GAMES FOR THE CAR

No phones, no headphones and definitely no death by I-Spy: these five fun and portable pastimes can make road trips a lot more pleasurable

Long journeys are made better with a bit of selfinitiated silliness. These five games encourage you to put aside your phone for a minute and funnel any possible boredom into a bit of healthy competition. They’re fun enough to distract you from the mindnumbing traffic and help you use busy roads and streets as a resource, not a frustration. The only danger is that when you actually reach your destination, you’ll feel mildly disappointed, because surely nothing’s as much fun as crushing your family at car cricket…

Car cricket

Difficulty level Easy

What you’ll need A road with a steady stream of vehicles. Prior knowledge of cricket, optional.

How to play Each player takes it in turns to ‘have a bat’. A slightly faster paced version of pub cricket (see right). You’re aiming to score runs, without getting bowled out. Each time you pass a vehicle, add on a different number of runs:

Passing a car (not white) scores 1 run.

Passing a van, caravan or lorry (not white) scores 2 runs, a motorbike or bicycle scores 4.

Passing any rare vehicle (such as a horse-drawn carriage, boat or horsebox) scores 6 runs.

A car transporter gets you 1 run for every car on the lorry, plus 2 for the lorry.

However, pass a white car and you’re out! If it’s a different white vehicle, then you add no runs for that vehicle, but you’re not out. It’s a ‘dot ball’. Phew!

Once out, note your score and pass to the next batsman.

Pub cricket

Difficulty level Easy

What you’ll need A route in Britain where you’ll pass plenty of pubs.

How to play In this British institution of a driving game, count legs on pubs to score ‘runs’. One player ‘goes in to bat’ or, in other words, looks out for pubs. At each pub passed, count the number of legs implied by the sign and score that many runs. So, ‘The Bull and Last’ would be 4 runs for the bull’s four legs, ‘The William Shakespeare’ would score 2, and ‘The Fox and Hound’ would score 8. For plurals, such as ‘The Cricketers’, assume there are two of them unless it specifies otherwise. So for this pub, you’d score 4 runs.

Pass a pub with the words ‘Arms’ or ‘Head’, you’re out! Note down the score before play passes on to the next batsman.

Licence plate sentences

Difficulty level Easy to medium

What you’ll need A road with plenty of cars.

How to play Use your language skills with this simple and silly game, turning licence plates into sentences. One player reads out the letters from a car licence plate. For example, if the car’s reg is BR27 ALT it’s the letters BRALT. Everybody else thinks of a sentence (or phrase), in which each word begins with the letters. For example, “Bring Reindeer A Lovely Treat.” And that’s the game. For a competitive edge, the player who chose the licence plate could pick a winner, but really, the aim of the game is to make your sentences either funny or clever. For younger players, you can simplify, by only using the three letters at the end – in this case ALT: “Avocado, lemon, toast”, “Actually, Lego’s tasty”, and so on. Want to make it harder? Incorporate the numbers, too: “Ben rode 27 aardvarks last Tuesday.”

1-2-3-Spy

Difficulty Easy

What you’ll need A window. You can play this by yourself, so no need to strongarm your fellow passengers into taking part. And works as well on public transport, or even when walking around.

How to play Watch out of the window for the numbers 1 to 999. Spot them, in order to win. Players begin by looking for 1. If you’re working together (recommended), shout the number out when you see it. You’re all now looking for 2. If you’re playing against each other, the first person to see the 1 gets it. If you shout the number at the same time, you both get it. The number can be in the middle of others. So, for example, if you see ‘1381’ you can use this for ‘1’ or ‘38’ (but definitely not ‘31’ or ‘11’). The numbers need to be written in figures – 1, not one – outside the car: house numbers, licence plates, road signs and roadside adverts are great places to find them. Any number inside the car doesn’t count. And you can’t just hold a book out of the window and flick the pages. Naughty, naughty!

Reg!

Difficulty Hard

What you’ll need A road where you can see the same licence plate for longer than a moment (perhaps the only time a traffic jam is welcome). Paper and pencil for your workings.

How to play This game requires pretty speedy mental maths. Start by picking a number plate on a car. Scribble it down – the plate’s two-digit number becomes your target. For example, in EV82 BNL, the target is 82. Translate the five letters into numbers: A= 1, B = 2, through to Z = 26. The number plate EV82 BNL gives you E = 5, V= 22, B= 2, N = 14, L = 12. Here’s where you go all

Countdown: add, subtract, multiply and divide those numbers to reach your target, 82. You can only use each number once, but you don’t have to use them all (not every number plate works, so get as close as you can.) In this case, you can do 5 x 22 = 110, then subtract 14, 12 and 2 (28), to make 82. If you solve it, shout “REG!” And put co-passengers out of their misery by explaining the solution to finish the round.

Adapted from The Floor is Lava: And 99 More Games for Everyone, Everywhere by Ivan Brett (Headline Home).