Ear to the ground

“But we haven’t gotten to do anything fun inside, yet.”

– A 6-year-old child of Durango parents on a recent ski/beach vacation

First in foosball

While the pinnacle of soccer success continues to elude the U.S. National Soccer Team, another national squad just quietly clinched its second World Cup title. The U.S. National Table Soccer Team (yep, “table soccer”) handily defeated its arch-rivals in Nantes, France, last week at the International Table Soccer Federation’s World Cup, and the team did it with the help of top Durango foosballer Amy Eckhart.

Call it what you will – table soccer, baby foot, fussball or foosball – we all know that barroom game where miniature soccer men attached to rods go head-to-head on an undersized soccer field. But as it turns out, there’s more than pints and quarters involved. Last weekend, nearly 500 of the world’s top players from more than 40 countries faced off in France at the combined World Cup and World Championship tournaments.

Eckhart and the U.S. squad defended the cup against Austria, the No. 1-ranked team in the world, and Germany, Denmark and the Czech Republic all had their sights on an upset. Teams from as far away as India, Japan and South Africa also took to the tables. Each team, having selected eight of their nation’s best players, competed in a combination of doubles and singles events. And in a true test of all around foosball skills, competition took place on five different official styles of tables: Tornado Table Soccer™, Bonzini™, Garlando, Lehmacher Tech-Ball, and Roberto-Sport.

Though the players are now returning to their respective El Ranchos, the ITSF 2010 World Tour has only just begun. Foosball tourneys are scheduled to take place everywhere from China, India and Japan to the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Poland.

The shape of things to come

The Durango Telegraph is losing a little length in its old age. This week’s issue marks the first edition in our new and improved format.

You now hold a leaner, meaner and greener Telegraph in your hands. We continue to be content rich, chock-full of controversy and retain our PG-13 rating, but we have lost approximately an inch off the top. We recently switched printers, are now printing in a new format, and as you can see, the paper has lost a smidge of height.

While we like to consider ourselves a little trimmer as we head into 2010, we can already hear the “shorter, fatter Telegraph” comments coming. Go easy on us. We promise you won’t even notice our new shape in a couple weeks time.