Skittles is the great knock-them-down game of the British garden, nine pins and a rolled ball for any mix of ages from toddler to grandparent, and it has lasted for centuries because falling pins never stop being satisfying.
Skittles at a glance
Players: 2+ · Ages: 2+ for rolling, 4+ for scoring · Time: 15 to 30 minutes · You need: 9 skittles and a ball
Knock down more skittles than anyone else. 1. Set the nine skittles in a diamond. 2. Take turns to roll the ball underarm from the bowling line, three rolls per turn. 3. Score one point for every skittle you knock down. 4. Knock all nine down with rolls to spare and they are all stood up again for your remaining rolls. 5. Highest total after an agreed number of rounds wins.
Stand the nine skittles in a diamond on a flat patch of lawn, patio or hallway: rows of 1, 2, 3, 2 and 1, a single skittle pointing at the bowler and one at the back, a hand's width between pins so a well-struck one can topple its neighbour. Then agree a bowling line, eight to ten good paces back for adults, and mark it with a stick or a jumper, because somebody will creep forward, and it will not always be the children.
Play to a target or in rounds. First to 50 points is the classic target game; alternatively, agree five rounds each and the highest total wins, which ends before tea. With very young players, the soundest format is "everyone gets the same number of turns and we count up at the end", which keeps the game finite and the protests minimal.
Every family argues about the same three things, so here are the rulings. First, fallen skittles between rolls: within a turn they stay down, and the diamond is only rebuilt when all nine have fallen or the turn ends. Standing the spares back up after every roll is a recognised variant, but the stay-down rule is the common one and it rewards accuracy. Second, the wobbler: a skittle only counts if it falls; still standing when the ball stops means standing. Third, the foot-over-the-line roll: it counts but the bowler is loudly shamed, and on a repeat offence it scores nothing.
The genius of skittles as a family game is that fairness is built into the floor. Everyone aims at the same diamond, but each player bowls from their own line: adults from eight to ten paces, school-age children from five or six, toddlers from two or three, or kneeling right in front of the pins. Name each line at the start ("Grandpa's line", "Alfie's line") and the game becomes genuinely competitive across sixty years of age difference without anybody pretending.
Skittles moves indoors without complaint: a hallway or cleared sitting room plays exactly like the lawn, with a softer ball and a shorter line, and rainy-day skittles down a corridor is one of childhood's reliable pleasures. Tabletop skittles is its own miniature tradition: small pins in the same diamond at one end of the table, a small ball rolled from the other, elbows off the playing surface, same rules throughout. It also suits children not yet strong enough to send a full-size ball any distance, because the scale does the work their arm cannot.
Skittles is one of Britain's oldest pub and green games, with centuries of alley skittles behind the garden version you are about to play. Long before it reached the lawn it lived in skittle alleys attached to inns, where nine pins and a rolled ball settled wagers and reputations, and regional variations flourished as they do when every village runs its own alley. The garden game is the alley game let out of doors: the same diamond, the same underarm delivery, the same unimprovable thrill of a full clearance. Jaques, the world's oldest games company, has made skittles through its long history, a pleasing thought to hold as you chalk your bowling line.
Underneath the clatter, a surprising amount is going on. The underarm roll is a foundational gross motor pattern: stance, swing, weight transfer and release, repeated dozens of times a game without a single rep feeling like practice. The scoring is arithmetic smuggled in as celebration: nine were standing, six are down, so how many are left? Every roll is an instant subtraction problem with the answer lying on the grass, counted with an enthusiasm no worksheet has ever produced.
Skittles is also the instant-reset loop done right. Roll, crash, count, reset, again: the same tight action-feedback cycle that screen games exploit, except here the child's own body does the work, the reward is physical and shared, and the game ends naturally. Waiting while someone else takes their three rolls is genuine turn-taking and impulse-control practice of the kind researchers like Adele Diamond identify as the engine of early executive function. And because a two year old can join in simply by rolling a ball at the pins, skittles is arguably the easiest first game a toddler can genuinely play rather than merely attend. For more mixed-age games, see our guide to garden games for families.
From around two, a child can play real skittles: stand them a couple of paces from the diamond, show them the underarm roll once, and let them go. They will miss often and mind rarely, because resetting the pins is half the fun at that age, so give them that job and they will consider themselves central to proceedings. Do not expect scoring before about four; count the fallen pins out loud together and let the counting be the score. Shorten the game to a handful of turns each, and team a toddler with an adult if a sibling match is getting lopsided. As for letting them win: with the distance handicap set honestly you rarely need to. Let the line do the kindness, and let the result be real.
All you need is nine solid wood pins and a ball that sits nicely in a small hand: a proper set has a heft and a clatter that plastic never manages, and the deep wooden knock of a strike is half the pleasure. Full-size and tabletop sets live in the Jaques skittles collection →, alongside the wider outdoor games range →.
Not within a turn, under the common family rule: fallen pins stay down across your three rolls, and the diamond is only rebuilt if you clear all nine or when your turn ends. Standing the spares up after every roll is a legitimate variant that produces bigger scores, so agree which game you are playing before the first ball, not after the first argument.
In the garden game, no: the ball is rolled underarm along the ground, and a bounced or hurled ball scores nothing and is re-rolled. Some alley versions allow a pitched delivery, but on a lawn of mixed ages the rolling rule is safer, fairer and standard. If a toddler's roll is more of an enthusiastic drop, count it: the spirit of the rule is "along the ground", not "perfect technique".
A skittle counts when it is lying down, however it got there: struck by the ball or toppled by a falling neighbour. One that leans, wobbles or rotates but stays upright counts as standing. A pin knocked clean out of the diamond but still on its feet is still standing, and you leave it where fate put it until the next reset.
A two year old can join the rolling from a couple of paces out, making skittles one of the first real games a toddler can play on equal terms of fun, if not of score. Counting fallen pins works from around three with help, and from four most children can keep their own score, with the gravity of a chartered accountant. There is no upper age. That is rather the point.
Britain's oldest toy maker. Every toy open-ended, wooden, and built for exactly the kind of play the research recommends.