by winning Open Singles and becoming the first ever Warwick player to win an open event; he was followed seconds later by Tom and Steve who won Open Doubles. This was a massive triumph for Warwick and we can't wait to hold more tournaments at Holywell, so look out for news of another one in February. Full results are here.

UK Masters (September 2007)

A bunch of Warwick foosers headed up the M6 for the UK Masters at the Floatel in Northwich. Many tales had been told of the previous Floatel's antics and late-night victimisation of Nubbert, so expectations were high. And it was another fantastic tournament - although a lot quieter for Nub, mostly because Dan wasn't there. Tommy B tore it up in the open events, coming 4th in Singles and 2nd with Dave Bareham in Doubles. He also came 2nd in Semi-Pro Singles and 1st in Semi-Pro Doubles... and to think that this time last year he was a Rookie on Tornado tables. An all-Warwick pair - Nubbert and Luke - also took first place in Rookie Doubles. In fact, with every Warwickite taking home a trophy, this was one of the most successful Tornado tournaments ever for us. Bring on the next tournament! Full results.

2006/07 events

Bristol Open and UK Championships (July 2007)

Just a week after the end of term, our foos-hungry members couldn't wait any longer to play competitive table football, and we made the trek to Bristol for the UK Championships and Bristol Open. The venue was excellent, the Foos4Fun Tornado tables were all flawless, and we didn't do so badly in the results either. It was a sign of how good Warwick's players have become that we had three entrants - Tom, Steve and Dan - in the ultra-exclusive UK Champs, where the winners would able to compete in the World Championships in Italy. Out of those three Tom came the closest to winning, as he and Mike Amsden came third in doubles, beating UK number two Alex Shovelton and his partner Jon May along the way. In the Bristol Open, Nubbert took advantage of the super-slow Tornado ranking system to storm the Rookie events: he won Rookie Doubles with Sun, and he went all the way to the final of Rookie Singles where he was soundly thrashed by Sarah Brice.

Hereford Open (April 2007)

To kick off Term 3 in style, some of us headed to the Hereford Open for a frantic weekend of under-ranked Tornado fun. Tommy B made the most of his last tournament as a Rookie by winning three events including Rookie Doubles with Rob Davey, and Pro-Am where he teamed up with pro-master Juj to make the most ridiculous Pro-Am team ever. He also won his ranked singles event, but in Open Singles he wasn't Warwick's top performer - that accolade goes to Dan who came 4th, beating both the Shoveltons on the way. Full results.

Southern England Open (February 2007)

There are more Tornado tournaments than ever this year, and the first one was at the Griffin in Southampton this February. Despite being away from our home table, Warwick foosers still did well and brought home a bunch of trophies. Tom Burdett had a blinder of a tournament - he negotiated his way through a tough Open Singles group containing Rob Atha, and then went all the way to the final where he met Rob again. In Rookie Doubles, he teamed up with Rob Davey and took 1st place, with all-Warwick pair Steve and James in second. Tom and Steve also came a very impressive third in Open Doubles, the highest rookie pairing by some distance. The full results can be found here.

Liverpool Open (January 2007)

Spring 2007 was a busy time for Warwickfoos, and it all kicked off on January 27th with the first ever Liverpool Open, organised by Boris Atha. In terms of numbers, Warwick dominated the event, having sent a convoy of about 15 foosers up the M6. In the end it turned out that our freshers were the most successful of all of us, managing three of the top four places in Novice Doubles including first place for Rich and Colin. Nubbert and Way also did well: they came second in Semi-Pro Doubles, only beaten by the Pfiffners who sneaked into the event despite being pros. Tom "over-ranked" Burdett was Warwick's highest placed fooser in the open events, and he also won the Friday DYP despite being paired with Phil. Other highlights include the abundance of all-Warwick matches (notably Dan and Phil's marathon game in singles and Steve and Dan losing to Rich and Colin in open doubles) and Dan terrorising Nubbert in the hotel room. All in all it was a well-run event, and an excellent first tournament for our large contingent of novices. Full results can be found on the britfoos forum.