SEASON 2007/08

Beggs Wins Belfast International Open 11th May 2008
Kenny Beggs beat England's Andrew Hillerby 4-2 in the International Open Final and also won the Veterans, topping a round-robin group of four. Veteran runner-up was Nicky Moore from Republic of Ireland. Paul Lawrenson won the Plate. Full Results | Photos

Belfast International Open Final: Hillerby 2 Beggs 4

Burns Wins Belfast Grand Prix 10th May 2008
Scotland's Mike Burns beat home player, Kenny Beggs, in the Belfast GP Final at Park Avenue Hotel. It is becoming a successful venue for Burns, who also won last season's UK & Ireland Internationals there. Nicky Moore won the Veterans with a 2-1 Final victory over Richard Pepper. Andrew Morrison beat Peter Morrison in the U19 Final and Barry Spence won the Plate. Team Winners were Yorkshire Phoenix, who beat Irish Premier League 2-1 in the Final. Full Results | Photos

Mike Burns, GP Winner

Andrew Morrison, U19 Winner

Belfast GP Final: Burns 1 Beggs 0

Belfast GP Veteran Final: N.Moore 2 R.Pepper 1

Yorkshire Phoenix, Team Winners at Belfast GP

Alistair Wins Latest Barbarians Meeting 5th May 2008
Alistair Morrison won the 8th Ladder of the season, pipping Davy Clegg on goal difference. Results

Alistair Morrison

Yorkshire Phoenix League 12th April 2008
Stuart Mcilroy and Eoin Adams were in action at the final Yorkshire Meeting of the season. Stuart reached the final of the Merfox Challenge Cup, losing 0-3 to Superleague Champion, Craig Heward. Eoin didn't take part in the Cup as he had a backlog of league fixtures to play. He produced the shock of the day in his last match, beating Martin Hodds 3-2, to clinch his only league victory of the season. This also did his fellow countryman, Kenny Beggs, a favour by ensuring that Hodds cannot catch Beggs in the race for 2nd place in the Superleague. Results

Stuart Mcilroy, Runner-up in Yorkshire's Merfox Challenge Cup

Belfast Barbarians 7th April 2008, 7:30pm
Fourteen players took part in the Barbarians' 7th Ladder of the season, with Robert Nimmon making a debut appearance. Results

Amsterdam Grand Prix 5th/6th April 2008
Northern Ireland's Eoin Adams and Stuart Mcilroy played in the team event at the Amsterdam Grand Prix, representing Yorkshire Phoenix. They drew with Stembert 'B' but lost to Falcons Athens and Rijnmond, so did not qualify from the group. Team Results

Milton Keynes International Open 29th/30th March 2008
Two Northern Ireland players took part in the Milton Keynes International Open. Kenny Beggs and Stuart Mcilroy were both eliminated from their Group in the Open. They fared better in the team event, however, helping Yorkshire Phoenix to reach the semi-final before going down 1-3 to Olympia of Greece.
Yorkshire Team Results | Full Results

Mike Burns 2 Kenny Beggs 1

Martin Hodds Visits Ballyclare 11th March 2008
Yorkshire player, Martin Hodds, was in Northern Ireland on business but he also had time to take part in a friendly tournament with Kenny Beggs and Joe McRoberts in Ballyclare. Results

Martin Hodds v Joe McRoberts in Ballyclare

Belfast Barbarians 10th March 2008
Another good turnout of 13 players for the Barbarians' 6th Ladder. Some new teams, purchased from Subbuteoworld, also made their debut. These will be used to lend to newcomers who don't have their own team.

Yorkshire Phoenix League 1st March 2008
Stuart McIlroy played two more matches in Yorkshire Phoenix Superleague. He ended the day in 5th place after drawing 0-0 with Paul Lawrenson & losing 0-3 to newly crowned Champion, Craig Heward. Kenny Beggs & Eoin Adams were not at the latest meeting. Kenny is currently 3rd but can finish 2nd if he wins his remaining two fixtures. Eoin is bottom, needing to win his last five matches to stand any chance of avoiding relegation. Results & Table

