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A true British farce!

The presence of battling Vikings and a football themed dance troupe routine, accompanied by flashing lights and music during the extravagant opening ceremony, may have given the event an air of total professionalism, but once the dry ice had cleared, many were left rather less than impressed by Manchester's first Grand Prix.

After such a promising start to proceedings, what had been billed as the greatest event that England would have seen since the early 90s turned out to be "average at best", as one player described it. Others were less kind in their assessments.

True, Saturday's team event ran impeccably, and the venue itself looked impressive. The problems though were more evident on the Sunday.

Over the weekend, the Woodentop pitches were as unpredictable as ever, the metal goals were a source of controversy, with shots hitting the back of goal not given as goals - most significantly in the main final between Eric Verhagen and Massimo Cremona - and questions were raised over the suitability of referees appointed in certain instances.

Some people even complained about the discourteous attitude of one particular organiser towards the players.

The real issue though was the fact that so many players didn't show up. Or rather that they were included in the draw when it was known that they weren't going to show up.

Out of the 57 names included in the Open category, 10 failed to attend, either due to the excesses of the night before, revised travel arrangements or, in some cases, as they hadn't actually intended to play in the individual event.

At one point, the overall entry list had topped 100, which made for an impressive boast ahead of the tournament. But when the rogue entries started to be removed, some were overlooked, increasing the number of void places on the day of the tournament.

Despite the advice of two high-ranking FISTF officials to conduct a re-draw, which would actually have saved time in running the tournament by eliminating one knock-out round, organisers decided to carry on regardless, so as to continue to make use of the pre-programmed computer spreadsheet to assist them in running the event.

And when the competition got underway, the organisers overlooked the group stage game between David Russell and Johan Lourdon in the scheduling, despite both players being there from the beginning. That put proceedings back for nearly an hour.

Some may point to the organisers' inexperience at running tournaments on such a scale as an excuse, but that would be a poor explanation for an event seen worthy of Grand Prix status, and for which domestic support and assistance should have been on offer.

FISTF President Vincent Coppenolle was on hand, though his advice was not always taken on board.

And that meant that the top two seeds, Eric Verhagen and Massimo Cremona, were left alone in their respective groups. With no one to play against in the tournament's opening phase, they were left kicking their heals for much of the morning, until their first scheduled games, in the last 32, in early afternoon.

And with double no-shows in those groups, it also meant that two non-attendees, Keith Tiplady - who hadn't actually entered the individuals' tournament - and Adrian Ritoridis, were placed in the draw for the last 32, the tournament's third phase, qualifying evidently on Christian name alphabetical order.

Things got even more farcical for Verhagen. The world number one beat Chris Wrigley 4-2 when he finally got a chance to participate, before a 3-1 success over the Belgian David Fraikin set up a quarter-final tie against the winner of the all-Spanish clash between Angel Valverde and Juan Carlos Granados.

However both players had to depart early in order to catch their return flight to Murcia, leaving Verhagen with a walkover.

And the Dutchman would have received a bye to the final as well had Laurent Goor secured a semi-final place ahead of Manfred Pawlica, with the Belgian set to leave after the quarter-finals.

Luckily for what was left of the tournament's creditability, Pawlica won through to set up a last four clash with his DEVILS Austria teammate, which Verhagen won 2-1.

Nevertheless the victory was, by no fault of his own, only Verhagen's third game of the day, when reaching a Grand Prix final should really be accomplished in more impressive style.

Inactivity had little affect on Massimo Cremona either. He was quickly in his stride with a 9-0 victory over German Michael Beifuß and a surprisingly comfortable 4-1 win against Kasper Bennett, before three unanswered goals put paid to the temperamental Lazaros Papakonstantinou in the quarters.

That set up a semi-final tie against Chris Thomas - the only English player to advance past the last 16 - and though the EPLer pushed Cremona close, the Maltese international won through by the odd goal in three.

Thomas had made the last four thanks to victories over top Austrian duo Thomas Wittmann, on shots, and Robert Lenz, in a seven-goal thriller, during the knock-out stages.

His UK colleagues were not so successful, as the Oldham Sports Centre hosted its first tabletop action since the FISA-rule events of the early 90s.

Lenz - an veteran from the international scene of that time - himself had ruthlessly accounted for two EPL players, scoring four unanswered goals against the returning Phil Dacey and then another three past Dave Pawsey, whilst Bob Varney joined Kasper Bennett in making an last 16 exit after losing to Papakonstantinou.

Chris Short went out a round earlier, going down 1-0 to Fraikin, as did David Russell, losing 2-1 to Olivier Père, after leading at the interval.

