CAREER GOALS

How Graham turned Subbuteo hobby into full-time job

- By DANNY GUTMANN ECHO Reporter

Subbuteo table football still enjoys a following among those who like to 'flick to kick'

AFTER spending weekend after weekend as a child playing Subbuteo, Graham MacCormack, 54, continued his love of the football figurines and started painting his own 10 years ago.

But, this year, he quit his job and turned it into a full-time business.

He said: “I remember when I was seven or eight, my uncle gave me a box of the old-school Subbuteo from the 60 and 70s. It was probably 1980 when he gave me the box and I remember Roma being in there.

“I thought it was fantastic. I remember every Christmas getting bits of terrace, trophies that were ten times bigger than the players and different types of nets.

“I have always loved the different nets and stanchions they used to have at grounds in the 70s and 80s. Now they are all homogenized and football is different, but then you used to be able to tell a ground just by looking at the nets, like Anfield with the red netting and the metal cage at the back, or Middlesbrough with two different nets at each end because there wasn’t much space behind one of the stands.

“Little things like that are what I loved and still love. It started from there and then it came back as I got older and nostalgic.”