I’m guessing like most people reading this, my introduction to Subbuteo was receiving a football set as a Christmas present around the age or eight or nine.
I can’t quite remember how I got into the cricket version, but I think it was probably through a friend who had a set. Going to a pretty basic primary school I’d never played cricket (we just about had the space for rounders!) but one birthday later I was the proud owner of a Club edition and my love of both the table top and real games grew from there.
Through teenage years cricket took over from football for me but eventually time moved on and my set retired to the loft to gather dust.
I first became aware that Subbuteo hadn’t disappeared completely when the advent of Facebook led to me back into contact with that childhood friend. As a joke we started sending each other birthday E-cards depicting familiar things from way back when. On a search one day for a Subbuteo picture I stumbled across the eBay listings and found a lot of great memories.
A few weeks later I was trawling a little second-hand toy shop for a specific gift for my nephew when I spotted a Club set, and couldn’t resist taking a peak. On opening the box I found not the light blue capped players I remembered, but red capped ones with peculiar small catching cups in the base. I wonder if they are rare I thought?
The box was pretty tatty and much larger than anything else in the shop, so I think the owner was keen to be shot of it. I bought it for the princely sum of £5, and the collecting bug bit.
Having liberated my old collection from my parents’ loft, I first started buying replacement pieces for those that had been lost or damaged over the years and after several house moves. I’d stop there I thought…
But then I spotted pieces I didn’t recognise and bought a few out of curiosity.
Somewhere along the line that became an idea to buy an example of every playing piece Subbuteo ever listed on their price lists for the cricket game. Which is the collection this website represents.
My interest has always been in the playing pieces, and not the packaging as such. So I don’t claim to have examples of every playing piece in each style of packaging they enjoyed. In fact some of my pieces have been found in car boot sale shoe boxes, biscuit tins and more.
Although I’ve got most myself, some are not in the most photogenic condition (the game is one to be played and enjoyed in my book, not stored to remain in pristine condition!). So to make this site a comprehensive reference I have included examples of each type of packaging, borrowing shots from fellow enthusiasts or even eBay where I don’t have great examples myself.
I hope you enjoy this site and it proves a useful reference. If you’ve got any suggestions or examples to add to it, please let me know via the Contact page.
This site has no commercial purpose and is not intended to infringe any trade marks or brand ownership rights. If you have any concerns regarding this, please get in touch via the Contact page.
Subbuteo Cricket 