Subbuteo by torchlight

Came across my Jules Rimet and European Championship replica trophies a few months ago. Wife had put them in a toy giveaway. Had to explain to her the blood, sweat and tears I had to go through, to win those in the 1977-78 Brackenhill Drive (Hamilton) Subbuteo championships. :D

5-1 win in one of the finals over Martin Murphy (yes, one of them), with my 1970 Brazil team was the cherry on top.

My old man had mounted my pitch on a piece of hardwood, so you didn't have to deal with uneven carpet bumps. Loved it!!
 
Came across my Jules Rimet and European Championship replica trophies a few months ago. Wife had put them in a toy giveaway. Had to explain to her the blood, sweat and tears I had to go through, to win those in the 1977-78 Brackenhill Drive (Hamilton) Subbuteo championships. :D

5-1 win in one of the finals over Martin Murphy (yes, one of them), with my 1970 Brazil team was the cherry on top.

My old man had mounted my pitch on a piece of hardwood, so you didn't have to deal with uneven carpet bumps. Loved it!!
My old man did that too :D thought it was the best idea ever. “There yra son, plays like Ibrox!”
 
Shamelessly jumping on this thread to mention again that I have a perfectly sized piece of chipboard that my son's subbuteo pitch was mounted on to give away to a good home. Give me a shout if you can use it. Need to clear the spare room out and I'm loath to just chuck it in the dump.
 
Some set up that kids got. Stands & floodlights? I was lucky if I got to play on the kitchen table, hence the "injuries" to a few of my players after kneeling on them...

Made me think that. I never had celtic, if I broke one of them I wonder if id bother fixing them.

Any other Bears have the Tims subbuteo to play OF gamer?
 
My old man had mounted my pitch on a piece of hardwood, so you didn't have to deal with uneven carpet bumps.

Same here.

It then went on the dining table for league matches (the highest I finished was 2nd in an 8 team division).

Otherwise it was up in my room with stands all around.

The bugger was the supporters though.

I remember it was quite expensive to buy the painted ones, but you only got maybe ten punters in a pack.

As a result (much like in the picture) I had a stadium that probably could have held about 5000 people with only 200 fans in it.

Much like a bottom six SPFL game!
 
Slightly off topic here, but a young guy just along from where I stayed when growing up, got Subbuteo for his Christmas one year. Asked him about the game, and he said that he had to return it to the shop, as the fingertip control was missing and wasn't in the box. :))

For younger Bears - It used to be advertised as ' Subbuteo - The Game With Fingertip control'
 
Same here.

It then went on the dining table for league matches (the highest I finished was 2nd in an 8 team division).

Otherwise it was up in my room with stands all around.

The bugger was the supporters though.

I remember it was quite expensive to buy the painted ones, but you only got maybe ten punters in a pack.

As a result (much like in the picture) I had a stadium that probably could have held about 5000 people with only 200 fans in it.

Much like a bottom six SPFL game!

I realised that very quickly too, after I had bought a couple of packs of fans.

So I took my Airfix pilots out of their planes and put them in the stand to swell the attendance :))
 
The goalkeeper on a spring, looked good but never made any difference.

holidays were Subbuteo tournaments, my proudest moment was scoring a Trevor Francis diving header goal (European Cup Final)

I also had Subbuteo Cricket and Rugby but could never get into them.
 
Some set up that kids got. Stands & floodlights? I was lucky if I got to play on the kitchen table, hence the "injuries" to a few of my players after kneeling on them...

Made me think that. I never had celtic, if I broke one of them I wonder if id bother fixing them.

Any other Bears have the Tims subbuteo to play OF gamer?
Yes, I had them:mad: bought as a birthday "present" as a pi$$-take by my big cousin (a top bear who took me to Ibrox when the auld man couldn't make it). His reasoning was that they would never win a game & he was right:D
 
My older brother who was actually pretty good at the game played Rangers in a league with some of our neighbours kids.
Being the younger brother and not very good, I was made to play Celtic. Took some thrashings in my time lol.
Played in the Subbuteo World Cup once, which was held in Uddingston Community Centre around 1978 I think?
 
