subbuteoreturns!

There is nothing like a bit of nostalgia in life, especially after such a long time by doing something that was very much enjoyed all those years ago!
As covered on the other Subbuteo page, the Kyte brothers competed with various others including Michael Rook in Subbuteo table football competitions during the late 1960s and early seventies. Nigel had kept all the old sets of teams and added several old-style boxed sets of teams given to him by Peter Cope in the early 2000s, all in pristine condition as if they had never been used.

So when Nigel visited Michael in Newton Abbott in October 2024, he took down the whole box filled with all the teams and records that were used back in the day. "Boys will be boys!" he laughs, "it was great reminiscing about old times where we had enjoyed hundreds of Subbuteo games, especially before the formation of TFFC and then during the Club's earliest days."

"To lay out the old pitch on the rug on his lounge floor, flattening it like we did at One Oakfields Road so many times, positioning the goals and players, brought back brilliant memories."

Using the original teams, the 10-minutes-each-way match ended 1-1 and went to penalties where Michael won 3-1! "It was great fun, although not so easy on the knees!" concludes Nigel. "And we had to smooth out the pitch regularly because it was not attaching too well to his rug, despite the tape!" Michael said about the match, "I really enjoyed it, so good to be playing again after all these years. And to beat Nige on penalties made it that bit sweeter!"

Below: Michael in action in October 2024