SUBBUTEO CLUB MEMBERS AUG. 2002 TO AUG. 2005 RIGBY DeanRIISLER KieronROBERTS SimonROBERTSON NigelRONSEN Anton RUDDLE TonyRUSSELL StanSADD MarkSADDLER DeanSALT AdamSALTER StevenSANDERS RobertSAUNDERS PaulSAUNTSON DixieSCATCHARD PaulSENESE MarcoSENIOR GarethSHAW TerenceSHELLEY JonSHERWOOD PeteSHONE TimSKEFFINGTON WayneSHERIDAN MartinSIBBALD GeoffreySIMMONDS WesleySIMPSON AndrewSLATTER SimonSMART RobinSMITH ChrisSMITH DebraSMITH MarkSMITH TrevorSPRING AlanSPROSTON AdrianSTANIFORTH MichaelSTANNARD PaulSTAPLES RichardSTAPLETON ChrisSTAPLETON RoySTASKIEWICZ AndrewSTEVENS GrahamSTOKER KevinSTONE DamienSTREATHER PaulSUTTON RonSWAIN MatthewSWEENEY WilliamTATARSKY DanielTAYLOR HarveyTAYLOR LeeTECHIATI EnricoTERRASI AnnaTHORPE KevinTINDLE PaulTIPLADY KeithTOTTI GianmatteoTURNER MaxTURPIN JohnTYLER-MASON Josh UNDERWOOD Colin VALENTE BrunoVARNEY BobVINCE IanVYCE NathanWADDINGTON PaulWAKELEN NigelWALKER DavidWALKER MattWALKER StephenWALLIS AdamWARREN KennethWATSON MalcolmWATTS DennisWELDON MattWELLINGS ShaunWEST KeithWESTHEAD MarkWESTWOOD CalumWESTWOOD JimWHITEHOUSE PhilWICKS OliverWILKINSON PaulWILLIAMS GaryWILLIAMS PaulWILSON AndyWILSON GeoffWILSON TobyWIMPERISS LenWINSTANLEY PeterWOOLCOCK JohnWRIGHT SteveWROE PeterWYKES SamYATES BrianYOUNG RichardZAZA Sahim

LENDRUM StevenLENTON BrianLEONARD SteveLEONE FilippoLETTS NicholasLEWIS PatrickLEWIS SimonLISHMAN NeilLIVINGSTONE RobertLIVRIERI LucaLODGE DavidLONGHORNGuyLONGINOTTI MarcoLOWE FrancisLUCAS BenLUCAS IanLUCAS SteveLUCOCK MikeMcCARTNEY DavidMcCREERY Alan, StuartMcGOWAN NeilMcLAUGHLIN NickMACKEN Shaun MACKENZIE AndrewMACKAY RodMACKEY GrantMALLACH HowardMANCINI AlissandroMANLEY Jason MANSON KennyMARKHAM PhilMARSHALL CraigMARSHALL Peter MAYERS Kevin, PeterMERRILL JohnMILLER DaveMILNE AlistairMILLS RogerMITCHELL AndyMOLONEY PatrickMONTGOMERY AlvinMOORE StuartMORRIS JeremyMORRIS SimonMOSELEY RichMOTLEY PeteMOURANT TimMURRAY AndrewMURRELL GraemeMYHILL JoeNAPIER Adam NEAL CharlesNEWMAN SamNICHOLLS BrianNOROHNHA Nuno, MiguelO'BYRNE AidenO'CALLAGHAN ChrisOAKLEY KevinODDY JonathanOFFILER NeilOGILVIE AlexO'MALLEY JamesOVER Derek OWENS MalcolmPAICE GrahamPAPADIMITRIOU DimitrisPARKER MarkPARKER StuartPATTERSON AlanPAVONE FabrizioPEACOCK MichaelPEACOCK StevePEACOCK StuartPEAKE ColinPEARCE GaryPEARSON GeoffreyPEDRINI AlexPENROSE AdamPERRY ColinPHILLIPS AndrewPINSENT MarshallPOLLACK ShanePORRITT MarkPOULDEN MarkPRATT RobertPRESTON NeilPROTHEROE GarethPURCHASE ChrisRADFORD PeterRAMNATH VikashRANDALL OwenRICHARDS GordonRICHARDS CraigRICHMOND GregRIDDICK NevilleRIDGEWELL Mark

ELPHICK CharlesENGLISH DaveENTWISTLE DavidEVANS MartinEVANS SimonEVERETT PhilipEYES PaulFINLAY DaveFISHER CarlFITZPATRICK TomFLETTON BenFORDHAM DavidFORESHAW WayneFOX SteveFOWKES JustinFREEMAN RobFRENCH JonGAMBLE LukeGARRATT PeterGARWOOD GeoffGENT JamesGENTLEMAN CraigGHIO GianniGIBSON RobertGIULIANI CarloGLOSSMAN FrankieGLOVER AlanGOLDTHORPE MartinGOODALL PhillipGRABOWSKI JakeGRANT PaulGRANT MalcolmGREEN PaulGREENE ConradGREENHALGH IanGRUNDY AndrewGRAY DarrenGRIFFIN Edward GRIFFITHS DeanHALL DavidHAMMOND ConradHAMMONDS DarrenHANNIFIN JonHARRIS MattHARROLD GregHARVEY AndrewHAYES ChrisHAYES DanielHAYES VictorMASON AndyHATELEY RossHEADLEY JamesHEARD ChrisHEINRICHS KlausHENLY AndrewHICKEY SeanHICKLING SamHOLMES StuartHOPKINS PeterHOPPER MandyHORABIN NeilHOPTON RichardHOWIE AlistairHOWKER RobinHUCKVALE MalcolmHUGHES RichardHUMPHRIES Daniel INGLIS GeorgeISMAN AlexJAMES ErrolJARVIS PeterJOHNSON TravisJOLLEY IanJONES GrantJONES MarkJONES RobertJONES VictorJUSSAH JahKAVANAGH BernardKEEGAN BarryKELLY KevinKEMP Norman KENT PatrickKING RogerKITSON CraigKOSIOR AdamLAMPITT RichardLANDONI LucaLANE PaulLANG EddieLAWRENCENigelLAWRENSON PaulLAZARIS PanosLEANDRO CosimoLECOUVREUR ThierryLEHMAN Glenn

