
When I was a kid, Swingball (along with Grifter bikes, Mr Frosty and Weebles) was something the cool (AKA spoilt) kids had.
I will let you guess the rest. (This is code for: I didn’t have any of that crap, and have yet to grow up enough to entirely stop whining about it)
Suffice to say, I didn’t actually get my hands on a Swingball set until a couple of weeks ago. We tried it out at a summer fair, loved it and were on the verge of buying it when the gods of tennis balls on a string smiled down at us from Swingball Towers and offered to send us a set to review.
So we approached this with two questions
Can you play Swingball in a fairly small garden?
Would it be a bit of a two day wonder?
Well, it turns out the answers are yes and no. In a good order.
We were sent Swingball Pro, which is the slightly bigger, souped up version of the original. Classic Swingball is probably your best option with younger children.
It turns out that you don’t need all that much space as the rope the ball’s attached to is adjustible so you can shorten it if you need to, which will in turn reduce the area needed to play.
Set up took us under 10 minutes – you stabilise it by filling the base with water or stones. And if you tip those out then it all packs away again as the base doubles up as a storage case. My friend warned me that this may be necessary, as her boys got so addicted to Swingball that they had to take it with them on holiday.
And three weeks in, the Swingball magic hasn’t worn off and my children are still playing it every day, even in the rain, as you can see here.
And have I been out for a sneaky play when they’re at school?
Well, what do you think? I’ve got a lot of time to make up for.
Now, where can I get a Grifter?
The details
We reviewed Swingball Pro which is widely available in toy shops and department stores, priced around £40 and currently at £35 on Amazon.
*PR sample