Whether you’re hyper competitive or just want to have a bit of fun, these fun outdoor games will help you entertain your family and friends.
Lawn games are a great way of having fun in your garden while the weather is warm and dry.
Playing games on grass is something people have been doing to entertain themselves for centuries. Bowls has been an English tradition since the Middle Ages and historians believe a similar game may even have been played in Ancient Egypt going back as far as 5,000 BC.
We take a look at five of the best lawn games you can play in your garden:
Quoits
This traditional throwing game is ideal for smaller gardens as you don’t need a lot of space to play. The aim of quoits is to throw a ring – often made of rope and known as a quoit - onto a spike to score points.
To play, you need a special set- which features five tall pegs on a wooden cross-shaped base. Each peg has a number which tells you how many points you will score if you get the quoit over it with the middle one scoring the highest.
Quoits itself has been played in England for hundreds of years but rose in popularity during Victorian times. One of the best things about it is you can also play it indoors if the British weather lets you down.
www.jaqueslondon.co.uk
Dimensions: 42cm x 42cm x 20cm when fully assembled This traditional wooden game is from games manufacturer Jaques London, which has been making quoits sets for more than 100 years. Made from solid FSC-approved wood and with unbleached natural rope quoits, this set comes apart so it can be put away in a handy storage bag.
Croquet
Croquet is one of the most famous lawn games and has been played in England since the 16th century. Each player has a mallet which they use to hit balls through a series of hoops, which are sometimes referred to as wickets.
The hoops are usually laid out in a pattern and players must pass the balls through each of them in a particular order, striking a peg at the end. While competitive croquet has strict rules about where each hoop should be placed and the order they should be played, most people who play for fun make up their own course to suit the space they have in their garden.
This wooden croquet set has enough mallets and balls for six players. There are 10 hoops you can position around the garden to make your own course and if you want to follow the official croquet rules, it comes with a set of instructions as well as a cotton bag for storage.
Skittles
Skittles may have now been largely overtaken by tenpin bowling but this historic lawn game is still lots of fun. The rules are extremely simple – throw or roll a ball and try to knock down as many skittles as possible.
Traditionally, the game is played with nine skittles – also known as pins – set up in a diamond formation. In some sets, one skittle has a red head and is known as the king pin. This skittle is placed in the centre and in some versions of the game, you only score points on your turn if the kingpin is toppled.
Skittles itself has been played in England for more than 500 years and there are lots of different indoor and outdoor versions, including fun novelty sets for children.
www.biggamehunters.co.uk
If you're looking for traditional skittles which will last for years, this set ticks all the right boxes. It includes nine polished hardwood skittles and three regulation balls as well as a full set of rules. Designed to be played in the garden, all you need is a flat patch of grass and you're ready to go.
Boules
Boules is the French version of bowls and can be played pretty much anywhere, unlike crown green bowls which is played on a dedicated bowling green. Players throw a small target ball known as the jack and then take it in turns to try to get their boules as close to it as possible by throwing or rolling.
There are lots of different variations of this game which are played all over the world. For example, in Italy, the game is called bocce.
As a lawn game to play in your garden, it is a simple one which can be played by people of all ages including young children.
This portable garden game is great value for money and includes eight weighted plastic balls in four different colours, one jack and a plastic carry-case with handle. Simple but effective, this is the kind of boules set families have been taking on holiday for generations and works just as well on the beach as in your garden.
Garden darts
As you might expect with a game called garden darts, this is a super-sized version of darts you can play on your lawn or in the park. Instead of aiming darts at a board, you try to throw your giant darts into rings laid out on the grass.
The darts themselves have weighted tips so they dig into the ground when they land. Be careful to make sure there is plenty of space when you are throwing them as although the tips are blunt, we imagine it would hurt if you got caught in the crossfire.
This fun garden darts set comes with six colourful darts, two target rings and a starting ring for players to stand in while they throw. Getting your dart in the larger outer ring will score you five points, while the smaller ring is worth 10. Suitable for everyone from the age of three and over, this is a low cost set, although some reviews suggest the darts may be a little flimsy so handle them with care.