Solo Subbuteo 101

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...

Well this is a question which will forever be debated amongst solo players, I’ve seen many variations from none, some, always, and then there’s the custom rules which only allow blocking when the ball is in certain areas of the pitch, or even a limited amount of blocking per one period of possession, the list goes on. Again there’s no right or wrong way to do this, but you as a solo player have to be comfortable with the system you play with. One could simply play by the elementary rules which were the original Subbuteo rules to get one accustomed to the game, which has no blocking at all. Or play the FISTF rules which allows blocking all over the place at any time.   My Solution My take on all this is if you use continuous blocking in a solo game, it’s done on an I go, you go, basis and can, and often does stem the flow of the game, of course it works well when playing a live opponent as it then depends on ones speed and tactics. But when playing by o...

There’s probably as many reasons as there are solo players, and they probably all do it for the same reasons, enjoyment. Players use it as a training exercise, play in national,and international Solo Leagues like the ISSL (look them up on Facebook), or play there own Fantasy leagues where the likes of Melchester Rovers can take on the mighty Liverpool (should I mention my team Aston Villa’s result recently against the Reds), and win, with Roy of the Rovers scoring the winner in injury time. The only restraint in playing solo is your imagination. Collecting teams new or old, Heavyweights, Lightweights, Flats, even the modern flat base offerings (which to be honest I’ve never purchased or used). Making your own stadium for the wee fellows to play in, formulating rules to suit your own style of play, the possibilities are endless. So don’t ask yourself why, but how far do I want to take this.   You also need a set of rules, to be at least consistent in games...