A number of the pictures that we have posted in the last few weeks have involved advertisements for Subbuteo.

This led me to think about my own memories of the game that I thought I’d share.

Firstly, we were proud owners of a Subbuteo set; nothing grandiose – just the standard pitch, goals, a handful of teams and definitely a set of floodlights that we’ve already deduced actually ‘sucked in’ light more than it illuminated anything.

I don’t remember much else in the way of accessories and I have to say that my experiences with Subbuteo as a game were nothing exceptional. In fact, I would go as far as to say that my memories of it are rather luke-warm. It promised so much but invariably all the pre-match excitement and set-up were often let down by a less than enjoyable and frustrating game.

The idea of Subbuteo was always more pleasing than the actual taking-part in the game as was the potential to add elements to the party! Stands, crowds, police, camera men, dugouts; even medical men with stretchers and security fences!

However, these add-ons were always going to be out of the price-range of our family and so, as with so many other things back in those days, a great injection imagination would be called upon to bridge the gap between what we wanted and what we could have.

Now I’ve no idea if anyone else ever did the same thing as we did back then. No-one else has ever mentioned this but I’m sure there must have been kids like us all over the country/world who came up with a similar idea?

The idea was the brainchild of one of my older brothers, Paul.

I plan to go through a step-by-step how-to guide in another post but I will summarise the details here to give you a little taster.

 

The source of Paul’s idea came from Shoot! magazine team photos – generally the double page spread although sometimes the single page photo was enough.

Paul would then proceed to trace a box around each players face – roughly about 3×2 cm in size.

These would then be cut out and sellotaped to a piece of cardboard (from cereal boxes) with the name of the player written in biro underneath the photo.

In this manner, we would then have an entire squad of players for a large number of football teams from all across the UK to choose from.

These cards would then be used as the basis of a football game either on the green Subbuteo pitch or on a replacement ‘sandy’ coloured blanket that we had marked out with a felt tip pen.

The football would be in the form of a small metal ball bearing and from my memory, the goal posts may or may not have been formed by a couple of toy motor cars! (I’ll need to check with Paul about that one!).

Rather than playing each other, generally Paul would take both the teams and play a game of football between them which we would watch while listening to his match commentary.

Leagues would be formed; teams would be picked and followed; excitement would be achieved.

It was a great way to get the excitement and pleasure that many got from Subbuteo but at a fraction of the price. But there were also added bonuses such as it being much more bespoke in that you had the faces and names of players that you may never have otherwise known  about at that age and time.

It also meant you had access to many more teams that you could have afforded with Subbuteo including, occassionally, an exotic European team!

And that’s why I will never get as nostalgic when I see a Subbuteo advert as I do when I see a team photo from Shoot!, a packet of Shreddies, a biro and a roll of sellotape.