Old Dogs, New Tricks

I remember being told many moons ago, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, which to a certain extent is true, but recently after talking to a few “Old Dogs”, that saying has been turned on it’s head. I’ve always maintained that no matter what ideas we have about playing Subbuteo in a solo format, you won’t be the first to think of them nor will you be the last. That statement was proved a few weeks ago, after a chance meeting with an older guy by the name of Ron who lives not far from me. I found out that he and a few of his mates meet up on a Sunday afternoon for a flick about, Nothing serious he hastened to add, a bit of fun, a lot of banter and nostalgia. He also invited me round for a game or two, he said “I’ll drop our rules around sometime during the week”. I was about to tell him where I lived, when he interrupted and said I know, I’ve known your wife since she was at school. Apparently she was good friends with his younger sister, and he had intended to call around after talking with my other half recently, as he had found out that I played the game as well.

The Rules Arrived

A couple of days later when I returned from work on the table was an A4 brown envelope, with my name on it. Inside I found the rules Ron had dropped round, All hand written, with a little note and his telephone number, informing me to give him a call if I fancied a game with a few “Oldies” as he put it.

I gave the rules a read and noticed they were the ‘69 rules with a few house rules thrown in for good measure. It was these house rules that intrigued me, and gives my opening paragraph meaning. So let me explain.

Positioning At Goal kicks

I’ve been down this road before and given you my ideas and thoughts on this, and when I read Ron’s version it made me smile as it was very similar to my own idea which I shared a few blog posts ago, So with his kind permission I’ll share his method which is simple to understand.

At least 3 players must be positioned in each of the 3 quarters outside of your opponents shooting area, the last player can be placed in any of the 3 quarters, but there are a couple of caveats:

1) No players can be placed inside their own 18 yard box.

2) At least 2 players must be nearer to the halfway line than the shooting line in their own half.

Now this method is not far removed from my own  (My Goal Kick rule) but certainly takes up far less ink to explain. I did however think that it may be a little constrictive in actual play, but I have to admit I was wrong, when I turned up and had a few games with these guys, I found it worked quite well, and it put players in the areas that you want them, and was less constrictive than I imagined.

Direct Free Kicks

Solo wise I don’t do direct free kicks, (well not at the time of writing this), my reasoning is simple, well for me it is. Even if I allowed a wall to try and block the path to goal, I reckon I stand a decent chance of getting it at least on target. I don’t want this in my solo games, because my goalkeepers even though they are bigger are pretty darn static, and a direct free kick allows me to place the kicker in the prime position to attempt the shot, but that’s me, it’s not very lifelike but it serves my purpose. Plus what happens to a 4 man wall after, the ball must go out for a goal kick, or a corner to be able to break it up. Hence my decision to only have indirect free kicks, except of course penalties.

Ron and his mates had come to a similar conclusion but by a different bus route, they don’t like walls either, but they do have direct free kicks. The method they employ is the defence have 3 blocking flicks, whilst the attack have only 1 for direct free kicks in the shooting area. Again when I read this I wondered how well this would work in practice. Now this one I tried at home before my visit, with some accurate blocking it was just as effective as a wall, more so in certain circumstances, and I began to see it’s value. When I questioned the guys about it, they all agreed that building a wall took too many players out of the game especially if the defence came away with the ball, I had to agree with them there. I told them how, and why I play the way I do, and there was a puzzled look on a few faces, before one of the guys said “No direct free kicks Really!”. Well that just about summed that one up then.

Offside

I’ve deliberately left this one until last, for the simple reason I’m still unsure about it. So I’ll explain it how it was explained to me and let you make up your own mind.

We all, (well I'm presuming we do), know the Subbuteo offside rule. A player is in an offside position if in the shooting area the attacker is closer to the goal line than the last but one defender, and the last defender especially in solo games is usually the goalkeeper. Now based on that fact offside is pretty simple, but it can be a little fluid if you take into account blocking flicks. Anyway Ron explained that even if an attacker was in an offside position, you can still play the ball forward and as long as the offside player is not the closest attacker to the ball when the ball stops, but it is not allowed to flick the ball. OK I was still with it at that point. So I ask the obvious question can I flick the offside player onside then. Yes I could but I would lose possession, as it would be deemed that I had missed the ball hence losing possession.

Now don’t get me wrong I can see some benefit in this, an attacker in a wide offside position not interfering with the play can be ignored, I get that so I asked why can’t a player in a prime area which is offside be flicked onside. Now the answer I received was to me a little strange but I did see their point, and that was it makes you think about how to create the chance.

OK fair enough you can see what’s what so you adapt your tactics to suit the situation, but to me it just slows everything down a little too much at times. Maybe that’s what they want, and who am I to argue. I didn’t say any more, I was a guest, and I would have to play this way, so I watched a couple of games before I realised how to partially overcome the no onside flicks rule. Forcing a corner, instead of trying to keep the ball away from the the offside attacker, was something that came to mind. This tactic worked to a degree, plus if I was in a good forward position just outside the shooting area, I also tried the touch, touch, shoot routine if possible. But after one such shot the keeper saved,and I then used an attacker who was in an onside position before the shot, to hit the rolling rebound and was penalised for it's now offside position. It makes some sense but boy did it have the potential to become more complicated than maybe I feel it needs to be. Of all the house rules this one made more sense in theory than in practice.

I can see the benefits of not calling offside until that player is deemed active, but no benefit whatsoever in not being able to get that player back onside at some point during possession. So the jury’s out as they say for me on that particular rule.

Could These Rules Work Solo

In a word yes they probably could, although I have my own doubts about the offside rule as they play it, I prefer my own variant which isn’t a million miles away from the Subbuteo variant. We probably all have different ways of interpreting offside in our games, and we all have the right to choose how we do such things.

I may however consider introducing direct free kicks into my solo game as a result of Ron’s house rule, or at least adapt the principle. The goal kick positioning rule is simple and close to my own ideas, so Ron’s house rule in that respect as far as I’m concerned is just as viable in solo play as is my own.

I thought I’d share these rules with you as you can never have too many ideas in your back pocket. I’d also like to give Ron and the gang a big thank you for letting me join in, and allowing me to share their way of playing. There’s life in the “Old Dogs” yet, and they know exactly what I mean.

Keep On Flicking

Ian