About Ball Run
A social enterprise on a mission to get more play into everyday town and city life.
Who We Are
The Ball Run is brought to you by Oddball CIC - a social enterprise on a mission to get more play into everyday town and city life. We design, build, and install play installations wherever there's room for them - squares, parks, streets, beachfronts, and everywhere in between - so play becomes part of everyday life, not something you have to seek out.
Where It Started
A trip to the Bobosco trail in Switzerland’s Valle Verzasca gave Simon the spark that shaped everything since. Walking through the forest, dotted with wooden ball runs at every turn, he watched kids and grown-ups play together - both equally hooked on watching a wooden ball find its way down. He realised this would be the perfect way to get families active and engaged with their surroundings and each other. His 7-year-old daughter Ivy walked 9km that day without a single "are we there yet?" - too busy wondering what was waiting around the next corner.
That’s when it clicked: play like this doesn’t just entertain, it gets people moving, together, without them even noticing. Ball Run is our way of bringing that same spark - curiosity, shared play, grown-ups joining in rather than just watching - into everyday town and city life.
The Craft
Every run is designed and hand-built by our team, led by Simon Jackman, who has spent more than 20 years building sustainable playgrounds and play equipment, John Packer and Ruby Myers. Each installation is built to last - built to handle the weather, the crowds, and years of play, wherever it ends up.
The Balls
Our balls are turned from sustainable, FSC certified timber, made in our solar-powered workshop in Somerset. Buy one, keep it as a souvenir, and come back as often as you like.
Proven Ground
Before Ball Run brought this experience to the city, our sister organisations, Green Play Project and The Wooden Ball Company, proved it in the wild. Their installations at the Eden Project and Forestry England sites, including Alice Holt Forest, have been a firm favourite with visitors of all ages - and now we're bringing that same experience to towns and cities.