Worthing Fivestar Table Football Club

In the 1920s a Liverpudlian called William Keeling invented a game aimed at young boys called 'New Footy'. This consisted of flat, cut out cardboard figures which were mounted in hemispherical bases. The aim of the game was to use these players to flick a plastic ball into a goal. The game rolled along for many years, without any serious competitors - until shortly after World War 2.

Subbuteo Table Soccer game was launched in 1947 by Peter Adolph to compete with New Footy - it was an instant success. In 1947 materials of all kinds were were in short supply and the original 'Assembly' set consisted of two cardboard teams, one celluloid ball and metal framed goals with paper netting. You will, no doubt, have realised that a playing pitch was not included. The instructions, however, advised the recipient of this early subbuteo game to ".....mark your pitch (chalk provided) on an ex-army blanket"..... and thousands did just that.

But why Subbuteo? Hardly a name that was easy on the tongue, or relevant to football. Originally, the intention was to call the game 'The Hobby' but this could not get registered. However, the Latin for the bird of that name is Falco Subbuteo ..... hence 'Subbuteo'.

Back in 1949, teams such as Accrington Stanley, Bradford Park Avenue and Gateshaed were just three of the 24 Subbuteo teams available. Up until the early 1960s Subbuteo and New Footy coexisted quite happily. However, Subbuteo then released a range of new 3D plastic moulded figures, as well as a range of accessories, including floodlights, TV towers etc. New Footy tried to counter this, with what turned out to be a disasterous TV advertising campaign - the result was the end of the road for New Footy.

Following the euphoria of the National team's success in the 1966 world cup, and with factories producing the plastic fgures in Tunbridge Wells, barcelona and Gibraltar, demand for Subbuteo could not be met. In 1968 the toy company Waddingtons bought out Peter Adolph for £250 000.

At it's peak of popularity in the 1970s over 300 teams were available. Alongside this was also a huge range of new accessories, including throw-in figures, corner kickers and stadiums. In a recent survey (2002) it was estimated that over 90% of fathers aged 30plus owned and played Subbuteo - this illustrates the scale of the game's popularity at this time. As a result of this, production of Subbuteo left Tunbridge Wells and moved to Waddington's central office in Leeds.

During the 1980s, with the advent of computer games, sales in Subbuteo declined. The range of products was slimmed down to football sets, with cricket and rugby disappearing in 1982. One significant development of the 80s though, was the production of the Astropitch. This was a superb rubber backed playing surface, which had a huge impact on the game - no more creased cotton/nylon cloth pitches. Although fewer teams were available, the quality and accuracy of the strips printed on the figures was very high during the 80s. Multi coloured bases also became a feature of the 80s playing figure.

In 1998, American toy giants Hasbro took over production of Subbuteo. This resulted in the production of a new type of one piece moulded plastic base, still with the same figures inserted into them. Again the range of products became even smaller as sales suffered at the hands of Nintendo and Playstations. In fact towards the end of 1999, Hasbro announced that production of the game was to be halted. This was due to an apparent lack of interest amongst a computer dazzled younger generation. This evoked outrage amongst fans of the game, and the decision was reversed. Nonetheless, sets and teams are still very hard to come by. It is, to our knowledge, stocked by Toys r Us (gawd bless 'em), however, stocks of individual teams are very limited.

In 2002 the Italian toy company Parodi bought the licence from Hasbro to produce Subbuteo. This resulted in a completely new base being developed and a completely new and extensive range of teams. Furthermore, for the first time, bald and ponytailed figures were included in the sets. Alongside this was a whole new range of accessories, including goals, Astropitches, balls, fencing etc. New Boxed sets were also available. This was great news for fans of Subbuteo. Although sold widely in Italy, these new products were not being stocked by any UK retailers. Nonetheless, by this time many UK based trade internet sites were now established and were soon shipping these new products to the UK. However, their is now some concern that Hasbro will not renew this licence and once again, the production of Subbuteo will be halted

Despite this, there are now many other table football figures and accessories available to buy, which are produced by companies other than Hasbro. 1992 saw the production of SSTV Sports figures, followed by Toccers in 1994. This was closely followed by Lunulas - Sureshot and Advantage. Other European base manufacturers such as Astrobase and Profibase, are widely used by the top players in the world.  Most recently, 2004 saw the Stefan Corda company launching two completely new types of base - the ultima range, which includes Raptors and Veloche - two great value bases.  The Raptor base, in particiular has taken the Table football world by storm. It's flat base, chipping edge and substantial weight makes it a real base for the 21st century.

