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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Foosball elite

To the guy who stops off for a beer on his way home from work, the game is foosball.

To Lotus Leong-Chesbrough, that game is her ticket to the world of international table soccer competition.

Of the thousands of foosball players in the world, Spokane’s Leong-Chesbrough is one of the best, once winning $100,000 in a tournament. She’s also one of eight who will represent the United States in the International Table Soccer Federation World Cup in Hamburg, Germany, May 24-28. Her teammates are five men and two women, who live everywhere from San Diego to Lowell, Mass.

The International Table Soccer Federation and the world championships were established in 2002. However, this is the first year the United States is sending a team. Airfare is being covered, but players rely on sponsors for their food and lodging costs.

“It’s like the Olympics of foosball,” Leong-Chesbrough explained one night from Trent N Dale Pub in Spokane Valley, after schooling two younger men in the game.

At 40, Leong-Chesbrough brings maturity and experience to the table. As a teenager growing up in Hillyard, she learned to play from her older brother. The Leongs and their friends would spend hours playing in the Leongs’ rec room. The neighborhood arcade also had a table – after all, it was the early 1980s, and foosball and pinball were in their prime.

“I just played and played and played,” Leong-Chesbrough said about life as a foosball fanatic.

Success at local tournaments came easy for the Gonzaga Prep graduate. She moved onto the national level and has continued to play on tours for more than 15 years.

Leong-Chesbrough’s husband, Larry Chesbrough, is regarded as one of the best foosball players in the country. He’s not competing nationally anymore, but is a vendor for Tornado foosball tables, the gold standard in American tables.

Chesbrough also runs a local foosball league that plays at Trent N Dale, Fizzy Mulligan’s on the North Side and Ichabod’s in the Spokane Valley.

Leong-Chesbrough calls the 1992 World Cup, where she won women’s doubles, her crowning achievement. The tournament’s total purse was $100,000.

At this year’s Hall of Fame Classic championships in Las Vegas, Leong-Chesbrough finished third in mixed doubles, fourth in singles and fifth in doubles.

“I used to be top three in everything,” Leong-Chesbrough said, “but I’m not playing as much as I used to.”

When she was at her peak, the 5-foot-tall Leong-Chesbrough played an average of four times a week for three hours at a time. She said she’s down to playing one or two times a week.

Aside from her perfecting her game, Leong-Chesbrough is a waitress at the Old European on North Division Street. She and her husband have a 10-year-old daughter, who quickly is honing her foosball skills on the family’s table.

“When you play with Lotus, you’re just there to get the ball to her so she can shoot,” said Biff Jones, owner of Trent N Dale and Leong-Chesbrough’s primary sponsor for the World Cup. “Some people have natural ability. She is one of them. This is a very intricate game.”

Leong-Chesbrough said she likes to play both the offensive and defensive rows of foosmen. For women’s only-competition, she’s usually operating the offensive rods. When she’s playing for fun with the Trent N Dale regulars, she’ll switch back and forth from offense to defense, just to keep the playing field level.

“She’s very nice about it,” patron John Culler said, “even when she’s whipping my butt at the table.”