Has anyone here ever played Subbuteo?

Hobby - Football
Hobby - Cricket

IT MAKES SENSE NOW!

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I had it but didn’t play it much, bit of a faff
Had a Simpsons scalextric which I was really into

I really liked the idea of it but every game of Subbuteo I ever played followed the same pattern:

Kick off
My Opponent (after thirty seconds): Well, it’s your go, isn’t it?!
(CJ tentatively flicks a player towards the ball.)
My Opponent: FOUL!!!
(Opponent furiously flicks players until ball goes in net)
My Opponent: GOOAALLL!!!
(Process starts again.)

I appreciate this says more about my mates aged 10 than Subbuteo but as such I never understood the bloody game.

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hi, yes

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nope

never played a game of actual football either

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Yes but I didn’t really enjoy it.

I think I might have, but I’ll never know for sure, so thanks for that.

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A very frustrating game to play, but the model train set world-building aspect was weirdly entertaining. Collect different teams, special balls, and, if you were really serious, maybe even a photographer or two:

I had my stepfather’s set that was from the 60s I assume - so nothing fancy like throw in men

I played a bit, probably more by myself than with an actual friend :smiley:

I mean really, imagine buying your own Subbuteo policemen ready to beat your Subbuteo crowd figures to a pulp at the first sign of trouble…

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Whaaaat. Not even a playground kickabout?

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Also used to enjoy a spot of Striker

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i’ve kicked a football at a wall or whatever but never played in a team against another team

like five a side or jumpers for goalposts or anything like that

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Never played subbuteo, but had this England branded game passed down by a cousin instead. It was great - you just had two knobs and had to knock the ball between the divot areas the players were in.

1980s-england-football-game-casdon_360_07f03fd3c868e96eca23dfef9de31278

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my best mate steve loved a bit of subbuteo. always found that it never worked that well and you’d be busting out the iron to try and flatten the cloth. one of those many things that looked much better on tv.

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Yeah. One mate had the full set and he basically made the rest of us get teams then there was a vague League setup for a couple of years.

I painted my team black with a diagonal red stripe and called them Steaua Forfar. That was the most fun part of the whole thing.

There’s a good bit in one of Julian Cole’s autobiographies about home and his brother spending hours making up elaborate back stories for their subbuteo teams and getting pissed off when other kids gave their teams stupid names like Chelsea or Liverpool.

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Totally. That and Mousetrap.

I had a set. I thought it was crap. Probably didn’t get it up correctly - remember the pitch never being properly flat.

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Actually we had to play Moustetrap with my daughter and the game aspect was a lot better than I remember as a kid.

Played it to death as a kid, me & my brother had most of a stadium set up. Love it

One of my friends had Subbuteo rugby, That was rubbish

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Wow, I never thought a table top sports simulator could be so accurate to reality.

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