Old Football Games.
- Thread starter bluehaze
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Backbiter
An Untouchable
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Had a few of them. They were pretty decent and didn't get punctured by the rose bushes in our back garden like the cheaper black white balls.
I seem to remember there was a brown version of the Wembley trophy ball, that was slightly heavier and a bit more robust.
Edit: Maybe I'm mixing up the white ball you mentioned with an imaginary brown onel! Now you mention it, I do remember the white version. Maybe that was a slightly heavier and tougher version?
That old football games site has a nice feature on those balls:
https://www.oldfootballgames.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=548174
Love the repair tool! Never had one myself.
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yorkleyblue
Plastic Professor of Knowitall at the Sky Universi
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I had a couple of these that I got through Green Shield stamps from Fairfax House in Bristol. I used to practice my swerve shots for hours using the garage door as a goal. I could bend it left to right very well, but never could get a decent right to left curve.
Funny how some memories get dragged up by something like this
Ewell CFC
Banned
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Frido used to make the plastic black and white balls with players autographs on the panels.
They used to swerve in the opposite direction to leather balls.
Sondico made cheap leather footballs- they still do now 45 odd years later.
No protective coating so used used to apply Chelsea Dubbin( Can you still get Chelsea Dubbin)?
Dont remember any other clubs being immortalised with their own waterproof wax
Tranmere Rovers Dubbin?.......Naaaaah
They used to swerve in the opposite direction to leather balls.
Sondico made cheap leather footballs- they still do now 45 odd years later.
No protective coating so used used to apply Chelsea Dubbin( Can you still get Chelsea Dubbin)?
Dont remember any other clubs being immortalised with their own waterproof wax
Tranmere Rovers Dubbin?.......Naaaaah
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The thing with me was we played with Wembley Trophies and similar footballs all the time. I was looking back what you would call a good street footballer playing on concrete pitches and wearing trainers so I could never quite get used to wearing football boots playing with a leather ball and on a full size pitch. I played 5 a side for my local church team we were really good I've still got the medals and we had an estate team where we would player other estates again always wearing trainers.
I got dropped from the school team after the first two years but we had an interform competition played on the school playground and I was top scorer for our class and we won it every year. This isn't a tale of woe ? just frustration really especially kids who I thought weren't as good as me could adapt better and on a full size pitch you have to be fast which I wasn't particularly. I've just realised I'm turning into this guy !.
Jumpers obviously ! on my estate two massive concrete flowerpots were one goal. Rush goalie, you're mum calling you in for tea playing till it got dark, score of 25-24 usually one side adding on a goal to there total back to 0-0 the following night endearing images isn't it wasn't it ahh .
For a glorious two week period each summer we used lock up garages. as our goals.
That's because their respective owners were away on their summer holidays
They stood about 50 yards apart and perfectly situated, at each end of a row of 6 garages on either side at the end of our street.
Mind you each of these 'garage doors would have 'needed some paint work' when their owners returned !
God i loved subbuteo ,just had the pitches various types of goals and balls no end of teams and a bag of odds ends players like the Peru team from Argentina World cup that were missing 2 players due to snapped knees or broken arms .
most favorite teams i used most would be Plymouth green/black stripes > man city 2nd of red/ black stripes or Blackpool tangerine shirts .
Never went in for the grandstands and surround fence ,how could you play a game of subbuteo with a canter lever stand under your arm pits .saying those white floodlights with a chunk of a square batterry to run off made for a cold wet night in Stoke worth while .
i had Brown balls orange balls World cup balls ,scoreboard with all options of all teams in divisions 1,2,3 and 4 .
when i or a mate broke a player or goal keeper i would be pissed off ten fold and more .must have had 20+ teams in all .
never played in any leagues just played against mates or many a time i play on me Todd,Jacks,own for hours it seemed at times .
i was looking at the subbuteo games that you can buy today and the quality of the pitches looking shocking ,the pitches i used was heavy and durable unlike the lightweight terrible poor Workmanship today .
never had the chelsea team which seems a tad Odd .
most favorite teams i used most would be Plymouth green/black stripes > man city 2nd of red/ black stripes or Blackpool tangerine shirts .
Never went in for the grandstands and surround fence ,how could you play a game of subbuteo with a canter lever stand under your arm pits .saying those white floodlights with a chunk of a square batterry to run off made for a cold wet night in Stoke worth while .
i had Brown balls orange balls World cup balls ,scoreboard with all options of all teams in divisions 1,2,3 and 4 .
when i or a mate broke a player or goal keeper i would be pissed off ten fold and more .must have had 20+ teams in all .
never played in any leagues just played against mates or many a time i play on me Todd,Jacks,own for hours it seemed at times .
i was looking at the subbuteo games that you can buy today and the quality of the pitches looking shocking ,the pitches i used was heavy and durable unlike the lightweight terrible poor Workmanship today .
never had the chelsea team which seems a tad Odd .
