One Player, 2 Continents, and a 40 year old Solo League

I was contacted by a fellow solo player a short while back, and I would like to introduce you to David Hargreaves British by birth, but now living in Canada. David like many players has returned to the game in later life, and is once again enjoying flicking the little fellows around the pitch He has kindly agreed to a question and answer session about Subbuteo and his passion for solo play.

 

So I’d like to say Hi David, and a big thank you for allowing me to interview you for the blog to give readers an insight of a fellow solo player, to maybe inspire or inform would be solo players why you feel solo play is a satisfying pastime.

Q1 – When did you first start playing Subbuteo?

 

A – I received my first Subbuteo set Christmas 67, or 68, forgive me it was over 50 years ago. It was a Display Edition with no pitch, but my Mother gave me an old white table cloth which my Sister kindly marked out for me. I finally obtained a baize pitch for £1.40 and it’s still in use today.

 

Q2 – What is your most prized Subbuteo possession?

 

A – I was given a Reference 17 by a friend as I’m a Sheffield Wednesday fan, the box has been signed by Peter Eustace who played for Wednesday in 2 stints from 1962 to 1970, and then again from 1972 to 1975, and I still have it.

However, when Wednesday went back to stripes in ’72 the Ref 17 kit became redundant and eventually (and I’m now disappointed I did this) the players all got repainted as outfield goalkeepers!! Recently I’ve done paint removal and expect to repaint the figures. Whether as Ref 17 I don’t know because eBay sold me 2 versions about 10 years ago. What a conundrum!

I’m also quite pleased to own a Ref 185. It’s a bit of a unique design and was the last team I bought as a teenager. It had some use before I packed everything away but is still in pristine condition.

 

My favourite Subbuteo Possessions. A Peter Eustace autographed Ref 17, and a pristine Ref 185

 

Q3 – Have you continually played the game or like many others returned to the game in later life?

A – I stopped playing for a while in the mid 70’s and we emigrated to Canada, I took all my Subbuteo with me, and during the mid 80’s a friend and I started our own league for a few months one winter, but work commitments at that time sent us is different directions. Move on 30 odd years and I was organising my basement as the kids had moved on. I decided to unbox my old Subbuteo and put it on some shelves. Then semi-retirement came, and I now had more spare time (and plenty of space in my now tidied basement). so I decided to occupy the winter months with a few games, solo of course.

Q4 – What equipment do you use at the moment?

A – Always Heavyweights, and smaller balls ever since I received a Football Express box set many years ago, I just thought it was more in scale with the players, oh and of course my baize pitch. I also have the blue/red netted World Cup goals from circa 1973 but just recently added a pair of Pegasus goals. Nothing wrong with them but I think I prefer the WC goals. I’m thinking of upgrading my pitch too in the near future.

Q5 – When did you start playing solo?

 

A – I’ve mainly played solo since I started playing due to the fact most of my friends didn’t play, and I was too busy with other things to find a local club. I organized and played all kinds of tournaments and leagues in my youth. I began my “Subbuteo Premier League” around 76-77. with 26 teams. I got about 80% through then “grew up” and everything was packed away. Fast Forward to 2020 and circumstances changed for all of us and I had an unexplained resurgence of interest in Subbuteo, I made a decision to complete my league, which I finally finished on Dec 10^th last year. I found it overall a great way to occupy my time, and keep the brain ticking over, especially by adapting from paper recording to an automated spreadsheet, as well as playing the game again.

 

Q6 – What rules do you employ in your solo games, and have you any house rules that you would like to share with us?

 

A – Well that would be the Advanced Subbuteo rules with some minor house modifications. These mainly affect offsides, fouls and shooting/goalkeeper possession. My general frame of reference for rules is the 1970’s FIFA standard, which means that offside is not restricted to the shooting area but players are only deemed to be offside if they are interfering with play, as they used to be. However I make use of onside flicks wherever practical, especially when the offender is a substantial distance from the ball.

On fouls my view is that the real game is a physical one and that’s reflected in how I judge foul play. Basically if a player lightly touches an opponent without really affecting possession, then no foul. But if there’s a stronger bump and possession is compromised then a free-kick is awarded.