The floodlights were terrible for Subbuteo. :D As for the OP, if that photo is from Glasgow, it looks incredibly like someone I knew as a kid in the 1970's. :eek:
 
Could never work this game out as a nipper. Had some pitch set up but never had any skill. Think. It was a dying art form by the time I was old enough.

Never forget building a bonfire and burning my Dad's subutteo board he had kept since a child. He grudgingly gave me it but its only looking back as an adult now do I realise that would have been a sore one.
 
I remember that regularly someone would kneel on a player and snap the figure from the base. Before super glue to my Dad used Araldite (2 pack glue) - big lump of glue and you had a player with 2x the weight - carnage
 
My older brother who was actually pretty good at the game played Rangers in a league with some of our neighbours kids.
Being the younger brother and not very good, I was made to play Celtic. Took some thrashings in my time lol.
Played in the Subbuteo World Cup once, which was held in Uddingston Community Centre around 1978 I think?

I was the best out of all my pals and family bar the one kid who was just like from a different planet he was so good and he didn;t shove the players as most folk did, naw this fella was all about flicks and he had thon skill of being able to side flick away down the pitch and STILL hit the ball to set himelf up.
My older brother couldn't take a beating and would often rip the pitch up from his end a at times stood on a few players, the swine !
Back when airfix glue could fix em was fab but they brought in these wee strange poly-summit or other material and airfix glue used to melt that crap and it was around this time that I started to lose interest sadly.
 
The floodlights were terrible for Subbuteo. :D As for the OP, if that photo is from Glasgow, it looks incredibly like someone I knew as a kid in the 1970's. :eek:

I remember taking a while to save-up for the floodlights to buy from a friend and after getting them I hardly ever had the money to buy batteries for em. Thinking back I am sure that the 'light' produced was kinda shite tbh ?
 
My mate found his ‘Striker’ game hidden in his parents wardrobe a month before Xmas. The one where you hit them on the napper and they kicked the ball. Four of us played a whole
season of the English first division before he opened a well worn box on Xmas day. Better than subuteo but not as good as ‘Bobby Charlton’s Casdon Soccer ‘
 
I was the best out of all my pals and family bar the one kid who was just like from a different planet he was so good and he didn;t shove the players as most folk did, naw this fella was all about flicks and he had thon skill of being able to side flick away down the pitch and STILL hit the ball to set himelf up.
My older brother couldn't take a beating and would often rip the pitch up from his end a at times stood on a few players, the swine !
Back when airfix glue could fix em was fab but they brought in these wee strange poly-summit or other material and airfix glue used to melt that crap and it was around this time that I started to lose interest sadly.
IIRC shoving was cheating and not as effective as flicking anyway. Grounding your nail to get more power was also not on.
My cousin was (and still is) 2 years older than me. "He always beat me at subbuteo" until one day I skudded him and carnage ensued. Players and goals stomped underfoot as he had a "flaky".
 
Subbuteo football at the village hall every Tuesday night about six pitches loads of room, I had Rangers, Ajax, Feyenoord to pick from, I had the rugby as well Wigan and Leeds (staunchest strip ever).
 
My mate found his ‘Striker’ game hidden in his parents wardrobe a month before Xmas. The one where you hit them on the napper and they kicked the ball. Four of us played a whole
season of the English first division before he opened a well worn box on Xmas day. Better than subuteo but not as good as ‘Bobby Charlton’s Casdon Soccer ‘

I got Super Striker for xmas one year.

My bro broke most of the players jumping down from the top bunk after leaving it at our arses. 2 a side with sellotape on the injured players. :D

Always preferred it to subbuteo.
 
