Temple Fortune Football Club

Around the time that TFFC was in its embryonic stages, two of the Club's founders – Nigel and Peter Kyte – were enjoying a rather bizarre table football game called Rolykins!
Nigel created a form of four-a-side table football on a chalked board with 'Rolykins' Daleks (little figures with a ball-bearing underneath – see below) and 'Lego' goalkeepers on wires! "It was the predecessor to playing Subbuteo which came a while later... I wish I had patented 'Rolykins' as we called it! I'd probably be rich now!" he mused. "Peter was very good at Rolykins and used to win the RA Amateur Cup (Rolykins Association no less!) far more than I ever did, mainly with his domineering team Arcernal – or Arcs United as we called them!"

"He used three red Daleks against my one black and two grey ones. Oh, and we had a team of "World Cup Willies' (the official 1966 World Cup mascot) which were little painted lions in Union Jack shirts on green bases! The fun we had trying to control the players let alone the ball on a slightly warped board! It was an achievement to score a goal because it was quite hard to hit the ball on the move. The ball rarely stopped on that board so there would be quick passing movements followed by first time shots... very difficult!"

"I still have the rules together with some other paperwork (shown below). 'Banging' was allowed to an extent – smashing a Rolykins player into the goalkeeper and sending his Lego 'wings' flying. But the player had to play the ball first or it was a foul! The goalkeeper could be extended to the edge of the penalty area by a wire running through the main Lego brick. His wings counted as his hands so he could not handle outside the area! It was a great game and we had hours of fun playing it. Peter was too good for me and I rarely beat him, as the RA Amateur Cup records can verify!"

Oh, those were the good old days!

Game components:
• 1 hardboard pitch, marked with chalk, approximately 4 ft x 3 ft
• 2 wire framed goals with nets
• 2 teams, each with 3 outfield players (Dalek or World Cup Willie Rolykins) and 1 Lego goalkeeper (red wheel-mounting brick with two attached wings, controlled by a wire attached through the red brick)
• 1 plastic Subbuteo ball (small type)

Game duration:
15 minutes each way (Subbuteo was 10 minutes each way)

The computerised creation on the left gives a good impression of what the Rolykins football game looked like.