In recent years, our own sponsor the 'San Siro Stadia Co' have revolutionsied the game by the production of fantastic playing tables, that are now used all over the world.

For more information on all things Subbuteo, please visit Pete Upton's fantastic site:

http://www.peter-upton.co.uk/sub1.htm

There's nothing us boys like more than to practice our ball skills on our own! Here are a few top tips from Table football players around the world:

I guess there's a few things you can do. For shooting I block up the goal with cassette boxes or other bits and bobs lying around with just a small hole to fire the ball at. Other than that i just play a game and use that as practice with the goal blocked. As for goalkeeping i don't bother much except for keeping my right hand on the goalkeeper and the left hand backflicks the ball or the player at the ball. It's a bit impractical but until there is such a device as they have in tennis to fire the ball at your goalie i guess we'll just have to keep practicing that particular skill against other people - Chirpy Champy

You can practice some things on your own like curling flicks, hitting the ball at distance etc. I also find that practicing passing on your own builds up accuracy for when you play for real, and hitting a moving ball is something else you can work on. Playing full matches is very useful in my opinion because as you play both attacking and defensive flicks, you have to
learn to break a defense down with skill rather than just speed, the downside of this though can be that it slows you down a little but does definatly add a greater degree of prescision to your game. - Paul Waddington

Speaking from experience, the most important factor to remember when solopracticing is make sure it is as close to a real game situation as possible.There is no point lining up a shot and practicing shooting if you can't makethe right flick to get the shooting chance. also practice shooting with arange of figures in the way if you have a collection of different figures,use them. There are different players who use different types of figure thatyou will have to play against so you need to try and prepare for allpossibilites. Another thing you can try is a game called 25. you can either play it on your own where you have an obstacle on the goal, or if you play against someone they control the goalkeeper. The aim is to score as manygoals out of 25 shots as possible, if you play on your own, just try and better your score but if you play against someone, it is player one scores13, p2 scores 7, the score of the game is p1 13-7 p2.anyways the important bit.shots 1-5: playing figures is placed anywhere in the semicentre circlenearest the goal. Ball is placed on middle of shooting line. Player has 3 flicks to score a goal, possession must be kept at all times. If any flick misses, everything is reset and shot is over.shots.shots 6-10: playing figure is in same place, ball placed just insideshooting area. aim isa direct shot on goal. same as before any misses is anend of shot.shots 11-15: player placed in centre spot, ball on shooting line, obstaclefigure between ball and playing figure. aim is to swerve round obstacle and hit ball and the same 3 touches to score. (this is very dificult)16-20: ball just inside shooting area, playing figure placed anywhere in opposite shooting area, aim is long range shots. 21-25: is just normal FISTF shootout shots. It is 5 shots,all along the a line as close to the shooting line as possible while still remaining in the shooting area.
1 is in the far left corner created by sideline and shooting line
2 is parallel to the left corner of the 18yd box
3 is samck bang in the middle
4 is parallel to the right corner of the 18yd box
5 is in the far right corner created by sideline and shooting line
Obviously the phases can be altered depending on ability and what
needs practiced. ie if you use toccers, you can ignore the curling
bit.- Robert Ramsay

Another tip is to practice your long range control flicks.  Place a ball on the centre circle and then flick a player from outside the centre circle, to touch the ball, but not allow it to leave the centre circle.  The distance the player is from the ball can then be increased each time - with the objective being the same i.e. to lightly touch the ball but not allow it to leave the centre circle. - Shaun Allison

