Solo Subbuteo 101

Just over 12 Months ago, I posted about some new rules I was implementing with regards to my solo play. These were mainly centered around the way I would administer blocking flicks. Well 12 months on nothing has really changed in that respect, but I did try one or two things which like all things worked on paper but quickly became dismissed as I felt that there was no actual benefit in game play. Nevertheless things have changed over that 12 month period in other ways This month I thought I’d briefly go through my rule-book explaining my thoughts on why I choose the methods I do, in an attempt to show why I do what I do, and why I feel it works for me. It’s all well and good people like myself sharing or suggesting ideas, but sometimes they are easily dismissed because the recipient just doesn’t understand why it’s been suggested in the first place. So the following is a brief insight into my rules, an attempt by me to show my working out rather than the results, t...

  Love ‘em or hate ‘em many solo players use ‘em. Some in different ways to others but usually for the same purpose. The taking of goal kicks is the obvious one, clearing the ball is another. What usually differs from my observations, is when the free standing custodian can legitimately be brought into play, this differs slightly from solo player to solo player. Some will bring it into play once the ball enters the 18 yard box, others the same but only when that side is in possession. Some start it from anywhere inside or behind the 6 yard box, and others from anywhere behind the goal line. So we can see there are no hard and fast rules here, I’m going to discuss my method and how it fits in with my flavour of rules, giving you an insight into my thoughts and ideas on it's use. In The Beginning In the words of the early 50’s rules it states: “ T he goalkeeper may be taken off the wire holder and flicked against the ball by the n...

This time I want to revisit a topic I touched on a couple of months ago Solo Goalkeeping. I watched the December edition of  Table Football Monthly  on YouTube, and saw a Solo Goalkeeper tested. I had already ordered a set of those Bad Boys, literally a couple of days before the December edition aired. Has they had not yet arrived, I was interested like many solo players to see them in action. They duly arrived after Christmas, and once the box was opened I was a little underwhelmed, the description on eBay said some assembly required what it failed to mention was complete assembly and that glue would be necessary to complete this task, to give you an idea of the contents of the packet I’ve inserted a photo below.   The assembled Keeper is constructed from the component parts on the right   It would have been better in my opinion if the keepers could have some way clipped or snapped together to make them playable rather than glueing a rather loose...

Solo goalkeeping comes in all shapes and sizes, it’s finding a method that works for you, and that my friends is all I'm prepared to say. Well apart from to give you all a few ideas, (and I’ve tried most of them to see how they work in my games). Before we get into this I’m going to digress a little and take you back to the last century yes the 1970’s for me "The Golden Age" of Subbuteo, when football was a contact sport, and the world was still considered flat, oh how times have changed. Anyway back to the point. I was saving up my pocket money to buy I think it was the training kit “B” which in essence was a shaped yellow plastic wall covered in rubber bands horizontally stretched around it. One simply placed the wall somewhere in front of a goal, flicked a ball at with your finger and used your goalkeeper to save the rebound with your other hand. At this point my Grandfather intervened and made one it was a wooden wall with deep vertical grooves and ru...