If you are easily offended look away now.
Introduced by Tom Taylor in 1998 the streaker set divided opinion. Some thought it a bit of fun - others believed it was an unnecessary distraction from the beautiful game. For me it's a nice little 'Subbuteo' spin-off item.
The version shown below is a later Soccer3D set. It comes complete with instructions.
I've also copied a newspaper article that tells you all you need to know about the set.
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| Soccer 3D Streakers (male & female sets) |
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| Soccer 3D Male Streaker Set |
Naked truth about fun times on the table
By Malcolm Boyden
TOM TAYLOR CAN BARELY CONTAIN his excitement as he reaches for a small white box. He scatters the contents on to his humble workbench. Out falls a tiny naked gentleman standing three quarters of an inch tall but anatomically perfect. “There you are,” Taylor announces proudly. “It’s my biggest-selling line — the Subbuteo streaker.”
The man stands on a red, round-bottomed base. He comes complete with a policeman, poised with helmet in hand, to cover up his “vital credentials”, and a set of rules. “I also do a female set,” Taylor, tipping a wobbling Erica Rowe-type figure on to his cluttered work surface, adds. “But she comes with a policewoman — I thought it would be for the best,” he says, carefully holding the woman up to his illuminated magnifying glass.
Taylor, a former West Midlands fireman, is the self-proclaimed saviour of Subbuteo. His love affair with the game started when his wife, Sue, bought him his first set as a Christmas present in 1989. “It was supposed to be a joke, but it didn’t half backfire on me,” she says with a wry smile. Now the pair own the world’s only dedicated Subbuteo shop, which has become a shrine to the “flick to kick” faithful.
Subbuteo, which is Latin for a bird of prey, was invented by Peter Adolph in 1947 to compete with its predecessor, New Footy. But, without Tom and Sue, the game would no longer exist. They have become the biggest producers and distributors of Subbuteo accessories in the world, since Hasbro, the toy-making giants, finally stopped making the game in 2001 in the face of falling sales.
From the back room of his tiny shop in the Welsh border town of Knighton, the lifelong Aston Villa fan toils for hours attempting to keep the game, once played religiously by every football-mad boy, alive. His ever-expanding empire includes painstakingly hand-painted squads, pitches printed by a firm in the West Midlands, goals produced “as a sideline” by a chip-pan manufacturer in Oldham and, for the first time, women’s teams. Streakers, however, which sell at £4.99 a set, are by far his best line. He has sold 6,000 sets to 25 different countries, his Subbuteo streakers reaching such far-flung places as Japan, Singapore, Venezuela and Peru.
“I got the idea in 1998, when I was watching a match at Walsall,” he says. “It came to me in a flash when a male streaker ran on to the pitch twice, dodging the police both times. I went home and made the first male and female streakers for a bit of fun. Then I invented a set of rules so they could be included in the game.”
The rules state: “The streaker and the police officer must always be positioned behind the goalline. At any time during the match, a player can shout ‘STREAKER’ and place his or her streaker in the penalty area. The streaker must not, under any circumstances, come into contact with the ball.
“If the streak is deemed legal,” the rules continue, “the referee must stop play and command ‘APPREHEND’ to the attacking player, who must take a police officer and flick him or her, attempting to strike the streaker. If a streaker is hit, an arrest has been made and he or she is removed.
“The streak can continue indefinitely. When the defending player has flicked the streaker into all four zones of the pitch without being hit, it’s known as a ‘FULL STREAK’. The naked man or woman is then able to escape into the crowd and retrieve his or her clothes. A player who completes a full streak may streak again later in the game.” When a streak has ended, play resumes with a drop ball.
Taylor, a dedicated Subbuteo player who is ranked No 26 in Britain, is hoping that his streakers will add a fashionable new dimension to the traditional tabletop game. He has taken his naked figures to tournaments all over Europe. “They can be just as important as my flicking finger,” he says. “You can use them tactically during a game if you’ve muffed up with your goalkeeper and your opponent only has to tap the ball into an unguarded net,” he explains, enthusiastically.
“It’s funny,” he adds with a grin. “Antarctica is the only continent in the world I have not sold a streaker set to. I suppose it’s too cold there — even for Subbuteo streakers.”
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