Set up a defensive team around the playing pitch. Then use two attacking players, taking alternate flicks to take the ball up the pitch, past the defenders (without making contact) and then scoring. This can be extended by (a) adding more defenders (b) limiting the number of flicks that you are allowed, before the ball has to be in the shooting area and shot at goal (c) taking a defensive flick between each attacking flick, trying to block the attackers out.- Shaun Allison

Practice long range defensive blocks. Set up an attacker close to the ball. Position a defender and then try to flick him between the attacker and the ball. This can be varied by (a) decreasing the distance between the attacker and the ball (b) increasing the distance between the defender and the ball..- Shaun Allison

The Huddle - Good for distance flicking accuracy.Position all ten outfield players and the spare keeper witin your own shooting area. Play the spare keeper up the field to act as a jack. Now play each outfield player in turn towards ''the jack". The aim is to get as close to the jack as possible without touching any other player (including the spare keeper). While this is easy in the opening flicks it becomes more difficult as the area becomes more crowded. When all flicks are completed remove all but the outfield player that lies furthest from the "jack". Scoring - As in golf the lower the score the better. 10pts for any flick that strikes one or more other figures. Measure the distance between the inner-most edge of the "jack" and the furthest lieing player in base diameters (use the removed players for this). Score 3pts for every FULL diameter if  the spare lies between the nearest shooting area line and the halfway line (inclusive). Score two points as above but where the spare lies past the halfway line but no further than the furthest shooting area line. Score one point as above where the spare lies beyond the furthest shooting area line.- Brian Barnes

Volleyball - Good for medium distance ball control. Place five players on either side of the half way line. These should be spread to cover each side of the pitch. Place the ball before one of the players. Then pass the ball into the other half. From then on you have three touches to return the ball back to the other half. Continue returning the ball to and fro until either: (a) The ball is missed, (b) The ball is not returned fully over the half way line (c) Any one of the players touches or crosses the half way line (d) The ball leaves the field of play. Scoring. Score one point for each time the ball crosses the half way line. Score five points if the ball crosses the line having completely entered that shooting area during that move. - Brian Barnes

Second Chance. Good for improving goalkeepers positioning. Set up a shooting position then prepare your keeper for the shot from behind the goal. Now without moving the keeper's position (hold with ore hand) return to behind the striker. Do not shoot instead check out your positioning. Could you have done better? - Brian Barnes

There has been much discussion on this topic. Here is my contribution (Craig Heward) and I hope someone (who won't end up beating me) benefits from it.

• One aspect that has been thrown around is that of goalkeeping. Brian's idea of setting up the keeper then returning to check the positioning is a good one, and i've used a similar system before myself. This is not unique to subbuteo, a traditional way of training bowlers in cricket is to get them to bat! The bowler then marks the area that as a batsman, he least wants the ball to pitch - and then he goes away and practices hitting that spot. Same principle.

• While surfing the net I found Subbuteo's very own 30-year old solution to the problem of goalkeeping practice. At the heart of the problem is the fact that you cannot be in two places at once and 'backwards flicking' is OK but not ideal. If you want to part with £10 and visit www.subbuteoworld.com you can buy your own rebound board:

Alternatively you could get a piece of wood and make your own. This gets around the problem of contorting yourself into an unrealistic body position to shoot from. You can keep your hands closer together and more closely simulate a real match situation.

• I would like to add to Shaun's 'slide and touch' idea. I use a similar method to practice shooting. Firstly by putting the figure next to the ball and then gradually moving him away as the practice session proceeds (perhaps increasing the angle between figure and ball at the same time).
• Just flicking a player and ball around will help to improve your touch and close control (the equivalent of a kid kicking the ball against the garage door).
• Setting up an obstacle course to manoeuvre around. Subbuteo used to produce a weighted set of 'cones' for dribbling practice, but anything will do.
• Get your tactices right. If i'm on a bad run of results I concentrate on getting the defence sorted before I worry about the strikers. Trying to set up a defensive line THAT YOU DON'T BLOCK WITH and then having a number of defensive midfielders that block in front of (and sometimes behind) this wall. This has helped me in the past even if a 'flat back 10' doesn't get the crowd excited. - Craig Heward