Tenpin bowling. What's that all about? If wearing a ridiculous pair of clown shoes isn't bad enough, you then have to hurl a ball that seems to have been specifically designed to cut off a finger or dislocate your shoulder.
Apparently the object of the game is to knock down all 10 pins with one ball. Fat chance. Of course, if you don't manage this you get one more go. This is then repeated 10 times. The better you are at it, the closer you'll get to the perfect score of 300.
Last week I managed a rather measly 86. Just 214 short of a perfect score.
Predictably I came last, much to the amusement of the young people I was accompanying on a trip to a very quiet local bowling alley.
Bowling is definitely not my thing. But the young people I was with seemed to have a really good time, once they got over the shock of having to swap their trendy trainers for a pair of regulation bowling shoes.
I guess it's reasonable to assume that tenpin bowling is the sort of positive leisure-time activity that those behind the youth green paper are so keen to promote. A significant part of Youth Matters is focused on proposals aimed at enabling young people to have better access to a wider range of positive activities, including those held in the private sector.
So I was left wondering why, where the facilities exist, more young people aren't using them. Admittedly we visited our local bowling alley on a wet weekday evening, but it was noticeable how few teenagers were about.
Consulting young people about the sorts of activities they want made available to them in the future is vital. But isn't it also important that we take the time to find out why the existing facilities, places such as cinemas, bowling alleys and sports centres, aren't always packed full of young people each evening?
Maybe it's that young people are often not always made to feel welcome.
Or maybe it's the ridiculous shoes. Whatever it is, offering more places to go and things to do may not be as simple as it first appears.
Michael Bracey is principal youth officer for Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, michael.bracey@haynet.com.
