I have this very newspaper to thank for that. Nicholas Pridan, the 2015 Northern Grampians Shire Youth Citizen of the Year, was determined to raise money for Charity Water by running from Ararat to Stawell and made a plea through these pages for someone to train him.

I answered the call, and on our long runs we had long talks ... inquisitions really, because he had (and maintains) a thirst for knowledge.

I was overwhelmed by his energy, enthusiasm and dedication to the cause and was regretful to think that the relationship would surely end after six weeks when his marathon was run.

Instead, he stuck, revelling in mature conversations with my friends over dinners on the deck and thereafter, board games. I introduced him to Stratego, a simpler version of chess but reliant on a memory which too often failed me, and so we moved on to chess.

Nicholas said he'd never played before, but his mentor was in checkmate before a single knight could scramble in defence.

In desperation for redemption, I turned to backgammon, the 5000-year-old game in which I am skilled. It doesn't take much. Many of the moves, especially the opening ones, are mandatory. The rest verily depend on rolls of the dice and tactical nous, and this is where Nicholas, to my shameless delight, makes mistakes.

We have no need and have never possessed PlayStations or Nintendos as they belong to the "possessed," those lonely, big-bellied nerds so graphically portrayed in episodes of South Park.

Video games are the enemies of exercise.

They are most often a solitary pastime, they make enemies of friends and strangers of family.

They are killers of conversation and drive a wedge between generations.

Between moves and some playful tactical banter, Nicholas agrees, even if the words are unspoken, that we wouldn't see as much of each other if it wasn't for backgammon.

For generations, it's been said that "the family that plays together, stay together." Nicholas is proof of that.

And he has passed on what he has learned at my place to his family of seven siblings, to his friends and their friends and family.

So, anointed as I am as his surrogate grandfather (Nicholas never knew his real ones), we are friends for life. He is 25 and I am 71.

*Nicholas earned degrees at Deakin University in commerce and biological science. He was awarded a spot at Deakin medical school and has just completed his first year.