Mcilroy Helps Yorkshire Qualify for Europa Cup 16th Feb 2008

Northern Ireland's Stuart Mcilroy was part of the Yorkshire Phoenix team which played in the English Club Championships at Huntingdon. They finished 3rd, which was good enough to qualify for the 2008 Europa Cup in Manchester next October. Results

Large Barbarians Turnout 11th Feb 2008
There were 16 players at Belfast Barbarians' 5th Ladder of the season. Kenny Beggs won, Barry Spence was 2nd & Peter Morrison 3rd. Results

Paris International Open 2nd/3rd Feb 2008
Northern Ireland had two representatives in Paris but they were both knocked out at the group stage. Kenny Beggs lost 1-2 to Gorgette of France and by the same scoreline against Norway's Jon Henning Bergane, while Eoin Adams lost 1-5 to Pawlica (Austria), 1-5 to David Leroy (Belgium) & 0-3 to Boutrin (France). Eric Verhagen beat Gil Delogne 2-0 in the final.

Kenny and Eoin also played in the team event for Yorkshire Phoenix but their team was beaten by Norwegian club, Skien Wildcats (1-2) and by eventual tournament winners, Charleroi of Belgium (0-4). Results | Photos

Paris Team Event - Skien v Yorkshire: Pederson 0 Beggs 3

Rodgers on Form at Barbarians 14th Jan 2008
It was a good night for Stephen Rodgers at Belfast Barbarians. He won three matches and drew one to top the 4th Ladder of the season, just ahead of Joe McRoberts on goal-difference.

Stephen Rodgers

Manchester Grand Prix 12th/13th Jan 2008
Eoin Adams was the only Northern Ireland player in the Individual Open. He lost 2-7 to David Fraikin of Belgium, 0-2 to Scottish player, Kevin Christopher and beat Italy's Alessandro Zanini 1-0. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough for him to progress from his group. Spain's Carlos Flores beat Dutchman, Eric Verhagen, 3-2, in the Final. Individual Results

Trevor Cummings made an appearance in the Team Event for Yorkshire Phoenix and won all three of his matches, although the team did not qualify from the group following 1-3 defeats to Bologna and Hitdorf and a 2-2 draw with Hot Club. Team Results

There was an exciting climax to the Team Final when Hennuyer beat Bologna 2-1 after extra time. Nathan Dupont thought he had hit the winner for Hennuyer with less than a minute remaining but Loureiro scored in the last second of his match to take the final into extra time. Chris Agellinas scored the golden goal against Croatti to give Hennuyer victory. The action was reported as it unfolded via the nitfa live update service.

Beggs Wins Dunmurry Open 8th Dec 2007
Kenny Beggs beat Barry Spence 1-0 in a hard-fought final, scoring the only goal early in the 2nd Half. Barry pressurised for the remainder of the game but was unable to take advantage of several clear-cut opportunities. Joe McRoberts took 3rd place with a shoot-out victory over Yorkshire's Martin Hodds, following an entertaining 3-3 draw. Results

Open Final: Spence 0 Beggs 1

3rd/4th Play-off: McRoberts 3 Hodds 3 (shots: 1-0)

Andrew Morrison won the Under-19s, beating his brother,Peter, 3-2 in a shoot-out after a scoreless draw. Adam Scullion beat Judith Morrison 1-0 in the Under-15 Final, while Eoin Adams beat Alistair Morrison in the Plate Final.

Under 19 Final: Andrew Morrison tees up for the shoot-out

Fourteen players took part in the Open. There was no seeding and we experimented with a different format. The 1st Round consisted of 4 groups, with the top two players in each group progressing to the 2nd Round. Instead of the usual knockout stages commencing, however, there were two more groups. The top two players in these groups went through to the semi-finals.

The Plate was played to a similar format and eliminated players then played-off to determine overall position.

The new nitfa live update service was in operation for the first time.

