For all #SparkleJar competition entrants . . .
Thank you all for entering the draw and congratulations to winner who came out of the digital hat filled with the 672 correct answers.
Hobby was the bird in question, its scientific name is Falco . subbuteo. The inventor of the table football game, Peter Adolph, applied for a trademark to name the game ‘Hobby’ but it was refused so he went for the specific name of the bird. He launched in 1947 and most of the early kits were produced near Tunbridge Wells where local housewives painted the players. The release of plastic three dimensional figures in 1961 saw off the competition and thereafter it thrived as one of the most popular boys games of the 1960′s and 70′s. And in 1980 the brilliant Undertones immortalised it in their hit ‘My Perfect Cousin’ with the line:
‘He always beat me at Subbuteo
‘Cos he flicked to kick And I didn’t know . . .
Oh my perfect cousin . . .’
I used to play myself and enjoyed 30-30 draws between Chelsea and Liverpool, but all that’s in the book !
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