Pouring with fun ideas

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The Young Post team suggest some retro ways to pass the time on rainy days

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Last week's black rainstorm was a sign that the wet season has arrived. While it's tempting to spend the day chatting online, or glued to back-to-back episodes of your favourite TV show, imagine what life would be like if the weather knocked out the electricity - and the internet. What would you do to pass the time until the lights came back on?

Young Post has put together a list of the best old-fashioned board games to help keep you busy when the next black rainstorm, or T8, hits the city.


Tiddlywinks: Flipping marvellous! Bright colours, and a simple aim: just flick small coloured disks ("winks") into a cup using a "squidger". It's the best "energetic" game ever if you're feeling lazy.

Or if you're less, ahem, sporty, Scrabble is a great, yet fun way to practise your vocabulary and test who knows the biggest words. There's more strategy than you might think - be sure to nab those "triple word score" spots!

Amy Russell


Stick stick! You throw a stick, and then I'll fetch it. Then you throw it again, and I'll fetch it again. Then you ... (AKA "ball ball", "toy toy" or "rope rope")

Dennis Goodboy


Twister! The more the merrier. For extra fun, add a bit of washing up liquid to the mat first. Or, if you're short on space, playing cards is the ultimate retro games console. Cards offer an unlimited range of gaming options - and if you don't like actually playing with them, you can use them to build houses.

Susan Ramsay


If there's a big group of you with different interests, nothing beats Cranium. You work in teams and show off your skills in general knowledge, drawing and sculpting, performing and language skills. Sounds geeky - OK, it is a bit - but the feeling of triumph when your team guesses that, yes, you did sculpt a cat's paw out of plasticine, is unmatched.

Karly Cox


Monopoly is the best way to kill time: it never ends and nobody loses, because it is almost impossible to go bankrupt. It's the perfect Hong Kong game, really, reflecting the city's attitude that buying property is the best way to get rich.

Wong Yat-hei


I was born with a journalistic instinct, so anything that has investigative elements in it is my thing. Cluedo is my ultimate retro game. Regardless of who the murderer is, be it Colonel Mustard or Professor Plum, or where the killing takes place - in the ballroom, kitchen, or dining room - I will always catch him/her.

Chris Lau


When I was little, I couldn't get enough of the Aviation Game. To me it was like Monopoly, only without all the calculating. It was simple enough that anybody could play as long as they could roll the dice. But it still required a bit of skill and luck to win, as you had to roll exactly the right number of spaces to land your plane at the airport. I have so many memories of summer nights spent with me making my way around the board with my colourful aeroplane, trying to beat my family.

Leon Lee


The thrill of playing Subbuteo - a game of miniature football - remains as strong today as it did when I was a child. Tiny plastic players, stuck on bowl-like bases, were flicked at a ball across the pitch - often my bedroom floor. Two minutes to set up, easy to play; a perfect mix of joy - from scoring a goal - and pain - on hearing a deadly "crunch" after kneeling on one of my players.

Guy Haydon


I was pretty good at Connect Four as a youngster - and hopefully still am! My tip? Count ahead! Unlike games with many more options and combinations, such as chess, it's quite possible to quickly count ahead and see which option will be best, especially if the grid is already half-full. But don't take too long to work out your strategy, or else no one will play with you again!

John Kang


Jenga. I love playing with two sets of wooden blocks - the taller, the better. I'm usually the wicked person who removes two of the three blocks at the base of the tower so it looks like it's tiptoeing, and everyone screams at me!

Joyee Chan

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