While watching a video of old Sky adverts in the 1990s, I came across one publicising a European Championship qualifier between England and Turkey in 1991. Within seconds, there was Sonic kicking a soccer ball and the voice over said “in association with SEGA”. The only SEGA/soccer association I knew about was Arsenal and their sponsorship deal in the late 90s/early 00s. So I dug a little deeper and uncovered a host of tournaments that SEGA sponsored with connections to the beautiful game in the UK.
(Please note: there were other tournaments in France and the US but I’ll be focussing on the UK for this blog.)
Sega Masterblaster Championship 1991
The first sports-oriented tournament in the UK was the Sega Masterblaster Championship 1991. Entrants competed in nationwide heats across the country playing Sega Master System games and the winners of each heat won a Sega Mega Drive and played in the finals, held at Old Trafford. Interestingly, the heats were held at venues where Bobby Charlton’s Soccer Sixes competitions were but despite Googling, nobody has written anything about them. The overall winner got tickets to see England v Turkey in their European Championship qualifier. If they were an England fan, they would have been even happier as The Three Lions won 1-0.
Sega Sports Challenge
The Sega Sports Challenge was a sports tournament held in 1992 involving secondary schools from across the country. The prize was £2,500 worth of sports gear for the winning school and lots of other goodies (likely SEGA related). The winning school was Cowley High School in St. Helens, with High Storrs School in Sheffield and Ryton Comprehensive in Gateshead both finished in 2nd.
UK Sega Games Championships
The last of the SEGA sports competitions was the UK Sega Games Championships, held in 1993. The even was sponsored by Williams Formula One and consisted of two tournaments: one for 16 teenagers and another for under-13s. Williams driver Damon Hill was there and the winner won tickets to Donington Park, a Sega Mega-CD and a signed racing helmet.
Sources
Big thanks to Sega Retro for unearthing all of this info. I don’t know anywhere else that has it.
Sega Masterblaster Championship 1991
- Computer & Video Games, “June 1991” (UK; 1991-05-11), page 12
- New Computer Express, “11th May 1991” (UK; 1991-05-09), page 3
