 Wayne Smith kicking off his 500th game |
On Friday February 15, 2009, Wayne Smith played his 500th game with the Southern California Subbuteo Club.
There are missing records from some tournaments held before 2005, so the real number of the number of games he has played is higher than the 500. But we can only count the games from the tournaments we have records of.
Wayne is a cofounder of the Southern California Subbuteo Club, SCSC, and after this game we ask him what changes he had seen in the Subbuteo scene in So Cal.
The SCSC effectively started when Gary Archer showed me Subbuteo table soccer some time before July 1985. It doubled in size when Gary and I met up with two
other players: Ryan Scott and Scott Tibbetts. The four of us played almost every Saturday at The Last Grenadier in Northridge (which is no longer there) for maybe nine months. We went to gaming conventions to show the game. The last time more than two of us met together to play Subbuteo was July 8, 1990-the day of the WC Final in Italy. It was Ryan, Scott and me at my house. Gary had given up Subbuteo several years earlier. Unfortunately I have no records of any of these games. I’d like to find them some day. I know I kept records and even statistics.
Scott Tibbetts continued to show up to play and we finished a face-to-face club tournament. I don’t have the results, but the final was played after 1996 because the winning team had the brand new-at the time-Hasbro solids. I think that that final was the last time that I saw Scott. He moved to central California. Ryan vanished around 1995. Attempts to find him have proved fruitless. Gary Archer is still around and has built himself a Subbuteo table for him and his twin boys.
The SCSC was down to one member, for a little while, anyway. Sean Daly contacted me and for several months I volunteered to help with his middle school Subbuteo club. It had about 40 members but unfortunately none of the students had the intensity or desire to really excel. Some time around 1999 I went to San Francisco and played with a fellow who had a house just a few miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. At his house, I met Gregg Wiley. Willey moved down to Los Angeles and still shows up from time to time for tournaments. Jon Schultz also moved to the southland and for a little while we had four-player leagues. One league had Bruce Farrar, Willey, Sean Daly and me and the other substituted Jon Schultz for Sean. In just a few years, though, we were down to just one player again. Jon moved away, Sean’s life got in the way, Willey had health problems and found slot car racing and Bruce lost interest.
I think that first breakthrough on our way to our present size was when Kevin Nieman contacted my by E-mail. I drove out to his house and showed him the game. He still shows up to nearly every event we have. I think that next was Steve Tucker-contacting me through his brother. He brought a co-worker along: Simon Hutchinson. Simon now runs the SCSC website and his son Dominic is a member as well. Dominic brought in Adam Carlson. The ASA website brought to us Jason Mitchell. I ran across Munir Merchant at Rocketdyne. Munir was a terrific addition who ended up in the top half of the last league’s table even though he started the league after playing only about 6 months. So many other players have come and gone (see the Players page) and still occasionally show up.
With any luck the SCSC will not drop to one member again.
Changes in 500 games: I no longer play or have to play solitaire Subbuteo. I don’t use lightweights any more. I use polish on figures. I’ve traveled thousands of miles to play in Subbuteo tournaments. I no longer use national teams. I can go to someone else’s house to play a match. I was once ranked
third nationally and in the top 90 in the open category in the world. I am no longer ranked
third nationally and in the top 90 in the open category in the world. More than one player in the SCSC now scores an average of more than one goal a game.
Wayne Smith