ADDERLEY KevinALLEN ChrisALLODI LucaAMES DarrenANDERSON DavidANGUIGE FrankARDUISE LaurentARMSTRONG MikeARNAL AlainARTHUR TrevorASHURST DeanASPRIS GeorgeASTON SimonBAGNALL RicBALLARD JamieBANNOCK MarkBARNES PaulBASS MartinBATTEY GuyBAXTER DaveBEARD RichardBEARMAN LeeBELLI SimoneBERRY WayneBEST Ashley BIANCHI-CERIANI SimoneBIASINI BrunoBLAKE TonyBLANCHARD PeterBOAKES SimonBOLMEER KarlBONSALL MikeBOOTH MikeBORG-MARKS CliffordBORSI SimoneBOYLE PamelaBOYER ThomasBREWER SpencerBRIANT AdrianBRIGGS JohnBROWN JimBROWN PeterBULMER GeorgeBUTLER RobBYRNE ChrisBYRNE MatthewBYWATERS SteveBUCKBY SteveCACCURI EddyCAIN TimCAMBIONI RiccardoCAMPBELL MichaelCANDLANDTonyCAPENHURST RayCARRUTHERS AndrewCARTER EamonnCARTWRIGHT PaulCHAMBERS ChrisCHURCH GaryCHURCHILL AndrewCIPRIANI RiccardoCLARKE LeeCOLLEDGE MarkCOLLINS RoyCOMEGLIA PaoloCOMMONS LesCOOMBES JosephCOOPER DavidCOPELAND SeanCOX ByronCRAVEN Tim CROSS JulianCRYER WillCUMMINGS PaulCURTIS AdrianDALTON MauriceDAND GregDAVIS PeterDAVIES Simon DAY AdamDE'ATH IanDEACON ConnorDENTON MarkDe ANGELIS MarcoDeSILVESTRE AdrianDEVENEY MattDOLLIVE TrevorDOUGLAS AdamDUNN RodDUNN TonyDUTTON AlexEARLE MichaelEDWARDS KeithEDWARDS KenELLIOTT GavinELLIS Graham

Another 3 months have elapsed, the Autumn is approaching (along with the Welwyn Fair on Oct. 2nd!) and the SC enters its fourth year. We’re still firing on all 3 fronts with the newsletters, fairs and—more recently—our Internet Forum. This has been the big success of 2005 with 375 signed-up members since January and it puts SC members (plus the wider Subbuteo community) in closer contact as well as providing regular information and updates on matters which cannot wait 3 months for the next newsletter. This is a tool that previous clubs did not have at their disposal so if you are not registered yet please sign in sometime and use it.

Sorry that the last issue of this newsletter was a bit delayed due to my printer giving up (the sixth since issue #1!) That’s the problem with these editorials; there’s so much happens in between writing them and actually printing them off so you can’t say what went wrong until the next one. For the record, my printer was experiencing overheating problems meaning I could only print out a dozen or so sheets before giving it a long rest to cool down. You can imagine how long it all took, and apologies if anyone received a copy with a heat streak through one (or more) of the pages. It’s since been patched up but can still only do light loads so if it struggles through its latest ordeal you should be reading this somewhere around the 28/9 which again is slightly behind schedule. If my worst fears are realised I’ll head back down to the photocopy shop as I did with some of the earlier editions, but this will mean a slightly poorer print quality so if you notice this you will know what’s happened.

At this point I must make an appeal for some fresh, original newsletter material. Why? Well, a serious computer crash has wiped out many of the contributions that I was keeping in reserve, some of which were quite old and their authors no longer traceable. I realise this is turning into quite a tale of woe what with printers breaking down and now computer hard drives being wiped clean but it really has been one of those summers! The situation is not critical as we’ll always have incoming contributions from our dedicated team of regulars but I don’t want to overburden a minority as we stock up again and so this is an opportunity for some new names to appear. I know there are some members sitting on stories which would make for a great read (I’ve been nagging them for long enough!) so the time has come to do your bit for the SC newsletter.

Meantime, I’d like to thank all those who have contributed to this present issue (which we just managed to fill) and provided us with our usual array of articles. Jon “what’s it worth?’ French has been looking at Ebay prices this time, while Graham Paice has done us a “Subbuteo Scruples” quiz as a follow-up to his popular “Are you a true collector?” one in issue #9. Floodlights, team painting and a big rummage sale find are also featured and we round off with a less-than-glorious tribute to Subbuteo Angling followed by the anguish of a collector with too many run-of-the-mill items, including as the legendary ball-raising chute—great stuff!!! :-) I then achieved my ambition of doing an updated membership list on the back page containing 384 names for those of you with perfect reading vision.

Undoubtedly the most thought-provoking article is from Andrew Churchill, who fears for the game’s future in this FISTF-dominated era and asks how we can get back to playing real Subbuteo again as opposed to Table Football?!?I suppose I could take refuge behind a neutral statement such as “all opinions expressed merely reflect those of their author” but I have to say I share most of his views on the subject. Still, it’s uncompromising stuff and Bruno Biasini completes this issue’s centre-spread with his related piece on the World Retro League. But why am I telling you all this when you can read the full contents list below...?

(1) Trev’s Editorial (zzzzzz) (2) Club News (3) Play “Subbuteo Scruples” (4) The definitive floodlight guide

(5) Recent Subbuteo Prices (6) Subbuteo and Table Football - the culture clash! (7) The World Retro League

(8) “A new hobby for a talented woman” (8/9) “My best ever Subbuteo find” (10) The impossible Angling game

(11) Common Subbuteo items - the collector’s curse! (12) The 2k5 membership list, sponsored by “Specsavers”

ISSUE #12 - SEPTEMBER 2005

CONTENTS

CLUB NEWS

COMING IN ISSUE 13….

—SUBBUTEO CLUB AUTUMN FAIR—

This will be held at the Ludwick Family Club, Hall Grove, Welwyn Garden City, Herts. AL7 4PH on Sunday the 2nd of October from 9:30 a.m. (Traders 9 a.m.) until 1 p.m.

LARGE HALL—BRING AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE!