Barbarians Christmas Cheer 3rd Dec 2007
Everyone enjoyed some seasonal food and drink in between matches, with it being the last meeting before Christmas. Kenny Beggs finished top with maximum points. Andrew Morrison was 2nd and Eoin Adams 3rd. Results

Yorkshire Open 1st Dec 2007
Two Northern Ireland players, Eoin Adams & Stuart Mcilroy, took part and ended up in the same group, along with Martin Hodds & Marcus Townsend. Stuart topped the group but lost to Simon Bryan in the next round (quarter-finals). Eoin finished 3rd in the group, so did not qualify. England's Mike Parnaby beat Simon Bryan 4-1 in the final. Results

Success for Hodds in Belfast 19th Nov 2007
Yorkshire's Martin Hodds, making a guest appearance at Belfast Barbarians, while in the city on business, won the club's 2nd Ladder of the season. Results

Andrew Morrison v Martin Hodds during Belfast Barbarians meeting

Yorkshire Phoenix League 17th Nov 2007
Kenny, Stuart and Eoin were in Premier League action again at Yorkshire. Kenny made up for his bad start to the season with four victories and two draws to overtake Stuart at the top of the table. Eoin is bottom after suffering five defeats. League Table

Northern Ireland Players at Europa Cup 27th/28th Oct 2007
Three Northern Ireland players flew to Athens to play in the 2007 Europa Cup, table football's top club championship. Kenny Beggs, Stuart Mcilroy & Eoin Adams were representing Yorkshire Phoenix, whose highlight was beating Cardiff Bluebirds in the 'Battle of Britain' which effectively condemned the Welsh team to last place.
Yorkshire Website Report | Photos | Results

Yorkshire victorious after beating Cardiff

Record Barbarians Attendance 1st Oct 2007
A record number of 14 players turned up for the first meeting of the season at Belfast Barbarians' new venue in Kingsway Church, Dunmurry. Eight of those were from the Morrison contingent and Nicky Moore again travelled up from Republic of Ireland.
Results | Championship Table

Andrew Morrison U19 Champion
The U19 Final of the 2007 National Championships (outstanding since August) was also played at the Babarians' meeting. Andrew Morrison beat his brother, Peter Morrison 2-1.

Stuart Tops Yorkshire Premier League 22nd Sept 2007

Stuart Mcilroy 1 Richard Pepper 0

Northern Ireland's Stuart Mcilroy got off to a good start in the Yorkshire Phoenix Premier League. Despite losing 0-1 to Martin Hodds, he finished the day at the top of the table following a 4-1 victory over Paul Lawrenson, a 1-0 win against Richard Pepper and a 0-0 draw with fellow countryman, Kenny Beggs. Kenny did not fare so well, only picking up one more point in a 3-3 draw with Martin Hodds. He lost his remaining matches to Richard Pepper and Paul Lawrenson, both on a 1-2 scoreline. Trevor Cummings and Eoin Adams, the other Northern Irish players in the highly competitive league, were not in action today. Photos

Barbarians Open New Venue 10th Sept 2007
Belfast Barbarians have had a change of venue, due to rising costs at Dunmurry Presbyterian, where the club has had four good years thanks to Barry Spence. The new premises are still in Dunmurry, with Stephen Rodgers offering the Halls of King's Way Church, where he is a Pastor. Stephen officially opened the new venue with a couple of friendly matches against Kenny Beggs.

Stephen & Kenny played first matches at King's Way

Other Club News
North Down Subbuteo League should be back in action this season, following a year's break. There has been no activity in Bangor for a while, though, so it looks like that club has folded.

Italy Win World Cup 1st/2nd Sept 2007
The FISTF World Cup took place in Les Herbiers with players coming from 14 countries, although none from Northern Ireland.

Daniele Bertelli of Italy won the open title after he beat the surprising finalist from England, Kasper Bennett. Last year's champion Efrem Intra and Christos Rikos of Greece reached the semis. In the other categories, Renzo Frignani of Italy won the veterans title after he beat Erich Hinkelmann in the final while Stefano Buono beat Arnaud Nullens in a repeat of last year's U19 final. Ruben Português of Portugal beat Bjorn Kegenbein in the U15 section while François Guyot beat Jessica Hardenne on shots in the ladies final.

Finally, Matthew Pace of Malta won the unofficial U12 title after he beat Mitchell Timmers (the Netherlands) in the final of a tournament played by 24 kids.

Here are the results of the team finals:
Open: Italy beat malta
U19: Spain beat Belgium
U15: Italy beat Belgium
Ladies: Belgium beat France
Veterans: Italy beat Spain (golden goal)
U12 (unofficial): Italy A beat Italy B