Welcome to the STIGA US OPEN 2008 Sponsored by Phil Hamilton of TableHockeyGames.com

Countdown to 2008 STIGA US OPEN

Chargo, Ingo are U.S. Open champions

Rob Chargo bested a field of 40 players to win the 2008 Stiga U.S. Open in Lemont on July 26. He defeated Reggie Stefaniszyn 4-1 in the Best of 7 finals. Third was Kitchener's Bernie Kunzler, who defeated longtime friend Bruce Turner. B Group was taken by Tim Walker over Tom Warren in all-Detroit area finals. Third in the B was Mark Wuellner of Indianapolis, IN over grizzled veteran Pierre Chastenais of Montreal, QUE. The C Group went to Sean Rafferty of Laguna Hills, CA over Rich Thill of South Holland, IL. Third in the C went to Mike Hibbard of the Madison, WI area. On Friday night, rookie sensation Bob Ingo of Hanover Park, IL emerged out of virtually nowhere to win the Coleco U.S. Open championship. He defeated Dr. Lou Marinoff of New York in the finals. Third went to Denis Maille of Montreal, who also took home the Combined Trophy for best combined finish in the Stiga and Coleco tournaments. Brian Rafferty, 13, won the Junior Award and the big free raffle for a Stiga 50th anniversary limited edition table hockey game courtesy of tablehockeygames.com. Thank you to owner Phil Hamilton for the giveaway game and the prize money that was split among the top finishers in all three groups. Also thanks to Paul Ruiz at tablehockeyheaven.com for providing a place to do live updates. We're doing it all again next year on July 24-25 (I think) so please mark your calendars now and save the dates. Thanks to everyone who played and helped!!! Eric and Jim

Hello everyone. This year's LTHL Stiga U.S. Open will be held at 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 26, 2008. It'll take place at the Lithuanian Center in Lemont, IL, about 35 minutes southwest of downtown Chicago. We'll have groups based on skill level as always with trophies and medals for all skill levels. The COLECO U.S. Open will take place at 5 p.m. Friday, July 25 at the Lemont VFW.

Posted on July 10, 2008: Hey table hockey fans...wanted to make one last recruiting pitch for the Stiga and Coleco USOpen. They're taking place at 5 p.m. Friday, July 25 (Coleco) and at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 26 (Stiga), all in Lemont, about 30 minutes SW of downtown Chicago.

Both tournaments will be well-attended. But we've got room for many more players.

A special note from Jim: the deadline to get your entry fee in is quickly coming up. If you pay at the door or after July 21, the cost will be an additional $10.
(This is to avoid having to carry around a lot of cash on tournament day. So please get your entry fee in sooner rather than later. :)
The sign-up page is here: http://lemonttablehockey.com/usopen/register/index.htm

Other notes: thanks to sponsor Phil Hamilton of http://www.tablehockeygames.com there will be prize money for the A, B, and C groups. Thanks to Stiga USA, there is scheduled to be a free team pack giveaway to each player. And we're likely to have some high-quality USOpen t-shirts available for a small fee, if you're into souvenirs (we're in our 7th year, and there's always been a decent level of demand for t-shirts, so there you go). Likely to be a junior award for the best-finishing young player as there was last year.

The player list is here:
http://www.lemonttablehockey.com/usopen/playerlist/index.htm

Photos from last year's event (including winner Bernie Kunzler's special victory lap): http://lemonttablehockey.com/gallery/index.htm

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me back. And Jim Rzonca can be reached at (630) 257-8171 or jrzonca@webtv.net

For those of you signed up, I'll be sending an e-mail with specific details on the tournaments a few days before the events.

ADDRESSES YOU'LL NEED TO KNOW

VFW ON FRIDAY: 15780 NEW AVENUE, LEMONT, IL 60439

LITHUANIAN CENTER ON SATURDAY: 14911 W. 127TH ST, LEMONT, IL 60439

LINK TO A PAGE WITH MAPS