Solo Subbuteo 101

Solo Subbuteo is a very broad church, it is full of different methods, ideas, and is solely dependent upon an individual’s perceptions, aims, and goals. You can’t teach the solo game as such, or give out a definitive set of rules, you can only offer advice from one’s own experience and ideals. I’ve even offered my own rules since I began this blog, to give an idea of my own thought process. They are in no way an authoritative set, and can be found on the downloads page of this blog. They are simply the set I use, and show how I go about my business, if you have a need, please feel free to use them in any way you see fit. That’s one of the endearing things about the solo game, it can be whatever you want it to be, and as simple or as complex as you want to make it. We can only share with each other those ideas we have found to work, but it’s up to you whether you feel those ideas are relevant to you as an individual, or the narrative you set yourse...

Firstly apologies for such a long time between posts, I’ve had a few personal things to attend to over the last few months which have prevented me from being as active and engaging with the game as I had planned for. That’s behind me now and I’ve started up my solo league again, after almost a season away. So without further ado lets get into this. The Italian’s? It’s well documented in certain quarters that the polishing of bases was down to the Italians in the late 70’s early 80’s, but I’m about to blow that myth out of the water, and say polishing of bases was down to one teenage lad from the West Midlands in the early 70’s. Dave Harris, a couple of years older than myself was a lad who tried everything to gain an advantage on the table. His playing abilities were average at best, but that didn’t stop him trying to discover ways to make Subbuteo heavyweight figures glide along the pitch and in his words, “Wipe that smug look off th...

The title itself is enough to put you off your dinner, I apologise for that but it had to be said. When I opened my first box set on Christmas morning 1969 I was confronted with that statement in all it’s glory . The poor guys in their pristine(??) red and blue kits with big brown balls that came up to their chest. The game was advertised as the replica of Association Football, and included the immortal phrase of “Reproducing all the thrills of real football by FINGER TIP CONTROL”, printed on the box. So when was the last time any of us saw the “Real” game played with balls this size which if to scale would have been around 1.5m in diameter, I suppose it would make goalkeeping easier, and the amount of 0-0 scorelines would become the rule rather than any kind of exception. But as we know it wasn’t the scale of things that fascinated us back then, it was the fact that we were in control, we scored the goals, we saved the shot s, and we won the trophies, no one cared the ball...

It’s a question I’ve been asked a few times in the past, is there a version of the rules that can be used to play solo without much or any alterations. I’ll try to answer that from a personal point of view after discussing a few things first. After recently talking to a lifelong friend, Sean Taylor the conversation eventually got round to Subbuteo as it somehow always does when we get together. Sean and I both played for the same club during our youth, Sean played a little longer than myself at that level, and would probably be regarded as the better player, but that aside we both had a healthy passion for Subbuteo which is still with us to this day. Sean was saying that he was never interested in solo play until the Government locked us down, and stopped football. He quite quickly became obsessed with getting some kind of football fix. That is a very similar story to my own, and my reasons for starting to, or should I say attempting to play the game single handed. He and I...

Some time back I posted a discussion “Why Play Solo”, which was basically different ways and ideas that could get players playing the solo game. At best it was a heads up view of different ways a solo player could get a Subbuteo fix. This time I’d like to go a little deeper into the discussion by asking a question “Is solo play a viable alternative?” to any other form of the game. It may or not be a well known fact that some predominately club and tournament players play solo, as is the inverse of th at statement. But can solo be a viable alternative as the main, or only focus of the hobby. Most c lub players would be more likely to disagree and say it’s a branch of the hobby that they can hop on and off when it suits them, maybe for a little practice or even nostalgia. Predominately solo players would all tend to join the “ayes have it” camp. Unlike Clubs and Tournaments, S olo play can be picked up when time allows or the mood takes you, no traveling ...