Computer games have long consigned the traditional board game to history, but before the concept of CGI Ronaldos and Rooneys, youngsters used their imagination to create the atmosphere of big-time football in their bedroom or living room. And we’re not talking Subbuteo here:
Here’s a few games that you may have forgotten…
Waddington’s Table Soccer
Basically, sophisticated tiddly winks. The players were, like Subbuteo, a little vulnerable to elbows and knees, but there was a high degree of skill involved in scoring with near post headers and the such-like. A poor-man’s alternative to Subbuteo, Waddington’s produced millions of these games – incredible, but true! The players, however, all looked like a plastic robot-cum-chrysalis.
Casdon Soccer
Bobby Charlton is pictured playing this with a young lad. The footballers are hilarious, appearing to be playing in their underwear and sporting very camp gestures.
Soccerama
A board game that enabled you to manage a team through the divisions, into Europe and get relegated, all in a couple of hours. Endorsed by Alan Ball, it was absorbing stuff!
Wembley
A classy board game if ever there was one. You worked your way through the FA Cup, added players to your team to give you a goal –or two – start. The only way Wrexham were going to win the competition!
Magnetic football
There were various versions of this type of game – you played with a long-armed magnet that was placed beneath the field and you controlled players on the pitch. Many a turned-over board was the result of a disputed decision!
Blow football
The game equivalent of rolled-up rags and jumpers for goalposts: a tube, two goals and plenty of puff.
4-4-2
A chunky, no-nonsense version of table football. Players stuck onto plastic blocks.
It’s a fair bet that nobody is going to get one of these games in their Christmas Stocking this year!
