About a month ago I managed to have a game of something I've not played in 25 years… Subbuteo!
Myself and a group of friends played it for a while back around the time of the Mexico '86 world cup, and again for a spell 4 years later. I had the odd game during the early 90's whilst at college, but my collection has sat in boxes since then.
After a casual conversation about it with our friends last year, I recovered my Subbuteo teams from my mum's attic and even went so far as buying a more recent starter box. Eventually we got a date in the diary myself, our friends James and his 7yr old son Joseph had a boys' day playing table football.
Needless to say the skills were a bit rusty, but I managed to stay unbeaten on the day, bagging a total of 6 goals in 4 games and not conceding any. Poor Joseph didn't win, or even score, on the day and was on the end of a 4-0 kicking from his dad at one point (not competitive!). After beating James 3-0 in our opening game, we ground out a 0-0 draw in the second and I eventually won by a golden goal.
Regardless of scores, great fun was had by all. Nostalgia washing over us in waves, whilst teaching a new generation a game that provided hours of fun for us oldies!
Of course, wearing your football kit is obligatory – without a word said we all turned up wearing our colours – me, in my traditional royal blue!