I’m starting to feeling old, there are so many toys out there today that make me feel jealous of kids. Fortunately I have an 8 year old which is the perfect excuse (as if I need one) to spend some of my hard earned cash on toys.

Bowling and the word cool don’t normally belong in the same sentence. Having your own bowling ball and shoes does not make anybody look cool, and when you start wheeling around a trolley full of balls for different lane conditions you can safely remove the word cool from your vocabulary.

But Bowling can still be cool thanks to the game Strolling Bowling by PartyMate.

This Strolling Bowling game is a miniature version of a bowling alley (okay very miniature version) and the rules of play are the same with extra points being awarded for strikes and spares. Though the scoring is the same the ball most certainly isn’t and this is where the name Strolling Bowling comes from.

The ball is like a freebie windup McDonald’s toy, you wind the ball up, point it at the pins (making sure not to cross the foul line) and let it waddle down the alley and see how many pins it knocks over. So it’s not quite as skillful as bowling a hook ball but it’s a lot funny to watch though bot as funny as watching an over enthusiast bowler with all the expensive kit bowling a gutter ball).

If you think this might be a suitable present for a bowling obsessed partner it’s available at Firebox