Bring the Olympics to Your Garden this Summer
Publication Date: Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Are you getting fired up with Olympic fever? Well, perhaps it’s time to take the games to your own garden. Confused.com has a few suggestions as to how you can turn your garden area into a modest Olympic arena.
Garden pentathlon for the kids
The garden pentathlon can include flower-bed jumping, egg and spoon race (remember to boil the eggs first, or this one will be short-lived), swing ball, trampolining, and lawn rolling – where everyone lies at one end of the lawn and rolls to the other! If you’re concerned about painful wipe-outs, why not get a trampoline with an enclosure?
Another fun game you can play is to lay down a tarp on the lawn, lubricate it with water and washing-up liquid, and see who can slide the furthest across it!
Jumpers for goalposts
Garden footie is always a firm favourite. Watch those windows, however. You might want to use a foam ball... Or otherwise ensure that your home insurance policy has sufficient accidental damage cover!
Fore!
At the time of writing it is still being debated as to whether golf should be included in the programme for the 2012 Olympics. However, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t include this in our very own garden games. One member of staff at Confused.com recalls going to a party where he was asked if he fancied a game of golf. Except there were no clubs. Or golf balls. But there was at least a hole, which the washing line was usually plugged into. So the participants made do with spades and lumps of coal. If you do chose to go down this route, the best thing that we can recommend is to have holes which are par 3 or below, as lumps of coal tend to explode after a few whacks.
It’s probably smarter to invest in a portable mini-golf set, such as the one at Argos, which comes with a mini cricket set too. Howzat?!
Take it down a peg
If you’re in the mood for some less frantic and more relaxed garden sports, you could do worse than investing in a garden croquet or boules set. A good one for the kids that needn’t be too energetic is garden snakes and ladders . And just look at the large inflatable dice! Coo!
Sports for those with a diminutive garden
- The 5m sprint.
- The short jump.
- Toss the toothpick.
- The hop, skip and... that’s it.
The Olympic torch
To round off your contest, you could reward the athletes’ prowess with a Chinese themed barbecue. Spare ribs and marinated chicken are obvious and delicious choices. And for the vegetarians present, you could make vegetable and tofu skewers. Make sure the tofu is extra firm, and you could marinade it for a few hours in honey, ginger and soy sauce, or orange, chilli and barbecue sauce. Mmmmm!
Protect your equipment when you’re done with it
It’s very common to keep our bulky sports equipment in sheds and garages nowadays. As this can be quite expensive, it’s sensible to keep outbuildings locked when out of view. For extra security, you could tally up the cost of stuff like bikes, surfboards, golf clubs and so on, and see that they’re included in the contents cover of your home insurance. It’s a good idea to list particularly expensive items (a grand and up) individually, as they may not be covered by standard contents policies. Take a snap of the items on your digital camera as well, just in case you need evidence that you owned them in future.
Any information contained herein is provided for information purposes only and cannot be construed as advice