The Stoketshirts.co.uk blog

Having a scout through the internet I discovered a site that made me smile. It’s called http://www.super-subs.co.uk/ and is nowt to do with substitutes.

The site uses Subbuteo figures to re-create famous moments in the glorious game.

Now being of a certain age, I was bought up on Subbuteo and possessed a Stoke City team that was proudly purchased from the Bratt & Dyke (how would this name fair 30 years on?) store up Hanley Duck.

I also bought the set of stick on numbers that were a pain in the arse to get to stay on the players backs.
They regularly trounced the opposition that were the teams that came with the set, (plain red tops and plain blue tops as per picture below) Liverpool, Everton, Manchester United, Chelsea or even Carlisle! I must admit that playing my brother who was 4 years younger than me helped me rack up double figure scores against these also rans!

Classic Subbuteo Club Edition Reds vs Blues

I also can remember swopping the number 5 around after my Mum trood on on the Stoke team. With a bit of glue from the Airfix kits, the plastic casualty was christened Denis Smith. Somehow the glue never seemed to set properly and Den would spend time in the Airfix Box treatment room with either a red or blue sub taking his place.

Now the reason I choose to support Stoke City isn’t because I possessed the Subbuteo team, unlike Scotland Rugby boss Andy Robinson! Not a lot of people know that a young Mr. Robinson chose Stoke because his set had the team with it, while his brother supported Man. City (I think!). Strange what magic the “flick to kick” game can bring to people’s lives isn’t it?

Anyway, enough of my ramblings, and back to the website.
As I was saying, it recreates famous moments in football with pictures of subbuteo players.
These include, the Maradona, Peter Shilton “Hand of God” incident (pictured below), Terry Butcher’s England bandage moment (very Andy Wilkinson), Frank “spit the dog” Rikjaard, Roger Milla – corner flag and the ZZ butt. My favourite is the Vinny Jones/ Paul Gascoigne “cough” moment.
The others can be seen on the site here:- http://www.super-subs.co.uk/

The Hand of Cheat

This got me thinking!

What famous Stoke City moments could be recreated with Subbuteo figures?

Oulare’s Arse? Eastham’s Goal? Rory’s Longthrow? The Promotion Pitch Invasion?
Your thoughts and Subbuteo reminiscence’s please!

Does anyone have a replica Boothen End? 🙂

What do you get when you cross a t shirt designer with a Turkish International footballing legend, a marxist revolutionary and a former University of East London student who had a UK Number one single in 2009?
A bizarre mix of t shirt designs, that’s what!

From Che Guevara to Tinchy Stryder, could our influences be wider??

Our TUNCHE design is a simple mix of Guevara

Che Guevara at the La Coubre memorial service.
Taken by Alberto Korda on March 5, 1960.

PLUS Tuncay

EQUALS

TUNCHE

N.B. Turkish ref. on cap badge 🙂 (*

Meanwhile

Tinchy Stryder and his Star in the Hood clothing range
available here
Star In The Hood

PLUS
TUNCAY – (when he plays “in the hole” behind the front two, as late on at Wigan)

EQUALS
TUNCAY STRYKER – A STAR IN THE HOLE

Another little known connection between Stoke – on – Trent and Tinchy Stryder is Jack Foster! Jack is the son of Author Stephen Foster, known for his excellent books on Stoke City, “She Stood There Laughing” “….And She Laughed No More”

Jack is pictured on the front of “She Stood There Laughing” and has since gone on to achieve fame in his own right through his music management career. His company is called “Takeover Entertainment” and he is co – manager of Tinchy Stryder.
Not bad for a Stokie living in Norwich!

These designer shirts and hoodies are all available online at www.stoketshirts.co.uk
Click the following links

Tunche
Star In The Hole
as well as the book
….And She Laughed No More

I usually take a few snaps when I travel away on my mobile phone (Nokia N97) and try to create a panoramic scene of the stadium. Here’s my attempt at Wigan on Tuesday when Stoke drew 1 each.

The photo quality has been reduced to save bandwidth but other than that, what do you think?

They're here, they're there, they're everying f***ing where, Empty Seats

(C) StokeTshirts.co.uk 

You may also spot a few oddities in the positions of players on the pitch if you look closely enough.

Ian Dyer’s (aka the Boothen End Bard) latest project is a world cup song for South Africa 2010. It is called “Think About England” and has been recorded by the band “Head The Ball” which he is the lead singer of.

Have a look at the video here and let me know what you think