As always, goalkeeping is a tricky one but I’ve settled on a couple of things. 1^st, if the keeper makes a save the attacking side still has possession to try and do something with the rebound. However if the ball ends up resting very close to the keeper ( no more than 1cm) then I let the keeper have it and use a repositioning flick for the attacker. The simulation here is that the keeper blocks the ball but can pounce on it before an attacker can get to it.

Second, any through ball that ends up in the 6-yard box within easy reach of the keeper is deemed to be too far from an attacker to make a play. Keeper gets possession and attacking side has a repositioning flick.

 

Another rule/procedure I’ve been thinking about but not changed (and I likely won’t), is the modern single player kick-off. I’m hard-wired to do it the old way with 2 players at the centre-spot. It’s a bit like muscle-memory that’s talked about in golf – you do it one way for ever and your mind and body are automatically attuned to doing it that way!

One last thing is the duration of games. I always played 25 minutes each way. No idea why but I think it came from the original friend who first showed me the game. That became the norm and I continued to use it for consistency to recently finish my Premier League. I changed for the World Cup over Xmas. I thought I’d go to 15 minutes each but this seemed too short and goals/chances were few. So I switched to 20 minutes and found this a bit better. This is what I’ll continue to use for my play and only change as required if I play in a Solo League at some point.

Q7 – Goalkeeping is a very debatable subject in solo play, what method do you employ?

 

A - Never thought about doing it any other way than using the keeper that’s with the teams. I was most interested in what was shown on one of the features in a recent Table Football Monthly YouTube video. Maybe one day I’ll try that.

But using the team keeper………. Well, sure it means reaching over from behind the goal and shooting with the fingerprint side of the finger rather than a proper flick, but it still works. I find I can get decent shots away. I find blasting the ball usually results in a straight shot that is easy to save so I tend to look for space just inside the posts. Even though I know this (because I am the keeper!), the reaction time and speed of the shot makes the difference between a save and a goal. Some cracking goals over the years and some surprises, too, when the shooter’s flick has directed the ball into a spot I thought was covered.

Of course, not every shot goes in. Plenty of top quality finger-tip saves and saves where the reaction time has been enough to deflect the ball as it’s just passing the keeper. I also hit the post a lot, which just adds to the drama.

 

Q8 – How do you cope with bias in solo play?

A - I need a reason to play so I take the competitive approach and with a decent selection of Heavyweight teams I like to use as many as possible. I have a large selection of teams and many I bought because of some affinity or other. Obviously, Sheffield Wednesday and England stand-out and maybe some others at different times for different reasons but I don’t really want results to reflect those leanings.

So no bias in play. Play fair, play as equitably as you can, tit-for-tat, a foul's a foul, a goal’s a goal. The spirit of fair-play (and British sportsmanship?), and all that. It can be done. Stick to your rules and have fun!

 

Q9 – Finally what solo plans do you have for the future.?

 

A - It’s been forty-odd years since I played the game in earnest yet it almost seems like yesterday, since my Subbuteo Premier League got underway in the mid-70s, 26 teams, home and away matches, 50 matches per team, 1,300 matches for me to play! I got through about 80% of the fixtures before realising that maybe that Maths and English homework I’d been neglecting did need some attention after all, or was it discos and girls?

So there I left it. Sheffield Wednesday on top, Leicester close behind with Chelsea, Everton, Spurs, West Ham and Sheffield United all decently poised to take advantage of any slip up at the top. Mid-table mediocrity for the likes of Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Derby and Liverpool, and a struggle at the bottom for Norwich, Ipswich, Sunderland and Luton.

Coming back and having that to finish was a motivator to get me going and when I did finish in December, I had a bit of a “What now?” feeling, but with some sense that I had the time to do more. A 16 team World Cup over Christmas sufficed and let me use my international teams and now I’m back at club level with my “European Inter-Regional Tournament” which brings in my Scottish and European teams. So everyone’s had a run-out! I’ll be working on this through February with an eye on a 2^nd 16 team World Cup loosely based on 1974’s teams. The groups and fixtures are already drawn and ready to go and that should see me to the end of winter at which point spring will have sprung and other things will be occupying my time through summer.

 

Then, of course, there’s the Cricket and the Rugby which we haven’t discussed…………….LOL.

 

 

A big thank you to David once again for agreeing to let me publish this brief insight into his Subbuteo journey. I think we can all relate a little of ourselves in David’s account, in our own personal Subbuteo journeys to date.

 

Keep On Flicking.

 

Ian