The Godfather: Peter Corris on board games

Tags: Cluedo/ Ludo/ Monopoly/ Scrabble/ Trivial Pursuit

I’m not aware of any figures, but I imagine that electronic games, played on computers, tablets and phones, have cut seriously into the popularity and sales of board games.

E-games are not an option for me with my poor eyesight. I can’t even text, let alone manipulate images and numbers on a tiny screen. My four-year-old grandson, however, is perfectly at home with them, tapping away when permitted controlled and limited access to his mother’s device, chortling and groaning by turns as he plays.

Board games were a feature of life when I was young – the standby for idle hours, a source of family fun. Draughts, Chinese Checkers, Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly and Ludo were popular as was Scrabble. Later came Trivial Pursuit and Cluedo.

I played them all with my brother and sister and friends. As far as I know, even the strictest religious sects, which viewed playing cards as ‘the devil’s pasteboards’, had no strictures against board games and sales were massive. Fortunes were made.

I was no master at any of these games. A linear thinker, I could just muddle along at draughts but chess was completely beyond me. Two accomplished players tried to teach me without success. A socialist from as soon as I could read Bertrand Russell, I disliked Monopoly.

I was a fair hand at another game – Pick-up Sticks, in which a packet of thin sticks of different colours and values was scattered on a surface. The object was to pick up individual sticks without disturbing the rest. Impossible for me today and as far as I know the game has lost popularity.

Board games are faddish things and for a time Trivial Pursuit was all the rage. Having a reasonable general knowledge, although very weak in anything to do with science, I was quite good at it. The partner of one of my daughters, with a background in science and the arts, however, could run rings around me.

And so to Scrabble. I played it a bit when younger and could hold my own. When I heard that my seven-year-old grandson Heath was a keen player, I looked forward to a game with him.

He’s a very bright kid who recently was deemed ‘outstanding’ in all aspects of his Year Two schoolwork, but I’d read millions more words than him and had written quite a few and I fancied my chances against him. In the event it was no contest. I’ve played him 22 times now and never won. The linear thinking process blinkers me. Heath lines his tiles up, anticipating opportunities and contriving them.

He plays regularly against adults and is rarely beaten. His speciality is multiple word constructions that net him high points. Like me, very competitive, his memory is acute and he sometimes makes words he’s seen before although he’s unsure of the meaning. My attempt to apply a rule that a player has to know the meaning of a word before using it was vetoed.

I comfort myself with the thought that I am teaching him some words – like woad, ire, abide and rue – old-fashioned and not big scorers but educational, I hope.