[Football] Goldstone Subbuteo Stadium

[Easy 10]

That model Goldstone is an absolute work of art, massive kudos to whoever put that together.

But Subbuteo was shit. There, I said it.

 

[Hungry Joe]

But Subbuteo was shit. There, I said it.

Not if you were good at it

 

[Easy 10]

Not if you were good at it

Admittedly I never had the patience to get good at it. For me it was just so far removed from football as to be pointless. The ball was the size of the players, the pitch was usually all creased, and the experience of nudging the base of a player and flicking a little plastic ball into a goal just carried no thrill. You take a flick-shot and your player ends up flying off the pitch and under the sofa. And half the time, an over-exuberant dive by your mates keeper-on-a-stick resulted in the goal being knocked over, or being deposited several "yards" along the goal-line.

It was just so rubbish. And then the ZX Spectrum arrived with Match Day, and that was that.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

That model Goldstone is an absolute work of art, massive kudos to whoever put that together.

But Subbuteo was shit. There, I said it.

Wash your mouth out!

 

[zefarelly]

Not if you were good at it

I've probably posted before, but we played the whole of the world cup finals in 1986, in subbuteo. I won with Northern Ireland!

 

[Easy 10]

Wash your mouth out!

Sorry. The IDEA of a football game, with all the proper teams and kits lovingly reproduced, even having replica stadiums or just stands round the pitch is amazing. But in reality, the actual experience of playing Subbuteo was (and is) complete gubbins. It doesn't work.

 

[Hungry Joe]

Admittedly I never had the patience to get good at it. For me it was just so far removed from football as to be pointless. The ball was the size of the players, the pitch was usually all creased, and the experience of nudging the base of a player and flicking a little plastic ball into a goal just carried no thrill. You take a flick-shot and your player ends up flying off the pitch and under the sofa. And half the time, an over-exuberant dive by your mates keeper-on-a-stick resulted in the goal being knocked over, or being deposited several "yards" along the goal-line.

It was just so rubbish. And then the ZX Spectrum arrived with Match Day, and that was that.

I enjoyed reading that, cheers. I LOVED playing it though. We had this Leeds Utd No.9 who hadn't had his hair painted so looked completey bald. He was a beast and invariably ended up getting whatever our equivalent of the Golden Boot was. Used to love pouring over the kit chart for hours on end deciding who to buy with next week's pocket money too. Recall Forfar Athletic v Rochdale always being a great fixture.

 

[Easy 10]

I enjoyed reading that, cheers. I LOVED playing it though. We had this Leeds Utd No.9 who hadn't had his hair painted so looked completey bald. He was a beast and invariably ended up getting whatever our equivalent of the Golden Boot was. Used to love pouring over the kit chart for hours on end deciding who to buy with next week's pocket money too. Recall Forfar Athletic v Rochdale always being a great fixture.

I can see there is beauty in the game as a concept, the satisfaction of having the right teams and kits no matter how famous or obscure, and then pitching them against one another. And I TRIED to like it, I really did. But in the end, the mechanics of the game just left me cold and I quickly grew bored. I was born in 71, so by the early 80's computer games had really started to take off, and thats what I gravitated towards. Football Manager and Match Day arrived, and I never flicked a Subbuteo player in anger again. Maybe I was born too late to properly appreciate it.

 

[Hungry Joe]

I can see there is beauty in the game as a concept, the satisfaction of having the right teams and kits no matter how famous or obscure, and then pitching them against one another. And I TRIED to like it, I really did. But in the end, the mechanics of the game just left me cold and I quickly grew bored. I was born in 71, so by the early 80's computer games had really started to take off, and thats what I gravitated towards. Football Manager and Match Day arrived, and I never flicked a Subbuteo player in anger again. Maybe I was born too late to properly appreciate it.

My brother, who is 6 years older, got me into it. We spent a lot of time playing and sometimes his mates would get involved too, proper tournament style. We had a pitch glued down on chipboard which provided a lovely playing surface. But I get where you're coming from. A lot of the enjoyment was around the peripherals. We developed our own playing style and rules too, which made it a better game (for us anyway). Hated it when they changed the players to the cheaper style, and don't get me started on those goalies on bendy springs!

 

[Nottseagull]

That was done by Michael Knighton, the fella that was supposed to be taking over Man Utd and then couldn't afford it.

He was going to make Brunton Park into a big all seater stadium and was going to turn the pitch round 90 degrees and that stand was supposed to be behind one of the goals but thats as far as it all got

But that stand is too long to be an end. Surely the idea was to demolish the open terrace and double the size of the kop?

Sprake Cooper Reaney Hunter Charlton Giles Bremner Lorimer Clarke Grey Jones

Sub Madeley*

No. Leeds? Never heard of them.

*That took me 35 seconds to type, while chatting with Mrs T

I was no Leeds fan either but they were all household names in the early 1970s, along with Chelsea's glamour team. In fact I can reel off all those first names apart from Jones and Sniffer (Alan?) Clarke.