Retro Recall: Subbuteo
February 19, 2019 by cassn
Let me begin this article by stating I was a curious child, an annoying sister, and an unrelenting bother to my siblings growing up. If they had something interesting, chances were half an hour later I would be found hunched in a corner somewhere desperately trying to inspect exactly what made it so fascinating.
So, with that being said, and many apologies to my brother who tolerated my petty thefts with good humour, here follows a tale of strops, stealth, and Subbuteo.
The Beautiful Game
For those who don’t know, Subbuteo is a finger dexterity game based on the association football and is probably the most British board game currently in existence. Invented by Peter Adolph in 1946, the game was originally adopted by an earlier game called Newfooty by William Lane Keeling.
Subbuteo consisted of two teams of players with a distinctively curved base (rumoured to have been created by Peter weighting down his mothers coat buttons with lead washers). Players use their fingers to flick the figurines, directing a ball into their opponent's goal.
My brother’s Subbuteo set was an unashamed testament to 1980s plastic production and would make environmentalists today weep, however, it was not always so. When Subutteo was released in 1947, figurines were cardboard standees in simple kits, and no pitch was provided.
Instead, players were given instructions on how to mark out their pitch onto a blanket - an old army blanket was recommended. Goals were made of wire with paper netting, and the ball consisted of cellulose acetate.
Despite its thrifty beginnings, orders started to pour in as soon as the first adverts were released. Subutteo was, of course, hugely successful, and as the years progressed so did the components until, eventually, the match-ready 3D plastic models I remember positioned so proudly across our dining room table came into existence.
Sibling Rivalries
My brother and his friends would spend hours huddled around that table shouting and cheering in glory and defeat while I strained on tiptoes, through the noise and the waft of teen gamer funk, to try and understand the game. Strangely enough, it was through Subbuteo I learned football.
Subbuteo was also the reason I became a Manchester United fan (since they were always opposed to my brother’s Liverpool squad and I was a precocious kid). When my brother wouldn’t let me play, I stole his centre forward and hid him under my bed. He never got him back. Sorry, Robert.
But when I was allowed to play, I loved The Beautiful Game. I was a champion on the Subbuteo pitch, a talent which sadly never translated to actual football. Outside, I was forlornly stuck in goal, but at home Cantona, Giggs, and Beckham’s golden foot were at my disposal, and we were a glorious team, sliding past the defence to guarantee a football victory which would live in infamy in our home.
If Retro Recall is to be a series about the games which formed our pasts, Subbuteo has probably had more influence in my life than I would expect. It made me love football. It made me love gaming. Heck, it made me almost like my brother!
There are only a handful of games which could carry such a testimonial. I hope my brother and I get to clash on the astroturf again soon, but this time, if I find Michael Owen under my bed again, I’m keeping him.
Uppa Red Devils.
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"...if I find Michael Owen under my bed again, I’m keeping him"
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This brings back many memories from sticking on numbers on the back of the players or getting the scoreboard for Christmas and looking longingly through the toy shop windows at the floodlights and grandstands you could buy.
My favourite though was the 5 a side arena which was great fun and could be stored easily under the sofa in the living room
I also enjoyed the cricket and rugby versions and fabulous scrum machine
Yes, the Rugby I’d forgotten about that. Those Kicker models! I never did score many extra points.
Never had the game myself but my Nan and Grandad did and played it a few times. It was fun, especially since I was really, really into Football when I was younger. Also a Manchester United fan haha.
Ohh wow I loved this when I was younger…. My friends and I started a league between ourselves, was great fun, in fact it was the start of some of my hobby too! I painted my standard players in the colours of my Feyenoord team, and using my hobby file to file off a players hair to make a bald head, as well as using modelling putty to make dreadlocks on Henrik Larsson….. Sadly Henrik’s added hair made him a bit unbalanced and he didnt seem to score many :p
Great game, and a blast from the past!
I still have my copy. Oh good memories I must dig it out…
Has anyone heard from Michael Owen recently? I just wonder if this is in fact cass’ confessional and she does have him kept somewhere safe so bookies can’t get hold of him….
This is probably the first game in this series I remember existing in the pages of a toy store catalog.
Never saw it in real life though.
Great memories. My favorite was playing with my older brother before the 1970 World Cup final. I played Brazil, and I won 4-1 (I’m not kidding!). But I was also a big fan of their Cricket version as well. Happy, innocent days. Thanks for the memories
I still have mine circa 1969. Fond memories the cloth pitch would double up as my first wargames table I’d turn it upside down and lay it out over some books to make green hills
I have a feeling I may have done that for my wargames. I had Subbuteo but could never get the hang of shooting the ball in the goal. It was a good game probably another love I found in miniatures. That picture of the pitch with the grandstand I can remember staring at it for a long time.
Bought this fabulous football game on my first visit to London, ages ago. I got it from Hamley´s in Regent Street. On later visits I got me some teams with jerseys from real teams, Barcelona and Borussia Mönchegladbach, the latter being a great rival of FC Liverpool back in the days. At home, I infected some of my lads with the game, too, and some of them bought their favourite teams just like I did. We had small tournaments and had a lot of fun. We called that flicking of the littke players “shnicking”. I always found that “noise” quite… Read more »
I much preferred the table football an probably put the equivalent of the price of a Bugatti in them over the years many moons ago.
Loved Subbuteo has a kid i had the grandstand edition in the 70s. Had the ashes edition of the cricket,used to have to glue the bats all the time.Enjoyed the rugby as well.
Striker was by far superior (even if the players kept breaking), but it didn’t have the boxes of teams in club strips (both home and away). I think Subbuteo had just about every team down to the Conference covered, and nearly every team for the world cup. I remember they always were for sale in “trophy” shops (that sold cups and things for local sports events) for some reason. But it was very expensive from what I could remember as a kid (the teams weren’t pocket money costs), and most kids just had the starter set and like Torros spent… Read more »
@phaidknott There’s probably a 10 page discussion in that. I remember another game that had large wedge shape bases under the players but can’t remember the name
Perhaps you could do a game on camera with BoW and post it up? Something a little different
So Scaletrix is next then?
The subboteo cloths worth their weight in gold when I was a bairn for the cloths for early wargames reversed with books shoved under for hills.
There is a second hand toy shop in Belfast that always has loads of Subbuteo stuff in stock.Must go have a rummage for old times sake
Subbuteo was an awesome game I still have all my stuff safely stored away, me and my friends used to spend hours playing it. We created teams and named the players even wrote stories and drew pictures about the players like in Roy of the Rovers. We had Leagues, Cups and even did European and World cup tournaments ( we even went as far as doing the world cup qualifying rounds, but instead of playing those games we used dice to determine the score it was about this time I started getting into RPGs and had the polyhedral dice and… Read more »
Great article, I have a lot of fond memories of subbuteo.
Also, I should have known Cass was a United fan, the accent gives it away.