“I’d play Subbuteo with my mate Julian. I never owned a set myself. Our games were hideously competitive. That’s why I withdrew from all competition. I just don’t have the ability to cope with losing. As I recall, Subbuteo was surprisingly realistic. You could pass the ball accurately and pull off quite fancy tricks with it. You could certainly suspend disbelief in the game, though I remember finding the players’ large, hemispherical bases upsetting. Being an imaginative soul, I’d project myself into the position of the players. I almost felt as if I was dragging round a large lump of plastic that had been glued to my feet.”
Teenage Flicks: Memories of the Sub-beautiful Game, Dexter Haven Publishing, £6.99.