Friday, December 23, 2011
ON Sunday morning, many of us will be woken by electronic bleeps and whirrs as new computer-powered gadgets and toys are plugged in, charged up and used for the first time.
But in a world unmarked by Xboxes, the analogue sounds of Christmases past soundtracked December 25.
Think Meccano pieces clicking, bike wheels turning or — if you were lucky — plastic footballer figures clacking against a disproportionally large ball.
"So, you’re the man exploring the underbelly of Irish table football," says national champion Mark Farrell as he picks up the phone in Dublin, having been warned I was to call.
I imagine he’s wearing a crown and sitting on a throne with a branded green felt pitch at his feet after his latest All-Ireland victory.
The 33-year-old is at the centre of a ‘resurgence’ in the game in recent years. He and like-minded individuals gather in parish halls, community centres, each other’s homes every week. They roll out the pitch, set up the goals and flick-to-kick as the famous slogan went.
"The majority of the players these days would be guys who remember the game from their youth and they’ve probably grown up with the game. There’s a quantity of junior players still but the vast majority would be in their 20s and 30s.
"These fellas remember the game from their youth — these fellas with XBoxes and Playstations are growing up with those games. They don’t really have an affiliation with table football, you know, and it’s harder for them to get into it.
"I started playing about 20 years ago when I was about 12 or 13. And it was a big association then. The 1990s would have been the heyday then around the game Europe. I played for about five or six years and then I stopped, went off to college and everything else became more important.
"And then I came back to it when I turned about 30. Like a lot of guys."
John Moore is one of the reasons the game is on the up again despite the fact that — to paraphrase the late Apple chief Steve Jobs — there’s probably an app for that.
"I started playing when I was about eight years of age, he says. "I encouraged all the friends to play as well, we would have leagues, cups, World Cups and play the old Division 1 in England with transfers, suspensions, sending offs, injuries. It was the first version of [computer game] Championship Manager I suppose.
"I had received email a couple of years ago and decided to enter a team in the world cup in Birmingham. That’s where it all started off again. Since that tournament Irish players have travelled to about 10 countries playing in about 40 competitions in the last eight years."
You might remember punk band Half Man Half Biscuit and their hit song: All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit. It conveyed brilliantly the longing felt by Subbutteo enthusiasts for the extensive collection of paraphernalia that came hand-in-hand with enjoying the game.
"Ah yeah, that used to be a huge thing and that’s what got kids into it years ago," says Farrell.
"You wanted to have the Liverpool or the Man U side but truthfully nowadays the supplier Waddingtons don’t make it anymore.
"The stuff isn’t available anymore in the high street — you used to be able to buy every little item — from replica World Cups trophies, the goals, advertising hoarding — every nook and cranny. But nowadays it’s mostly Ebay, there’s a lot of sellers out there and you buy teams and start from scratch and build up from
Both table football exponents admit their hobby — (quick fact: Subbutteo comes from the Latin word for hobby) — leaves them open to a ‘slagging’.
"That’s the thing. At time you did get a bit of a slagging and they hear you’re playing table football and they’re like: ah sure that’s a kids’ game, what are you doing still playing that? But I think when people check out the website and they see what’s involved, their eyes are opened.
"When they see you’ve won a national title or whatever, they take you a little bit more seriously and realise there’s a bit of structure to it. We’re just not blokes in our 20s and 30s flicking a ball around a table."
* Email irishtablefootball@hotmail.com for more. * adrian@thescore.ie Twitter: @adrianrussell
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