Obsession, Hobby or Collection?

Male. Hunter / Gatherer. In the Twentieth Century the role evolved more than a little and now, who knows? Collector is what I like to think. Some call me a hobbyist - terrible word - and others, ‘obsessive’, as if it’s the worst thing a person could be.

As you may have guessed I’m a board gamer. I like playing board games. I love the mental challenges, I love the little gaming components, and I love the social side of it too, it’s about having some fun with like-minded people. It seems it’s the latest in a long list of hobbies I have had although some people have called them my obsessions.

Perhaps it’s because I become completely engrossed in the topic, trying to find out as much as I can about anything to do with it. Maybe it’s because it takes over my allocated space within the Hora home. Or could it just be that I have a passionate nature which is lurching towards the psychological unbalance that has become my life?

From childhood I remember being completely infatuated by Subbuteo, those little plastic men. I had a reasonable collection, much larger than my friends come to think of it. And I had the football, rugby, cricket and 5 a-side versions. I’d play for hours on my own, creating leagues, cup completions, test matches. Solitary it was. There was a little bit of other gaming then too although, with no-one else interested unless it involved a standard pack of cards, it was more something for me to get out and look at in those days. Some things haven’t changed there much.

I was very keen on sport as a youngster too. Hard to believe looking at my stature now but I’d spend hours down the playing field chasing a football around. Loved it. Hence the Subbuteo I guess, and the devotion to Ipswich Town. My first live game was in the 1971/2 season, Ipswich v Derby and we won 3-1. After that I was smitten and hardly missed a home game until Sebastian was born in 2000. I still have a good lump of programmes from those heady days and will try and sell them on if we ever get promoted again..

During the summer my time was split between golf, dad had made me and sis’ learn very young, and cricket. For the amount of golf I have played I should be so much better than I am. However, it’s been one of those off and on relationships and more off since we moved to London all those years ago. Cricket began with test matches on the telly and then learning to score for the game ’Owzat! A dice variation which worked pretty well. I’d buy a nice score book, usually from the sports shop in Southwold I seem to remember, and fill it with match after match, all neatly filled in.

Around the age of 13/14 I discovered music in a huge way. All through a friend, David Hogg, who introduced me to the Incredible Shrinking Dickies and my interpretation from there of punk/alternative music. It was soon off to taping everything on Peel and spending any money I could get on 7”s. A new hobby was begun and this one’s managed to remain constant throughout. I used to dream about going to gigs and now I get to go to them. I used to dream about travelling to exotic European cities to see bands play, and now I get to do that too.  

Another constant has been reading. I love books and have always read. I wish I’d kept a record of all the books I’ve read, it would fascinating to me now. Ah well. There was something very special when I was allowed to raid next doors boxes of books collected for a fete to see if I wanted any of them. Bizarrely, I picked out Susan Hill’s ‘In The Springtime of the Year’ and Jean Genet’s ‘Miracle of the Rose’. Hill is by far my favourite author and I have two new books by her on order at present, can’t wait! Genet’s work was such a beautiful piece, so glad I got to read it. Other authors have come into my life and once enchanted by one I will read their entire output if at all possible. 

When I moved to London my love for film really took off. Cinema City in Norwich still shows the art films and foreign works I adore but to have to pass by the BFI every evening on my commute home was blissful. Cheryl and I were soon watching two or three films a week, and at home I was recording everything possible accumulating a hideous fire hazard of a collection of VHS cassettes. Again the passion for this knew no bounds and I was soon taking holiday to coincide with the London Film Festival and attending as many lectures as possible with film makers. 

For some reason around this time I also began collecting Swatch watches. They were so different in design, and affordable too. I joined the Swatch club and have several rarish versions. There’s a great second hand shop in Zurich we found for older models too. Getting them from the airport was also a good way to buy them cheaper back in the days when the tax made a difference.

When the children were born these forays into collecting turned to Playmobil and Scalextric. Not quite to the extent of previous hobbies I’ll admit but still overwhelming for the children! I was working from home when they were first born and with no travel time I rekindled first the Subbuteo collection and then the board gaming hobby too. Gradually I have sold the Subbuteo as needs must but am sticking it out with the board games. There’s a truly incredible number of games released every year and among them some brilliant designs. I hope this hobby/obsession remains with me now. It’s looking good so far with Wednesday evening sacrosanct and a little family gaming and an odd evening elsewhere too.

It's the little things

Minor irritations. I have a theme running for some of my poems, intolerance. It meets head on with a second theme of the 'great british isles' quite frequently. No doubt it's all a part of becoming a more opinionated person as I grow older, being more certain that I should express my opinions, whether or not anyone is interested!

So, the World Cup. What the hell was it with the abundance of single colour strips? Don't we all love seeing what the latest strips will be? Which teams Adidas had invented a new stripe for, in ALL of it's 'new' creations? As an avid collector of Subbuteo teams over the years I have to say that references 21, 41 and 42 were amongst the most boring; Leeds, Liverpool and Chelsea, not exciting in the way that a 50, 164 or even a 156 were; Brazil, France and (West) Germany.

Having grown up with black and white telly I got the fact that the strips had to be as opposite as possible to each other for the cameras. But as time's gone on it's been incredible how some strips evolved, shocking at times, wonderful at others. Within Subbuteo and table football generally this translated into incredible machine prints initially and then hand painted strips reached incredible levels of detail, I love these in particular:

Algeria '82

Belgium '82

It was weird therefore seeing so many single coloured strips out in Brazil. Not weird, wrong. For all the brilliant games and superb excitement, definitely the best tournament I can remember, there's always a niggle somewhere, this was mine!!

