Category: Games

Games nights

Phab Holiday in Avon Tyrrell – Friday – Travelling, Archery and Campfire

So many people (24) went this year that we used 5 cars. as well as our trusty minibus.

Minibus loaded and almost ready to go.

The weather was lovely, so the journey was dreadful ! As well as the normal attraction of a day at the seaside the Bournemouth Air Festival was in progress. Since its formation in 2009 the festival claims to have entertained over nine-million people, and they were all on the roads between Oxford and Avon Tyrrell that day !
We arrived, only a little late for the Archery session we had booked, hastily ate our sandwiches and unleashed our inner toxopholite (shoot arrows in the general direction of the target).


After archery we unloaded our luggage, and our valiant kitchen team cooked the choices we had selected of spaghetti  bolognaise, pasta carbonara, or a vegetarian pasta option.
Another keen group of forest foragers had been gathering wood and pine cones, and we had another campfire in the fire pit next to the cabin.

We also had cherry tomatoes and baby sweetcorn as a vegetarian option, but delicious for everybody.

Playing Beetle

The object of the game is to draw a Beetle, rolling a dice to see which bit you can draw next, but you have to have a body or a head before you can start to add other pieces to them. Some throw swiftly – in some cases so swiftly that the dice ends up on the floor, others take their time, focussing on the dice and willing the elusive six (or five) to get them started.
The first player to complete a Beetle calls out and everybody stops, and counts the score of the pieces they have drawn, and then the player with the highest score at each table moves to the next table clockwise, and the lowest score moves anti-clockwise. The game is thus sociable as well as allowing us to practice our mathematical, in in come cases, artistic talents (some people draw really elaborate beetles, while others – don’t).

Boccia – It's my favourite !

We all enjoy Boccia, and some really enjoy it. The “It’s my favourite” exclamation was the response by one of our Oxford Phab members to finding that we were playing Boccia that night. As usual we play in the Hall at Wesley Memorial Church, which makes a great space for it.
This week we were especially fortunate that Tom, who actually knows the proper rules, was directing operations, and giving generous doses of encouragement.

Easter Bingo

We bring chocolates, and some non-chocolate goodies, for those who have to avoid it, and then we play Bingo, winning  a prize for a line, then for two lines and then for a full house, until all the chocolate is gone.

After a few rounds we do not clear the sheets once someone has a full house, but play on until everyone has won a prize. We have some larger eggs, and then a lot of mini eggs, so if our members have already won a large egg, then they can still win mini eggs, but leave larger prizes for others.
For those of us who are learning BSL it is a chance to practice our numbers.
 

Quiz Night

Robin had carefully prepared his quiz. This time being well up on the full range of Star Wars movies would have been an advantage, and we did manage to do quite well on that. Unfortunately my knowledge of Gladiators, was limited to having seen the trailers, but Sarah boosted our team’s score significantly on that one, so we ended up in equal first place !
All the teams shared the chocolatey rewards.