Sportmaster tour

15.11.2008

Kosice Open

			I	II	III	IV	V
Finals	Blaško Imrich	- Papp (HUN) Magor	4:5	3:1	3:0	6:1
Semifinals	Ramšak Miroslav	- Blaško Imrich	3:4	2:3 P	2:3
Semifinals	Papp (HUN) Magor	- Axelson (DAN) Bjarne	4:0	1:3	4:2	2:8	4:2
3rd	Ramšak Miroslav	- Axelson (DAN) Bjarne	2:1	1:4	0:1	3:1	2:4
Quarterfinals	Ramšak Miroslav	- Valachovič Martin	2:1	5:1	5:1
Quarterfinals	Hudec Tomáš	- Blaško Imrich	3:4 P	4:5	5:6 P
Quarterfinals	Petrek Jaroslav	- Papp (HUN) Magor	2:3	0:5	3:1	3:4
Quarterfinals	Hudec Karol	- Axelson (DAN) Bjarne	1:2 P	2:3	0:1
1/8 finals	Ramšak Miroslav	- Rjavec (SLO) Bernard	5:2	2:1	4:0
1/8 finals	Valachovič Martin	- Čmil Ľubomír	1:3	6:1	3:2 P	7:3
1/8 finals	Miženko Tomáš	- Hudec Tomáš	1:0	2:3 P	3:2	4:5	1:3
1/8 finals	Blaško Imrich	- Vépy, ml. Martin	4:2	0:4	8:1	4:1
1/8 finals	Petrek Jaroslav	- Pancák Michal	3:2	3:1	3:1
1/8 finals	Valachovič Tibor	- Papp (HUN) Magor	2:3 P	2:5	4:6
1/8 finals	Hudec Karol	- Zamutovský Tomáš	5:1	2:6	1:4	3:2 P	5:4 P
1/8 finals	Axelson (DAN) Bjarne	- Nejc (SLO) Skrlep	2:3	3:1	2:1 P	1:2 P	3:2

18.10.2008

European Sportmaster Challenge Tour 2008/2009 was started in Wilhelmshaven in Germany where the World Championships 1999 were played.
The defending Euro Tour-champion Bjarne Axelsen from Fremad Eagles in Denmark won against the well-playing Gerrit Janssen from Schlicktown Boyz Wilhelmshaven in Germnay while the bronze medal was won by Rene Box Albers from VfP Friesland.
The best junior in the tournament was Nicolai Dahl Jeppesen from Fremad Eagles in Denmark who ended as no. 7.

B.Axelsen

09.09.2008.

New seazon 2008/2009

18th of October 2008: Friesen Cup,Wilhelmshaven
15th of November 2008: Kosice Open, Kosice
8th of March 2009: Swiss Sportmaster Stop, Bern
11th of April 2009: Danish Open 2009, Brřnderslev
2nd of May 2009: SM tour, Sevnica
3rd of May:-Croatia

16.03.2008.

Danish Open 2008

22 players from Denmark participated in Danish Open 2008 in Brřnderslev.
The tournament was won by Bjarne Axelsen who beated Anette Engel in the final.
The results from the final were 4-1, 5-1, 3-1 and 4-3 postponed.

In the semifinal Bjarne Axelsen played against one of the coming stars of danish tablehockey Nico Lyksholm - 13 years old - and had some difficulties but won with 3-1, 3-0, 4-3, 3-4 and 6-1.
Nico Lyksholm though won the junior competition in Danish Open 2008.
Anette Engel managed to win her semifinal against Anders Dodensig with 2-0, 8-0, 1-4, 4-0 and 1-0.

The biggest surprise in the quarterfinals was that Nico Lyksholm beated the danish veteran champion Kenneth Nielsen with a secure 4-0 in matches.
Kenneth Nielsen was very understandable a bit chocked and surprised.
After the tournament the danish players continued the tablehockey fiesta with food and drink!

B.Axelsen

02.02.2008.

Bembel Cup 2008

The European Sportmaster Challenge Tour were played this weekend in
Frankfurt, Germany.
The 24 players from 6 countries (Germany,Chile, Austria, Denmark, Sweden,
and Kasakhstan) played a double Round Robin - that means 46
matches - before the 16 best players promoted to the 1/8-finals.

Here there were only one small surprize when no. 9 from Round Robin the
Vladimir Vedernikov beated Eike Rompa from Germany in the 5th and
deciding match.

