Sub-bus-eo

Old Subbuteo Bus Station

Old Subbuteo Bus Station at 9:08 in the morning. Armed with flasks of Bovril and pork pies, the supporters join with their loyal companions for their weekly pilgrimage to cheer their team on and donate (free of charge) some good natured banter to the opposition they will face.

A great atmosphere with everyone heading for the Stadium of Fingers.

...Not many better feelings in the world! ?

Ken Tourbus

The Ken Tourbus has racked up the miles over the years, with trips to Italy and Old Subbuteo Town being some regular destinations.

The bus was featured in the legendary game between Corinthiken Casuals and Oldsubbutonians FC, where Ken and his cousins first met the Old Subbuteo Family. Ken Bailey and Uncle Sub have been firm friends ever since!

Subbuteo Sightseeing Tours

The Subbuteo Sightseeing bus started life as a Hamleys Open Top Red Routemaster Double Decker Bus. A lick of Subbuteo green paint and some Subbuteo signage and destinations, and we were good to go!

FEATURES

• Open top deck & open entrance platform

• Conductor provided with ticket machine and original unique passenger bell

• 28 seats downstairs; 36 seats upstairs

A petition

There was a passionate discussion on a Subbuteo forum, about the dodgy 'sight-lines' of Subbuteo grandstands, and after an inspection of the Stadium of Fingers, these concerns were found to have some not insignificant validity.

The spectators committee met, and agreed to write a petition and collect signatures to implore Mr Waddington to resolve this and also address some basic health and safety issues (like higher barriers to prevent falling from an upper tier).

This petition would have been a good idea if Waddingtons still owned Subbuteo. Alas, they had sold it some 15 years before! ?

Ref 28

Norwich City

Andrew Phillips (Phippsy) is a bus driver and Subbuteo enthusiast. He drives buses in and around the 'Fine City' of Norwich.

Phippsy is also now the proud owner of this bus, filled with Norwich City Subbuteo supporters!

In these pics you can see Phippsy happily driving his bus (to Holt via Aylsham) in his Newcastle Utd shirt! ?

Ref 5

Man City

In 2007, Paul Eyes, a Subbuteo player from the US was suffering from a diagnosis of cancer, and the Subbuteo community in the UK showed their support by sending him various Subbuteo figures, and get well wishes. He famously created a stunning Subbuteo stadium of Maine Road, so, the Friends of Old Subbuteo sent him this bus and their best wishes. All was well with Paul with a healthy recovery a year or so later. You can see his youtube channel with loads of clips on games, tips & techniques.

Ref 5

Man City Update!

A message has been received from Paul Eyes (March 2021), who also sent these two pics from the USA! ?

"Know that I treasure my 'City' bus and do take it out of the case to marvel at it from time to time." ?

...Some nice items there Paul - and belated congrats on winning the 2019 Presidents Cup!

Ref 202

Southend Utd

Feeling quite at home in the Stadium of Fingers, this classic Routemaster double-decker bus is the Sub-bus-eo club's local member. The adverts celebrate Essex Radio. Started in 1981, the station’s main theme, was "Listen to Essex" (performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra). Breakfast show presenter was Jon Scragg, daytime show hosts, included Talkback’s Chris Mann, 'The Hairy Eyeball', and late night phone-in voice, Tim 'Timbo' Lloyd.

Ref 76

Nice (France)

This old bus is full of Nice supporters, obviously on the three mile trip from Manor House Hospital to Wembley, to see their team play in a summer club tournament.

The Lost Hospitals of London - In 1916 the Manor House Estate was commandeered by the War Office and given to the Allied Hospital Benevolent Fund to build a hospital for injured servicemen. During WW2 the Hospital suffered severe blast damage from bombs exploding nearby, but no direct hits or injuries to staff or patients.

Ref 122

Austria Vienna

The Hogwarts Knight Bus.

Harry Potter: "How come the Muggles don’t hear the bus?"

Stan Shunpike: "Them! Don’ listen properly, do they? Don’ look properly either. Never notice nuffink, they don’"

Stan Shunpike explaining to Harry Potter about how the Knight Bus remains unseen to Muggles.

Ref 6

Watford

This Renault Type AG is full of Watford supporters are on a bus travelling between Wesserling and Bussang in France.

They appear to be happy, but they might in fact be lost!

This type of vehicle was the natural development of the horse drawn station bus used to convey visitors from the railway stations to their hotels.

