All Ireland 2023
Table Football Championship
Ballymena - 30 September 2023
Great turnout in Ballymena
Twenty Subbuteo hopefuls from around Ireland decended on Ballymena Golf Club yesterday morning to slog it out for the title of "Irish Subbuteo Champion of 2023".
The competition was split into 4 groups of 5 with the top 2 moving into a quarter final knock out and the rest fighting it out for the shield.
The four seeded player had no problem advancing, but the eye catching "group of death" was group B with holder Mark Farrell pitched against Barry Spence, Mick O'Brien and Nicky Moore (all excellent players) and the lesser experienced Dee Jenkins making up the numbers.
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Ballymena Action
How it turned out
As expected all the seeded players got through comfortably to the knockout phase. Ernie and Daniel are two players that did well and joined the big boys in the last 8. One notable exception was Mick O'Brien who was the odd man out in the super tough group B. Mick made the most of missing out in the main tournament by winning the Shield competition against Eoin Adams in a very tight final that was won by the one goal in extra time. The main event looked to be heading the same way until Mark Farrell found a late winner against Kenny Beggs to claim another All Ireland in a super close final.
From a Tralee and Munster perspective we had three players making the trip to the north. Dave managed three wins and a plate semi final appearance. William met Jeff in the Shield barrage and pulled a goal back to force extra time and shots (winning eventually by the only goals). Once again this was an excellent learning curve for the three of us and is helping to improve our game.
Finally thanks to Kenny and Barry for hosting the event and making a fine job of it as well as Ballymena Golf Club for the venue.