In the quarterfinals there were no surprizes but some tough matches between
Anette Engel from Denmark and the 5-doubled German Champion Joachim Klang
where the latter won.

In the semifinals Bjarne Axelsen beated Joachim Klang 3-0 in matches but was
in the first match unlucky to damage one of the fingers at the game which
made a lot of blood at the game.
In the other semifinal Tim Tigges won in sudden victory in the 5th and
deciding match against his fellow countryman Frank Bruneske.

In this way Tim Tigges won his first European Sportmaster Tournament and it
was also the first victory ever to a german player.
Bjarne Axelsen got his 4th silvermedal in the European Sportmaster Tour
history while the well playing Frank Bruneske got a very deserved bronce
medal.

The tournament was tough with 46 matches before play off.
It was the 2nd time Germany arranged a tournament at the European
Sportmaster Tour.

B.Axelsen

12.01.2008.

Swiss Sportmaster Stop 2008

A new clash between Vaclav Pikl from Czech Republic and Bjarne Axelsen from
Denmark was the final in Swiss Sportmaster Stop 2008.
In contradiction to Orczy Open 2007 in Budapest, Hungary where Vaclav Pikl
won this time Bjarne Axelsen gained the victory.
The final was won with 1-3, 1-2sv, 1-0, 5-3, 3-2sv, 2-6 and 1-0.
Rolf Locher came 3rd with a fantastic well-played tournament.
He beated his fellow countryman from Switzerland Etienne Flore in the small
final 3-1.
In the semifinals Pikl won 4-0 against Rolf Locher while Bjarne Axelsen won
4-2 against Etienne Flore.
Michael Toft Nielsen from Denmark came 5th while number 3 from Round Robin
Christoph Blatti from Switzerland got a fine placement as number 6.
A total number of 18 players from 3 countries participated in the
tournament.
The tournament was very well organized by some hardworking swiss organizers.

B.Axelsen

17.11.2007.

Orczy Open 2007

Orczy Open 2007 in Hungary was a fabulous tournament and well arranged once again by the hungarian organizers.

The drama from Slovenia and Croatia continued.

This time the dramas were first of all in the 1/8-finals between Kristijan Curkovic from Croatia and Balint Nagy from Hungary and in the quarterfinals between Tomas Hudec from Slovakia and Bjarne Axelsen from Denmark.

In the 1/8-finals Kristijan and Balint had to go into the very desciding 7th match in order to find a winner and here Kristijan managed to get a revenche from the defeat by Balint Nagy in the semifinals three weeks ago in Zagreb Open 2007 by winning this match 4-2, 1-3, 3-2 postponed, 4-3 postponed, 1-2, 1-2 and 3-1.

In the next drama between the slovak Tomas Hudec and the dane Bjarne Axelsen the audience had to use the pills when reaching the sudden victory in the 7th and deciding match.
All the matches were extremely tactical played and both players demonstrated good skills in the defense - though the offense struggled quite much in some periods of the matches.

Bjarne Axelsen won 2-4, 1-0, 3-2 postponed, 0-1, 3-1, 1-2 and 3-2 postponed after 10 minutes of sudden victory.
None of these players deserved to loose but so it is in play off.
In the semifinals the later winner Vaclav Pikl from Czech Republic managed to beat Karol Hudec from Slovakia with 2-1 postponed, 4-0, 4-3 postponed and 6-2.
Bjarne Axelsen also managed to win through 4 matches with 5-2, 3-2 postponed, 2-1 postponed and 2-1.

In the final Vaclav Pikl was the best player and won 3-2, 4-2, 2-1, 2-3 postponed and 4-3 postponed.

In the bronce match Gergely Regula from Hungary beated Karol Hudec from Slovakia with 3-2 in matches.

To complete the top 5 with players from 5 different countries Kristijan Curkovic from Croatia came 5th.

Köszönöm szepen and welcome to the Sportmaster Tour to the hungarian hosts of WC2009.

B.Axelsen

27.10.2007.

The Adriatic Weekend

The first Adriatic Weekend ever was played the 27th and 28th of October 2007 in Kranj Slovenia and Zagreb Croatia.
Two very well organized tournaments by the Slovenian and Croatian tablehockey federations.

