You don't see many kids out in the street or in the park these days playing football, that being for a variety of reasons while it also produces a variety of end results, child obesity almost doubling in boys from 9.6% in 1995 to 16.9% in 2010 being one of them. Infact, at the risk of sounding old, I'd guess that a lot more of them are sat at home playing football games I've never heard of on computer and games consoles I've just about heard of. The nearest I ever got to that, barring using an arcade machine, is playing Football Manager on my old Commodore 16. I did have some Subbuteo kit as well, but I can't remember when that disappeared from my life, one of the things I do recall from that though were the little orange Adidas Tango footballs, the full size white version having been used for the 1978 and 1982 World Cups. Looking on Ebay it would cost you £14.99 now to get three of the little orange ones in their original box, but that seems cheap when you have a look at the prices of some other Subbuteo stuff. The most expensive item I could find on there being a complete World Cup Edition from 1970, which would set you back £399.99 if you were to jump on Buy It Now. You get plenty for that though, infact you get a silver referees whistle, working floodlights, a red fence surround, a score recorder with three detachable lamps, three teams and three wire held goalkeepers. As well as an England flag, a referee and two linesmen, a TV tower, cameraman, commentator and cameras, a trainer and manager, the pitch, balls, goals, corner and line flags. Then finally a book of rules, a mini World Cup and a shooting target. No stands though I hear you cry! Well, the same seller has what looks like an end terrace section resplendent with 114 spectators glued into it for £37.99. Someone else has an even better one though that's up at £10.51 with a day of bidding left, presumably the damaged box is dragging the price down. This one is a double decker stand mind, with a tunnel built into the bottom tier. You can only guess that it must be modelled on a non-league club though as it comes with just 14 spectators to stick in it, plus one of them has a broken arm apparently. Something that was more often the case with the players after the dog had started chewing one of them. Looking at the accessories section in particular I never knew you could get so much stuff to add to your Subbuteo enjoyment. It's like those model railway sets you see where they seem to have thought of absolutely everything, apart from warm cans of McEwans Export at £2.50 a go from the buffet trolley. On the subject of cost, perimeter fencing advertising seems to be a lot more expensive these days out in the real world, you could get four old boards (Adidas, Le Coq Sportif, Seiko and Sharp) for £7.99 on Ebay. I particularly like the old style scoreboards too, to say those days are long gone now with the advent of mobile technology would be an understatement however. One game that does still rely heavily on scoreboards though is cricket, although the game is nowhere near as collective and popular as football or rugby judging by Ebay. It having just 66 items for sale, while rugby picks up the pace at 452 and then football weighs in at a mammoth 2,754, another 1,183 items being "not specified", how is it that difficult to "specify" something as football, rugby or cricket? Very, seemingly. Hunting for other Subbuteo information on Google led me to Peter Upton's excellent website - http://www.peter-upton.co.uk/sub1.htm Infact it was only by going on there did I realise that you could also get Speedway, Motor Racing, Horse Racing, Cycle Speedway, Hockey, Snooker and Angling versions of Subbuteo. Although as a vehement non-fishing fan I can't imagine how dull angling is normally, never mind playing it as a board game. Looking at the rules of it, it seems a damn sight more complicated than normal fishing is, although you do at least get a massive UFO shaped dicer to keep you entertained. The fishermen you get look particularly sinister mind, dressed in full length waterproofs - including a hat, and black boots. Even their tackle box (stop sniggering at the back) matches their clothing as well, which you can get in blue, green, white or yellow. I might be annoying a few people here, more than usual I hasten to add, but Speedway isn't one of my favourites either, I've yet to watch a "race" where the person leading at the first bend doesn't win. There are apparently 17 advanced rules for the Subbuteo version, so I don't want to know how many normal ones there are, but the name of the game was dropping a ball bearing down a chute to push your bike around the track. It sounds pretty riveting doesn't it to be honest, but considering that game was brought out in 1953 it will have been a relatively entertaining way for kids to spend an evening in those days. The football version itself having been launched as long ago as March 1947, with the first sets being sold by mail order and containing no pitch, a piece of chalk though provided in the set so that you could mark out the pitch on an old army blanket. 63 years on though and it's rather different times as far as football games are concerned, and there have been loads and loads of other ones that people have played since computers and game consoles entered our lives. I'll have a closer look at some of them before the Swindon match in a fortnight, and maybe in the meantime I'll stick a bid in for a 1970s Sliema Wanderers Subbuteo team that is currently sitting at £79.99 on Ebay, or maybe I won't. |