Sport in this house is a case of love it and embrace it, or, well, leave the room. We have all the sport packages Sky can offer with all the additional sport channels you can find. We have online betting apps (always bet responsibly kids) and it is a huge part of our weekends. Not playing it ourselves, don’t be ridiculous. Watching it on TV though.
If it isn’t football, it is rugby. Or cricket. Or golf. Or Grand Prix. Practice. Qualifying. Main event.
The Euros, the Ryder Cup, The Olympics, The Paralympics, they have all been on our telly this year. Even our telly when we were on holiday in Barbados in August. We even found somewhere showing the opening ceremony of the Olympics in London when we were in Barbados such was our desire to not miss a second.
When the match is finished there is then the punditry programme after it. Programmes where men in a studio link to a man with a microphone and a can on one ear comment live from a ground without actually showing you a second of the game for fear of contravening some licence law.
If we go out there is sport on the radio.
Then when we come home there is Match of The Day.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love my husband. Really I do. But I hate sport. With a bit of a passion. Actually that is not true. It isn’t the sport I hate (unless you are asking me to take part in it then I do properly hate it) it is the talking about it. My god they go on. And on. And on. I swear they just the love the sound of their own voices.
The only time I got vaguely excited was when Lineker promised to do Match of the Day in his pants. Thank God he didn’t get excited about it, hey?
So in order to keep the peace and not lead separate lives at the weekend I have had to come up with a plan for a bit of unity.
A bit of “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”. During the day if we aren’t out the kids are, doing their own things with friends, so quite often the only time we do get to sit down as a family is a Saturday night after a late dinner. We then collapse in the living room around the time Match of the Day comes on and if we didn’t have some fun with it, well then we would all retreat to separate rooms of the house. Playing this game we all get to stay in the same room together and make the whole programme a bit more bearable. Whilst, of course, spending a few hours together as a family.
We’ve nicknamed it “Barrow Towers Bingo”
And believe me, it can get just as competitive as any game played out on the pitch!
There are plenty of free sites on the web where you can make up your own bingo cards by simply picking your own theme and then punching in your words or phrases. You can then print off your own cards to distribute amongst those watching your chosen TV programme. You could do it for X Factor or Eurovision just as easily. We have chosen to do it for Match of The Day as it is the only way I can watch it without wanting to punch the TV.
This is the latest version of it:
How about you? What sports themed games to do you play as a family?