Tru Soldiers

It was only fairly recently I rediscovered the joys of outdoor garden games. Like most people, when the sun makes an appearance I’m out in the garden, deckchair assembled, slowly barbecuing myself whilst the children run around keeping me awake. But since discovering the delights of outdoor garden games, I’m now joining my kids in keeping our neighbours awake.

There have always been toys and games designed for the outdoors, and for gardens of larger proportions. From football to cricket, tennis to volleyball, there have been many activities available. The problem has been twofold though. The first problem has been storage - football goals and volleyball nets take up room. The second problem has been space - unless you own a garden the size of a football pitch many of the games are simply inconvenient or impossible to play.

So what are the garden games that I am using now, and how do they differ from the larger games which are simply not practical in a standard family sized garden? Well, many of the games are traditional ones, such as skittles and quoits for example. My kids have been bowling of course, and are a good deal better at it than me. Having a wooden skittles set was a great idea. It’s ideally suited to my garden, which is rather long but fairly narrow - a perfect bowling alley in fact!

Quoits is a game I have heard of but never played before. Of course, it’s terribly simple, but deceptively difficult at the same time. We all became terribly competitive, and in the end it didn’t seem to matter who won - what was important was that we were playing as a family, having fun together, and not just sitting around.

Besides these traditional games I also managed to find some traditional board games which have been specially adapted for the garden. These included draughts, noughts and crosses and even chess, though of course all of these are many times larger than the indoor versions. The draughts pieces are the size of dinner plates, and this let the whole family participate - we even played in teams (kids against parents - I won’t admit who won with their superior skill and unrivalled youth…)

The range of outdoor garden games is really quite surprising, with so many games I would simply not have even considered - such as dominoes for example. With this version each domino was about the size of a shoebox, and the resulting game posed some particular challenges as the layout of the garden offered its own restrictions on positioning! What really struck me was just how simple it really was to get the whole family involved, playing together, rather than sitting in silence ignoring each other.

If you only have a little bit of storage space you might consider some of the inflatable outdoor games, but if you have room I would strongly recommend the wooden ones - they last tremendously well, look fabulous and feel great. We’ve often taken them on picnics with us, and usually gather a band of interested picnickers nearby - often being challenged by our kids!

There are many places you can go to buy outdoor garden games but I strongly recommend Cleverclicker.co.uk - it’s where I went because not only do they have a great range, but they deliver free of charge - even though many of the games are solid wood! May your garden never be the same again!

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