Adventures in Foosball; News and Observer, Oct. 16, 2002
Friday Night Foosball; News and Observer, Oct. 18, 2002
A New Image for Foosball; News and Observer, March 19, 2006

So that means over in a different corner, there was another group not drawing that
much attention. They're there every Friday, bent over their own game tables in deep
concentration. It's not a boisterous group, but they're serious about what they do,
and they've got competitive streaks to go against anyone's.

"I'm addicted," said player Kevin Blackley, leaning against the air-hockey table while
waiting his turn. "It's the action."

To the uninitiated, foosball may conjure up images of little kids spinning the rods as
fast as they'll go. But experts can use those same rods to move the ball so quickly that
it can't be seen.

The players who gather Fridays at Fat Daddy's are part of Power Kick of Raleigh, a local Bonzini foosball group. Bonzini, a manufacturer based in
France, makes the foosball tables the group prefers.

Most of them aren't your average bar-level players. Buddies Andy Petesch and H.H. Hancock traveled this spring to France -- that's right -- to
play in the foosball world cup. Jim Parris has been playing 30 of his 45 years. Back in the '70s he could make more in a month of playing foosball
than he could at his real job selling shoes at J.C. Penney.

Hancock likes to bring his own handles to use on the tables at Fat Daddy's. Petesch brings an antiperspirant to rub on his hands before matches
to improve his grip. Others use golf or baseball batting gloves.

The informal tournaments they have every Friday try to level the playing field for the competitors. Players are divided into A and B levels, then
lots are drawn pairing up an expert player with a novice one. They play a double-elimination, a two-on-two tournament that awards a small pot to
the winners. On this night, 14 players participate.

The games start with a player placing the ball on the table, looking toward the other side and asking, "Ready?" Once in play, the ball moves
quickly, sometimes too fast for a beginner to see. The best players can pass the ball among their men with a deftness mastered only after years of
practice.

The games move quickly, without trash-talking or taunting. The players love to win, but there's no complaining when they don't. Mainly, they like
the camaraderie. "It's a lot better than video games," said Chad Meadows, who organized the group.

The group is gearing up for the North Carolina championships, which will be held this weekend at the bar. The organizers expect about 70
contestants.

Winners will share $2,500 in prize money -- considerably more than the average shoe salesman can make in a weekend.

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Friday night foosball

From the October 18, 2002 News and Observer
By: Melissa Draper, Staff writer

Give me a game of Galaga over Foosball any day -- my hand-eye coordination is better tuned to one-dimensional aliens than three-dimensional,
flip-happy plastic men.

Too bad for me, Fat Daddy's Restaurant at 6201 Glenwood Ave. is holding an event just for Foosball fans this weekend.

It's the 28th Annual North Carolina State Foosball Championships, sanctioned and sponsored by Bonzini USA, a maker of Foosball tables.

Players must be 21 or older. Divisions include novice, singles, doubles and expert. The event is 5 to 11 p.m. tonight, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday,
and noon to 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

One-day entries are $5 to $25; weekend entries are $40 to $50.

Cash and prizes totaling $2,500 will be awarded (OK, Galaga, schmalaga -- bring on the little kickers!)

Call 787-3773 or visit www.bonziniusa.com for details.

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A new image for foosball
Tourney unites fans, raises funds

From the March 19, 2006 News and Observer
By: Todd Silberman, Staff writer

For most people, foosball is the soccerlike table game they may have tried a few times in the student lounge at college or the basement of the
neighborhood kid who had everything.

Then there are guys like Bruce Nardoci, aka The Legend, who sat on a stool Saturday sizing up the competition in the game room of Fat Daddy's
restaurant on Glenwood Avenue, site of this year's North Carolina Open Foosball Championships.

Nardoci was serious about foosball even before he entered N.C. State University in 1974. He remained so serious about the game while there
that he spent six years earning an engineering degree instead of the usual four.

"Growing up in Asheboro, there was nothing else to do but go to the bowling alley, where there was a foosball table," he said.

Now a nuclear engineer living in Charlotte, Nardoci has collected trophies from playing around the world. Most weekends, he is in a tournament
somewhere.

So on Saturday, he joined about 65 other foosball fanatics at the North Carolina Open in Raleigh.

They played for prizes ranging from $20 to $400, but most of the proceeds went to the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. An initial
contribution of $2,100 was expected to grow by the end of the tournament.

"It takes finesse and speed," said Robbie Patterson, who came from Staunton, Va., for the event.

All afternoon and late into the night, the contestants faced each other across eight French-style Bonzini tables, deftly moving small cork balls
back and forth for the score.

Many were serious enough to bring their own handles, swapping black plastic for custom grips. Others wore golf or batting gloves.

"The difference between a good player and a great player is the five-bar," said H.H. Hancock, president of Powerkick, a Raleigh foosball club
that helped support the event.

The five-bar is the mid-field row of five players, the highest number that a player controls in a single hand.

Hancock, 36, didn't start playing until he was a graduate student in specialty dentistry at UNC-Chapel Hill. Now he figures he practices about
30 minutes a day on his own table at home, with his girlfriend sometimes playing defense.

"It's a professional hobby," Hancock said. "There's a commitment. There's a passion. There's a desire to be better."

Nikki Takei, 37, one of few female competitors at the tournament, picked up the game a half dozen years ago after playing as a student at
Penn State University.

The Raleigh resident and kitchen designer is now a regular. So far this year, she has been to tournaments in Kentucky, Washington, D.C.,
and Michigan.

"I love the social aspect of it," said Takei, a Powerkick member. "It's about the friends you make."

Andy Petesch, 36, a recent law school graduate from the University of Richmond, said he likes the competition.

"It's amazing to see the amount of control and expertise," he said.

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