That seems to ring a bell as i recall seeing those cards but dont recall ever playing that game
Hello my long lost friend ,not seen you for a very longtime Thanks for the memorys playing football on patches of grass sliding tackles and white dog (s)hite
Remember in January 81 I was 11 and the day after we moved in our new next door neighbour came round and said he was clearing out loft and did I want his subbuteo set, World Cup 1970 edition, must of had about 10 teams including Brazil, I was chuffed, over the next couple of years bought further teams and painted some of the older plainer kits, I had our Chelsea pin striped kit of 81 to 83 (Micky Fillery in my subbuteo team was a world beater) my Grandad who was an expert in wood craft made superb grandstands, regret though never bought the floodlights, about 6 of us all had teams and use to play tournaments against each other happy days
How on earth did you mange to play a game of subbuteo with a grandstand runing along the side of the pitch ,or god forbid if you had all sides of the pitch covered with stands I seen photos of stands behind goals and just cant figure out how you opperate your GK effectively .
my floodlights came with my subbuteo floodlight edition that i recall getting for xmass one year ,it came with two floodlights if my memory is correct and i used the floodlights a few times then just went back to basics with picth,goals ,teams ,balls ,scoreboard .
i have seen you tube footage of subbuteo tournements and they seem to play the game a far different way to how i played it .but one thing that hits Home is that they all look far too serious and never seem to have the oh oh oh that the game brought me .
Football Express.
The first OO scale five-a-side game arrived in 1971-72, and was called Football Express was produced. The box points out that this game "incorporates five-a-side" in case you were confused by the name change. In this version of the game, the pitch is reproduced on the bottom of the box, with the box sides become the fence surround. There are also curved plastic corner pieces, which prevent the ball becoming stuck in the corners (a problem with the rival Super Striker pitch), and these also strengthen the box at its weakest points. The goals lock into the box, which means that the whole goal stands inside the area of the pitch. If there was a space behind the goal, this would've made a great ice hockey set. On each side of the goal is another piece of curved plastic which again throws the ball back out into play.
The pictures above hopefully illustrate the two variations of this box set. The game on the left is the more unusual folding version, and you can probably just make out the line where the walls divide at the centre of the pitch. The picture on the right shows the large flat box of the non-folding version. It might have been a pain to store this one, but it gives a better playing surface as a result.
Football Express Rules.
The first thing you notice when reading the rulebook is the reverse to the normal shooting rules. In Football Express, shots must come from outside the semi-circular "goal area", so long range shooting is encouraged. In addition, only the goalkeeper is allowed to remain inside the "goal area", and if a scoring player finishes up inside this semi-circle, then the goal is disallowed. This sounds tricky to avoid to me. Does getting caught up in the net count as being inside the circle? That's where my players always finish ?
Football Express is played with four outfield players, plus a goalkeeper. The goalkeeper has two figures - a diving version on a rod, and a free standing version for playing up field, which he is encouraged to do. The rules suggest that the diving goalie be used mainly for defending free kicks and penalties. You can only change between goalies when your free-standing 'keeper is inside his own goal area, and you are in possession of the ball. If the free-standing goalkeeper is inside his area, and the opposition have the ball, then you are allowed to flick him to try and intercept any shots - which sounds like a laugh...
Football Express looks and plays more like normal Subbuteo than five-sides, although it uses the small ball from the range, and the goals are lower. However, as there are slight differences in the goals and goalkeepers, and because this set was produced in the early 1970s, when every sport had an accessory range, further Express items exist.
Consisting of five player figures, including substitute, plus two goalkeepers.
An illustration suggests that there was also a ball included with the team, but this doesn't always seem to be the case. In 1976 this set cost 55p, compared to 75p for a full eleven a side team. The teams were available in the most popular colours in the normal range (the ones also quoted for corner kick and throw-in figures). These are 1, 2, 5 (Man City), 7 (West Ham etc), 10 (Fulham etc), 16 (Arsenal), 21 (Leeds), 25 (Celtic), 41 (Liverpool), and 42 (Chelsea). As these are some of the more common Subbuteo teams of the 1970s, you would expect these teams to be of only casual interest to collectors. However, for some reason Subbuteo chose to produce the majority of Express teams in the moulded players usually reserved for box sets. Which means lots more odd variations abound. The third picture above shows a Celtic player in the "wide shorts" figure. The moulded heavyweight and the moulded scarecrow were also used. It's also worth noting that the Celtic player has his boots painted, which is unusual for moulded players. Not all Express teams have painted boots though.
There are even more variations when we come to goalkeepers, which will be discussed more fully under E302. For example, in the set owned by contributor Mark Brady, the outfield players are a moulded figure, but the free-standing goalkeeper is a standard heavyweight. Note that the goalkeepers use a short metal rod, probably left over ones from the 1950s flat keepers (but shorter than the 1960s metal rods).
From a Subbuteo Collector Site. Peter Upton.co.uk
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