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Your StoriesYou are in: Kent > People > Your Stories > Growing up with Subbuteo  Subbuteo began in Langton Green Growing up with SubbuteoBy James Clarke Mark Adolph insists his childhood in Kent was the same as any other young boy’s. He played football with his friends and when he wasn’t playing football he often played Subbuteo. But if Mark wanted a new Subbuteo team to play with, he probably found it easier to get one than most children – because his dad had invented the game. Peter Adolph, from Langton Green near Tunbridge Wells, dreamt up the game shortly after World War II and first advertised it in 1947, getting a flood of inquiries. He was even sent several thousand pounds in payment for the game from people who wanted a Subbuteo set – which could have been tricky seeing as he hadn’t even made it yet. But over the next few decades Subbuteo became hugely popular, selling all over the world, and even being treated as a sport by the most die-hard players, who took part in their own World Cup.  Subbuteo as it is today Through most of that time it was produced in a factory in Langton Green – and to Mark it was ‘just something my dad did’. He says: “It was no big deal for me, it was just something that was going on in my life. I thought everybody’s dad did similar sorts of things. “I was never short of the odd team or two and I used to earn pocket money in the factory. “We always had a game permanently set up so I used to play with dad and my friends and we used to take it really seriously, with league matches and cup matches.
“In the manufacturing process, some of the figures were maybe not glued in properly, so they spun differently and, in my mind, has personalities of their own.” If the figures got damaged – or as Mark thought of it, injured – he would nurse them back to health. “The amount of Uhu glue I used to get through was incredible. It’s all very sad looking back, maybe it’s because I was an only child!” Mark sometimes played for eight hours a day and became so good at the game he was banned from the school league when he was about 12 because he kept winning it – which seemed a bit harsh as his father had supplied all the equipment. “About that time dad and I decided to do a league with staff from the factory. About eight or ten of us used to meet every Tuesday.  The teams line up “I think he had quite a good rapport with all his staff, from the guy sweeping the factory floor right up to the sales director.” In addition to about 40 people employed at the factory, hundreds of others worked from their homes in the Tunbridge Wells area, gluing figures together or painting them. “Painting the figures was a bit better paid, because it was more skilful – depending on what team you were making. “Stripes paid better than Leeds or Liverpool. “Each painter could put their own style on them, though occasionally strange variations of colours would come back who had painted thousands completely wrong!” When Mr Adolph sold Subbuteo to Waddingtons the production was eventually moved to Leeds and Mark says it left a gap in the local employment market.  It's not just football you know Mark was affected by that too in his own way, admitting: “I didn’t work all that hard at school because I didn’t think I needed to. I thought I’d get a job in Subbuteo.” But Subbuteo is still a big part of Mark’s life, especially since his father died in 1994, with people now treating him as the Adolph family representative and a sort of Subbuteo spokesman. “Since my dad died, I’m often being asked for the story. Every so often, I get a phone call or somebody contacts me through somebody I know." last updated: 29/04/2008 at 14:04 Have Your SayAre you a big Subbuteo fan? What makes it such a success? Or were you one of the Langton Green workers who carefully crafted the players? Let us know.
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