Did any of you play Subbuteo

Kerrydude1981

I had three sets of the game,myself and my cousins used have a league with home and away matches,was a great game back in the day,just wondering did any of ye guys on here play the game when ye were kids

vektarman

My pal had the deluxe version with the floodlights, police with dogs, football hooligans etc. which was all a bit useless as we just threw it all aside because all the extras got in the way.

I did have my own game but my Dad thought I didn't use it any more so I got home from school one day to find he'd cut up the cloth football pitch to make a baize card table.

Kerrydude1981

vektarman wrote: »

My pal had the deluxe version with the floodlights, police with dogs, football hooligans etc. which was all a bit useless as we just threw it all aside because all the extras got in the way.

I did have my own game but my Dad thought I didn't use it any more so I got home from school one day to find he'd cut up the cloth football pitch to make a baize card table.

Ya all the extras you could get were gas,I just had the advertising boards and few camera men and ball boys,I ended up getting a table for the pitch because playing down on the floor was proving to be hazardous for the players health

BigBrownBear

It was great fun Subbuteo. Only had the basics myself....players and pitch!

Also inspired a classic line in The Undertones song 'My Perfect Cousin'.

"He always beat me at Subbuteo
Cos he flicked to kick....
And I didn't know" :cool:

GavRedKing

Never played it myself but my 2 cousins we're mad for it back in the mid 90's.

dyer

cousins had it too.. found it pretty boring!

loved supercup football though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9yuas52FN4

dyer

-- oops double post

Kerrydude1981

dyer wrote: »

cousins had it too.. found it pretty boring!

loved supercup football though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9yuas52FN4

Had that as well cracking game,you can still get it i think on eBay,

Skid

Subbuteo, the Champion, the champion game of all ....


The reality was never as good as the advert for me.

The players were hard to control, and the pitch was lumpy.

And half of my team had Blu-tac to stick them back on their bases because I kneeled on them :mad:

But it was good fun. I loved taking a Free-kick by heading the ball, scraping the players head along the pitch to make the ball chip up. My game. my rules

Cee-Jay-Cee

I never seen the point in it and therefore never got it but plenty of my friends had it and i refused to play. I didnt see the point when you could have far better fun kicking a real ball around outside in the garden.

Mr. Presentable

We had Subbuteo in our house. I was rubbish at it - I don't think I ever won a game :mad:

marwelie

Yep, still have a load of it at home in fairly decent nick if someone wants it....

Used to have a mini league and cup competition running from my house. I once scored what would now be described as a Paul Scholes special (v Bradford or Villa) directly from a corner in a cup game against one of the kids up the road, an achievement, 25 years later, that I'm still hugely proud of (I really should get out more often!)

Wimbago

Looked part but as a game it was kinda sh1t. Was more interested in making formations on the pitch than anything :P

Princess Peach

Yeah we had the big mad deluxe Subbuteo. Flood lights, stands, and a tv tower. Had a bunch of different teams too. Would love to know what happened to them all! Mam probably gave them away.

vektarman

Princess Peach wrote: »

Yeah we had the big mad deluxe Subbuteo. Flood lights, stands, and a tv tower. Had a bunch of different teams too. Would love to know what happened to them all! Mam probably gave them away.

I'd forgotten about the TV tower, is there anything subutteo didn't have...

nlgbbbblth

vektarman wrote: »

I'd forgotten about the TV tower, is there anything subutteo didn't have...

dog sh*t.

Although my friend's dog made up for that by taking a runny crap on the pitch. It was deeply unpleasant and got tangled up in one of the goal nets. He had no table so we had to play on the floor.

I had the floodlights, stands and scoreboard with 1978 World Cup country tags. Used to paint our own team strips from surplus players using Airfix paint. Remember the number stickers that would never stay on?

DEFTLEFTHAND

I stapled the pitch on to the back of a plywood board to offer greater stability. Also I made stands out of shoeboxes and the like.:o

freedom13

Yeah, had a world cup version ... the teams were Holland and Argentina, so must have been the 78 edition, although it was around 81/82 when I got it, also got the Ireland team . Ireland always beat Argentina

Kerrydude1981

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

I stapled the pitch on to the back of a plywood board to offer greater stability. Also I made stands out of shoeboxes and the like.:o

Dont worry your not the only one that used make stands out of shoe boxes

telecaster

Bit of a Subbuteo nostalgia fest:

http://armchairsaint.blogspot.com/2012/04/abandoned-cup-final.html

Kerrydude1981

telecaster wrote: »

Bit of a Subbuteo nostalgia fest:

http://armchairsaint.blogspot.com/2012/04/abandoned-cup-final.html

Brilliant read,cheers for posting,brings back memories of arguing with my cousins over matches

Stojkovic

Yeah I played in the qualifiers for 1978 World Cup in the Central Hotel in Exchequer Street. Won first game, lost second.

