Solo Subbuteo 101

In the last blog post we read David Forsyth’s account of the organising rule and how he incorporates it into his solo play. Well this started me thinking, a bad habit I know, because most of the time I end up trying to out think myself which mainly ends up being counter intuitive and usually ends up with me going full circle and losing the plot in the process. Mind you my darling wife thinks I lost the plot years ago, and was convinced that her suspicions were proven when I got back into Subbuteo. Comments like “How old are you?”, and “Are you going upstairs to play with yourself again!!”. Both valid comments, to which the answers are surprisingly “Old enough”, and “Yes”. But as normal I digress, I must be playing with myself too much. I’m going to share how I do things, no hard and fast suggestions, just my take on the rules whilst trying to keep things within the spirit of the game we all enjoy, so lets get started.   Corners an...

I’ve been contacted by my good friend David Forsyth who has been mentioned on this blog before, and kindly submitted the post “A flat back four”. Well David sent me a rule from the 60’s Advanced rules which he incorporates into his solo play. David almost exclusively plays to the 1968 Advanced rules with his own twist on things to make them suit his style of solo play. Now I’m from the same kind of era as David but must admit I’ve never played to the late 60’s Advanced rules at all, because by 1971 I was a member of a Club. So what? you may ask, Well to cut a long story as short as possible I’ll tell you, and if you don’t just scroll past the next paragraph but be warned you could be missing this weeks free gift!   Not quite Subbuteo The rules used for competition at that time (at our Club) differed slightly from the Subbuteo Advanced Rules, especially when it came to blocking. At Club level blocking flicks were alternate to the attacking fli...

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...