Incredibly striking, very fun and a real rarity, 'Trench Football' is a WW1 anti-German propaganda game, presumably designed and produced after the famous 'Christmas Truce' football match in 1914. Obviously enough this means it was produced between 1915-'18 and it's survived the past century in very good order with minimal fading / damage. It's a typical ball maze game where the player has to navigate a a ball-bearing through a choice of routes, whilst getting past a series of holes which drop the ball back to the start.

 

The anti-German twist with this piece is that the objective is to score a goal by firing the ball past the mouth of Kaiser Willhelm II. First, the player must navigate the ball through the complex network of German trenches and past caricatures of key Commanders such as Chief of the General Staff Von Moltke and Grand Admiral Von Tirpitz. All of these characters are pictured in compromised positions - mid fall, flat on their back etc... When the player has skilfully outwitted the German high command they get a shot at the goal. 

 

The game board is printed on coloured card, encased in a wooden box with a glazed front. The rear panel is printed with the games instructions which make for an incredibly humour piece of reading - the maker's certainly didn't hold back... It is also described as being "By the Makers of the Sensationally Successful War Game - 'The Silver Bullet' - an example of which I also have available. Generally the piece remains clear and bright and is fully legible. Years of grubby fingers have lead to marking on the casing and the rear which would probably clean, but for me it's a fantastic piece of the game's history, evidencing the years of fun it provided. The red colouring has been lost from the upper right corner of the rear panel, but this is away from the printed area. The game is still in full working order, I can testify that this distinctly challenging and really rather addictive! ("just one more go!").

An example of this game can also be found in the Imperial War Museum's collections.

 

It measures 24.5cm high x 16cm wide x 2.5cm deep.

 

S/N: #1159