Within easy reach of the M1(J7), A1(J/W A414) & about 10 mins. North of the M25 (J23) ***ADMISSION AND CAR PARKING FACILITIES FREE TO ALL***

John Woolcock died recently and his funeral was held on Tuesday, May 17th 2005. He was one of the original winners of the “Subbuteo Silver Cup” in 1954/55 and the exhibition “Open” championship cup in 1960. He beat P.A. Adolph 2-1 in that final. John played with the celluloid figures in the Bradford Park Avenue (ref. 19) colours, which were red/amber/black hooped shirts with white shorts.

He and I had many a discussion of the experiences we had regarding the playing of Subbuteo in the Table Soccer Players Association Leagues of the 50s and early 60s. John played in the Highbury T.S.L. and then Ashdown T.S.L. along with G.H. Underwood. I played in the Port Talbot and Cardiff Table Soccer Leagues. We also exchanged many views regarding accessories, boxed games and our experience with flat figures compared to the 00 scale figures.

John was in the process of writing a book about Subbuteo and P.A. Adolph, the inventor, whom he knew very well and the experiences he had encountered whilst playing the game. John held strong views about Subbuteo and told me many a story of what went on in the early days. He was an Arsenal supporter through and through and I for one will miss his long informative chats on the telephone and at the swapmeets. God bless you John!

Gareth Protheroe

—— JOHN WOOLCOCK R.I.P. ——–

Details of the “Flick To Kick Cup Final” Movie

The Ultimate Stadium Guide

All about HW bases

Is it time to change the rules? .....plus a lot more, so please get those articles written up and sent in by Dec. 1st.!

This is an article about the more depressing side of Subbuteo collecting….all those common items we find in job lots and are forced to clog up our homes with. Fair enough, some of them are quite stylish such as the F.A. CUP for example, but how many of them do you need??? I realise there are always newcomers to the hobby who think “wow, this guy’s got an FA Cup - he’ll be saying he’s got the JULES RIMET next!” (erm yes, just the 3 at the moment :-) but this is for the other 90% who know they’re just bog-standard fare. My biggest phobia has to be the BLACK SCOREBOARD which has now become totally worthless—you literally can’t give them away!!! Then there’s the STANDARD GOALS that come with the early sets and at any point in time you can bet I have a dozen of these lying around. PITCHES also tend to accumulate too fast for my liking and they’re very awkward to store. If my wife would agree to it we could solve this problem by having all the carpets of the house made of green baize and I’m sure we’d still have enough left for some matching curtains!!! In actual fact they do make damn good table cloths, which we have tried on several occasions because they are just the right size for our dining room table.

As for the GREEN FENCE, we could go 5 times round our garden with this stuff. You can be sure that any large batch I find will contain one because they were very useful, but from a collectable viewpoint...groan!!! The inevitable CORNER KICKERS & THROW-IN PLAYERS will also be in there (guaranteed!) and another safe bet is the BALL RAISING CHUTE; My God, if I ever see another one of these….

Now you may think I’ve already moaned enough, but I’ve barely warmed up!!! My REFEREE & LINESMEN figures are reaching epidemic proportions, but at least you can use the bases for something useful whereas the BALL BOYS are utterly useless!! The green CORNER FLAGS I could willingly crush on sight, and a similar fate awaits the next box of C123 SPRINGY KEEPERS I come across!! Goals are a different matter, especially if we’re talking Mondial/European/Championship ones, but what do you always get landed with?? Those bl**dy WORLD CUP GOALS with the coloured nets that it was obligatory to buy in the 70s & early 80s. And if you find a set of the rarer C122s don’t even bother to look —the bars at the back are always broken!! Why didn’t Subbuteo just break them at the factory to save the customers time???

Other annoyingly fragile bits are the ladder for the TV TOWER with 9 out of 10 getting snapped off at the top and the projector lights for the BROWN SCOREBOARD, which break upon removal and leave a bit of plastic in the hole to sabotage the whole thing. I sometimes silently curse those kids who had no respect for their toys!!!

Yes, I must say that Subbuteo accessories stress me out because 80% of them are not worth the plastic they’re made of, and I threw away 3 of those C125 REBOUND BOARDS last week in sheer despair!! By the time this is being read I’ll have tried to sell my overspill items at a car boot, been to the charity shop to give the rest away and then binned any that still remain—this should rid the house of excess garbage by the end of the summer (a deadline imposed by my wife!) Anyway, it’s time to move on from accessories and give some other turkeys a brief mention….

If it’s sets we’re talking, how many of us have heard “I’ve got a lovely set here from the 70s” and thought “Oh my God, it’s the dreaded CLUB EDITION!” Sure enough, they go on to describe every collector’s bane (unless you only started collecting last Thursday of course!) and you feel a bit awkward refusing an item they obviously thought was worth a fortune. I am now at the stage where I assume that every set will be a Club Edition and in this way I’m mentally prepared for the trauma of it not being a Munich.

Something I never sniff at are the HWs, but even these can start to suck when you’re on your 8th box!! You get the voice on the phone demanding a tenner per team for some heavies and (s)he starts reeling them all off …. “I’ve got a BRAZIL team, then there’s a nice LIVERPOOL, a red/white/blue ENGLAND one, WBA, NEWCASTLE & ASTON VILLA. Are you interested? Hello, hello, are you still there? Hello…………...…….”

AAGGHH!!!! Common Subbuteo items

Alistair Milne

Every collector’s nightmare!

SUBBUTEO ANGLING (or “how to ruin the perfect evening”)

“Right, I’ve had this game for 5 years and not yet removed it from the box” I said to my son and “Oh but Dad, it’s gonna be cr*p!” was the reply. “How do you know until you’ve tried it?” I countered, …”because you can’t make a fishing game interesting” I was told. Yes, I suppose he did have a point!- And this is how our Subbuteo Angling evening began.

I took out each piece with the utmost reverence and opted for the blue fisherman while Jason (who really couldn’t give a damn) went for white. “Great aren’t they?” I said, trying to inject some enthusiasm, and back came ….“I can’t believe this is happening!!!” Okay, so he’d take some winning over but I was still confident at this stage.

Then the board was set out. Hmm, 40 multicoloured squares all with words on which made no sense, but all would be explained in the rulebook - wouldn’t it? Well, it would have been for a keen fisherman (or someone who had several of hours to spare) but it was lost on me so I went straight into plan B—IMPROVISE!!

