News Story

First KMi Table Football Competition!!!

Miriam Fernandez, Monday 30 Jul 2007

On the 24th and 25th of July, KMi held the most fantastic table football competition ever, perfectly organised by Miriam Fernandez. 24 KMi-ers displayed their skills and demonstrated to the world the way table football ought to be played!

The championship started on Tuesday 24, with four different groups, each comprising three pairs. The matches in group C, which comprised Vanessa and Ivan, Michele and Jorge and Alessio and Stefania were amazing, with Stefania especially awesome in her role as a goalkeeper!!! The matches in group B were also great, especially the one played between Tom and Carlo against Vlad and Stefan!!! After 20 minutes of intense play, the match was 9-9, next goal wins and Carlo and Tom managed to score the final goal!!!

In summary: a great first stage of the competition, but inevitably four pairs had to go: Neil and Marc in group A, Mark and Paul in group B, Vanessa and Ivan in group C, and Alan and Peter in Group D.

The quarter-finals started the following day. Terrific matches were played between Monia and Davide against Harriet and Damian, Tom and Carlo against Michele and Jorge, Alessio and Stefania against Enrico and Miriam, and Paul and Robbie against Vlad and Stefan!!! At this stage the level had of course become incredibly high, with Monia and Davide especially displaying a high quality game, while Vlad and Stefan demonstrated fantastic cohesion and indomitable team spirit!!!

The semi-finals came immediately after (no even time to rest). Davide and Monia took on Michele and Jorge while Enrico and Miriam battled it out against Vlad and Stefan!!! You can see the pictures of these extremely intensive moments, for instance, when Enrico and Miriam beat the tremendous Vlad and Stefan team, after an incredibly hard fought match!!!

And at the end the great final!!! Davide and Monia against Enrico and Miriam!!! – Confirmation of the superiority of mixed pairs against all male ones After a very even start, Enrico and Miriam succeeded in undermining the confidence of their opponents with a set of incredible saves!!! In addition the carnival atmosphere surrounding the final, with rock music courtesy of Mark Gaved, and the crowd’s noise in the background, most likely affected the concentration of Davide and Monia. In contrast, Enrico and Miriam showed steely nerves and ruthless efficiency and eventual won by quite a significant margin, thus becoming the first winners in the history of the KMi table football competition!!!

The award ceremony was as awesome as the actual competition. Under the background of an appropriately triumphal music, Enrico and Miriam received the winners cup as well as two different games to keep practising their hand-eye co-ordination!!! The beaten finalists got boxes of chewing gums, which no doubt will help them handling the stress of the defeat Two extra prices were also given to Vlad and Stefan (for being the most fiercely competitive pair in the tournament) and to Marc and Neil (for scoring the least number of goals of any pair in the championship). Hopefully the latter prize will encourage them to keep practising for future editions of this amazing championship!!

In one word AWESOME!!!