Thursday 4 September 2014

Sphinx Products - Poolette ~ Football Pool Card Game (1938)


1938
Poolette ~ Football Pool Card Game
Sphinx Products
52 cards

A football whist game. These cards have a red back and were issued in 1938. The game was re-issued after the end of World Car II in 1946. Those cards have a blue back and will be listed later. The cards measure 90mm x 60mm.


"The Game of Thrills and Skill... Full of Excitement and Interest - The Ideal Pastime for all" 

2-4 players
How to play:
The 52 cards are split into two different decks. 25 cards are used to Arrange Matches in part 1 of the game. The other 27 cards are used in part 2 - Playing the Arranged Matches.
Arranging Matches: Each player gets a hand of cards and a turn consists of laying down a pair of cards from the same division, or drawing a card from the stack. Depending on the number of players, this goes on until all players have arranged the correct number of matches or there are no more cards to draw from the deck. Points are awarded or lost depending on whether you did or did not arrange the correct number of matches.
Now play shifts to the second deck. All the arranged matches are placed in the middle of the table. These nicely illustrated cards are in four suits, marked A to D. A is trumps. Now you play 6 hands of cards in Whist fashion. Must follow suit, if not can discard or trump. The winner of the most tricks decides the result of any match on the table. He does this by choosing one of three face down cards - Away Win, Home Win, Draw. An Away Win scores him 20 points, a Draw scores him 15 points, a Home Win scores 10 points. Then another hand of cards is played, and the winner chooses a card to be the result of that match, and so on, until all the matches have been played. The points in Part 1 are added to the points in Part 2 and the winner is the one with the most points.
I've listed the teams by the first team alphabetically at the top/bottom of the card, then turned it around so that that team is at the top, with the middle teams reading from left to right, followed by the card at the bottom.

1 Match Abandoned

1 Match Postponed
1 Lucky Mascot

1 Away win

1 Home Win
1 Match Drawn

8-page Rules booklet


22 Team cards


Div. 1

5.  Arsenal, Portsmouth, Charlton Athletic, Grimsby Town
5.  Aston Villa, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, Leeds United
5.  Blackpool, Huddersfield Town
5.  Derby County, Everton, Liverpool, Chelsea
5.  Leicester City, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Wolverhampton Wanderers
5.  Manchester United, Brentford, Birmingham, Stoke City

Div. 2

4.  Blackburn Rovers, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Fulham
4.  Burnley, Millwall, Tottenham Hotspur, West Bromwich Albion
4.  Bury, Southampton, Swansea Town, Manchester City
4.  Chesterfield, Norwich City
4.  Luton Town, Coventry City, Plymouth Argyle, Newcastle United, 
4.  West Ham United, Bradford Park Avenue, Nottingham Forest, Tranmere Rovers

Div. 3 North

3.  Barrow, Accrington, Darlington, Lincoln City
3.  Carlsile United, Rotherham United, Doncaster Rovers, Stockport County
3.  Chester, Wrexham, Halifax Town, York City
3.  Crewe Alexandra, Barnsley, Southport, Oldham Athletic
3.  Gateshead, Hull City or Hartlepools, Bradford City or Rochdale, New Brighton

Div. 3 South

3.  Aldershot, Exeter City or Walsall, Swindon Town or Clapton Orient, Northampton Town
3.  Boscombe, Bristol Rovers, Bristol City, Reading
3.  Brighton & Hove Albion, Queens Park Rangers, Crystal Palace, Newport County
3.  Cardiff City, Southend United, Nottingham (Notts) County, Watford
3.  Ipswich Town, Port Vale, Mansfield Town, Torquay United



24 Football Game cards

A1.  Division Leaders (?)

A2.  Promotion (?)
A3.  International Cap
A4.  Runners Up
A5.  Relegation (?)
A6.  The Cup
B1.  Referee
B2.  Centre Forward
B3.  Goalkeeper
B4.  Half Back (?)
B5.  Full Back
B6.  Forward (?)
C1.  Club Director
C2.  Football Fan
C3.  Pool Winner
C4.  Football Trainer
C5.  Transferred
C6.  Linesman
D1.  Goal
D2.  Free Kick
D3.  Foul
D4.  Offside!
D5.  Hands!
D6.  Penalty Kick


4 comments:

  1. Hi Alan, I have both a blue back and red back number '5' card with "Manchester United, Brentford, Sheffield United, Stoke City"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Paul, I have checklists for both versions on my blog:

      Sphinx Products - Poolette - Football Pool Card Game (1938)
      Sphinx Products - Poolette - Football Pool Card Game (1947)
      Sphinx Products - Poolette - Football Pool Card Game (1947) (02)

      Cheers, Alan

      Delete
    2. Hi Alan, I saw that but my card seems to be different to the one you have here which has Birmingham instead of Sheffield United?

      Delete
    3. Hi Paul,

      That's interesting, Birmingham and Sheffield United changed places at the end of 1938-39 season, Birmingham relegated and Sheffield United promoted. That seems to indicate both colour versions were issued after the war. I think that means I have to do more research on this subject as there'd be other changes across the set.

      Cheers,
      Alan

      Delete

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