My “make-it-up-as-we-go-along” strategy had never failed me yet whether in soccer, cricket or rugby. Angling looked like being the toughest challenge so far but I continued with a positive outlook. “Can’t wait to use the special dicer” I said cheerily but was met with a stony silence. I then set about lining up the various sets of cards with Jason’s reluctant help., but into my mind came the ominous thought that he could have been right about this game all along.

Splash cards, cast cards, fishing permits and tackle cards featuring such things as reels, keepnets, floats and groundbait. This was getting more technical by the second and I was now feeling out of my depth. “Okay, so who goes first then?” I said, praying the dicer would be a success. I hadn’t got a clue what the black numbers on it represented so we counted the red 1—6 ones and I got things underway with a 4. Jason then got a 6 and we looked at each other, both knowing what would come next….

“Hey, let’s have a race round the board” I suggested. “Suits me” was the reply and so off we went, reducing the vintage Subbuteo Angling playing board to a simple a race track. Sacrilege!!! Would anyone do this with Monopoly? Of course not, but then you can PLAY Monopoly and I defy anyone to play this silly fishing game. As we popped the ball in and out of the dicer on our second lap I caught sight of the Fish Weights chart with over 200 squares ranging from a 3 ounce dace to a 7 pound barbel and this convinced me we’d made the right decision.

Surprisingly, we got about 20 minutes of enjoyment out of this impromptu race game and I avoided a lot of unwanted stress. And then a thought occurred to me.…has anyone actually played Subbuteo Angling to the rules? Is it possible? Admittedly, our attempt was pretty poor but there must be others who have fared even worse with many too daunted to even try! I can safely say it’s the most incomprehensible game Subbuteo ever made—or any other games manufacturer for that matter!

The sad thing is that in true collector fashion I’d spent 5 years blissfully unaware of how poor the game was and even have it in 2 different box variations. And just because it’s rubbish to play I still wouldn’t part with either one, although I doubt very much they’ll be seeing daylight again in the near future.As passionate a Subbuteo fan as I am, I must admit that this is the one that got away!

Greg Richmond

1. You have 20 LW teams for sale and someone comes up to you and says “I’ll give you 200 quid for all those teams—they are HWs aren’t they” You reply….. A) Yes, that’s right! B) Erm, maybe, I’m not sure C) No, they’re the cheaper LWs

2. Your mate is after a rare Subbuteo item worth £20 and you find one for £1 at a car boot. Do you... A) Stick it straight onto Ebay to get maximum profit ? B) Let him have it for a tenner as he’s your mate ? C) Give it to him for a quid ?

3. Somebody leaves a Munich set lying around at the end of a fair and so you take it home. When the person makes an appeal for it do you ... A) Keep quiet ? B) Say you have it but “finders keepers” ? C) Send it back to its former owner ?

4. You accidentally sell some HW repaints and the buyers ask for their money back. Do you ... A) Refuse to give any refunds ? B) Try to persuade the buyers to keep them ? C) Give full reimbursement ?

5. A hard-up pensioner offers you masses of old Subbuteo and asks if it’s worth anything.You say…. A) Nah! B) I’ve no idea!? C) Yes, it’s worth a fortune!!

Subbuteo Scruples What would you do?

SCORING:- A) = 0 points B) = 1 point C) = 2 points

How did you fare?

10 points (max.) ….A credit to both the hobby and the human race (if you were being honest:-)8-9 points……………We’ve all had our lapses I suppose, but still pretty good. 5 to 7 points ………...I’m not sure I’d want to be doing many Subbuteo deals with you4 points or less ……...What?? You should be reading this in a room with bars at the windows!!

Graham Paice ——————— —————————

I’m by no means an expert on Subbuteo floodlights but would like to share my collecting experiences with others. I never meant my obsession with them to go so far but you know how it is. You buy a nice variation, then another and then another and so on. Before I knew it I had a 50-strong collection of these things and I came to the conclusion there’s an almost infinite number of combinations you could come up with, including some that collectors may not have thought of yet. So I’d like to offer some thoughts and opinions on the subject.

Like most people I started out with the 70s ones with the girders and was surprised to find that these came in a sort of light beige as well as white—at first I thought they’d just yellowed with age! Then it became clear there were different colours of wires you could get. I’ve no idea how many there are altogether but I’ve currently got red, blue, green, black and white. The bulb cases themselves also vary, with either a black or grey casing to hold the bulb in but what I didn’t realise for years (although it’s obvious now) is that the holes on the front vary in both their number and the pattern they’re arranged in. As for the bases, there are the bulky ones taking the barrel-type batteries and then there are the flatter ones requiring the larger, single flat battery. Some of these lights worked by means of a switch on the side of the base unit while others had a little red connecting pin you plugged into the base, either at the side or on the top (you see, even there we have several variations—not to mention the slightly different types of connecting pin you could get!!) I think by the time you’ve combined and multiplied all these combinations (who’s good at maths?) we could already be talking about needing several hundred floodlights if you wanted to cover ALL the possible permutations. Now, even I’m not that fanatical but I do like to have at least one of all the things mentioned (wires, switches, bulb cases, scaffold and base type/colour). I’d say these girder-style floodlights, which most of us are familiar with, had the most combos by far, but this is to be expected as they were around for much longer than the other types—almost 20 years in fact. But others were produced before and since.

<<< The early 60s ones had nothing more than red fence poles as pylons and some had a Subbuteo sticker on the base (which I thought was added by previous owners but was in fact how they were sold!) Again, the tops were slightly different and the majority of early ones had an all-in-one silver bulb box casing with a lighter silver front and just 6 holes. Of these there was a single hole in the middle of the top row of 3 through which the bulb shone! There was nothing like the sheer quantity of variations one finds with the girder-type floodlights although it’s worth noting that the earliest versions had SUBBUTEO printed in red letters on the tops of the bases before this disappeared after a very brief period. I have two such lights in an all-white boxed set I found recently. Ah, box variations!! No, I mustn’t get started on these but I just had to include a photo (above) of this particular gem.

I must say however that these early lights are very unsteady and tend to wobble about all over the place when assembled. The poles also tended to keep coming out of their holes which is a nuisance, whether it be the 3 on the bottom of the bulb box or the 3 on the base. Maybe it’s because they had to be bent to converge from the wide base towards the narrower top. Incidentally, there are 4 holes on the base altogether and I never did work out what the other one was for ??? I’m sure it must be blatantly obvious!