What was the one the players were all flesh coloured and you had to paint the strips on them, they slotted into a wee green flat base plate then you pulled the leg back to kick the ball? Was it Big League it was called? I had that one, loved it
 
My old man had mounted my pitch on a piece of hardwood, so you didn't have to deal with uneven carpet bumps. Loved it!


Is that not the equivalent of a plastic pitch nowadays??
 
My old man had mounted my pitch on a piece of hardwood, so you didn't have to deal with uneven carpet bumps. Loved it!


Is that not the equivalent of a plastic pitch nowadays??
No, still the same felt playing surface. Smooth though, so it would be like playing at Ibrox instead of Tannadump.

There was a sports shop at the top cross in Hamilton that sold all the Subbuteo stuff. Me and my pals would go in and ask them to take down teams, so we could look at the strips. After about our 20th visit, they chased us, since we never actually bought anything.

Remember getting a packet of the 1974 WC balls with the spots on them and the big deep goals from that WC, with the colored nets.
 
I remember that regularly someone would kneel on a player and snap the figure from the base. Before super glue to my Dad used Araldite (2 pack glue) - big lump of glue and you had a player with 2x the weight - carnage

Glue never worked for me so I used to melt the broken players legs with a lighter or a match and squish his molten legs back onto the stand to cool and harden. Within weeks half of my players were legless midgets :D
 
No, still the same felt playing surface. Smooth though, so it would be like playing at Ibrox instead of Tannadump.

There was a sports shop at the top cross in Hamilton that sold all the Subbuteo stuff. Me and my pals would go in and ask them to take down teams, so we could look at the strips. After about our 20th visit, they chased us, since we never actually bought anything.

Remember getting a packet of the 1974 WC balls with the spots on them and the big deep goals from that WC, with the colored nets.

Great shout about the 1974 World Cup, that's brought the memories flooding back. Cheers mate.
 
The goalkeeper on a spring, looked good but never made any difference.

holidays were Subbuteo tournaments, my proudest moment was scoring a Trevor Francis diving header goal (European Cup Final)

I also had Subbuteo Cricket and Rugby but could never get into them.

I did too.... loved the cricket, but the rugby was rubbish.
 
No, still the same felt playing surface. Smooth though, so it would be like playing at Ibrox instead of Tannadump.

There was a sports shop at the top cross in Hamilton that sold all the Subbuteo stuff. Me and my pals would go in and ask them to take down teams, so we could look at the strips. After about our 20th visit, they chased us, since we never actually bought anything.

Remember getting a packet of the 1974 WC balls with the spots on them and the big deep goals from that WC, with the colored nets.
Haaa .. came on to post the same. The nets seemed so exotic and cool as f*** :D
 
Up in my granny's loft as a 14-year-old, discovered a really old Subbuteo set where the bases were actually wooden with a wee slot into which you inserted a player, made of thin cardboard o_O
Wish I'd kept it now. Probs be worth a few bob.
 
Yes, I had them:mad: bought as a birthday "present" as a pi$$-take by my big cousin (a top bear who took me to Ibrox when the auld man couldn't make it). His reasoning was that they would never win a game & he was right:D
I bet all those red cards you gave them were unfair :)
 
My old man had mounted my pitch on a piece of hardwood, so you didn't have to deal with uneven carpet bumps. Loved it!


Is that not the equivalent of a plastic pitch nowadays??
My Dad mounted mine on hardboard, but here's the thing - he was never much of a DIY guy so he inadvertently fixed slim wooden supports to the hardboard with the rough underside of the hardboard topside.

The Subbuteo pitch smoothed onto this surface with an almost velcro-like consistency. A happy accident that rendered my Subbuteo pitch the 'Wembley' of the neighbourhood.
 
The actual floodlights were rubbish so you really had to use torches to supplement them. I had the 1970 World Cup edition.
 
Why did all kids regardless of age and gender look like stereotypical lesbians back in the 70s?

I resent that - we had Brut, Hai Karate and Old Spice just oozing out of us! It's funny because all our dads looked like demented serial killers at the same time!

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