I've made it back....again.....

Apologies again. I promise that I have been busy. I have been painting for other people and also amazingly...... for myself.

I have been distracted from Napoleonics...yet again... with a soccer game....yes, a soccer game.

One of our Club Members came across a set of rules and bought some figures. He loves Manchester United and so painted 1 team in their colours and also painted up Chelsea so he can have someone to play against. He made a pitch from felt, which looks great.

I decided to do the same sort of thing. I support Arsenal but another club member said that I may cop a lot of flak (as they had lost a few games in a row) so I decided to make up my own team.

A while ago I played Lion Rampant, I made up a retinue based on Monty Python's Holy Grail. I had a lot of fun doing that project so I thought that I would continue the theme.

I bought the World Cup pack from Eureka Miniatures which includes 2 teams, 3 officials, 2 goal posts, 4 corner flags and even a streaker......

The rule set we used is Striker Table Soccer. It uses a 4 function aspect for the attacking side, the one with the ball, and an alternate 2 function then 3 function aspect for the defender. A turn is completed at the end of the Attack phase and Defence phase. If the attacker loses the ball, the turn ends but the defencive 2 or 3 phase alternate function continues it's phase, it doesn't start again.

Once you have a way of marking off the move turns, it is very easy to keep up with the phases.

My imagination ran away with itself and I have made a history of The Spamchester Park Queen's Rovers. By a remarkable coincidence, which a fellow club member pointed out, it's initials are SPQR.....who would have thought........
 I have made a club crest and motto, a pitch (made from some spare 3mm MDF that I had lying around) and then made some advertising boards (with a Holy Grail theme)

The unpainted players

After basing the figures to a 25mm plastic disc, I spread on some cheap, water based construction adhesive, then poured some very fine sand onto the adhesive. This sometimes dries a bit flat and so I added just a bit more the next day.

I painted the 3mm MDF with a grassy coloured indoor acrylic house paint, which I had used on another project and had 3/4 of the tin left. I marked 10 cm lines on the board with pencil, in a chequerboard pattern. I then watered down 2 shades of Jo Sonja's acrylic paint (and a couple of drops of detergent to break up the surface tension) and with a 75mm paint brush painted the board to simulate the grass being mown in different directions, as they are on most big league Football (Soccer) pitches.

Once that was dry (I waited about 3 or 4 days) I marked the lines with a pencil and placed masking tape on both sides of the marks, being very careful when the lines joined other lines.

I used Jo Sonja's Titanium White to paint the lines, 2 coats, before removing the tape.

And Voila, apart from a couple of bleeds under the tape, which were easily corrected, 

one finished pitch.

And may I introduce the players of Spamchester Park Queen's Rovers

And of course, the officials

This motto means Brave Until the End

History of Spamchester Park Queen’s Rovers

Sir Robin Knee came back from the Boer War, where he was knighted for bravery, he decided to buy his local pub, “The Queen’s Rovers Arms” in Lord St. Spamchester.

The locals formed a football team in 1907 and Sir Robin decided to sponsor the team, buying the club shirts,

adopting the Mascot and Colours from the “The Queen’s Rovers Arms” sign.

 

 This was a mix of Sir Robin’s Family Crest, a rampant chicken, and the colours of Sir Robin’s regiment “The Spamchester Rifles” green and white checks.  

   

The first coach was Lance Lott and his assistant was his Brother, Maynard. They played in the Camelittle Amateur Football League against such teams as Swampcastle United, Anthraxia City, Nador Forest, Antioch Rangers and Casselarg.

The nickname of the team became “The Hoenders” an Afrikaan word for chicken that Sir Robin gave them, from his time in South Africa

The Club joined the F.A. in 1925 and made it to the Premier League this season. It is not true that the club will only last 3 seasons, Autumn, Winter and Spring.

The current Owner/President is Tim Chanter, owner of a Nursery chain, their motto being “The Best Shrubberies in the County”.

The current Manager is Frenchman, Guy Lombaird who says that the F.A. Cup is the Club’s “Holy Grail” 

 The Club Motto is Fortes Usque in Finem which means Brave until the End

The home ground is Swallow Park

The First Game

Today I played my first game of Striker Table Soccer against fellow Club member Neil.

He has had a couple of practice games and so helped me run through the basics of the game.

Neil played as Manchester United against my Spamchester Park Queens Rovers.

We decided to make it the ¼ Finals of the F.A. Cup. Premier League United against the Minnows, non-league side Spamchester.

Neil started the game off and after a few moves finished up with a failed pass which meant that the closest player or players, moved to the ball. We each had a player equally close, so we rolled to see who won the ball. The ball was cleared and after a few more moves I had a chance of a long shot, outside of the penalty area, which was parried behind for a corner.

Nothing came of the corner and a few moves later, Neil was in the open, bearing down on the goal. He shot and my brave keeper made a great save.

It was then my turn to make a good break after a few moves, which ended up with another shot. This was well saved by Neil’s keeper.

Not long after, we had another shot which flew into the top row of the stadium in the next suburb………

That finished the half. Another member of the club, John, was very interested in the game and while waiting for his Napoleonic game to start, Neil gave John a go with Man U. He immediately changed to a 3-4-3 system.

He managed to move forward and was fouled by a clumsy tackle from my team. He passed it to “non other” than Ashley Cole, who, from inside the 6 yard box, did not miss.

John’s opposition arrived, so Neil took charge again. Within a few moves, Ashley Cole was put in the clear again.

His shot was parried by the keeper but with both Cole and my defender being the closest, a tussle for the ball ended with Cole getting the better of the luckless back man. With a clear shot, Cole could not miss his second goal.

Things were not going well for Spamchester, who made a substitution to make it a 3-4-3 to match Man U.

During another foray forward, my striker was fouled, but the referee missed the foul.

A couple of moves later though, the ref had his eyes on and gave Man U a free kick……typical….

From the resultant free kick, Man U sliced the defence up again. The forward who received the ball passed to Ashley Cole who thumped in his Hat-Trick from a few feet out.

The Non-League team of Spamchester were down but not out and made some quick passes to force another save from the United keeper who fingertipped it passed his right-hand post.

The corner was crossed quickly and the substituted striker poked the ball in for a goal.

Following a low-key celebration by myself, Man U kicked off again. Spamchester had renewed hope with enough time still on the clock for a comeback.

A few long passes and another striker was clear, with just the keeper to beat……as sometimes happens with Non-League players, the striker rushed his kick and stubbed his toe into the ground (and through snake eyes)

That was the last throw of the dice…..literally. The game ended Man U 3, Spamchester Park Queen’s Rovers 1

A thoroughly enjoyable game. Thanks to Neil for the game

I can't wait to play more games