Slovenia Open ended up with a slovenian-danish clash between Bernard Rjavec and Bjarne Axelsen in the final.
Here Bernard won after 5 exciting matches and 10 minutes of sudden victory in the deciding match where Bernard made the deciding goal.
Though both these players struggled to go that far in the tournament.
Already in the 1/8-finals Bernard and Bjarne had to fight to the last second in the last match in order to beat the well-playing Marko Curkovic from Croatia and Tim Weisseisen from Slovenia.
Bernard and Bjarne both scored the deciding goal in the last second.
That also happened for Anette Engel who made the sensation and beated one of the favourites Nejc Skrlep from Slovenia in the 1/8-finals on a deciding 5-4 goal in the last second.
Besides Anette Engel the hungarian Barnabas Parkanszki did a great surprise in the tournament.
He finished 4th though with a loose to Kristijan Curkovic from Croatia in the match about the bronce medal.

28.10.2007.

The day after in Zagreb Open 2007 the hungarians made their revenche.
Magor Papp and Balint Nagy ended up in the final where Balint had a 4-0 in hand around one minute before the end of the deciding match but Magor managed to come back and took the blue trophy with a 5-4 victory after sudden victory.

Here Bjarne Axelsen took the bronce medal by beatening Kristijan Curkovic in their 4th play off series throughout the last 9 months.
Kristijan won the first match with a secure 7-3 but after that Bjarne managed to stop his clashing centermove.

Also here the drama was already in the 1/8-finals where the silvermedalist Balint Nagy struggled by beatening Marko Curkovic and only succeeded after 5 matches like Uros Matanovic - the young slovenian star - also did to Barnabas Parkanszki from Hungary.

In total Bjarne Axelsen won the Adriatic Weekend with 1 silver and 1 bronze while Bernard Rjavec finished 2nd in this competition with gold from Slovenia and the 5th position from Podsused near by Zagreb.

All the participants from Slovenia, Croatia, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary and Denmark enjoyed the fantastic dramas and exitement which was made by an extremely living audience which transformed this to not just some great matches but also into great matches with top sport atmosphere and pressure.
Though all the participating countries demonstrated abilities to shout with words as "Igra", "Sadan", "Igen" and "Cüplik"

B.Axelsen

Alfred Hitchcock seems to have been on holidays in Slovenia and Croatia this weekend. Otherwise I can’t explain the highly dramatic final series of the two starting tournaments from the 2. Sportmaster Challenge Tour. Both at the Slovenian Open in Kranj on Saturday, October 27th and at the Zagreb Open in Croatia on Sunday, October 28th the final had to be settled in the Sudden Death of the 5th and deciding game. These two incredible showdowns were the well-deserved earnings for the organisators of the tournaments. At both venues everything was exemplary well organised: a tight schedule with no delays, games in good condition, free refreshments and snacks, beautiful prices … Thank you very much for the professional work! Both tournaments were also stamped by a top-class and well-balanced field of participants from 5 European countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Denmark, Hungary, Switzerland). Nearly anybody could beat anybody.and with this precondition the spirit of the Sportmaster Challenge Tour gets stronger and stronger.

The main roles in the Slovenian thriller got the two overall winners of the first Sportmaster Challenge Tour. Bernard Rjavec from Slovenia succeeded at his home tournament to bring Bjarne Axelsen from Denmark temporarily down from the Sportmaster throne. The third place was catched by Kristijan Curkovic from Croatia, who won the small final against the Hungarian player Barnabas Parkanszki. A sensational 5th place resulted for the best female player Anette Engel from Denmark.

Anybody who was close to a heart attack already in Kranj shouldn’t have come to the final in Zagreb. What dramatics, what emotions!!! The two Hungarian players Magor Papp and Balint Nagy played the 5th and deciding final match. After 4 minutes everything seemed to be settled: Balint was leading 4:0 and nobody would have bet a Kuna on Magor. But in table hockey everything seems possible with will power and Magor succeded to score the 4:4 two seconds before the end and he also shot the winning goal in the following Sudden Death. Unbelievable!!! The third place was occupied by Bjarne Axelsen who also won the weekend-trophy and regained the first place in the overall ranking of Sportmaster tour. Kristijan Curkovic lost the small final and got the 4th place.

Congratulations to all the winners! Next Sportmaster Tournament will be held on November 17th in Budapest, Hungary and I am sure that we can expect another dramatic tournament …

The capital of Croatia - Zagreb hosted the first big international tournament ever. Organizers did a really good job and showed everyone that in the future they will be capable to host even bigger tournaments.

Summer Cup 2007 surely deserved this name, but refreshments helped in this way that it was hot just behind the tables.

