Liverpool 87-88

Today's team is Liverpool 87-88 - painted on Santiago HW.

Solo FA Cup 70-71 - History Part 1

These past few weeks I've been planning a solo competition recreating the 70-71 FA Cup using (as far as possible) authentic 1970's equipment. It's involved a fair bit of research as I wanted to replay each of the opening fixtures using the kits that the teams wore on the match days whilst also using my existing collection and keeping true to the tradition of Subbuteo.

When I approached the project I had decided that I was happy to paint up any real life teams kits that I did not already have. In addition to this I would paint up a kit if they varied in some way from those represented in the 1970-71 catalogue. I was willing to use artistic license when it came to the interpretation of kits, as I figured that this was 'the Subbuteo way'. It is well known that SSG produced teams in their catalogues that did not match up with actual team kits. By way of illustration the 1970-71 Subbuteo catalogue lists the following teams as reference 9. Southampton, Sheffield United, Brentford, Derry City and Athletico Madrid.

Reference 9

In 1970-71 Southampton's kit matches up, but the others do not. My brackets show what the real life teams actually wore. Sheffield Utd (white socks), Brentford (white socks) , Derry City (white socks, maybe even white shorts), Athletico Madrid (blue shorts and blue socks with red tops). To add confusion, in collector's circles ref 9 is most frequently referred to as Sunderland (a name that doesn't even feature in catalogues from that year), they were at the end of a ten year stint of wearing white shorts in 1970 and residing at Subbuteo Ref 4.

This example gives an indication of the problems that are encountered when trying to match up SSG history with reality.  However, I wanted to use the SSG refs as much as possible in my project and decided to 'turn a blind eye' to certain inaccuracies if it meant the competition as a whole managed to maintain its 'authentic Subbuteo feel'.  An example of my concessions would be ref 42. Although in the catalogues it also represented Southend, Oldham and Montrose, there is little doubt that a 1970's audience would apply it most readily to Chelsea. In 1970-71 season the boys from Stamford Bridge wore blue shorts with a white stripe. Despite painting thousands of reference 42 teams this fact is ignored by SSG - they preferred to leave the shorts plain. It is interesting to note that Chelsea did not wear plain blue shorts until 1981.

Taking all the above into account I started to organise and paint my teams. It is a big task (I am still working on it as I write this). All the while I exercised a degree of flexibility, as following the catalogue slavishly wasn't an option due to the inaccuracies that lay within. So in essence what I ended up with is my interpretation of the 1970-71 FA Cup Competition the way Subbuteo intended, with just a few degrees more accuracy. 

Reproduction Flats

I've recently received some flat reproduction players produced by Steve at Pendle Falcon. Check out his website here

Steve makes everything from scratch, which is clearly a labour of love. He explained the processes involved in making the bases to me. It was way beyond my comprehension but I can tell that he is very clever and extremely talented when it comes to making authentic Subbuteo style gear.

In his own words, [the] site is about playing Subbuteo (a table-top replica of Association Football, invented in 1947 by Peter Adolph) in the way that was originally intended. That is using flat players with a solid base, a baize pitch, balls and goals of a smaller size (which were recommended for the 'more experienced player', but generally passed over in the development of the modern game).

Steve made Partick Thistle and Blyth Spartan teams complete with kicking goalkeepers (he also sent a rodded keeper (that I neglected to photograph) all housed in lovely team specific boxes.

I haven't had a chance to give them a proper go yet, but am assured by Steve that they play very similar to the original Subbuteo flats. What I can say, with certainty, is that they are a beauty to behold and if they play half as good as they look, I will be a happy man!

Corner Kickers

The c.131 was produced for many, many years and was possibly the most popular accessory of all.

Subbuteo produced corner kickers in many different teams. From my experience the most common are 1, 2, 7, 13, 25, 41, 42, 50, 154, 156. However, I understand that they were produced in many other references too.

Here are a selection of corner kickers I have painted up as SSG references.