Throwing axes

Nick wanted to do something that involved his youngest son. And what do you do with teenagers? Throwing axes, of course! I had only just realised the day before that that was a thing; bizarrely, it had come up during lunch the day before (I have an axe-obsessed colleague). The older son had places to go. So on the late Saturday afternoon we headed for the Shrewsbury shopping centre, where this would take place. 

We got there and signed in. Only then did I realise it’s not a given you can do that with a young teenager. But Nick had checked. They allow people from the age of ten to do their thing there! 

The place had two lanes; essentially cages with one side open. Makes sense; you get axes flying around, and you want to limit where they can go. We got one, and an employee showed us how to throw the axes, and how to work the machine that would detect whether you hit something, and if so, what. It also kept score. And then we could start! We gave the machine our names, and picked an avatar. And Nick started. 

It was quite fun! The basics of the throw are easy. It’s just that sometimes it goes wrong and the axe bounces off the wall. And I mostly got the hang of it. I won the first game convincingly. And the bloke who had showed us came back to provide some extra guidance. Fewer axes bounced after that. 

Nick throwing an axe

The first 3 games we played on a projected (and simplified) darts board, but after that we tried some others. They can project all sorts onto that wall! We also did a version of whack-a-mole, where moles and rabbits would pop up, and another game where we were trying to hit zombies walking across the board. 

The hour went by fast! I think it was a good idea. And we all won games. Just me the most! Not sure I will get invited back. Although it would be fun to do this again, with both Nick’s sons. Who knows!