Ref 1

Man Utd

Over the years Man Utd fans have spent a lot of money buying the many replica shirts. Here are the Subbuteo versions:

Flats - Ref 1. Early HWs - Ref 1. HWs - Ref 1, 47, 100, 325. Zombies - Ref 100, 325. LWs - Ref 1, 100, 325, 372, 373, 453, 574, 578, 641, 684, 729, 732, 770, 771, 792. Habsro - Ref 63137, 63139, 63149, 63227. Zëugo - Ref 28, 38, 66, 149, 325

This bus load of fans thought 'sod-it' and just wore red and white! ?

Ref 42

Chelsea

A nice official Chelsea fan bus, which didn't unfortunately come packed with fans. However, as soon as they heard their new fan bus had arrived, they all jumped out of the spare spectator box and painted each other with the club colours ('blue is the colour'), and bagsied their seats!

In the middle pic below the fans are in unison singing "...through the sun and rain", arguably because Chelsea is their name...

OSC Salerno Forever

A few years back the Old Subbuteo Club in Salerno asked members of the Old Subbuteo Community for donated special prizes for their pre-Christmas tournament.

Here is the offering from the Southend-on-Sea Old Subbuteo Club.

Uncle Sub is driving the cart and appears to have a very good relationship with the horses. They are on their way from Southend to Salerno.

Here is the Old Subbuteo Cart in Salerno. Pics posted by Gabriele Maffei in the Group Le Luci d'Artista del Subbuteo.

The Bus Depot

The Old Subbuteo Bus Depot displays the vision and mission of the Southend-on-Sea Old Subbuteo Club.

The oath states: "I hereby solemnly declare I will flick my best and enjoy every game I play against any opponent regardless. It will be an honour to win, and honour to draw and an honour to lose."

Some of the vehicles of the road to that Stadium of Fingers are not officially buses, However, after consultation with all the bus drivers and passengers, it was unanimously agreed that they should join this page!

We have some vans, some cars and a train. Batman has also turned up to watch a few games. Some members of the Subbuteo community through this was stretching the concept a bit. Batman thought otherwise...

Ref 16

Arsenal

Arsenal fans cadging a lift in the Chesham Dairies van, on their way to watch a pre-season friendly with Chesham United.

The club was established in 1917 by a merger of Chesham Town and Chesham Generals.

Nicknamed "The Generals", Chesham United are currently members of the Southern League Premier Division South and play at the Meadow.

Ref 348? (LW)

Martigues (France)

A bit of a random LW choice here, probably due to the challenging combo of colours on the van. The shirts look like a LW Ref 348, but the corner-kicker and throw-in figure are both wearing the wrong colour shorts.

However, their shorts do match the colours of the van, so something has clearly gone awry here. This probably explains why they haven't got a 'Ref Banner'...?

Ref C113 & Ref C159

Ambulance and Police

57 Varieties of Heinz...

Ref 9 - Southamptonion Soup

Ref 21 - Swansauce City

Ref 23 - Partick Pickle

Ref 31 - Blackbean Rovers

Ref 38 - Montjellies (France)

Ref 14 Bournemouth

Arguably should be 'Ref 14 - Boscombe'.

1899 - Formed out of the remains of the older Boscombe St. John's Institute Football Club. The club was known as Boscombe Football Club.

1923 - Name changed to Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic Football Club to make the club more representative of the district,

1971 - Adopted the AFC Bournemouth name in 1971, so they would appear first in alphabetical lists of English clubs.

Ref 8 Newcastle

Hitching a lift in the back of a Newcastle Brown van, these chaps look on good form!

Newcastle Utd have worn black and white stripes since 1894.

Newcastle Brown Ale was originally created by Lieutenant Colonel Porter in 1927. When he actually completed the beer, he believed it to be a failure, as he had actually been attempting to recreate Bass ale.

The club was created in 1887, when Clube Atlético de Coimbra (founded in 1861) and Academia Dramática (founded in 1837) merged.

António de Deus da Costa Matos Bentes de Oliveira, (aka Bentes), is the club's highest goalscorer, with 167 goals between 1945 and 1960.

Uncle Sub Removal Van

Uncle Sub removals have expanded their popular Italian removal service, and have set up a base in Church Lane, in Prittlewell, Essex, just 2 miles from the Stadium of Fingers.

They are the removal firm of choice for Southend-on-Sea Old Subbuteo Club, and help to set up all the tables for the September tournaments and all the Christmas events.

Batman

Batman's Subbuteo stunt double is driving the car in this pic. Batman is already in the stadium, as his Bat Nav told him the traffic was very congested around the stadium, so he took the tube.

Old Subbuteo Express

If you fancy a change from the long coach trips travelling to away games. why not take the Old Subbuteo Express?

This will take you to all the pitches you need to visit, from the Anglo-Italian Pitch, to Old Subbuteo Town.

The only pitch it doesn't travel to is the Subbwarts Pitch to watch the Quidduteo games, as the Subbwarts Express has a monopoly on that route!