Justin has been passionate about Subbuteo since the 1980s, and his son Alex caught the bug as soon as he was old enough to understand the rules. They've since toured Europe winning prizes in competitions individually and as a team. Now Alex will get ready for England in the upcoming Subbuteo World Cup
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00:00My name is Alex, I'm 16 years old and I study in Amethyst Sixth Form.
00:05I'm Justin, I'm 51 and I'm a performance manager for a local company.
00:12Civito is simply football mixed with chess.
00:17It's a tabletop game where you have 11 little figures
00:24and you flick them at the ball and try and score against your opponent.
00:28Alex is right in the fact that he says that it's very much like chess.
00:32I don't think many people realise how mentally challenging the game is.
00:37It might look like you're just flicking figures around the pitch
00:40but it is actually much more challenging than that
00:42because you've got to think very, very quickly
00:44and that's where the chess element of it comes in.
00:47You can make one mistake at a high level and you can be punished for it.
00:58Oh no!
01:08Oh!
01:18Oh!
01:21Oh man!
01:22What is that clip?
01:25I reckon if I can hit him a little bit.
01:27Yeah, go for it.
01:32Nice.
01:38If the ball hits your player?
01:39It changes to him.
01:40Okay.
01:44That's alright.
01:49Okay, that's a change.
01:51That's a change.
01:52Jesus, you're kind of through now.
01:55Oh, what are you doing?
02:01Your ball.
02:04Oh, God's sake!
02:07This is it, man. This is it.
02:10Don't say that.
02:12Oh no!
02:13Good goal.
02:22Oh!
02:23What?
02:24What is this game?
02:29Oh!
02:32Oh, that was in.
02:33Finally!
02:34Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:35My passion for Civutti started really when I was about 13,
02:41something like that, and I started going to a club and played a few games
02:49and actually found I was quite good at it and developed as a player
02:54and eventually went to a few national events and found it was really exciting
02:59and really enjoyed it and it's just grown from there, really.
03:02First memory I have of playing Civutti was at the first event my dad held
03:08at the library, the local library, and I was set up on a five-a-side pitch
03:16and no one played with me that day, but I was there
03:20and then I just started going to our local weekly night at the pointings
03:25and I just started playing from there.
03:28Yeah, I think from our point of view that we both kind of got interested in the game.
03:35Alex has kind of developed his interest and he's gradually got better
03:39and really started to become competitive and because we've built a team,
03:46we've got multiple players, we've got 15, 16 players in a squad for Wolverhampton,
03:51Alex has been able to play more events and really develop along the way as well
03:55and I think just the enjoyment there for us, really.
03:59And then as we started to grow, we started to go to more tournaments,
04:03both locally and across the country, and then we started going to international tournaments
04:08and that slowly led to the World Cup.
04:11Yeah, we played in Gibraltar and also in Rome for the country,
04:17so played for England at those events and that's just fantastic to get to that level
04:23and we're fortunate that Alex has managed to be picked for the England squad again
04:27for the forthcoming World Cup in a week's time, so really excited for that as well.
04:33My favourite achievement was when we went to play in the Redhill national team event
04:40and I played for the Wolves B team and we were playing against a very strong side
04:46and I had been subbed on in the second half to play their strongest player
04:52and we had delayed a couple of minutes late because one of us had to change teams
04:59and I had to defend and stop the other player from scoring to secure my team the win
05:06and because of us being delayed, everyone was watching us
05:11and everyone was crowding around the table to come and watch
05:14and I managed to keep them out and as the buzzer went, my teammate jumped from behind me
05:23and grabbed me and gave me a hug as we won and we all celebrated.
05:27I think probably my favourite moment of all is winning the National League Championship
05:35which is called the Wobbly League.
05:38Really, I suppose from my perspective, the real thing for us is the bond that we've got
05:47that has developed over playing these events and travelling to different events
05:52and meeting different people together.
05:54I think the one thing that I will mention is that the Sub-UTO group of all the players that go
06:01generally are fantastic and really welcoming and really supportive
06:06and I think everybody's got to know Alex well and really built him up as well and developed him
06:12so it's just such a great thing for us to be able to spend time together
06:17and really to watch Alex grow from my point of view.
06:21Some younger people of Alex's kind of age probably aren't quite as confident
06:28and he thinks he's not confident but trust me, he's doing really, really well.
06:33It's the greatest thing I could have asked for.
06:35It's the reason I keep playing and it's just the greatest thing ever
06:39to have someone like my dad to play with.