Sticks and stones ...

I had a new cultural experience this evening, playing a Finnish game called Mölkky (pronounced merl-koo), something like a combination of skittles, darts and boules. I played with some of my colleagues on the beach in Lauttasaari, where we had an enjoyable team summer picnic amongst the rocks.

There are 12 numbered pins, which are placed together to begin and then a further piece (also called the mölkky) is thrown under arm at them. If you knock down just one piece, you score its face value. Knock down more and you just score the number of pins felled. After they have been knocked over, you stand them up again where they fell, so the target pattern gradually spreads out. The aim is to get to exactly 50 points, but if you go over, your score reverts to 25. Miss the pins three times in a row and you are out. It was recommended by a colleague for us to take to the summer cottage, where we will be spending a week of our holiday this August.

Mölkky is based on older games but this version was invented in 1996 by Tuoterengas, an independent business unit in the Lahti Region Education Consortium, which provides work training services and vocational rehabilitation. The game is manufactured in Finnish pine and you can buy it from Touoterengas' online shop. On the basis of a couple of games this evening, I think this is going to be popular with our family! It will add to our collection of garden games, which also includes the Breton Palets which we bought on holiday a few years ago.