FOOSBALL FRIDAY THIS WEEKWe are getting new players every week so if you haven’t been out regularly, please come out to meet them. Plus, hoping that the new foosball committee will start to decide who will be running events, take over communications, running the next major event in Shanghai, etc. I will help out, but no time to run everything anymore. Time to step up people!!!! Maybe we can have a meeting about it this Friday between matches.
ANNIE
Annie is home and recovering well but she cannot return to work for 3 months. So, we will have two more fundraisers for medals this week. Handicapped singles and some doubles events (will need to see what medals and certificates we still have). Same deal as last time. 10 RMB per event for ladies, 20 RMB per event for men. Top 3 get medals and no money. All money goes to Annie plus the 250 RMB that we had leftover from before. If you want to donate more, I am sure that it will be much appreciated.
After we collect the money, a native Chinese speaker and I will ask to drop by her home to visit her and will try to get a better idea on her medical and financial condition (any volunteers to come with me?). She has said that she is fine on both counts but they really appreciated the money last time so expect that they could still use more help and am concerned about exactly how serious that things are.
FOOSBALL FORUM:
for Chinese and English speakers here: www.cnfoosball.com
Not run by me. The Chinese section looks to be quite political which is one reason why I have decided to retire again. The English speakers section is pretty new. I will only add content if the board becomes popular. In the past I have tried getting foosball forums going and not enough interest to justify the effort.
OTHER EVENTS AND LOCATIONS
New table at Harley’s bar in Xujiahui, go and check it out sometime.
Thorsten’s foosball party at his home is tomorrow night. Be sure to contact him if interested in going.
137 8890 6240
FOOS WEDDINGS
Congratulations to foosers David von Schwerrin who will be getting married on June 18 and to Simon Wu who will be getting married on June 5. Sorry, I can’t remember their brides names. Congratulations to you from all of the Shanghai foosball players.
TRAINING VIDEOS
I am finally planning on recording the training videos and will make them available in the coming weeks. Don’t expect the video quality to be great, but the content should be good. I only steal from the best. Ha ha…
FOOSBALL TRIPS
I am hoping to lead some Shanghai players on goodwill foosball trips to a few locations in Mainland China, as well as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia later in the year. Outside the Mainland the table of choice is Tornado so I will start brining in the Tornado rods/men to our events occasionally to let you choose which to play with. Get used to both and it will double your chances to play in Asia!!!
Although I am trying to retire as an organizer and as an adviser for China, I will keep playing for fun as a player.
CONGRATULATIONS WEIFANG PLAYERS
The event in Weifang was held last week. It did become quite political as a few power struggles are going on and I don’t think that any westerners attended due to the lack of details which made planning difficult. I understand that another northern Chinese city is also entering the power struggle and will soon order 300 tables from our friend Dennis. I will let you know about all the events and by retiring, hopefully I can stay neutral with regard to all the power struggles. I will not write about them. I am hoping for all groups to start to focus soon on growing the sport together and to worry less about control, and profits. Anyway, I hope that you all do get a chance to attend some events outside of Shanghai and I want all players to know that they are welcome to any events that I have. However, I will yield to the wishes of the Shanghai foosball committee once it is formed but hoping that it will be more focused on growing the sport than on trying to control things.
Keep on foosin’
Fred Gower
