The last ‘real’ ETC may have been in 2019, but during the first COVID lockdown in 2020, we held the Fantasy ETC with readers voting for the results …
Day FOUR : Spain and France take the spoils
Finals day at the Fantasy ETC witnessed a first-ever triumph for Spain’s men and a successful title defence for France’s women.
Spain, who reached last year’s ‘real’ final by beating too-time defending champions France, repeated the feat in the final with four of the team enjoying straight-game victories, Gregory Gaultier taking France’s only game as he fell in four to Borja Golan.
In the women’s final France repeated last year’s ‘real’ semi-final win over Scotland, but this time in the final with all four matches going to the French in straight games.
Division Two Double for Ireland, bronze for Wales and Scotland
In the Division Two finals it was double triumph for Ireland as they beat Switzerland and Czechia in the men’s and women’s finals, while in the 3/4 playoffs the Bronze medals went to the Welsh ladies as they convincingly beat Belgium, while Scotland’s men edged past Scotland with a 50.5% verdict !
We hope you enjoyed Fantasy ETC – thanks for everyone who participated, congratulations to the winners, and see you next time for the Fantasy Manchester Open !
Day THREE : It’s France at the Double
Semi-Finals day at the Fantasy ETC produced a mixture of overwhelming wins and narrow escapes.
It was a good day for France as their men beat Scotland 3-1, thanks in large part to a 51% verdict for Baptiste Masotti over Rory Stewart, and the ladies continued their title defence with a solid 3-0 win over Belgium.
Scotland won through to their first women’s final with a narrow 2-1 win over Scotland, Alison Thomson and Georgia Adderley squeezing through with 53% and 54% verdicts after Tesni Evans had put Wales ahead.
Spain will contest their second men’s final in a row as they ended Welsh hopes with a 3-1 win, Edmon Lopez‘s 51% win over Emyr Evans being the deciding factor.
In Division Two top seeds Switzerland eased through to the men’s final, while both Ireland teams made it through, the women facing Czechia, who edged out Poland with a 51% verdict, in the final.
Women’s Semis :
[1] France 3-0 [3] Belgium
Camille Serme 3-0 Nele Gilis (83%)
Coline Aumard 3-0 Tinne Gilis (53%)
Melissa Alves 3-0 Loreline Pira (86%)
[4] Scotland 2-1 [4] Wales
Lisa Aitken 0-3 Tesni Evans (21%)
Alison Thomson 3-0 Deon Saffery (53%)
Georgia Adderley 3-0 Ali Loke (54%
Men’s Semis :
[2] Spain 3-1 [5] Wales
Iker Pajares 0-3 Joel Makin (10%)
Borja Golan 3-1 Peter Creed (63%)
Edmon Lopez 3-1 Emyr Evans (51%)
Bernat Jaume 3-1 Owain Taylor (54%
[4] France 3-1 [3] Scotland
Gregoire Marche 0-3 Greg Lobban (33%)
Gregory Gaultier 3-2 Alan Clyne (64%)
Baptiste Masotti 3-1 Rory Stewart (51%)
Lucas Serme 3-0 Stuart George (65%)
Division Two, Men :
[1] Switzerland 3-1 [6] Slovakia (75%)
[5] Ireland 3-1 [7] Italy (61%)
Division Two, Women :
[3] Czechia 2-1 [4] Poland (51%)
[6] Ireland 3-0 [8] Austria (75%)
Day TWO : England crash out as the semis are set
A second day of the Fantasy ETC, even more dramatic than the first, saw perennial champions England crash out of both events as France, Wales and Scotland secured places in both Division One semi-finals.
Men : England’s men, the defending champions, having lost out to Wales on Day One scraped a countback win over Finland before being thumped 4-0 by the French, who were themselves thrashed by the Welsh as the semi-final places were decided.
In Pool B second and third seeds Spain and Scotland won through with the Scots wining the pool decider for an unblemished record.
Women : Defending women’s champions France made it three wins out of three as they were joined by Scotland in Pool A qualification, while in Pool B the English nightmare continued as they fell to defeats by Germany and Belgium to finish winless.
Having beaten the higher-seeded Belgians in the day’s first match, Wales went on to top the pool with a clean sweep of wins.
[jbutton color=”red” size=”xlarge” link=”” newpage=”yes”] DAY THREE : SEMI-FINAL VOTING CLOSED [/jbutton]
Day ONE : Wales stun England in pool openers
A dramatic opening day of the Fantasy ETC produced two massive upsets as Wales handed out thumping defeats to many-time champions England in both men’s and women’s pools.
The English men, defending champions and top seeds, were thrashed 4-0 by a rampant Welsh side, while the English women, seeded two for the first time ever following last year’s shock defeat in the final, fell three nil to the Welsh.
Elsewhere it was a good good day for France and Scotland as they won their opening matches in both categories, while Spain (M) and Belgium (W) consolidated their successful 2019 campaigns with opening wins.
With two matches to play on Day Two, the stunned England teams will probably need to notch up four wins to avoid failing to reach the playoffs for the first time in living memory. Voting starts at 10.00.
Pools & Schedule
Day ONE : 1 v 3 and 2 v 4 in all Division One Pools
Day TWO : final two rounds in Division One, Division Two finishing position votes
Day THREE : Semi-Finals (with individual matches) and playoffs
Day FOUR : Finals (with individual matches) and playoffs
In the Men’s pools, England and France, having contested so many finals with three titles each in the last six years, are in the same pool along with world semi-finalists Wales, while Spain and Scotland are seeded to reach the semi-finals from Pool B but a full strength Germany may have something to say about that.
In the Women’s event England find themselves in Pool B as second seeds for only the second time ever, with defending champions France, Belgium and Scotland completing the top four seeds. A new-look England team may have their work cut out to qualify with Belgium and Wales fancying their chances, while Netherlands will be hoping to break into the semis from Pool A.
Fantasy ETC
The European Team Championships is a casualty of the Coronavirus outbreak,
with the organisers hoping to reschedule for later in the year in Eindhoven, nevertheless, we’ll be running the Fantasy events, with viewers getting to decide who goes through the Pools, and who gets to be Fantasy European Team Champions!
The tournament will be in two stages – Pool rounds, then Playoffs, with the top teams winning through to the semi-finals (we won’t be doing all the playoff matches, just the pools, semis and finals).
Voting for the pool stages will just be overall team results, then for the semis and finals we’ll have individual results.
Voting for the first day of Pool matches is on Wed 29th, stay tuned !!!
[jbutton color=”blue” size=”xlarge” link=”https://etc2019.tumblr.com/”] ETC 2019 Edgbaston and ETC History [/jbutton]