Match Report 27th September 2010

With continued distractions keeping some of our members away it was great to welcome a new face in the form of Matt. Having expressed interest in the evenings in the past he managed to squeeze a little time into his busy scholastic schedule to join us – great stuff. The rest of the line up for this weeks meeting consisted of Ian, Malcolm, Crispin, Daniella, Alex and of course, me. With apologies received from Liza and Joe, both deep in ‘A’ level course work and Pauline studying photography at the moment.

Straw (Age 6+, 2-6 players 30 minutes or less playing time)

With Alex indicating he would be a little late and me distracted with various other duties around the house Ian kicked the evening off leading a game of Straw, with Alex and I joining as it progressed. This is quite simply a brilliant card game that is

Match Report 13th September 2010

Our numbers were lower than usual this week, with only Crispin, Malcolm and Daniella being available. With our house still being the subject of major decorating work Daniella kindly offered to her house as our venue for the evening.

When we arrived we spent some time hearing about a school project Daniella and her family have been involved with that had involved a trip to London the previous day and driving the electric car the school had built up and down the mall. This sounded a really interesting project and a tangible way of schools putting the theory their students learn in the class room to a practical and competitive use.Check out these two links for more information www.greenpower.co.uk and the school site www.stpaulsracers.co.uk

Once we sat down to play we considered a number of games we had not yet played, including San Juan, Citadels and Tikal before finally selecting “Seeland”, the game I first played at the UK Games Expo 2010.

With memory failing me and having not prepared myself to explain the game, the initial explanation was slower than I would have wished, although my fellow players patiently bore with me as we felt our way into the game.

The game itself is based on a board representing wetlands in 17th Century Holland. The players acquire seeds and windmill designs from the market place and gradually use these to reclaim the marshlands. As players obtain

Board games + children + parents = FUN ?

What seems incredibly sad is that according to a recent report commissioned by Disneyland Paris and written by Professor Tanya Byron “Parents have forgotten how to play” with their children. This study interviewed 2,000 parents and 2,000 children (aged between 5 and 15) across the UK and the findings suggest that not only have a significant number of parents (21%) forgotten how to play with their children but 30% of parents think that playing with their children is

Social Afternoon with Games – Week 5

What follows is a slightly edited note submitted by Daniella (thank you), as I was out of the country for this final session.

It was a slow start but we began with Enchanted Forest with six players, due to the action of 'if you land on a space already occupied that person gets sent back to the village' the game did go on a bit but when we were finally allowed to get to the castle and locate the hidden treasure....I won....!!! We were all quite pleased it was over but thought it might be worth another go.

Meanwhile Incan Gold had started on another table and there was a little family rivalry in evidence with four players from the same family playing this game, I believe Liza eventually succeeded in winning this game.

Jungle Speed was played with three, Liza won the first round and my Tom won the second.

“Take it Easy!” was played with two players with Marcia, one of our younger players, claiming victory.

Straw was played by five players with Crispin winning (hmmm) a suspicious result there, but I couldn't keep an eye on the game as five of us were deeply involved in, dare I say it, RoboRally!!! Amazingly we all reached the first flag with a couple of us losing a life but time got away on us and when it came to the end of the afternoon Danny was the closest to reaching flag two with I think all his lives intact.

On the other table a final round of Jungle Speed was taking place with six players, Marcia won one game and Crispin again!!

I think all enjoyed the final afternoon.

Conclusion
This brings to a close the last of the summer session; a project with mixed results. The people that attended all said how much they enjoyed it but we all lead busy lives and with summer holidays the numbers never quite reached the levels I had hoped for. Also whilst a number of older parishioners expressed interest and indeed support for the idea in reality (whether for health or other reasons) they and their peers did not come along in numbers to balance the younger attendees.

On the up side a number of people did join us who had not played these games before and interacted with other members of the parish, both young and old, with much laughter and fun. I was also delighted to receive an email from one attendee (a professed non-game player) who with children and grandchildren had supported us throughout.

“They have become very interested in such games following the sessions……we all hope for more....”