Darts, beer pong, shuffleboard - pub games are back

Pub games have been around for centuries. Coin pushing, cue and ball, bat and ball, card, dice, board - variations of these old games are interwound with our drinking heritage. Sadly, many of them have been swept into the past, due to the decline of pubs over the years.

But pub culture has evolved, and so have traditional games. It seems they’re having quite the Renaissance. Gen Z loves a pub game - be it darts, skittles, quoits or crazy golf.

I saw this firsthand on Saturday when I was out with my family. With six twenty-somethings and three of us a little, ahem, older, it was intergenerational fun. After a boozy bottomless brunch - at a point in the weekend when I might normally be treating myself to a mid-afternoon nap, I was knocking back strawberry daiquiris, wearing a complimentary garland of plastic flowers - we set off to play a round of darts.

“Cocktails and darts could be quite a lethal combo,” I mused, tipsily twirling my garland, as we made our way to somewhere called the Roxy Ballroom, which has “been serving up booze and ball games since 2013”.

The Leeds venue offers, over two floors, a range of games including pool, beer pong, mini golf, basketball, shuffleboard and tech darts. Billed as “different interactive games based on traditional darts”, it seemed like normal darts to me, but without having to chalk up the scores, which instead appear on a screen, alongside photos of each player.

I hadn’t played darts since I couldn’t remember when. I kept having to be reminded of the rules and the targets. And, stepping up to the oche, I had to squint at the dartboard because: a) I didn’t have my glasses and b) I was seeing two dartboards, thanks to the strawberry daiquiris. But somehow I clocked up a decent score. Turns out I’m not too shabby at darts. My team, comprising myself and my nephew Jack, stormed ahead.

Darts unleashed a competitive streak in me that I didn’t know I had. I was whooping and high-fiving. “Amateurs,” sneered Jack and I, whenever our rivals missed the dartboard. I’ve no idea what our final score was, but we came a respectable second.

It was great fun. I looked around at all the young people enjoying darts and other activities, basically souped-up versions of games that have always been played in pubs. It may have been the strawberry daiquiris, but I found it heartening to see youngsters enjoying such simple pleasures.

It’s known as “Competitive Socialising”, apparently. Cool, Insta-friendly venues offering games like pinball, table football and ping pong with food, drink and music - wholesome fun, with TikTok potential - have breathed new life into the leisure sector. My niece and nephews go to places like Flight Club (supercharged darts), Bongo Bingo (party twist on bingo, with dance-offs and “rave intervals”) and Junk Yard Golf (crazy golf courses filled with scrap yard slides and wrecked car parts). When I asked what the appeal is for their demographic, they said it’s a fun alternative to clubbing and “it’s more sociable”.

Of course there are also digital gameplay venues, but it seems Gen Z still enjoys traditional pub games. And the basic appeal of a simple game with your pals over a pint or two isn’t that far removed from the dominoes my dad played twice a week in the smoky tap room of his local.

I liked the inclusive feel of our darts game at Roxys (as the kids call it). It felt like a fun, safe place to be on a Saturday afternoon. Even for a tipsy middle-aged auntie with plastic flowers in her hair.