The last 32 saw their EPL colleague Pawsey involved in one of the ties of the tournament though. The Bristol player shared 8 goals with Vincent Coppenolle during normal time of their clash, and it took an overtime strike for Pawsey to see off Coppenolle's stubborn challenge.

The final between Verhagen and Cremona - a rematch of last year's English Grand Prix - also proved to be a close contest.

A goal late in each half sealed a 2-0 victory for the Dutchman, but not before what appeared to be a valid strike by Cremona had gone unnoticed due to its deflection from inside of the all-metal goalframe.

It meant another title for Verhagen within the UK and Ireland co-operative, having previously won four Scottish events, three in Southern Ireland and last year's London Grand Prix.

There was no grand fanfare to celebrate his latest victory, just an appearance from the local mayor to hand out the prizes.

In the circumstances, and in the best traditions of British farce, it may have been more symbolic to bring on John Cleese and Andrew Sachs to play out a scene from Fawlty Towers.

Manchester Grand Prix final

Eric Verhagen 2 Massimo Cremona 0

Thick-framed all-metal goals may be generally disliked in the game, but Eric Verhagen should have every reason to be thankful for their use for the Manchester Grand Prix final.

With the flamboyant Dutchman holding an one goal lead over rival Massimo Cremona six minutes into the second half of their encounter, a shot by the Maltese player appeared to enter the net, bounce off the backbar into the side netting, then deflect from the keeper's rod and out.

Such was the speed of the shot, no goal was signalled by referee Alan Collins, nor was there any sort of an appeal from the usually highly-competitive Cremona.

It was a vital moment, as Verhagen withstood further pressure for the rest of the half before adding a second goal literally on the stroke of time, to retain the English Grand Prix title that we won last year in London.

Cremona had enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges, forcing a good save within 60 seconds of flick-off. However it was Verhagen who took the lead on 12 minutes courtesy of a mistake by his opponent.

The Maltese player gave away a free flick inside Verhagen's shooting area and the Dutch international quickly attacked down the left wing, ripping apart Cremona's defence to place a perfect shot past the keeper.

From the restart, Verhagen was soon putting further pressure on Cremona's defence, and he should have doubled his lead, but somehow failed to content with the ball from short range. His expression towards the onlookers told his own disbelief at the miss.

And Cremona almost made the world number one pay as he pushed forward in the latter stages of the half, forcing a several good keeper blocks.

After a slow start to the second half, with Verhagen seemingly happy to hold the ball in midfield, despite his opponent’s best efforts in blocking, the Dutchman forced a shot from the right five minutes in, which seemed to spur Cremona into action.

With soft-netted goals, the equaliser would have come with his first shot, but the deflection from the all-metal structure fooled both players and the referee.

What followed was an extraordinary display of goalkeeping from the Dutch player, with Cremona having a series of shots saved over a period of nine minutes.

However seconds from time, Verhagen had a lucky break at the other end and, with only his second shot of the half, made it 2-0 right on the final buzzer.

ADDITIONAL FINAL REPORTING: Algy Taylor

* AS Hennuyer maintained their solid record in UK tournaments by winning Saturday's team event.

The Belgians came through potentially tricky ties against the English Premier League B team and an Atlas side containing three UK-based players, before defeating Asociation Murciana in the final.

Laurent Goor won the pivotal match against Murciana, beating Bob Varney 3-2, though the Englishman had what seemed a valid goal disallowed, when it struck the frame of the all-metal goal and bounced out.

It was to prove the difference, as David Fraikin scored ASH's only other game win, beating Emilio Murciano 3-1, to enable the Belgian side to take the overall tie 2-1, after a second half goal helped Juan Carlos Granados to a 3-2 victory over Delphine Dieudonné.

Olivier Père and Angel Valverde fought out a goalless draw in their match-up.

The fledging DEVILS Austria were the other semi-finalists, losing 2-1 to Murcia. Varney and Granados collected the individual wins for the Spaniards in a low scoring affair that saw just 5 goals, three of which came in Eric Verhagen's 2-1 success over Valverde in reply.

DEVILS had beaten the English Premier League team 3-1 in the quarter-finals, despite Chris Short's 1-0 win over the pairing of Thomas Wittmann and Manfred Pawlica. In response, Verhagen smashed 7 goals past the usually reliable defence of Dave Pawsey.

Final

*** Paul Eyes, a Manchester native who now lives in America, took advantage of a trip home to reach the semi-finals of the veteran’s tournament.

The Maryland-based schoolteacher, and now renowned organiser of the US international events, collected noticeable wins over Alan Collins, Les Commons and Andy Murray, before eventually going down 2-0 to Phil Redman in the last four.

Whilst the England captain was a deserved winner, Eyes missed an open goal opportunity that would have tied the score with five minutes to go.