The pillar-style floodlights dated from about 1990 onwards as I recall and these are my personal favourites, if only because they take about 10% of the time to assemble and are far more sturdy. They have all-in-one solid pylons with the wires incorporated and so are less fiddly and intricate than all their predecessors. I have a beautiful set of these in a mint, glossy 61222 box with a foam insert which looks quite splendid (see pics).

I was also fortunate enough to find a shop still selling these for £4.99 a box at the end of the 90s and so bought a further 3 sets but they’ve completely disappeared since. I always find these lights more reliable than the other types with less faulty contacts etc. but there’s little to report in the way of design diversity. Unfortunately (despite being the most elegant-looking lights yet) they still have a pretty dismal lighting capacity in common with all the previous ones—it’s a pity this never improved at all in over 30 years! One major drawback with them is that they only work off batteries and not the mains and therefore cannot be used with the appliance below....

This finally brings me on to the C161 mains adapters in my collection. Although not improving the actual lighting they at least keeps it constant and prevent an even dimmer ray as the batteries start to fade. How practical they are when playing is debateable because they leave a trail of wires everywhere when you’ve got all 4 lights plugged in. Still, they’re a lot cheaper than buying 8 big barrel batteries after every few games. Admittedly, battery technology has improved over the years with the advent of Duracell and other long-life alkaline versions but these adapters are still an overall better option in my view.

I got a boxed one of these from a website about a year ago and the first thing I did was check it with the unboxed one I had. Guess what? The connecting pins were a different colour but I’ve so far resisted the temptation to go hunting for other variations - I’d have to consider counselling if I ever got to that stage! Also, the C161 adapter is only a peripheral item in many respects but still part of the overall floodlight package and therefore worthy of mention.

It’s a pity that Subbuteo haven’t followed up on the floodlight theme for a while and I’d venture to guess that the “pillar” ones above will be the last, but I’m a big fan of them and think they were Subbuteo’s most fascinating accessory. When one considers how floodlights have evolved in football stadia over the past decade or so it’s easy to see the scope available for new models. I doubt there will be any but I’d certainly be at the front of the queue if so! I hope this article will be of interest to readers and that I haven’t missed out anything too glaring (no pun intended:-) in my all-too-brief summary. Thanks for reading.

Brian Yates

LET THERE BE LIGHT!But wait! What if the guy wanted 300 quid because he’d been studying Ebay, or what if he said ’make me an offer’ and I had this dilemma??? How high was I prepared to go? At a rough estimate there were at least 40 teams in there and even at a fiver a box we’d be talking £200.00 but I was hoping he’d just want to shift them as a job lot at a fraction of this price. How would I paythough because I hadn’t come out with a huge wad of cash and was totally unprepared for this eventuality Thoughts were racing through my mind but these were cut short when a voice said ’you can have those old football teams for £8.00 if you like’ I have to say that this was one of the sweetest sounds I’ve ever heard, even to this day, and I could hardly control my inner elation at that precise moment!

I tried not to sound too enthusiastic in my response—”yeah, okay then”—but I was already doing a mental lap of honour!! I fumbled awkwardly for a tenner I knew I had and then handed it over, not really caring whether the change came back or not. £8? £10? Who cares? My focus was fully on the box and nothing else in the room seemed to exist...it was surreal!! I was in some kind of altered state which is difficult to describe, but I mechanically took the two pound coins and picked up the box which was now mine and what a great feeling it was to be carrying about 40 HW teams under my arm.

I’m sure the seller was just as pleased as me to be going home without this burden and he looked extremely thankful that I’d relieved him of it. We exchanged a few pleasantries about the great game and how much fun we’d had with it back in the 70s and he said ’pity nobody wants it any more’ he said (gasp!!! what???) ‘Er, no, that’s a real shame isn’t it!?’ I replied, and I later felt a little contrite at having been less than honest on this point. But what could I say? It’s one of those situations where telling the truth would be bordering upon insanity!!!

So I set off on the journey home, booty in hand, and it only occurred to me then that I hadn’t even finished looking round the sale. I’d barely done half a lap and there were another half a dozen stalls outside which I’d totally neglected. Mind you, as I was on foot I’d have been hard pushed to carry anything else along with this 3 foot (1m) by 2 foot (70cms) box. The excitement of that 5 minute walk home was quite intense because I’d only checked 2 of the teams, believe it or not. Well, how could they not be a bargain for 8 quid??? Needless to say, as soon as I got home I set about this task in earnest.

The usual suspects appeared first, the refs 11, 13, 18 et al and then things suddenly got interesting. Out popped a #99 Torino (one I badly wanted at the time) and there followed a little batch of Italian teams including refs. 91 96 and 97—WOW!! Back to a few more common ones and then a spate of teams in the 30s-40 range, of which #36 was the pick of the bunch. There was also a #38 but it had a broken player and I remember feeling disappointed about this. Amazing isn’t it how you find a boxful of gems and get disappointed with a less-than-perfect item!? I quickly chased away any notion of ’disappointment’ and the very last team to come out was a #70….what a bonus!! I had 3 players already but here was a practically mint condition full team on white outers with red inners—beautiful!!!

The ‘market value’ of this lot must have been approaching £1000.00 at the time, but this seemed irrelevant because I had no intention of parting with them. I considered it to be £1000.00 ‘saved’ rather than £1000.00 ‘earned’ but nonetheless one has to do something with the swaps! I managed to shift a few via the exchange route, including 4 of my fairly common refs for a #24. I then enrolled on Ebay to sell those I thought I’d be stuck with and got some surprising prices—well in excess of what you’d get these days because it was still before all the common heavies had been rounded up and/or before collectors realised just how common they actually were!

A #49 team stands out in my memory because it fetched £30+ and there was even a WBA (ref. 3) that went for £23.00—maybe because it had the stripe down the arms?? So as you can tell I had a good time just offloading the spares! I eventually ploughed most of the profits back into teams I still needed, something I hadn’t originally planned but that’s what collecting does to you and the more you get the more desperate you become to get the rest!!! Still, at the back of my mind was that if I was only spending the money from the proceeds of my find and (due to the some of sums involved) this was a reassuring thought I can tell you!!

