Title: Red Cross Football game
Publisher: Biff.
Publication Date: 1917
Binding: Soft cover
Game Condition: Good
Edition: 1st
Manufactured for BIFF British Red Cross Football Game Service, 151 Grosvenor Road, London S.W. Game comes in a 2'6 inch brown wallet, with printed instructions printed in red and black, and a playing surface board but is missing the red and white cardboard counters. The wallet is in poor condition with wear to the front and split along the edges. The hinged board is in good condition on the playing surface and the baize is almost entirely intact with the green and red colouring quite bright. It has repeated small indentations damaging the back of one half of the board. The double sided sheet of rules is creased and slightly soiled with minor wear at the edges. Biff was said to combine the science of draughts and chess with the excitement of football movements and the board was marked out for both football and rugby. This game was issued to Soldiers and Sailors fighting in the 1st World War and was produced for keeping up morale during the 1915-19 years when competitive football and rugby had been suspended in Britain due to the conflict. There appear to be two or three examples surviving in the Red Cross Museum, where the catalogue entry associates its production with the Joint War Committee of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John of Jerusalem in England. This example may otherwise be one of the rather few survivors of what was probably produced in large numbers. Bookseller Inventory # 4178