SEASON 2009/10

This season saw the introduction of the Irish Circuit, consisting of 3 Opens in the North and 3 in the South, alternated with 6 Belfast Barbarians League Meetings, to provide Subbuteo activity in Ireland once per month.

Beggs All-Ireland Champion 2010 Sat 4th Sept 2010, 9:30am
Thirteen Players contested the 2010 Irish Championships. It was a North v South Final, with Northerner, Kenny Beggs beating Republic of Ireland's Mark Farrell 3-1 to win the title for the 3rd successive year. Losing Semi-Finalists were Barry Spence and John Moore. Kenny also won the Veterans, with a 3-0 Final victory over Nicky Moore. Peter Morrison beat Adam Scullion in the Under-19 Final and Alistair Morrison won the Plate, with Adam Scullion again being runner-up. Under-19 Champion, Peter Morrison, was unfortunate to lose to Beggs in the Open Quarter-Final. He was two goals down at half-time but scored twice in the 2nd Half to take the match into extra-time. There were no further goals and Beggs narrowly won a shoot-out by 1-0. Full Report by Eoin AdamsResults

All-Ireland Champion 2010: Kenny Beggs (left)

All-Ireland Final 2010: Kenny Beggs 3 Mark Farrell 1

Under-19 Final: Adam Scullion 0 Peter Morrison 1

Final Barbarians Clubnight 23rd Aug 2010
Barry Spence won the 5-player round-robin at the final meeting of the season, beating Kenny Beggs 2-1 in the decisive match. Alistair Morrison finished 3rd, Dean Jones was 4th and Lewis Jones 5th. Beggs, however, topped the season's Championship Table, followed closely by Spence. Results & Table

Kenny Wins 2nd Celbridge Open Sat 7th Aug 2010
Nine players took part at Celbridge Mill in the season's 5th Open on the Irish Circuit, playing each other once in a League format. It was a competitive event, with three players still in contention going into the last session - John Moore needed to beat Nicky Moore and hope that Mark Farrell and Kenny Beggs would draw. John won his match but Kenny beat Mark 3-0 to finish two points clear of John. Gary Moore was 3rd and Mark Farrell (who had led for most of the day) was 4th. Results & Table

2nd Celbridge Open: John Moore (Runner-up) & Kenny Beggs (Winner)

Kenny Beggs (1st) v Gary Moore (3rd)

John Moore (2nd) v Mark Farrell (4th)

Andrew Morrison (7th) v Alistair Morrison (6th)

Eoin Adams reached the Quarter-Finals of Saturday's Knighton Satellite, qualifying from his group with a 2-1 victory over Cardiff's Steve Evans and a 2-5 defeat to Adrian Curtis. He beat Zoran Higgins of Kent 1-0 in the Barrage Round before losing 1-2 to Paul Lawrenson, who went on to beat Adrian Curtis in the Final. Eoin also played in the International Open on Sunday. He lost 1-4 to Martin Hodds in his first group match but beat Cardiff's Guy Smith 3-0 to qualify for the Barrage Round, where he lost 0-4 to Tony McCann. Event winner was Miguel Periera of Kent and Runner-up was again Adrian Curtis.

Belfast Barbarians 5th Clubnight 21st June 2010
Eight players enjoyed a two-group tournament at the club's best attended session of the season, with Kenny Beggs beating Barry Spence 2-1 in the Final. Results

Premier Boss Orders Subbuteo Sessions 6th June 2010
Ian Holloway, manager of newly promoted Blackpool, has ordered his players to play Subbuteo to help improve their tactics.

Belfast International Open 8th May 2010

Double For Bennett In Belfast
It was a double celebration for Steve Bennett of Scotland as he took both the Open and Veteran titles at the Belfast International Open. He beat the holder, England's Martin Hodds, on shots in the Open Final and Northern Ireland's Stuart Mcilroy in the Veteran Final. There was home success for Northern Ireland in the Under-19 event, with Adam Scullion beating England's Lewis Jones in the Final, while Englishman, Tony McCann, won the Plate with a 3-1 victory over Eoin Adams of Northern Ireland. Results

Belfast International Open & Veteran Winner: Steve Bennett (Scotland)

Belfast IO Final: Martin Hodds 0 Steve Bennett 0 (shots: 2-3)

Veteran Final: Stuart McIlroy 0 Steve Bennett 4

Plate Final: Tony McCann 3 Eoin Adams 1

Under-19 Final: Dean Lewis 0 Adam Scullion 2

During the event, BBC Radio Ulster did a live interview with Kenny Beggs on their 'Saturday Magazine' Programme.