Played leagues in school, home and away etc.

"Flick to Kick".

Lando Griffin

The older brother had a set, I was very young at the time but remember Spain and Chile being two of the teams with their bent little knees. Many would get near season ending injuries and need emergency super glue surgery; but their balance would never be restored. The keepers arms were also liable to breaks. Never had any of the extras.

kitakyushu

We had a the 1990 set of Ireland v England. I was just getting into football at the time and was very excited about football in all it's forms. TBH the game was a bit of a letdown and I never really got into it. Give me FIFA 12 anyday.

dyer wrote: »

cousins had it too.. found it pretty boring!

loved supercup football though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9yuas52FN4

I had that game too. Think I probably got in in 1989. Loud as hell. I agree it was more fun than Subbuteo and definitely got more play in our house.

stovelid

Aye - we ha d a mini-league amongst my friends and everything.

toffeeshel

J Cheever Loophole

Just discovered this thread - brilliant!

Subbutteo was huge for us as kids - over the Summer, there were eight of us, and we used to have two pitches going, and play two groups of four with the top two going into semi-finals (as per the 1980, 1984, 1988 Euro Championships). .

The lad who used to host the tournaments (his parents were both out at work) was a subbuteo fanatic, had all the equipment, and was absolutely brilliant at the game itself, playing as Italy. He was able to employ catenaccio (sp?) to deadly effect and invariably won each tournament (advantages of being host!!).

Indeed, subbuteo also introduced a player that could be employed for corner kicks only, which essentially put the ball into the area, via the aerial route. This lad was able to perfect scoring direct from corners, and the only way around it was to hold your keeper in a hover at the near post angle with the cross-bar as he took the kick.

Two particular memories - my 'flicking style' was called into question as I was accused of pushing so I was forced to redefine my game, which affected perfromance :mad: and secondly the summer of 1978, in the aftermath of the World Cup, when subbuteo introduced the new Argentina team to their catalogue and everyone, and I mean everyone, bought a set!!

Wonderful wonderful memories - the innocence of it all - thanks to the OP.

Kerrydude1981

J Cheever Loophole wrote: »

Just discovered this thread - brilliant!

Subbutteo was huge for us as kids - over the Summer, there were eight of us, and we used to have two pitches going, and play two groups of four with the top two going into semi-finals (as per the 1980, 1984, 1988 Euro Championships). .

The lad who used to host the tournaments (his parents were both out at work) was a subbuteo fanatic, had all the equipment, and was absolutely brilliant at the game itself, playing as Italy. He was able to employ catenaccio (sp?) to deadly effect and invariably won each tournament (advantages of being host!!).

Indeed, subbuteo also introduced a player that could be employed for corner kicks only, which essentially put the ball into the area, via the aerial route. This lad was able to perfect scoring direct from corners, and the only way around it was to hold your keeper in a hover at the near post angle with the cross-bar as he took the kick.

Two particular memories - my 'flicking style' was called into question as I was accused of pushing so I was forced to redefine my game, which affected perfromance :mad: and secondly the summer of 1978, in the aftermath of the World Cup, when subbuteo introduced the new Argentina team to their catalogue and everyone, and I mean everyone, bought a set!!

Wonderful wonderful memories - the innocence of it all - thanks to the OP.

Flick to kick

J Cheever Loophole

Kerrydude1981 wrote: »

Flick to kick

Ha ha - absolutely correct. In some very 'big' games, my nerves would totally get the better of me, and the technique would go out the window!!

I have a mate who glued his pitch to a sheet of plywood. Were having a league back then as everyone had a Subbutteo set, and this guy was always forced to be QPR because they had an artificial pitch at the time.

spoke2cun

Just came across this thread. It all sounds very familiar to me . 6-8 of us played it in the 80s. I loved it. When the other lads weren't playing I'd play solo leagues every Saturday during the long winter. I discovered an old pitch and 2 teams a few years ago in my mum's attic and it all came back to me. Then I saw a book 'Flick to kick' in a local shop and bought it and all of a sudden I was as crazy about a game that I had given up almost 25 years ago. To my amazement I discovered that the game was still alive in Britain and on the continent. So we started a small club and have held 4 subbuteo nights over the last couple of years and we are hoping to play a bit more this winter 2016/17. It's also great to see it back in some shops. Hope to hear from anyone who is still interested in this great game.