A great day’s play was enjoyed by thirteen players at the FISTF Los Angeles Open, and we very pleased to welcome Thomas and Trisha Baumeler from Switzerland, on tour in California for a month. Perhaps fate dictated that Trisha and Thomas met together in the quarter-finals in a very tight family affair, with Thomas finally just edging the tie on shots. In the final, USA no. 2 Dan Cranston could have hoped at half time that he had one hand on the title, as he raced into a 3-0 lead over Zach Walker. However, Zach showed yet again why currently his Subbuteo is a level apart in the USA, staging a 3-3 comeback with two minutes left, and scoring the winner five minutes into overtime. A great performance by both players. The event was competitive and intense, but there was no yelling every time a goal was scored (103 goals) and the games conducted in a sporting manner. Thanks to everyone for taking part, and especially to the USA players Dan Cranston, Erik Haefke and Zach Walker, who each travelled over 3000 miles or over 1000 miles to participate in this event and the ASA Nationals yesterday. 
We wish the event could have had more players. But in the USA (the third largest country in the world after Russia and Canada) we face enormous logistical issues in bringing together a substantial number of players from maybe 21 different playing States to play Subbuteo together. Playing maybe 5-6 games on American Nationals day can mean 1000-3000 miles of air and car rental travel for participants not living in the host state. These isolation issues compound when we (as we did this year) look at sending teams to the World Cup and Champions League, not just the travel it takes but the cost for individuals. The same can be said of playing Canada, Mexico or Brazil, something we’d love to do one day. In the future, sponsorship is the way to go. The potential here in the USA remains huge. And at ground level, we’d like to welcome a new player who has joined the Southern California Subbuteo League whilst visiting the Nationals this week-end, Damir Vranjes. Welcome Damir. (Report by Paul O’Donovan Rossa)
