Solo Subbuteo 101

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 final...

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...

How many of you had your first Subbuteo at Christmas, I would imagine especially in the UK and readers of a certain age (Wrinklies, comes to mind as my eldest Grandson so lovingly calls me) Christmas was the time when it was possible to have one. I remember I had put it on my wish-list for Christmas 1969, I wanted the International Edition. Which at the time was approx £10 and would have perhaps been equivalent to a third of my Parents weekly income. They probably thought that paying the bills and, putting food on the table was a little more important than feeding the fantasies of a 9 year old. But fair play to my Parents they did get me a Subbuteo that Christmas, not the one I wanted but a Subbuteo set non the less. Was I disappointed at only receiving a Club Edition? You can bet you’re life I wasn’t. The feeling I remember was one of pure joy, I had my first Subbuteo . The start of an era The first tournament I played in was December 25 th 1969, it consisted o...

I’ve just purchased a few La Leggenda lightweight teams without bases, to compliment my collection of Santiago heavyweights. They were just teams of 10 outfield players at a very reasonable price with no box. As I’m not really a collector of Subbuteo, the lack of bases, box and goalkeeper was not a consideration for the purchase. What it would allow me to do however was assemble a few lightweight teams to try out, and could they be integrated into my solo league and compete with the heavyweights without any bias for either.   First we need bases   I really like the players on pegs as basing them is very simple there are many bases new and used around to choose from. I wanted something comparable to the heavyweight base, I wasn’t really interested in the modern flat varieties, I at least wanted bases that could possibly allow some curl as that's the way I like to play. So after looking into what was on offer I opted for the spitfire base...

To play a decent game, one needs a few things, teams, goals, balls, and some kind of playing surface, and to be honest from my point of view the better the playing surface and ball, the better the game. Modern pitch offerings are all reasonably good, apart from the nylon versions, I own one of these and to be honest they are a far cry from the original Subbuteo baize pitches of old. At least the originals could be ironed, washed with care, and lay pretty flat. Astro or Baize   Many years ago my grandfather made me a table on which he stuck the pitch down, now bear in mind at that time in the early 70’s he had built himself a ¾ size snooker table, and used a similar principle with my Subbuteo table (minus the cushions and the pockets, or things would have become interesting). I consider myself very lucky to have had such luxury, I was able to play off the floor on a surface that was flat, and to be honest it played very well. My advice to any...