10 pin bowling
For a while 10 pin bowling was cool again, in a kitsch sort of way, admittedly, but popular with students, particularly at venues where karaoke or dancing were also on offer. It’s since been overtaken in the fashionable stakes by table tennis (yes really, see below). To play the bowl is rolled along a wooden runway, the goal being to topple as many pins as possible. Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes combine the game with a clubnight featuring chart hits, and All Star Lanes venues model themselves on American 1950s diner/bowling alleys.
Skittles
Skittles, a version of bowling with nine bowls, varies according to the country where it’s being played. In a game of London skittles, instead of throwing a ball you throw a – wait for it – cheese. Not a real cheese sadly, but a cheese-shaped piece of hardwood that weighs 4-5 kilos. The arrangements of bowls left after throwing the cheese are given names, like “Novices” or “Gates of Hell”. The score is worked out by adding the number of throws and the number of pins left standing, so if one throw knocks down all but one pin, the final score will be a 2. The winner clears all nine bowls in the least number of throws, having a maximum of four. Clearing all of them in one go is known as a “floorer”, and is very unusual. Play it in the cellar of the Freemasons Arms in Hampstead.
Darts
This humble pub game turned international championship is believed to be around 200 years old. It’s not just as simple as aiming for the bull’s-eye, as there are different games where specific tactics and rules apply. In “Cricket” you have to hit the numbers a certain amount of times, whereas in “Shanghai” you have 20 rounds in which to cover the board. To play just find a pub with a dartboard, such as Glasshouse Stores, Cheshire Cheese, and Electricity Showrooms.
\n\nPetanque
Also known as French boules, this differs from other bowling games in that the objective is to throw (not roll, like in bowling) balls so that they get as close as possible to a small wooden ball called a jack, without actually touching it. It’s usually played in teams of between two and six people. In France, where the game originates, any flat surface can be the playing ground, from village squares to parks and even the beach if plastic balls are used instead of the usual metal ones. In London there are pitches at Parliament Hill in Hampstead and at Hay’s Galleria, facing the river.
Competitive eating
Definitely not one for the faint of heart, or indeed for anyone with much common sense. But this is yet another American trend that seems to hold an appeal here: eating as many pies, burgers or ribs as possible in quick succession. Sometimes competitors have to eat just one particularly demanding item in the fastest possible time. At the Red Dog Saloon the challenge is to eat their Devastator Burger, consisting of three meat patties, 200 grams of pulled pork, six rashers of bacon and six slices of cheese, in under ten minutes. Erm, yum.
Table tennis
Ping pong is getting an image revamp, with venues like Bounce in Holborn and Ping in Earl’s Court offering sophisticated soirees of food, cocktails and table tennis all under one roof. Up to four people can play this simple game, which has a similar scoring system to tennis, but requires less energy. And if further proof were needed of how hip table tennis is, Ping was recently featured on Channel 4’s Made In Chelsea, and we all know those socialites don’t miss a trick.
\n\nRounders
Like a gentle form of baseball, rounders is a bat and ball game. You need two teams of between six and 15 people, with a maximum of nine on the pitch at any one time. The aim is to score the most “rounders”, in other words do a complete round of the pitch, running from post to post each time the batter hits the ball. Rounders is often the preferred activity for corporate team-bonding events and sunny days in the park, but if you have more than a passing enthusiasm for the game you can join a club; there are free sessions for beginners at Hackney Marshes. Otherwise all you need is a park and a sunny day.
Snooker
Although considered a pub game by many, snooker was once a popular pastime in private member’s clubs. It is believed to have been invented in India by British army officers in the 19th century; in the 1900s it became professional and the first World Championship was established in 1927. The simplified aim of the game is to shoot the balls of various colours into the holes around the table in a predetermined order, employing a cue and a white cue ball. There are numerous pubs and bars with snooker tables around, like Chelsea’s Cadogan Arms, indie favourite the Good Mixer and the Elbow Room in Shoreditch.