Before this fortunate discovery I had no fixed targets, just being happy to round up odd ’wants’ as and when they appeared. Then when you’ve just found about 20 rare teams this suddenly makes targets which before were out of reach worth considering. Should I go for the 1-190? No, there was still an awful lot of spending required to get there and I wasn’t banking on any more major finds like this one. I waited a few more months before finally deciding that #s 1 to 81 would be my goal as I already had over 50 of these and had some serious ’currency’ still in reserve to get the rest. The best deal I got (and I hope my fellow swapper agrees from his viewpoint) was a #20 for my #91 and I gradually got rid of all my post-90 Italian teams in this way.

I am pleased to report that I now have the full run of teams I wanted, something I finally achieved earlier this year with a ref. #61. I have so far resisted the temptation to go for any more outside of this range, as well as all the strip variations within it. I still keep a lookout for HW teams though and have been back to the venue where I got lucky several times since. As I suspected, my find was purely a one-off and I haven’t had a sniff since but every time I go in there it brings back memories of that happy day! The man who sold me the teams hasn’t been back since either, but maybe it’s just as well as he may since have discovered Ebay which was still in its infancy back then. I’ve also visited another 50 or so rummage sales in the meantime, feeling that they could be an untapped source of Subbuteo, but can assure everyone that this is not the case.

I must have found more quality teams on that particular day than in all my searching before and since, so for this reason it was easily “my best ever Subbuteo find”.

Adam Napier

Subbuteo – it was always something my son did at his Dad’s on his weekends there, and then suddenly it all moved back in with me this year. My garage, loft, cupboards and any available surface is now filled to overflowing with these little green boxes, my garage (which is a double size space) has become a playing area, with teams all slot-ted into place on shelves ready for their next fixture and the pitch brushed, hoovered and pristine awaiting their appearance down the tunnel. Even the garage door gets shut now to stop the cat sleeping on the hallowed turf! Memories of himself playing on the lumpy carpet in my flat during my late teens, how things have moved on! The commentary still goes on and Andy Gray should watch his job with the quality of as it happens observations.

Well if you can’t beat ‘em, you might as well join ‘em and for my birthday my son gave me my very own team –Nails By Dee FC, who are incidentally, still awaiting their match debut. I think the boys are afraid of the stiff com-petition! Their smart kit in plum, each with one black arm is something any championship team would be proud to wear. I was not given a goalie but that was soon rectified from the stocks of spares in the aforementioned garage.

Next I found I was regularly paying for items won on eBay with my paypal account, taking daily deliveries of more of these little boxes and (thanks to Chris Stapleton) making up black and white boxes of a similar ilk. Not to be out done by the skilled painting done by my youngest child, Mr Stapleton and others, and being a skilled nail artist I offered to paint up a team or two, though my airbrush has not found its niche here yet, low and behold a team of naked players arrives with little pots of Humbrol paint and a paint guide from the very pages of this publication. Austria Wein is my first effort and having mixed the exact perfect shade of “lilac” I start applying the paint…. Being mostly Scandinavian they featured a few blond players but some black and brown coiffured heads also appeared.

I enjoy the outcome and adulation from my beloved so much that I soon ask for another team and Stuttgart is next, followed by erm… oh I’ve forgotten but they had green stripes. So now I have a new hobby which I really enjoy, am not feeling abandoned and out done by these little plastic men, and am looking forward to the new season of games and witnessing first hand, my teams, of which I hope there will be many, many more scoring and winning those all important trophies.

Vive la Subbuteo! Dee Westwood www.nailsbydee.com

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My best ever Subbuteo findI was at a local rummage sale about 4 years ago having seen it in a small ad in the paper. I had previously attended this venue and there had been a healthy turnout of stallholders even though I’d come away empty-handed on that occasion. I didn’t really fancy my chances this time either (judging by the type of goods usually for sale at these places) but have always believed it takes just one stall to change everything and make my day a success.

I got to the place—a small church– and there were about 20 stalls which filled the room along 3 sides plus a couple more crammed into the middle. There was quite an intimate atmosphere in the place which was perhaps due to so many of the church attenders knowing each other and the average age was quite high, certainly as far as the stallholders were concerned. This is no bad thing because if anyone is to have the sort of stuff I’m after ‘straight from the attic’ it’s likely to be someone who’s touching 50 by now...sorry to remind HW collectors of this!

My first impression of the goods on offer was not too favourable because there were 2 stalls with piles of old clothes stacked up on them and the next one along was an elderly lady selling cakes for the Heart Foundation. The man with the vinyl records had a few buyers around his table but this wasn’t for me either so I continued on up the right side of the hall which ended with somebody doing a raffle. Pretty uninspiring stuff so far but still early days with 2 full sides left.

So I turned left as I continued my anti-clockwise journey to go along the top wall and this began with a lot of nice china ornaments (if that’s your thing) before yet more clothes appeared. A few more stalls and then suddenly...BINGO!! Beneath a table I saw a large brown box which I’d probably have walked past 9 times out of 10 but this one had the word Subbuteo scrawled on it in black felt pen!!! I literally dived down and opened the top flaps and there they all were—a whole box full of 70s teams!!!!!!!!! My entire day had been transformed within those few seconds :-)

Subbuteo – a new hobby for a talented woman!

What’s appreciating and depreciating in the unpredictable world of Subbuteo trading? Here are some of the things I’ve noticed over the past 6 months or so on Ebay and various websites (but please feel free to disagree!)

GOING UP —————————————————————————————————

Floodlights………………… You couldn’t give these away at one time but will now get a fiver each, while early 80s boxed sets have been going for £20+ on a regular basis!

Rugby sets………………… These have gone up considerably, especially if containing any of the rarer teams.

European Cup C204…...… This rocketed into double figures as Liverpool lifted the trophy back in July and are still there as I write, even for unboxed ones.

Premier League Trophy…. Been on the up for a few months, and especially now the new season’s kicked off

Flat teams………………… Some of the rarer ones are going for big money right now. Even as I write a Celtic (admittedly in a box) has just sold for £77. You can get carded ones on strips for £15 on websites or celluloids in packs for £10 upwards. This is a big increase on what they’d have sold for a couple of years ago.

Early 80s goals…… ……… Always sought after because of their limited availability. Mondial and European ones are especially popular and in good boxes have been going for over £20 recently.

Named boxes……………… Whether club or international teams there’s a lot of interest at the moment which is reflected in prices. One extreme case was a Morocco team which fetched £150!!!