Redman then took the title with a shots victory over Gunther Bamberzky - the Austrian who had beaten Jeff Jordan 4-1 in the last 8 - after a goalless final.

*** Brothers Christian and Alexander combined for a Haas double in the U19 and U15 categories.

Christian beat Kevin Drohsler on shots in his final - following a 1-1 draw - whilst Alex defeated Matt Lishman 3-0 to win the younger title.

Michaela Scherbaum won the females' play-offs.

eFlicker Merit Award: Chris Wrigley

Chris Wrigley was unfortunate enough to be drawn with two tough opponents at the Open group stage, and have them both turn up!

The Kendal player had the daunting task of facing Heinz Eder and Delphine Dieudonné, but a 2-1 win against the Austrian and a creditable 3-3 draw with the female world champion forced a shoot-out with Dieudonné for top spot. Whilst he lost out in that, he beat Steve Hawkins in the barrage round, before a 4-2 defeat to Eric Verhagen brought a good day's play to an end for the outgoing ESTFA chairman.

Alex Haas his day in Manchester

By Matt Lishman

A small turnout from juniors home and abroad created a closely contested under-15 tournament at the Manchester GP this weekend.

English trio Sam Curtis, Matt Lishman and Jon Bryan were all present, as well as Danielle Murtagh from Ireland, Renald Deloose of Belgium and world number 1 Alex Haas from Austria.

Due to a couple of no-shows, Curtis and Murtagh were left in a group of two. The match between them saw Curtis record an easy 3-0 victory, doing well not to capitulate following several wasted opportunities.  This meant Curtis topped the group, with Danielle coming second and qualifying for the semi-finals in spite of the loss.

In the other group, Lishman flicked off in a professional manner, banking his second win over Deloose in seven days. The match finished 1-0. Meanwhile, Bryan suffered Haas' wrath, as the Austrian beat the EMA starlet 6-0.

More misery was to follow for Bryan, as Lishman reaped havoc and destroyed his fellow England teammate 9-1. But amidst the goal-fest, Bryan grabbed his first ever tournament goal against Lishman - a long-range cracker that he was very proud of.

Lishman's superior goal difference mattered very little in the end, as Haas inflicted a 5-1 thumping over the Yorkshire Phoenix player. It was to be the two who qualified for the semi-finals, though, after Bryan's 3-0 loss to Deloose. Nevertheless, he put in a resilient performance.

In the semi-finals, Murtagh suffered a loss to the impressive Haas, who professionally overcame the young girl from Ireland by 5 goals to nil. In the other match, close rivals Curtis and Lishman came face to face for the fourth time this season. The game was contested in the fun but nerve-racking manner all Curtis-Lishman matches seem to conjure.

Lishman managed to spurn numerous first-half chances, but persistence paid off as he pounced on a clear-cut chance in the second period, scoring what turned out to be the winning goal. Despite a late surge from the 11-year old, Lishman's victory was relatively comfortable.

In the final though, the difference in class showed as Haas snatched the title from Lishman with a 3-0 win, despite a strong performance from the England under-15 captain.

VIEW FROM THE TABLES

Personal reflections of the Manchester Grand Prix from England under-19 international Antony Collins:

On the Friday night at the players hotel AKA the Pennie Way Hotel the draw was to be done, with Bob [Varney], Massimo [Cremona] even Kasper [Bennett] to help a hand. Firstly they did the teams, but I think Massimo was more concerned in showing everyone this newspaper article he had about him being up for a Maltese award. Sportsperson of the year for Malta. Every 10 seconds you could hear Algy [Taylor] saying Massimo, he then looked surprised to hear his name again. I don't think he got that he was selected to the draw!

Anyway trouble occurred in the draw, slightly in to the drawing of the open the power on Algy's laptop basically went..... well zap? So he had to run upstairs to get his power pack and plug. Finally the open was under way. Luckily he saved the team but forgot to save the open but lucky as he is, we had only drawn about 12 names so we had to start again.

The U19, U15 and the Veterans was done slightly earlier in the day and done by Taff [Andy Murray], so by the end of the night all systems go for the next to days.

Saturday was the day of the team tournament. The competition was surprisingly tight, with no team looking much stronger than the others. The day began with an intro for the players to see. It started with the smoke, laser lights and a gladiator tune. Enter the Anglo-Saxons, although I don't know what Anglos have to do with the Gladiator tune! Anyway they entered from an area of the hall that was covered by smoke and strobe lighting everywhere. They walked in and began off nice and peaceful. Then the music cranked up a notch and the party began, well for the Austrians and anyone who could tap the feet the raise the tempo for the day. As they began to clash swords you could hear the occasional crowd cheer.

