As ever,
thanks for your interest in this latest nostalgia post on football board games –
as it turns out, it’s the 600th post on the Modus Hopper Random blog. MHR is a blog which has never taken itself too seriously, and has now stuttered its way
through a unique mixture of serious comments, tongue-in-cheek observations,
random and randomish decision-making and
records of some big sporting moments. You are never far away from a pun, and of
course there has been the widely-ignored #keepertopcolourstats in the most recent
seasons. The blog has a small but loyal readership and it may well be around
for a few more years. If you’ve been with me from the start, you might not
appreciate being reminded that we go back to September 2010. Sixteen years of blurb. Time flies when you are
having fun. But now ... Premier Table Soccer.
My copy of
Premier Table Soccer 2000 comes from WP Sports Games of Guernsey, is dated
1998, and is endorsed by the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA). The
inventor credit is given to Tom Waterman, and it is clear that a lot of thought
and planning went into this as a competitor for Subbuteo. I’m not sure, judging
from the persistence of the latter in social media, that it quite succeeded in
that, but it is an excellent product nonetheless.
I first came
across this game in my own childhood as “TAF 424”, the name coming from the
formation that was all the rage at the time. There are undoubted similarities
to Subbuteo. Firstly, the green baize cloth pitch always behaved worse than
1975 Baseball Ground, Derby if you didn’t have it pinned on a baseboard.
Secondly, the game hinges on a pass-and-move model. However, the comparison is
only true up to a point. This product included a training video. There is a lot
going on in the lengthy rule book – some would say a lot of scope for disputes –
but there is no doubt that if played within the rules at a reasonable pace this
would be a very satisfying player experience. I suspect that families devised
their own local rules in the end.
In Subbuteo,
lifting the ball would always be an issue – remember the springy throwers and
the green plastic ramps for corners? – whereas PTS allowed a certain type of flicking
upwards. It’s also much more realistic than Waddington’s Table Soccer of the
same era, which amounted to a specialised form of tiddleywinks.
Anyway,
back to my set, shortly heading to my grandson for Christmas (don’t tell him!).
It’s beautifully produced to a high standard. I seem to have acquired an England-ish
vs Brazil-ish setup, with a couple of black faces on the former as Anderson, Regis
and Cunningham had opened that door of opportunity by this time.
The game
pre-dates search engine optimisation so there is a bit more to be found if you
search on the original TAF424 name. It was possible to get individual players
made, presumably as a special order, and there are some images around of a PTS
version of Wales’ Terry Hennessey complete with combover hairstyle.
I’ve included
a full set of images of the rule book at the end of the post.
Rule book images :
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