MY STORY
“Nostalgia is not what it used to be”
SIXTIES CHILD
As a 60s child and football obsessive I have witnessed a thing or two in my time. I can remember when England were World Champions. Milkmen delivered recycled glass bottles to our doors and drove energy-efficient electric vehicles so they didn’t wake people up in the early hours. Karts were handmade with pram wheels nailed to planks of wood - a piece of rope to steer with. Chopper bikes were the ‘in thing’ and it was cool to wear your scarf tied to your wrist at football. If you needed to see a doctor you could just turn up and wait your turn. Football pools were delivered weekly, Saturday morning picture shows, Friday night Boys Brigade and of course … the Subbuteo Stuff!
A PAINFUL MEMORY
At just nine years of age, I remember that feeling when standing in the local toy shop (yes, we used to have local toy shops) being in absolute awe of those heavyweight teams lining the shelves above me ...wishing that one day they could be mine. That feeling of joy when Mum bought me my first boxed Subbuteo statuette. I can still feel the tears rolling down my cheeks later that day after leaving it on the top deck of a red London bus ... that was 1969 and remains a painful memory.
LIMITED RESOURCES
Heavyweight team boxes were bigger back then - or was it just my eyesight was better when I was 10? We had ‘must have’ teams and you couldn’t wait to get your hands on the next one. Now and again a visit to Playfair, the toyshop in the local precinct, put a smile on my face. Swapping teams was always the more viable and realistic option - after all there were six of us in our family and being number 5 meant pocket money was limited to say the least.
I remember the elation when Brian, the older kid from next door but one, swapped me his Man Utd (ref:100) for my Man City (ref:5). My beloved Bournemouth weren’t really a real listing back then so team ref 001 was the only option. Trouble is half the league played in red and white … somehow it didn’t look as good as Aston Villa (ref:74), Wolves (ref:77) or Chelsea (ref:42), but the Man Utd (ref: 100) H/W looked great and wasn’t too dissimilar to the Cherries kit of the era, so that was fine with me as it looked better than the basic red and white (ref: 001).
TEAM REF 001 - A SWAPPED TEAM WITH THE STATUTORY GLUED RIGHT & LEFT BACKS
Sometimes a two-for-one swap with a rich kid can work, although the trade-off meant one of the two teams had only 9 men standing and the other two seriously needing attention with such a massive blob of air-fix glue that I had to get my older brother to perform open leg surgery on my right and left full backs for them to stand any chance of flicking again - they ended up so short they looked like they’d played 45 minutes against Norman Hunter or Ron Harris. You have to remember these teams had to experience real late sixties Subbuteo playing and not sit on the bench (or in a cardboard box) living the high life or whatever Subbuteo players do when we are not looking. On that note I have always wished the Toy Story films had an English heritage. I feel sure Subbuteo players would have featured.
team budget
My grass cutting job when I was 10 earned me a few bob each week, so after buying my first second hand bike with the initial proceeds, Subbuteo teams were next on the list; Leeds (ref:21), Liverpool (ref:41), Derby (ref:10) and Arsenal (ref:16) … whoever was top of Division One was all that mattered - I was 11 years old by then. I remember getting my first Hibernian (ref:45) green and white kit. It was the dog’s whatsits and similar to our Boys Brigade kit. It still sits proudly in my Subbuteo Stuff collection.
TAFFY EVANS - 1969
THE EARLY YEARS IN A WREXHAM SHIRT
TAFFY EVANS - 1970
MAKING HIS DEBUT FOR THE 11th BOURNEMOUTH BOYS BRIGADE TEAM
STICKERS ON THE BOX & NAMES WRITTEN ON THE INSET
SIGNING TAFFY EVANS
Second hand H/W boxes often had stickers or team players’ names written all over them too, which was annoying when your swapped red and white team was meant to be Bournemouth and the rich kid’s team was Wrexham … Taffy Griffiths, Taffy Evans and Taffy Davis never really played for Bournemouth, you see! It always struck me as strange their first names were all the same. From then on all my teams had a Taffy Evans playing at right back, and still do … even Peru!
THE HIGHLANDS LEAGUE
The Highlands Subbuteo 1st Division Championship League was formed in 1970 and consisted of boys from our road. Looking back, the name was quite an irony for a league played in Bournemouth on the south coast of England - the Highlands label coming from the fact we all lived in Highlands Crescent. It was a great place to live out our football dreams as the 44 council houses surrounded a grass green about the size of a football pitch in the middle. The other irony was that the Highlands league had no other Divisions, just the 1st Division. Apart from Taffy Evans who captained the 11th Bournemouth Boys Brigade team (ref:45) there was also Highlands Utd (ref: 42) who were dreamt up by Benny, his heavyweight team looking suspiciously like the Chelsea he supported. Others didn’t take it as seriously as some and their team names included Moss’s Muggers (ref:16), Lee’s Lucky Leeds (ref:21) and of course, Stuck up City (ref:5), which was more about how much glue kept them together rather than the attitude of the team, now owned by Brian from no 30, next door but one.
INTERNATIONAL DUTY
TAFFY EVANS - 1973
BY THEN TAFFY WAS AN ESTABLISHED MEMBER OF THE PERU NATIONAL SIDE
National teams didn’t matter much to me in those days, although that changed when the Peru (ref:159) H/W team arrived on the shelf at Playfair … oh boy, I can remember running home to show my Dad that team only to fall over in the garden in my excitement, crushing the box. The team physically survived that fall from grace and didn’t need any first-aid from my older brother and his glue tube. I still have that treasured team and even though the seasoned players look battered and worn, they, like many of my teams, testify to many a battle with Benny at no 37 and the canny brothers, Moss and Brian Young, from no 30, next door but one.
In them days there wasn’t a collection as such,
it was just Subbuteo Stuff and we JUST wanted more of it!
DREAMS & TEAMS
But dreams were formed in those formative years of my 60s and 70s boyhood that would last a lifetime. I don’t suppose there are many people who to this day look out for the scores of Bournemouth, Wrexham, Hibernian and Peru, in the unlikely event that a T. Evans should be on the scoresheet. Many seasons have passed by since then and life has weaved its thread in different directions, but the Subbuteo Stuff and dreams live on … and of course (at the time of writing) Bournemouth and Taffy Evans are now in Division 1 … or whatever they call it nowadays.
THANKS
Many thanks for dropping in and I hope you have enjoyed reading a few snippets of my Subbuteo Stuff story; maybe they have sparked a memory or two for you? If you want to browse through the website you will see lots of images and information relevant to my Subbuteo history and experiences. You will also notice I am streamlining some of my collection so do look out for that elusive team or accessory you may like. If you are on Instagram please link up and I’ll be sure to do the same.
Tony
Please note - no Subbuteo players were harmed in the making of this webpage.
Some team references mentioned above:
