Wednesday 6 June 2018

the rather marvelous 4-2-4 football game

When l was young kiddiewinkle, l played Subbuteo now and again like every other sane friend of mine. Some of us dodgier lads even used to go into Wallingford when we were on Summer holidays and nick various boxes of teams to vary the games a bit (Security was pretty lax in the olden days). However, the game that l enjoyed playing most of all, and hardly anyone remembers, was TAF 4-2-4, which l used to play when l lived in Germany. I always thought that the game helped give me a better theoretical understanding of passing the ball into space and how to control and move a ball into space when l played football for real (I was obviously excellent at the real game).
I lost my original game (or my parents probably chucked it when we moved back to Blighty) but l purchased another a few years ago for that lovely Proustian rush, and just to see one again, as people l spoke to then had never even heard of it, and despite the drink and drugs over the years in between, l knew l wasn't imagining it.
When it arrived, I was pretty chuffed that it was in such good condition, and it immediately bought back many happy memories, but an added bonus was that it has been signed by  Tom Waterman, the creator of the game on the inside of the outer lid.
Hurrah!!! A reason for keeping it, as l can now class it as a collectors item / rarity.




toodle pip

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