YOUR RESPONSES

Patrick Parsons - March '06
i played the game when i left school and had the cardboard teams etc my only item left is the silver badge and ive recently obtained a couple of boxed sets which are the same

Kenny Beggs - May '05
World's Top Players Entertain Belfast - May 14th 2005

Dutchman, Eric Verhagen, ranked No.1 in the World, was among the 64 Entrants for the Belfast International Grand Prix, along with other high-ranking players from Belgium, Malta, Austria, Germany, England, Scotland, Wales & Ireland. Eric surprisingly lost in the Quarter-Finals to Malta's Joe Mifsud, who eventually finished runner-up, losing 2-0 to David Ruelle of Belgium in the final.

Best for Northern Ireland in the Open was Trevor Cummings, who lost in the last 16 to a golden goal by England's Phil Redman. Congratulations to Georgia Lee, Northern Ireland's only trophy winner, who finished runner-up to Louise Lawrenson of England in the Female event and reached the semi-finals of the Under 15.

England's Alan Collins won the Veterans, his son Anthony took the Under 19 title and Sam Curtis won the Under 15s. Thanks to W5 for being excellent hosts and living up to their reputation as Northern Ireland's Visitor Attraction of the Year and facilitating the province's biggest ever Subbuteo tournament. It was also covered by local TV, radio and newspapers.

Spectators were able to follow the action from balconies on different levels of the impressive W5 venue and also see close-up play from the No.1 Pitch projected on the big screen via small, unobtrusive cameras positioned at corners of the table.

There was also a penalty-flick side-show for W5 visitors. This proved to be an excellent way to get the public involved, both young and old. The four best penalty takers got to keep a shoot-out board as a reward for their efforts.

Barry Spence - April '05
This will be a brilliant event. Great for the province to be holding such a competition. Great publicity for the Oydessy and great publicity for Subbuteo in NI!!!!

Kenny Beggs - March '05
The Northern Ireland Subbuteo Scene has continued to grow this season. There are currently 16 players in the Belfast League, 8 in North Down and a new club just started in Bangor, as well as occasional players who take part in Cup competitions. Two National Opens have been held, one in Bangor and one in Donaghadee, which attracted players from the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and England.

Some of our members have also travelled to tournaments in England Scotland, Wales & Republic of Ireland.

The main focus is now on the build-up to the biggest Subbuteo event in the province since 1993, the Belfast International Grand Prix, which will take place on Saturday 14th May in W5, Odyssey. Some of the World's top players will be in attendance and there will be a penalty-kick side event for the general public to join in the fun.

More information can be found on the Northern Ireland Table Football Association website www.nitfa.org.uk. If anyone wants to get involved, you can email me or one of the Club organisers listed on the site.

Steven Standish - Sept '04
Good to see the game making a comeback. With computers and telly taking over it's nice to see some of the old games struggling on against the tide. Hope the guys get loads more players.

Barry Spence - Sept '04
It would be good to hear from anyone not already in the Subbuteo / Table Soccer scene in NI. We have a league in Dunmurry starting in the next couple of weeks and would be keen to welcome players. We also have an Open Competition in Bangor on Saturday 30th October.

If you haven't played for some time don't worry!!! If you don't have teams anymore, don't worry as we will help you out!! Just contact us for more information.

I like everyone else, started playing by rolling out a green cloth pitch on the floor of my mums living room. I lost count of the number of players that got broke. You ended up sticking the player by putting a big clob of clue around the players legs. Didn't look too good unfortunately.

As we developed the game a little we all got astropitches and then got wooden boards to put them on. Great stuff!!!

We had a league of our own in Dunmurry at the time and were able to use the Dunmurry Pres. Halls for league games. Many of us were BB lads and were trusted, ummmm! There was the odd time that we brought a football down to have a kick around in between games so the players weren't standing around, this unfortunately didn't turn out to be a good idea since before long we broke 2 windows. Needless to say football was off the agenda after that.

We used the League in Dunmurry for the Duke of Ed. award, from Bronze right through to gold. It involved playing the game, running the league, noting down fixtures, introducing new players and bringing the younger lads down to Dublin for some international events. Once the Duke of ed was finished we started loosing a bit of interest. I suppose its only natural, we were growing up and wanted to play the real thing a little more.

It was a 10 year gap between when I finished to when a friend phoned me to ask me to play in the world cup in Birmingham. We have now been playing over 2 years, have run 4 open competitions, been to Dunfries for an international open, been to Preston to represent NI in the British and Irish Champs and been to Dublin numerous times to play in competitions run by our friends across the boarder. Unfortunately the girlfriend doesn't have the same love for the game as I do, and she makes a little joke about it from time to time but that's ok, I say the same about her Yoga!!!!!

Please get in touch if you are interested to get involved!!!

Regards

Barry Spence