GAMES

Ping pong or table tennis? Who knows? What's important is that scouts love anything that involves playing with balls whatever their size. Here are a few games that involve ping pong (or table tennis) balls. Maybe make an evening of them.

Blow Ping Pong

Equipment: 1 ping pong ball, 1 straw per scout, 1 wide table (or sheet of 8' x 4' hardboard) on a table, chairs

Put the scouts into two teams and put them sitting down either side of the table. Put the ball in the middle and the scouts have to attempt to blow the ball off the edge of the opposing team's end. The team that loses is out and the winning team splits in half and another round is played. Eventually you will have a winner. Balls that go off the long edge are a blow in for the team that didn't blow the ball off. (This can be worked out by the direction of the ball when it went off.)

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Ping Pong Blow Football

Equipment: 10 ping pong balls

Put the scouts into two teams. Draw two parallel lines down the length of the hall, about two metres apart. Space ten ping pong balls down the middle. Put two more lines thirty centimetres outside the existing two lines. Teams line up along these outer lines. On "Go!" scouts have to blow the balls over the their opponents' inside line. The team that blows more balls over their opponents' line within a certain time is the winner. Any attempt to impede any ball's progress, apart from blowing, will result in disqualification.

Ping Pong Relay

Equipment: 1 stick, 1 marker cone and 3 ping pong balls per team

Put the scouts into teams behind a start line. On "Go!" the lead scouts have to use their stick to push the three balls up and round a marker cone and back over the line. Other team members do the same. The first team to finish is the winner. Don't make the course too long, it can take forever! For even more fun use irregular shapes like conkers or potatoes.

Pass the Ping Pong

This can be really difficult. It just depends who's on your team!

Equipment: 1 straw per scout, 1 ping pong ball per team

Put the scouts into teams, lined up with their straws. The lead scouts suck their balls onto the ends of their straws. On "Go!" the second scouts suck the balls onto their straws as the lead scouts stop sucking. Hopefully the ball will pass from one straw to the next. Play continues down the line. Once at the end it can go back up the line. The first team to complete the game is the winner. If at any time the ball is dropped it goes back to the last scout to have it stuck on the end of their straw for a restart.

Ping Pong 1,000

Equipment: 1 ping pong ball, pen and paper

The scouts face you from about five metres away down the hall. Throw the ping pong ball down to the ground about halfway between you and the scouts. As you do so, shout out a number between 100 and 1000. The scout that catches the ball from that first bounce gets that score. If the ball bounces again then the score is halved. The first scout to reach 2000 is the winner and becomes the thrower.

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Ping Pong 5,000 I

Equipment: 100 ping pong balls, marker pen, bucket

Mark ten balls with 100, ten with 200 and so on, up to ten with 1,000. Put them all in a bucket. Scouts disperse in the hall. Tell them that they can only pick up a maximum five balls and any scout seen holding more will be disqualified. Then throw the bucket, holding onto it, so that all the balls fly into the air. The scout whose balls total the most is the winner.

Ping Pong 5,000 II

Equipment: 100 ping pong balls, marker pen, bucket, pen and paper

Mark ten balls with 100, ten with 200 and so on, up to ten with 1,000. The scouts face you from about five metres away down the hall. Tell them that they can only have five balls and once they have that many they need to bring them to you, then sit down. Throw or bounce the balls at them, one at a time, but fairly quickly. Have another leader on standby to add up each scout's five balls, record the totals and put the balls back in the bucket. These can be reused if necessary. Once all the scouts have collected five balls, the scout whose balls total the most is the winner.

Ping Pong Downpour

Equipment: Bucket, loads of coloured ping pong balls

Mark a large circle that the scouts must stay out of at all times. Put a bucket in the middle of the circle. Put the scouts into teams and give each team a load of one colour of ping pong balls. On "Go!" they have to bounce the balls into the bucket. Any balls that come out of the circle can be reused, those that stay in the circle can't. When no scout has any balls left, count the balls in the bucket. The team with most in the bucket is the winner.

Ping Pong Planting

Equipment: 50 ping pong balls in a bowl, 25 plastic cups

Put the cups all over the hall. At one end have the balls in a bowl. Put the scouts into four teams. Three teams are planting, the other team is digging up. On "Go!" the teams that are planting take one ball at a time and plant them in the cups. The teams that are digging up take them out of the cups and bring them back to you. Digging up scouts can carry no more than five balls at a time. After two minutes stop the game and count the number of balls in the cups. That number is the digging up team's score. Play three more rounds, each time with a different team digging up. After four rounds the digging up team with the lowest score is the winner. For a variation have no more than one ball in one cup.

Ping Pong Puff

Equipment: 1 Ping pong ball and 1 plastic spoon per scout

Give each scout a spoon and a ball which they balance in the bowl. On "Go!" scouts have to attempt to be the last one to keep their ball in the bowl. No physical contact is allowed. No touching of the spoon by any part of the body is allowed, apart from holding the handle. The only thing that you can do is try and dislodge balls by blowing. When a ball is blown off, the scout must retrieve it and leave the playing area.

Ping Pong Archery

This one sorts out the scouts who think they're real men or women from the ones who actually are! Bouncing a ping pong ball into a dustbin from five metres away isn't easy.

Equipment: Ping pong balls, dustbin or umbrella and empty tin can, chalk, length of wood, pen and paper

Put the scouts into teams. Put the dustbin or opened umbrella sitting on tin can in the centre of the hall and mark concentric circles round it. Make the first one three metres in diameter, the next one four metres and so on up to ten. Scouts stand behind one of the circles. Give the scouts standing round the nearest circle a ping pong ball each which they have to, in turns, bounce into the dustbin. Any that succeed gain one point for their team. Then give the balls to the scouts behind the next circle. They score two points, and so on. The team with most points, after everyone has had a go, is the winner. As a variation mark a line with chalk or using a length of wood. Scouts sit down and come up one time each as the chalk line or wood is moved back thirty centimetres at a time, with the score increasing at the line moves further away from the bin.