Another grumble will follow this one. You have been warned.

Sometimes you just have too many thoughts in one day

And, it would appear, that today is just one such. Hurrah!

The Germans announced one of their most important things today, nothing to do with their World Cup Squad either, oh no. They announced the 'biggest' board game prize nominees for the year. This is the time when everyone suddenly has an opinion on what they left out, what they included, and well, that obviously covers it!

So, the German nation are backing one German game - unusually low - one French - quite brave for the Germans - and one Belgium game, bloody hell! I back the French entry, Splendor. You may remember it comes in a huge box... but it plays wonderfully, is colourful, quick and Mrs Hora just got thrashed in quick succession twice this evening.

The, there are the 'Gamers' Games' award. With people seeming to dare the committee to nominate Russian Railroads, one of the few games I've played that has left me completely underwhelmed, they gave it a nod only. The three games to have are apparently Istanbul, Concordia and Rococo. And it just so happens that I have them. Playing them is a different matter. Only Concordia has been played and after it's brilliant reception at Essen last year I didn't rush to buy it. But playing it was great, I enjoyed it a lot. I cannot really say then that one deserves it above another. At least most of the reaction has been funny!

Could be yours for a small fortune.

The other gaming related news is my latest escapades on ebay. If you're after a rare Subbuteo Zombie Team then now's the time to pick one up... Rochdale, Dumbarton, you're out to make me my fortune this week. We shall see. The initial reaction has been promising and with a load more to go on next week, more European, plus American - North and South - and National teams then who knows. The overdraft could be cleared once again.

Subbuteo Swimming

As an avid fan of Subbuteo when I was growing up I loved collecting teams, playing leagues and cup tournaments. I even got Subbuteo Cricket and Rugby and successfully played those solo too. And Football Express, their 5 a-side football game, was superb. In 2000, when I started working from home, I found myself surfing and stumbled back into a whole world of Subbuteo I hadn't thought existed. I also discovered eBay and the two combined into a ridiculous collection. Amongst April Fool's Day jokes of the past Subbuteo came up with a few, and swimming was one of them. For me, it's my way of keeping track just how many lengths I've swum each morning. Let me take you through the mind of an hour's swim...

I get up whenever I get up and head off to the local baths before breakfast, I don't want to be too awake when I start you see. And then it's quick shower and into the pool. Lane selection is crucial. Wednesday's are tricky, along with Monday and Friday they tend to be quite busy. And come 9am, a time I'm usual in the water, the Blue School arrives with at least ten thousand children eager to swim and probably just as many eager not to. The ensuing high-pitched kerfuffles go on for half an hour and concentration is easy to lose. Not with my system though.

Mustn't count strokes. That's really tough. Early on I know I can do a length, twenty-five metres, in twenty-four strokes, but as time goes on that averages out at twenty-six or twenty-seven and I always feel that's too many. My breast stroke is not great, but I figure that the less fluent my style the more work I must be putting in to travel my morning mile. Makes sense doesn't it?

So, I need to keep track of the lengths. The first ten I see as my warm up. It'll take me those to get into what ever rhythm I'm going to swim to for that day. It's easy keeping up with the first ten. After that I need to turn to the classic Subbuteo 'heavyweight' figure as they are called amongst collectors. The first 190 teams Subbuteo produced are considered to be the perfect collection despite the fact that that model reached references around the 324 mark and higher in Italy. My counting takes me through the first sixty-four of those. As mentioned the first ten don't need much monitoring but from eleven - QPR - I'm checking where I am by going through the catalogue. Twelve - Bristol Rovers, thirteen - Blackpool, seventeen - Ipswich, white sleeved version, my team, hurrah!

In the twenties though I start getting confused; too many Scottish teams. Never sure whether Hamilton Academicals or Queens Park are twenty or twenty four respectively. But I do know that Hearts are twenty-seven and those Canaries are twenty-eight. Into the thirties and I'm completely lost. Fortunately, thirty-two lengths is half way so I align myself to that. Thirty-four is Juventus, thirty-six Floriana from Malta and then Grimsby and Poland make up the last of the thirties. During all this time I am thinking of what the day will hold for me, stuff I need to remember to do, dreams I'm like to have. And there are my fellow swimmers too of course. Such a huge number of regulars, people you only see in just one item of clothing. My self-loathing is high out of the water, I must look horrendous! Never mind. We all say hello, talk about how busy the pool is, how noisy the children are and the water temperature of course.

Ajax

Where was I? Thirty-nine, yes, Poland, didn't reach forty-one, that's easy to remember, Liverpool, followed by Chelsea, Coventry, Falkirk, Hibs. Hibs is another landmark as it means I'm into my last twenty lengths, and then forty-eight, Spain, three quarters of my swim completed. Never count it in percentages, that's my top tip. It's a mess and feels horrible, not sure why. Anyway, fifty is Brazil. Then Sheffield Wednesday, Exeter, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Fiorentina, Ajax, AC Milan, Inter Milan. Who the hell within Subbuteo chose which teams to be numbered like this? Why are there so many Scottish teams so early on? How do you get from South-West England over to Italy, and the Netherlands.

Thankfully, by the time I reach fifty-eight I start counting down the lengths to go. Just as well as I can never recall what teams are referenced in the early sixties, I know they're actually quite rare in collector's terms, which equates to unexciting in football terms. Especially when I was ten. The last lengths and I allow myself to count strokes; four lots of seven, twice. Done.