In the last Sportmaster Tour tournament in this season 23 players from 5 countries participated. In basic group Nejc Skrlep and Bjarne Axelsen finished in the forefront, the third was Jari Sahlgren and the fourth Kristijan Curkovic. The places from 5 to 8 were occupied by players from Slovenia, meanwhile Vjekoslav Kufrin was really so close to the play off.

The first season of Sportmaster Tour was really successful (134 players from 14 countries participated) and I hope that every year will be even better and better, so see you in the next season when Austria and Hungary will be also organising a tournament!

The tournament was played in Bronderslevhallen with a new clash between Denmark and Switzerland in the finals.
Bjarne Axelsen won against Rolf Locher with 4-0, 4-0, 5-0 and 4-1.
Rolf Locher won in the semifinal against the huge female surprise Anette Engel with 2-1, 2-0, 4-2 and 2-1.
In the quarterfinal Rolf won against the danish junior talent Mathias Langbak, who won the juniorfinal against Berthram Jellesen in Sportmaster Easter Cup 2007.
Rolf won a very exciting quarterfinal with 5-1, 0-2, 4-3, 1-2, 2-1 postponed and finally 4-2.
Bjarne Axelsen won against Peter Orum in the semifinals and against the danish veteranchampion Kenneth Nielsen in the quarterfinals.

Despite the fact that Kristijan Curkovic took part in his first table hockey tournament as recently as May 2006, he showed the immense talent which makes him Croatia's top-ranked player as he beat Bjarne Axelson in an exciting 7-match final to win the Bembel Cup 2007, the 3rd tournament in the Sportmaster Tour 2006/2007. Earlier, Kristijan also provided one of the tournament's other highlights in a closely-fought 5-match "Curkovic duel" against his brother Marko. Onlookers couldn't help but agree that Croatia is now becoming a force to be reckoned with on the international arena.

Bernard Rjavec from Slovenia also maintained his strong Sportmaster campaign in securing 3rd place by overcoming the best-performing German player, the mighty Tim Tigges.

In the strong Swiss contingent, it was Etienne Flore who did the most to stay in the running, as he finished a respectable 4th, which keeps him in touch with the top of the Sportmaster table.

The German organisers did a fantastic job, and the tournament was a highly successful and entertaining affair. While experienced international players from a large number of different nations competed, there were also a large number of enthusiastic beginners from throughout Germany, which was a very encouraging sign for the German scene.

Swiss Open 2007 which was the 2nd part of Sportmaster Tour 2006/2007 was won by Bjarne Axelsen from Fremad Eagles and Denmark.
In the final he beated Etienne Flore from Switzerland with 4-3 sudden victory, 2-0 and 5-1.
Etienne Flore did in his semifinal win against Bernard Rjavec from Slovenia, who took the bronce medal, after a lead to Bernard after the first two matches but Etienne demonstrated excellent technical tablehockey and did the impossible thing and turned the situation.
In the last match he won with 6-0.
Bjarne Axelsen got a revenche from Lützelflüh Open 2006 and won against the 10 times national champion from Switzerland Jean Claude Klaus from Fribourg in their semifinal.

There were also some quite surprizing players in Swiss Open 2007.
Antoine Schott from Switzerland played excellent and gained the 5th position beatening another big surprise and the best lady in the tournament Anette Engel from Denmark who then came 6.
Though the organizer Rolf Pöch Locher, who managed to arrange a tremendous tournament on tables with excellent surfaces, though also played very well indeed.
He came 8 after loosing to the new leading player of Sportmaster Tour Bernard Rjavec from Slovenia only after 5 tough matches in the quarterfinals.
Number 7 was a coming man in tablehockey in Switzerland Claudio Brandellero.

But in the quarter finals, B. Rjavec made the game more interesting by winning over one of the major favourites of the tour, Nejc Skrlep, and thus he came to semi finals.
A Hungarian Magor Papp won in the finals and so became the first winner of the both Slovenia Open and the first Sportmaster tournament.
The Hungarian success was also confirmed by B. Nagy who won the third place.
The best Slovenian player was Jaka Skrlep and he also was the only Slovenian with a medal (silver).
The Swiss Rolf Locher took the 13th place, and the best Croat was Marko Curkovic - 14th place.
Ivan Psahkie from Russia was 41st.
Besides the medals and cups, all the participants received diplomas.
The tournament took place on the day of St. Martin, so all the best national players received a bottle of Slovenian wine.
This is how the Sportmaster tour began; it will be continued in Switzerland.