Started playing Subbuteo | 1977 |
Why did you start playing? | I grew up in the college town of Claremont where soccer was huge... continued» |
Teams | Germany World Cup 1994 |
Record
Date | Competition | Pos | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
| Mar 16 08 | ASA Open | Opn 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | |
| Jul 28 07 | Bastogne Memorial Tournament | Opn 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 7 | |
| 2007 final | Maricopa Cup 2007 | 10/12 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 8 |
| Maricopa Newcomers Cup 2007 | 4/5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 7 | |
| Jul 28 07 | Posh Spice Open | Opn 3 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 10 | |
| Apr 29 07 | Maricopa Cup Round 3 | 3/5 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 8 |
| Jan 7 07 | ASA Open | MJ 2 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 6 | |
| 2004 | Western States Open | 3/7 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 2 | 12 |
Why did you start playing?
I grew up in the college town of Claremont where soccer was huge. We would draw hundreds of spectators in the 70s for our high school exhibition matches against the Torrance teams. One summer Derek Lawther, an expatriot from Ireland and the coach of the American Soccer League's California Sunshine, conducted a training camp for promising high school players in our town. He used Subbuteo to demonstrate tactics. We all loved the game immediately. After the training camp a dozen of us made a trek to Fountain Valley where Derek had a garage full of CLUB EDITION games for us. We ran a ten-team league with home-and-away matches for about two years until legendary soccer enthusiasts like Phil Banks, Chuck Seger, and Jerry Todd graduated and moved on.
I kept my pitch and teams for years as I traveled all over with the Air Force--Colorado, Redlands, Lompoc, Ohio, Virginia. I would bust it out when I hosted my teams' year-end parties and we'd have a hoot with it. I started playing Subbuteo with my daughter who loves soccer but her interest in Subbuteo was only fleeting.
I had finally donated my game to Goodwill in 2000 figuring the time had come...then in 2001 I took an assignment in Washington D.C. with the State Department. I was solo for the assignment so I had a bit of free time after work when not refereeing high school matches. I went to the welcome party for Coach Ray Hudson, the new coach of D.C. United where he encouraged everyone to go see "Fever Pitch" and see what team fanaticism is all about and the type of atmosphere he'd like to develop in the city. Well, I rented the flick and it had the famous Arsenal vs Arsenal Subbuteo scene in it. It was a good laugh.
Out of curiosity, I went on-line to see if they even made Subbuteo anymore. I was surprised to see that not only did they make it still, but there were national and international organizations in it. It turned out that the hub of all Subbuteo activity and the best players in the U.S. lived about a mile from my rented flat in Alexandria, Virginia.
That's when I met up with Rick Wilcox, Gregg Deinhart, Andrew Giffin, and the rest of the Washington Tuesday-night Subbuteo League (WTSL) -- who play every Wednesday. For the next three years we had regular weekly fixtures and regular national and international tournaments at the Episcopal High School where Rick lives and coaches the soccer team.
I have since moved back to California where commuting, coaching club soccer, and family activities have relegated Subbuteo to a quarterly indulgence. I still enjoy the competition and the camaraderie of it when I'm able to break away and meet Wayne Smith, Simon Hutchinson and the lads in Northridge for a flick.