I'm in a bar at nine o' clock in the evening and a man is telling me about the technique his uncle used to saw off part of a football player's legs. Usually this might be cause for concern, or something out of Guy Ritchie's latest opus, but on this occasion the "player" in question was thankfully only a Subbuteo model, being customised by a Manchester United-loving uncle to resemble his hero, the diminutive genius Nobby Stiles.

Falco subbuteo - the Eurasian hobby which gave its name to the game. Photograph: Robin Chittenden/Alamy

First released in 1947, table-top football game Subbuteo was cheekily named after a bird of prey (Falco subbuteo) known as the Eurasian Hobby, after the game's creator Peter Adolph had a patent to name the game 'Hobby' turned down. Quickly capturing the hearts and minds of several generation of schoolchildren (and, it goes without saying, their dads), it finally went out of production in the 1990s, but the franchise was bought up by toy manufacturer Hasbro, who relaunched the game earlier this year.

I meet Greg Sammons, co-founder of the all-new Manchester Subbuteo Club, upstairs at BrewDog, the trendy new craft beer bar on Peter Street. As I've not flicked a player in at least two decades, he kindly offers to gives me an intensive refresher course, while explaining the game's gladiatorial appeal. He tells me:

It's the fact that you are physically facing your opponent. Even when you play a computer game against someone, you end up both looking at a screen, rather than each other.



Greg, a self-employed 28-year-old, got his first Subbuteo set as a Christmas present when he was seven or eight years old, and later formed a club in North Staffordshire with friends. He's keen to stress that Subbuteo is, as he puts it, "not just a simulation, it's a game in its own right." And he's right. While it's clearly modelled on football, there's also a trace of games such as pool or snooker. It's far more about hand-eye coordination and judging angles and distances than power or strength.

Subbuteo players - and crowds - know how to celebrate. But can they hug one another? Photograph: Andi Sapey/Teenage Flicks

In case you think that sounds as if Subbuteo is lacking in excitement, I recommend watching the YouTube video of England's Eric Verhagen doing a celebratory lap after winning the World title in 2008. While in England the game remains an amateur pastime, in some countries Subbuteo is considered a serious sport, with Malta's Massimo Cremona scooping the 2010 SportMalta trophy – the Maltese equivalent of Sports Personality of the Year.

Tonight is just a taster session, the chance for people to have a game or two while sampling some high-quality craft beer, but there are competitive leagues all over the UK. Greg tells me there was a Manchester club in the 80s and early 90s whose members played in Subbuteo green, a tradition he'd like to revive.

Later in the evening I talk to Sean Dooley, a Whalley Range web designer who says Subbuteo is "chess-like," in terms of the need to think several moves ahead. However, knowing what you want to do is not the same as being able to do it, and the only game I play, against 36-year-old teacher support advisor Matthew Long, ends up more like snakes-and-ladders with my constant attempts at long raking cross-field balls ending up tumbling off the table. Spanish style tiki-taka is clearly the name of the game here.

Great players of the past: Bill Shankly tries his mini-skills. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Getty Images

In the end I keep the score down to a respectable one-nil defeat, if only because Matthew hasn't played for twenty years either and so misses several open goals. He volunteers that he was worried tonight might be packed with "overweight beardy mummy's boys with BO, still clinging on," but there's plenty of younger blood and most of the older attendees haven't played for 20 years. There's even a WAG safely ensconced on the sofa, reading one of the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy and offering her boyfriend moral support.

While players may face long periods out on the sidelines with repetitive strain injury or, at the very least, seriously battered cuticles, their plastic counterparts have a tendency to meet far more extreme, even fatal, ends. Everton fan Andy Barnes, 37, a stores manager based in Atherton, talks of decapitating a player with his first ever flick:

My first matchday experience was flicking it, the player hitting the crossbar and taking his head off. That was one player down straight away! My star striker, on my debut, never to be seen again!



With a shake of the head and a pinch of Merseyside wit, he adds ruefully:

Who knows how many goals he would have gone on to score?

Andy also tells me about the trauma of returning home one day to find his entire unbeaten 1987 Everton Subbuteo side had been stuck to his snooker table with airfix glue by his little brother in an ultimately kind, if ill-judged, attempt to make sure he didn't lose them. I can't help but think of them as the Busby Babes of the Subbuteo world, cut down in their prime.

Last weekend Manchester had the honour of hosting the annual Subbuteo World Cup. Originally scheduled to be Athens, the event fell foul of the Eurozone crisis and the Etihad Stadium swooped in at the eleventh hour to save the day. In the individual event Spaniard Carlos Flores emerged victorious from the 64-player finals after a 5-3 epic against Italian Massimiliano Nastasi, also managing to bag the winner in the team event, which saw Spain triumph over Belgium on goal difference.

Back in BrewDog, and Andy and Matthew have just played out a heart-stoppingly close 3-3 draw, which means only one thing: a shootout. Rather than penalties, in Subbuteo each player takes a series of five kicks from various points along the shooting line. Andy manages to go into a two goal lead, before Matthew pulls one back. It's Matthew's last kick and he has to score, but the ball cruelly ricochets back off the crossbar, and it's all over. A jubilant Andy celebrates his unbeaten record, while Matthew slinks away to drink his beer and plot his revenge.

Manchester Subbuteo Club will be at BrewDog every fortnight, with the next meet at 7.30pm on August 7. All levels are welcome. For more information email manchestersubbuteoclub@gmail.com or contact them on Twitter @SubbuteoManc

Attention to detail: Subbuteo has its streakers too. Photograph: Andi Sapey/Teenage Flicks

Tom Midlane is a freelance journalist and copywriter based in the north-west. He writes for publications including the Guardian, the Press Association, Sabotage Times and DeHavilland, the parliamentary monitoring service. His blog is here and you can also contact him on Twitter @goldenlatrine