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.