On a recent visit to the Subbuteo Shrine in Columbia, MD, seven time National Champion Gregg Deinhart shared some stories about his well travelled playing case. Please also check out our photo gallery dedicated to this post. Thanks for this Gregg.
What is in your carrying case?
When time permits, I like to come and view Pauls’ blog. He has done so much for the game in recent years and this forum is a breath of fresh air for someone who is looking for some interesting talk about Subbuteo. Paul has been asking me to contribute to his blog for some time now so I suggested a topic. I said if he asked players “what do you carry in your team box” he would probably get some interesting answers. What people carry with them to Subbuteo tournaments, and sometimes the carrying cases themselves are really pretty interesting. He agreed, as long as I made the first post. So, here is my blogging debut: Gregg Deinhart’s Subbuteo Gear.
Carrying Case
Before I get to what is on the inside, I’d like to talk about the carrying case itself. I won the case in an auction from a great Subbuteo collector in England named Paul Lloyd. He was selling off his entire collection and players had to send a one-time bid to him. He took the highest bids and sent out the gear. I got a few duds, but the case is great. It was made by someone in Denmark and is the perfect size to carry just about everything you need for Subbuteo. It came with a Sticker from the Danish Subbuteo association and I have since added stickers from friends from across the USA and around the world. The inside of the case has a place for 36 figures and then four other compartments for extras. With a few X-acto knife cuts I now have the space for about 5 teams and some other stuff. Let me start with the teams:
Bases
C8 Blue Profibase (USA) – For a guy that has bought and sold more bases than most clubs combined, I sure play with this team quite a bit. They are very heavy so they lack touch but they are great for chipping. I bout them from Marco de Angelis back in 1998 but didn’t use them for another year. They have been my bread-and-butter ever since.
C8 Red Astrobase (USA) – These I bought some years after trying to match the blue ones but they never quite did. It might be in my head but I gave them a chance in the National last year and I couldn’t manage a goal in my loss! Recently I have been knocking them around a bit and they are pretty good after all. I might give them a chance again soon.
C8 White Profibase (Beatles) – These are as close to the Blue ones as I have. Right now a Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band team in on them. Ever hear of them? They are the 3rd team from Liverpool.
Various Teams: I also like to tinker with bases and now I have a set of Zuego bases, a set of Orange C8 bases, and a new set of Yellow C6 bases. The orange ones are going to get the Beatles and the yellow ones are going to get a Buffalo Sabres (hockey) team on them. I might put a red white and blue DC United on the white bases to show off all my hand-painted teams.
The USA strips were painted by a Dutch player named Chris Schaffer. I didn’t even meet him until after he had painted them. They are a fantastic paint job. My Sabres team was painted by Maryland’s own Larry fryer. He did me a special favor painting this team and did an amazing job! Larry is proof that we have World-class Subbuteo talent right here in the USA. Painting is one area of Subbuteo that I almost always come up short and I appreciate my hand-painted teams! I also carry in my case four hand-painted (again by Chris) Beatles Sgt. Peppers’ Figures. These figures actually made it into the Clifford Borg-Marx documentary about Subbuteo.
Other figures include some spare players, whatever bases I am trying out at the moment and one or two spare keepers. I don’t know much about my two rodded keepers but I do keep two in there. One uses tennis grip tape on the handle and I get a lot of crap from the guys about it. The other one I traded with Zach Walker.
Other Playing Items
Everyone needs polish and I have the standard stuff. I have an old-school polishing cloth for day to day polishing. I also carry some SSTV polish. Rick Wilcox uses my polish more than I do so I keep it in there for him. When I do use it, I spray it on what is left of a Hard Rock Café T-shirt from London.
I keep 5 Subbuteo balls in my case at all times. I don’t think it is a superstition. I just to make sure I leave with no more or no less than what I came with. I do like to take a ball home from any final that I win (and replace it with one from my box). Currently I have a ball wrapped in blue tape and I think it is from the last National I won.
The last of the real game-related gear I have in my box is a watch and a bull’s-eye level. The watch is my old tennis watch and the band is broken off it. I wear a watch on my left hand (the one I flick with) and so I can’t stand one on me when I play. This one usually doesn’t even make it to the table but it is there if I need it. The level makes it out even less. It has been there for years and I can’t really remember using it all that much.
The Fun Stuff
I have a few items in my box that are not Subbuteo specific but are important to me. I have a picture of my wife and son. I also have a picture taken from the Liverpool locker room of a wooden board (about Subbuteo pitch size) with some motivational words on it. I never wondered until just now if that was a Subbuteo table. I should have asked when I was on the stadium tour where I took the picture. Under my polish, there is a note that I carry from my wife wishing me well. She wrote it for me before I went to the 2004 National in St. Louis. I read it before each tournament. For some reason I also have an old Indian Head nickel (with the Buffalo on the back) and a cross pin that my father-in-law gave me on my wedding day. I guess one is to remind me where I came from and one to remind me where I’m trying to go.
The Other Subbuteo Bag
I have another bag that is my player-maintenance bag. Some guys carry this stuff with them but I usually leave mine home. I try to carry as much as I need and then some. I can’t resist tinkering so if my player-maintenance bag is left at home. I’m better off. I’ll briefly list the contents:
• X-acto knife: This is key for a lot of little cutting needed for bases and stickers.
• Scissors: Handy for cutting base stickers.
• One-hole paper punch: I use this to cut out the center of my stickers.
• Pocket knife with corkscrew: the corkscrew is perfect for taking discs out of bases. I don’t think I’ve broken a disc yet with this technique.
• Double-sided tape: For placing washers in bases.
• A selection of figures, bases, and weights: I am always tinkering with bases and weighting. Right now I have about three teams that I would eventually like to set up. Not too bad for a guy that plays once every two months!
• Polish and varnish supplies: I have a few strange polishing odds and ends collected over the years plus some base varnish from different people. My best memories of cross-country skiing were on the days where I had the perfect wax. The same is true with Subbuteo figures.
I can’t wait to read other posts on this topic. I hope I am not the biggest pack-rat of the group. Thanks again Paul for this opportunity. I’d like to write next about the performance of different style bases.
Gregg Deinhart
Washington Tuesday Subbuteo League