Belfast Barbarians 4th Clubnight 26th April 2010, 7:30pm
The Barbarians' were pleased to welcome two new players at the 4th Clubnight of the season - Father & son, Dean & Lewis Jones from Newry. They took part in the 5-player round robin, which was won by Kenny Beggs. Results

Beggs Wins Celbridge Open Sat 27th Mar 2010

John Moore (3rd), Kenny Beggs (1st), Gary Moore (4th), Barry Spence (2nd)

John Moore v Kenny Beggs

The 3rd Open Event on this season's Irish Circuit saw 11 entrants playing each other once in a League format. Northern Ireland's Barry Spence was the early pace-setter but Kenny Beggs recovered from a slow start to eventually top the table. It was an exciting finish, as the outcome was still in the balance going into the last session. Barry needed to beat Eoin Adams by at least two goals and hope that Kenny would lose to Gary Moore. Barry did his part with a 5-0 thumping of Eoin but Kenny managed to hang on for a goal-less draw to clinch top spot by a point. It was by no means a two-horse race, with John Moore, Gary Moore and Mark Farrell all being in contention for most of the day. There were some mixed results for everyone which was an indication of how the standard of play is improving. Results

Well done to John Moore and the rest of the Southern lads for organising another competitive but sporting event at the excellent Mill Centre venue. Good to see Paul Beggs taking part in his first event and some potential new players among the spectators. Paul, incidentally, has developed rules for a Gaelic version of Subbuteo which can be found on his website www.catchandkick.com

Belfast Barbarians 3rd Clubnight 15th Feb 2010
The Barbarians were pleased to welcome two English guests - Tony McCann and his son, Rob. Tony finished 2nd to Kenny Beggs in the five-player round-robin. Results
Tony also plans to return to Belfast for the International Open in May.

Mcilroy Runner-up in Yorkshire 13th Feb 2010
Northern Ireland player, Stuart Mcilroy, finished 2nd in the Veterans Event at the Yorkshire International Open. England's Phil Redman topped the six-player table. Stuart picked up another runner-up trophy for his club, Yorkshire Phoenix, in the team event. Results

Stuart Mcilroy, Veteran Runner-up in Yorkshire

John Moore Wins Kildare Open 23rd Jan 2010
Republic of Ireland player, John Moore, won the 2nd event on this season's Irish Circuit, beating Gary Moore 2-1 in the Final, after a tense shoot-out victory over Mark Farrell. Gary beat Number 1 seed, Northern Ireland's Kenny Beggs 3-2, to reach the final. He started the final well, taking a first-half lead but John quickly equalised and the match was finely balanced until John scored the winning goal with less than two minutes remaining. Results

Kildare Open Final: Gary Moore 1 John Moore 2

It was a competitive tournament, with ten players split into two groups. The top three players in each group qualified for the 2nd Stage, consisting of two groups, the winners of which contested the Final. The four non-qualifiers from the 1st Stage played each other in a round-robin for the Plate, which was won by Nicky Moore, so plenty of games for everyone.

Venue: The Mill Centre, Celbridge, Co Kildare:

The Mill, Celbridge
  © Copyright Ian Paterson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Belfast Barbarians Christmas Clubnight 21st Dec 2009
The season's 2nd Clubnight was a 3-player mini-league. Kenny Beggs & Barry Spence drew twice with each other. Barry recorded a draw and a win against Stephen Rodgers but Kenny beat Stephen twice to top the table. The Christmas Clubnight was rounded off with the usual festive refreshments. Results

Dunmurry Open 2009 28th Nov 2009
Nine players attended the Dunmurry Open at Kingsway Church and played each other once in league format. Kenny Beggs finished top with maximum points, while Mark Farrell just pipped Barry Spence for the runner-up spot. They were both equal on points and goal-difference but Mark scored more goals. The tournament was played in a competitive and sporting manner and was rounded off in festive spirit with everyone receiving seasonal chocolate prizes. Special thanks to the three Southern lads for travelling and to fixture guru, Eoin Adams.
Full Results & Table

Comical moment of the day belonged to Eoin when he got slagged for wearing a Boca Juniors shirt by the Argentinian cleaner, who was a River Plate fan.

Dunmurry Open: Mark Farrell (Runner-up) v Kenny Beggs (Winner)

Photo Slideshow:

Irish Circuit 2009/10
A new Irish Circuit will be in operation this season, with Saturday Open Events scheduled every two months, three in the North and three in the South. In co-operation with this, Belfast Barbarians will hold their Clubnights on alternate months, in between the Open Events. The proposed schedule is shown in the upper right hand column of this page.

Barbarians New Season Begins 26th Oct 2009
Belfast Barbarians season got off to a slow start with only three players being available. They played each other in a round-robin: 1st Kenny Beggs, 2nd Barry Spence, 3rd Stephen Rodgers. Results

Marks & Spencer Sells Subbuteo 26th Oct 2009
Subbuteo is back in the shops again!