HAS board game rivalry reached fever pitch in your household over the festive break?

For the McCartney family in Lymm their own rivalry with their homemade board game based on maths designed to help youngsters Thomas and Ella with their homework has helped them get the game into homes across the nation.

They created PLYT - a game which tests your multiplication skills against the clock - but when they took the game into Oughtrington Primary School, where Ella goes to school, the idea soon took off.

Mum Lisa, of The Greenacres, said: “The children were bringing maths games home form school for homework. It was really boring for us to play as it was only aimed at one age level, it was either too easy for Thomas or too hard for Ella.

“We wanted one we could all play together so we decided to create our own - it was just a laminated piece of paper and some dice.

“We took it on holiday and everything and the children got a lot better and the school noticed and asked us to bring it in.

“We made a couple of prototypes and took it into the school and they said they loved it.

“Then we took it to all the schools in Lymm and we had a competition between the schools with some people asking where can we buy it.”

As the demand grew they went to an artist to work on a design for the board game and sourced a manufacturer in America who is now producing the game.

“The aim is at the beginning you decide your standard to work out how many dice you need to roll,” added Lisa. “My daughter was trying to learn her two times table so she had her master dice stuck down on two.

“If you can answer your multiplication in the time you can move forward and the aim is to get to the winner’s square.

“You can play as a whole family together.

“It’s very competitive and that’s why the children love it because they don’t feel like they are doing numeracy and if they can beat their parents at something like maths they love it even more.”

PLYT is available to buy on amazon.co.uk and plyt.co.uk at £24.67, there is also a free app available to download for the game.