Big kids love Subbuteo

To many people, it is a game for children, their smaller hands perfectly suited to flicking miniature football players on plastic bases towards an oversized plastic ball.

But Subbuteo, the cult table football game from the Seventies, is enjoying a resurgence among adults.

In the last weekend of this month Malta will host the Subbuteo World Cup, with 150 players from Nigeria, Singapore Columbia - and the UK.

Only four years ago the game was threatened with extinction when manufacturer Hasbro announced its market was evaporating among computer-dazzled teenagers.

The news sparked outrage among adult supporters whose dash to the shops to buy the game forced Hasbro to reverse its decision. will be travelling to Cospicua to compete in the world cup, including the world number five seed, Phil Redman.

Mr Redman, 38, a civil servant from Southport, travels abroad four or five times a year to compete.

He was given his first set by his parents for Christmas when he was seven and returned to the game when he was 19.

He said: "Subbuteo is a really intense sport. It has the mental tactics of chess and the angles of snooker, all rolled into one."