My Perfect Cousin

A trip back in time to my youth. Home computers were in their infancy and fantasy football meant managing a set of little plastic men on your table top.

Subbuteo got it's name from the latin name of the bird of prey, The hobby - Falco subbuteo. This was my hobby from the age of 9 to my early 20s. Did I stop playing because of adulthood? No, I bought a SEGA megadrive and sensible Soccer instead.

The title "My Perfect Cousin" comes from a song by The Undertones. It was released as a single around the same time that I was getting into Subbuteo and features the lines, "Even at the age of ten, smart boy Kevin was a smart boy then, He always beat me at Subbuteo, cos he flicked to kick, and I didn't know"

The sleeve of the record featues an illustration of a Subbuteo figure in the exact same strip. The colours on the sleeve were Derry City, the team that The Undertones supported. My picture is Sheffield United circa 1993. Derry City changed their colours to red & white stripes in honour of their manager Billy Gillespie, who had previously played for United.