Then entered the dancers after the Anglos. Well I think that definitely woke up the old buggars well and truly! After they had completed their routine the real party could begin. Throughout the day great performances were given from all, making the day so much better. With my fellow team mate Christian Hass giving exceptional performances, he was one to be watching throughout the day. The way that he was playing, he could have been beating some top class players.

We had Tom Motley and his very surprising debut - for Yorkshire Phoenix?? Please Tom, everyone goes there, did they pay you or something! I played a very good set of games too, firstly against Trev Cummings, although sadly he won 4-2. I was wining with about 6 minutes to go, 2-1. I lost my cool and Trev attacked successfully. I lost 3-0 to Chris Thomas in the next game but I had a good few chances.

I was well up for this event and played blinders in both games to an extent. I guess you would say the rest is history with the tournament running pretty smoothly but which tournament runs accordingly!

In the final ASH beat Murcia, though Murcia played very well throughout and were unlucky not to win.

Sunday was the day of the open, vets, ladies, under 19 and the under 15.

With an intro happening again but only the Eden Groups dancers and no Anglos it was shorter than the day before but that didn't stop Dave Pawsey and the remarks that he makes. He is probably more famous for them than his actual playing!

The tournament eventually got under way. Having two groups of 4 in both the U19's and the U15's it was looking promising for the English boys to get through the groups.

Sam Curtis and Matt Lishman both went through in their groups without much trouble. They are both looking promising for the World Cup.

I was in the same group as Tom Motley in the U19s, and with me losing the first game against Belgium's Kevin Droshler 1-0, I wasn't off to a great start. Beating Tom Whitehead 4-2 restored my confidence, but Tom Motley played a blinder against the Belgian and beat him 1-0. The final set of group games had me and Tom Motley playing for a place in the next round. In an eventful game and around 90% possession for me it ended sadly for me 0-0, knocking me out and putting Tom in the next round, but he played just as well as me overall with great goalkeeping and defending.

Matt beat Sam in the semis, to precede to the final where he faced a demon of Sam's, Alex Haas. The scoreline in the final was 3-0 to Alex. In the U19 semis the two Belgians, Anthony Coppenolle and Kevin Drohsler, were against each other. Kevin won. I personally refereed the other semi, between Tom and Christian Haas. It was a very fair game with a lot of possession for Christian, though it was still end-to-end. A goal midway through the second half for Christian was the only one of the game. In the final, Christian was against Kevin Droshler. It was always going to be a big game just by looking at the names of the players. This eventful packed game went to shots and to my delight Christian won convincingly on the shots.

In the vets there was a 4 groups of 3 set up, with every group as difficult as the next for all the players. In the first knockout stages Michael Hasiber played Alan Collins, former best mates, in an end-to-end, sweat dripping ruining the pitch, game. In the end it was 3-2 to Michael. Unlucky Dad. The final was Redders [Phil Redman] against Gunther Bambersky, which Phil won. Well done Phil.

In the open, with Eric Verhagen having a bye in the quarter-finals, Algy spotted a funny thing. Laurent Goor from the A.S.H. club was playing in the quarter-finals, but would have to leave after he finished playing his game. If he had won then he would have given Eric a bye straight to the final. In a way it was lucky that he didn't but that would of been a bit cosy for Eric.

In the Final it was the world number 1 against the world number 2. How good can this get? Eric Verhagen against Massimo Cremona. In the end the game finished 2-0 to the Dutchman but it was not won that easily. It was an excellent game to watch.

In the final ceremony after the trophies had been handed out, Kay Knox the mayoress of Oldham Borough had a little word to say to the players in which how she described as a great success and she hoped to see us there next year which I hope so myself personally. Thanks for all your support for those of you who came and this is a tournament you will want to book on the old calendar for next year.

Also Chris Wrigley said a few words about thanking the tournament organisers Alan, Pete, Taff and Algy for the running of a tournament that was said to be the best in a while and at so short notice so big hand to those guys please people.

The night saw a wonder of the world Happen, My father go to the pub with the Austrians, he wasn't happy! He did though come back in higher spirits thankfully.

My personal tournament highlights:

1. Dave Pawsey’s remarks

2. The toilets seat actually being worn

3. Me selling the raffle tickets, then Pete Motley making an announcement saying Antony Collins is going around now selling raffle tickets at a pound a strip!

4. Taff realising that his computer had to run on batteries all day, then realising that his laptop has read everything wrong and that his battery pack was perfectly fine. PHEW!

But what I think was the best highlight is the appearance of Trevor Spencer, could this be a good sign for the forthcoming future of our game. I hope it does.

Overall I believe the game has come a little further than before which is never bad. I hope to you all return next year and more.

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