Rosettes…………………… Not sure whether Subbuteo collectors or football fans are buying these but there was a Chelsea one which went for £45 the other week and then a couple more at £20+ The statuettes market seems to be quite buoyant too!

COMING DOWN —————————————————————————————————

Cricket sets………………. Most collectors now have these and there’s little new demand appearing

Munich Editions.………… I’ve seen about 6 of them on Ebay already this year, some in vgc and I don’t recall any of them passing the £300 mark. Were they as rare as we all first thought?

Early soccer sets………….Prices are lower than ever and about half of what they were a couple of years back.

Common Hw’s……………Struggling to break into double figures and hanging around for weeks on websites

Repainted teams…………Too many repainters offering them these days and so supply is far outstripping demand.

Subbuteo C157 W.C. …… Rarely sell for £40 having reached twice this amount in their heyday. The same is true of the C171 League Cup to a lesser extent.

Brochures……………….. Maybe collectors have read up on Subbuteo via the Internet and so they’re required less. Previously very dear (for what they are), but high prices were unsustainable and their bubble has finally burst!

And finally, a quick layman’s guide to some Ebay terminology….

Vintage/classic Anything preceding the year 2000 Rare Haven’t seen one yet this week Mega/ultra rare —–“—–”—–”—–”—–”—month Very collectable Can’t wait to get rid of it!1960s item Seems quite old?found in attic Found at car bootMint condition Looks okay to mePlayed with/used condition Wrecked!

“UPPERS & DOWNERS” - The Subbuteo roller coaster!

Caveat Emptor!

JON FRENCH

What is Subbuteo?

There has been a lot of confusion about what Subbuteo is of late, and there’s a surprisingly simple answer. Subbuteo is a table-top soccer game played with official Subbuteo products to Subbuteo rules. I can already sense I’ve upset a few players of a vaguely similar game called “table football” here just by stating the obvious, but there’s no getting away from this basic fact. Unfortunately, there are many table football players deluding themselves that they’re playing Subbuteo—or is it other people they are trying to fool? If it’s the former then fair enough, (although you’d think they’d know whether they were using Subbuteo equipment or not!) whereas if it’s the latter then in my view this represents a serious threat to the hobby’s future.

Real Subbuteo used to be played throughout the UK and beyond and there was a flourishing Subbuteo league network as recently as the late-80s both in the UK and abroad. Anyone with old copies of Subbuteo News can see for themselves the highly-developed regional league system for the UK but this was before they became supplanted by the ETSFA, FISTF and all those other acronyms. Interestingly, they do not contain the word Subbuteo in them anywhere despite many of their players themselves claiming to be “Subbuteo” players. It was these newly-founded federations which changed the rules, took Subbuteo away from its roots and over the past 20 years have made the game virtually unrecognisable!

Today we have a lot of FISTF players using high-tech bases (some of which can cost £60.00 a set!!!) and I’ve been to tournaments where the players themselves look like blocks of wood rather than footballers. The game is now becoming a science instead of a sport, played almost exclusively in straight lines with players just being slid—with the help of polish applied to the bases– over great distances. Any resemblance between football and this game (recently referred to as “glorified shove halfpenny” on the Subbuteo forum) is coincidental, as things such as unrealistic 8-1-1 formations will testify. Subbuteo was always billed as “the replica of association football” and if it loses this then it loses 50% of its appeal straightaway for many of us!

However, if you try and tell a table football player he isn’t playing Subbuteo you can expect a backlash. You’ll be told that the game has “evolved” and the word “inclusive” will usually crop up at some point too. Is this not always the language used when outside groups seek to impose themselves on their hosts? Why do Subbuteo enthusiasts, keen to play and talk about the original version of the game and maintain a tradition, owe it to another group to share their hobby with them? They don’t!!! Obviously, it’s easy to use cliches like “narrow-minded” to stigmatise those to whom Subbuteo means Subbuteo but this is merely the empty rhetoric of the liberal fascist who demands acceptance and concessions from others ….or else!!

At this point it’s appropriate to recall what happened in practice when groups of Table Football players (“all members of the same community”, apparently?) descended on a Subbuteo forum where, instead of mixing, some of them spent 12 months shut off in their private sections (following an insane decision by the webmaster to grant them these!!) periodically insulting Subbuteo collectors with whom they had little in common. The supreme irony was that when members of the Subbuteo Club asked for their own private section (bearing in mind it was a SUBBUTEO forum!!) the TF players closed ranks and united with one voice to oppose this. Now, no-one is saying that Subbuteo had all the good guys and the TF players were all villains but wasn’t there something sadly inevitable here? And what does it tell us about how TF players perceive Subbuteo in relation to themselves? My interpretation of this is that Subbuteo is a useful vehicle for them to climb aboard but they won’t be grateful passengers and will soon want to be in the driving seat! But is this surprising?

Let’s face it, if you asked a group of Scalextric fans to give up part their Scalextric chatroom to accommodate other slot car racing groups there'd be uproar, and I’m sure if a load of Dinky and Corgi collectors invaded the Matchbox preserve (“it’s all miniature cars you know!”) we’d have a similar scenario. Pushing this to an extreme we could even have Barbie Dolls muscling in on the Action Man scene with results too horrible to contemplate!!! This is not to say that none of the individuals concerned will get along on a personal level but in the long term you’re bound to get a power struggle. Rival cliques will avoid each other, simply through a lack of interest in the others' activities (however superficially "similar" they appear) and what will ultimately happen is that the most tightly knit and organized groups will dominate! In the case of the Table Football lobby we have seen how they all stick together (perhaps due to having regular social meetings whereas the collector tends to be a more solitary animal) and then use their block vote to further their own specific agenda.

It must be said that FISTF is an enormous organisation these days (comparatively speaking) and dwarfs Subbuteo, which I don’t believe even has an official body to represent it. You join a “Subbuteo” Club and the next thing you know you’re playing something you barely recognise from the game you once knew. Several aspiring players have made this error and some adapt, some give up and others accept table football as a forced compromise knowing that to play competitively these days it’s a case of either accept FISTF or don’t bother. The remedy is the gradual creation of true Subbuteo clubs, not affiliated to any TF Association, but this is a long-term goal given the current situation where Subbuteo is now a minority sport within an already minority sport. However, I think that in time there could be a demand to play real Subbuteo again and the beginnings of this are already visible in the form of increasingly-frequent competitions played to the proper Advanced Rules. These are often collector-led initiatives because Subbuteo collectors have an appreciation of the game’s history (a trait lacking in most TF competitors) and playing to Subbuteo rules with Subbuteo teams is a natural expression of this.

