[Football] Subbuteo, What team you have in the opening box ?

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

Now I’d be miffed if I were a Burnley fan and found myself not worthy of a mention and below even Addis Ababa Athletic!

 

[A mex eyecan]

i had the basic, red and blue teams.
My good old Dad made me a chipboard based table, arris rail offcuts served as 18” legs. The pitch was glued onto the chipboard. Paper round money and birthday/Christmas gifts got me floodlights, a plastic picket style fence around the pitch and the tv gantry.

Used to love going to AA Bakers on London Road and buying a team every now and then.

 

[PeterT]

Can't remember the first team I had - but I do know my most regular matches at home were Liverpool v Leeds.

My favourite team kit though was the Man City away / Southwick home kit. I even had the number transfers on there.

And (sorry about this) I also had the Palace team - the one with the diagonal red/blue stripes.

If you had a Palace team, to keep it current didn’t you have to change the colours wildly from year to year? Their kit changes in the 70s were mental!

 

[PeterT]

View attachment 173029

That is a fair point!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Probably Chelsea - but I was very young and didn't know any better in 1970.

 

[cheshunt seagull]

I had the red and white teams and I think the first teams I bought were West Ham, Liverpool, Leeds and Chelsea. Then my family bought a house in Hove I made my first regular trips to the Goldstone an got Sheffield Wednesday (I think) as they I could pretend they were the Albion.

 

[Skaville]

Not name I recognise. I was there 1973-81

Ah okay. They were about three years behind you

 

[cheshunt seagull]

I also had the red and blue teams, added loads to them over the years and then thought I’m too old for this and sold the lot for peanuts to Toys and Togs in Boundary Road! Which I now regret of course.

I had one floodlight, made things a bit challenging, and used to make the grandstands out of cardboard boxes from the supermarket including making terraces on which I put all the spare teams to make the stands look full!

I do remember having a Peru team but needed Coventry and so got out the sky blue paint and painted them all! Coventry had 11 black players in an era where West Brom were considered pioneers with the Three Degrees!

I had a similar situation with Brazil as I wanted a team with yellow shirts and blue shorts. This was almost a standard away kit and you could pretty much pretend they were anyone playing away. It would be fine now but they didn't look like many teams that came to the Goldstone in the early 70s.

 

[Moshe Gariani]

My most disappointing Christmas present ever (c.1980) was the Subbuteo astroturf pitch. Came rolled up in a tube and never flattened out enough to even be able to play on.

 

[Bedsex]

I can’t remember what teams I had, other than Brighton and England, but I had a fair few. I also had several grandstands but couldn’t afford to fill them with the pre-painted fans. So I ended up buying lots of the ‘paint them yourself’ fans, which of course I never got around to doing. As a consequence, all of my subbuteo matches were supported by an army of naked fans.

 

[Jackthelad]

I had the Italia 90 set as my first Subbuteo kit, lovely tricolour nets. I ended up buying loads of accessories, floodlights, grandstands etc even have a Subbuteo holdall to keep it in. Still stashed in my Mum’s basement
View attachment 173028

Oh, the memories I had that beauty as well. My best mate had the Spurs vs Forest FA Cup Final version I think of the same year 1991.

 

[AIT76]

I had The Albion and Brazil as my first two teams. And a referee and linesmen for some reason. Used to store my pitch rolled up on a broomstick to avoid creases.

I ended up with about 12 teams I think, one of which was glamorous European superpower Ajax. I used to make up nonsense tournaments that meant little old Brighton got to play them...

 

[tstanbur]

I had the Italia 90 set as my first Subbuteo kit, lovely tricolour nets. I ended up buying loads of accessories, floodlights, grandstands etc even have a Subbuteo holdall to keep it in. Still stashed in my Mum’s basement
View attachment 173028

I had the same set. Shortly followed after by an “astroturf” pitch that came in a massive tube! Great days

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

Subbuteo was fantastic. Mention of the ‘extras’ like stands etc reminds me of the Subbuteo Cricket though. I just loved the scoreboard!

 

[Nicks]

The original Subbuteo players were flat tin like and broke very easily.
When it was upgraded to plastic models and whole new world opened up for us kids

Google Image Result for https://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/19004d6c4de096508d4295647cc38e5dd5259a6f

 

[Dave the OAP]

When we came back from South Africa my dad bought me goals, balls and no pitch so I played on the carpet…..celtic and blue and white stripes ( Huddersfield) teams

took off from there.

 

[Norman Potting]

I used to walk past their main site most days when going to primary school. They had several sites in and around of Tunbridge Wells and most of their painting and assembling work was undertaken by homeworkers.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

I was off sick from school aged I guess around 9 when my Dad brought home some Subbuteo teams. No pitch so he knocked up a wooden pitch with sides and wooden goals for me.

The teams he brought home were West Brom away (yellow and green stripes), Notts County, Cardiff City (blue with the yellow stripe) and Luton (orange with black shorts). A weird mix of teams and no idea how he got hold of them but they started me my Subbuteo journey.

Seem to recall buying my Subbuteo from a small sports shop on the corner of Worthing High Street by the Steine.

Many years later, my son got his first introduction to Subbuteo when Al had his shop just down from The Pomd and he had a table upstairs.

 

[BN9 BHA]

I think I've only told you all about ten times that I was St Luke's School Division One champion in June 1981. So I'll tell you again.

I played as Aston Villa

View attachment 173027

 

[Papa Lazarou]

I have a 1980s version with generic blue and red teams.

However, following that, I met the absolute artistic genius that is @Comrade Sam who had many many many subbuteo teams, all beautifully painted as different era Albion teams as well as a 'Classic' Palace team. I think he had about 100 different teams, domestic and international.

Some of my fondest memories as a teen ager were spent with Sam and @zefarelly amongst other, in Shoreham.

Anyhow, Sam used to run at Subbuteo World Cup every summer and I recall winning the tournament twice with Holland.

I spent many nights at Sam's playing Subbuteo, drinking Gin and of course becoming World Champion. Plus of course we played Brighton v Palace.

Just thinking about Subbuteo bring back sooooo many associated memories from those days back in Shoreham, from playing football every day during the summer, Nov 5th bonfires, Subbuteo and that crop circle we created in the Downs.

Thank you @Comrade Sam