It is noticeable that a lot of Subbuteo players are interested in the full hobby and so will collect as well to varying degrees. For them, collecting (whether it be different teams or accessories to enhance their playing experience) and playing Subbuteo go together, whereas TF players are only interested in their tourna-ments and the minimum gear they need to compete in games. They therefore have no affinity with Subbuteo products which are not competitive for table football in 2005 because a new generation of FISTF rules have changed the style of play to render them obsolete. I’m sure that there are TF players who have never even seen—let alone played with—any equipment made by the company whose game they purport to be playing!!!

Regrettably, Hasbro have done Subbuteo no favours by scaling down production to a trickle and delivering items which no longer capture the public imagination. This is despite being in the privileged position of having sole rights to the game and thus determining where it goes. Wouldn't it be great if boxed Subbuteo sets became popular again, selling in thousands and youngsters pored over the rules of the official game with great expectancy before creat-ing their own leagues as they did some years back. A game for the masses once more, not just an elite few who can afford the latest in base technology and who care more about sliding 10 discs effectively than playing a realistic soccer game bearing some relation to the real thing. However, there’s no way Hasbro's current crop of products are going to inspire this resurgence of interest - an already difficult enough task in this computer era - so I wouldn’t want to raise any hopes here. I'm afraid that having Subbuteo under American ownership was always going to end this way.

I think it’s commendable that so many independent suppliers—often individuals– are prepared to fill the vacuum and produce equipment (teams in particular) that enthusiasts want to buy and play with. Because they cater for a connaisseur clientele their products are inevitably better than the mass-produced, general-public range from Hasbro but you will already have guessed the punchline here…..it just isn’t Subbuteo! In fairness, most of them (though not all) recognise this and call their products “Table Soccer/Football” ones as opposed to Subbuteo, perhaps because there are copyrights and patents to consider. Wouldn’t it be nice if the Table Football players were equally aware that the game they play—often with these aforementioned products— is not actually Subbuteo? I sometimes wish that Subbuteo players and collectors would do more to remind them of this FACT.

Perhaps the main point of this article is to say that Subbuteo has an identity crisis. Even from bona fide Subbuteo fans I sometimes hear defeatist reasoning such as “our community is small so we have to widen the definition of Subbuteo to keep the numbers up”, but is this not just a quicker route to extinction? In the long term you can only save Subbuteo by getting more people to play or collect it and not by taking similar things and calling them ‘Subbuteo’. This is the crux of what I am saying and with luck it will serve as a wake-up call. If not then the game once known as “the replica of association football” will cease to exist as we knew it, absorbed into FISTF where it will lose everything but its name. Should this happens there will only be a dwindling number of collectors left to keep the Subbuteo tradition alive.

Andrew Churchill

The World Retro League By Bruno Biasini

The World Retro League is a worldwide Subbuteo club formed to accommodate Subbuteo players who enjoy playing an older version of the game. For this reason the rules of play, and playing materials, are limited to the time period between initial creation of the game up to 1989. Also included are the Football Simulation Rules. These rules were written in June 2003, modified in December 2004, and are designed to make Subbuteo closely simulate football.

Alessandro Benedetti, in the region of Tuscany, Italy, held the first official World Retro League tournament during the month of May in the year 2004. The tournament was played by 8 Italian players under the playing rules of 1985, with all players using either heavy weight or Zeugo heavy weight copy type playing figures. Shortly after this tournament a player ranking system was put in place, and a tournament criteria created. The tournament criteria simplifies the tournament hosting structure by allowing players to hold tournaments in the their homes amongst friends, while still maintaining the possibility of holding events in larger venues with many players.

The main goal of the World Retro League is to help revive the game of Subbuteo. This is to be accomplished by reintro-ducing the game from its roots, promoting the original ideals of the game's creator, and reintroducing the game into the proper market place within the consumer game market.

The World Retro League currently has active players in Italy, Belgium, and Canada. These three countries have managed to place almost 60 players in the current ranking system. The League tournament criterion and ranking system are ex-plained below.

World Retro League Tournament Criteria

Below are the criteria for an official World Retro Tournament.

1) A tournament must consist of 4 players or more.

2) Only acceptable playing figures and bases will be flats, heavyweight (molded or bar), lightweight, lightweight Waddingtons, Zeugo and Santiago heavyweight copies, hybrid figures, and Zombies. “Pro” bases, Hasbro solid bases, and new Parodi bases, are not valid.

3) Any pitch and ball size type is acceptable, but only one type of pitch, or ball type, may be used in a specific tournament. This is to be determined by the tournament organizer.

4) Playing rules may include anything from the Advanced Rules to rules written prior to the original FISTF rules. The Football Simulation Rules are also valid. A tournament organizer may implement a football formations rule, if so desired. Any form of the FISTF rules, old or current, and anything in between, are not included.

5) Each tournament must consist of a round robin first round with a minimum of 3 players per group. One or two matches may be played between each group competitor. At least one player must be eliminated from each round robin first round group. This is to be followed by a direct elimination phase of either single or two leg matches. Two leg matches may be decided by the away goals rule. A tournament final must consist of one match direct elimination, but one replay will be allowed.

Any tournament abiding by the above conditions should be reported to me through e-mail at: bimbo_d_oro@hotmail.com I will require a list of all results, which includes all player names. Plate competition matches should also be reported, as they affect the ranking tables. These results will then be calculated into the ranking system, and the appropriate ranking points will be allotted.

Should there be any questions concerning any of the above criteria, please e-mail the above address.

Word documents of the World Retro League tournament criteria, tournament ranking system, the complete ranking list, and the Football Simulation Rules may be obtained by e-mailing Bruno Biasini: bimbo_d_oro@hotmail.com

The World Retro League website may be found in both English and Italian versions at: www.worldretroleague.com

Thanks a lot Andrew….definitely no punches pulled there! How better to follow that than by hearing from Bruno Biasini, who runs the World Retro League? This is for genuine Subbuteo players who still play the game as originally intended (as a close replica to association football) so please read carefully and think whether you can contribute to a Subbuteo renaissance —Ed.