Two hours of sport a week may be the recommended minimum for school children but being a deskbound hack I only manage two hours a year.

Last night I turned out yet again for the women's team in the Bristol News and Media editorial five-a-side football tournament.

After effects are not too bad at the moment, apart from the fact that the unaccustomed exercise left me ravenous and I've eaten all my elevenses and all my lunch before 10.45 am.

But I fully expect not to be able to walk tomorrow – so it's just as well it's my day off.

Anyway, the Government figures say that nine out of ten students in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire are doing "at least two hours high quality PE or sport a week".

They note a big increase in the past year in inter-school fixtures and house and league matches within schools.

Ministers welcome more of the competitive element but I'm not so sure. I've always been of the "It's not the winning but the taking part" camp, ever since my days in the hockey second eleven when I ran up and down on the wing to little effect.

It's the same with the five-a-side: I've got a reasonable amount of energy for a middle aged person but a distinct lack of any sporting ability.

(Having said that, I did score two goals in one game last night. Never before known. And almost certainly a cue to retire – quit while I'm ahead!)

But it is good that schools now offer a range of physical activities outside the traditional football, rugby, hockey and netball, which are hated by many.

Dance, martial arts and golf are just some of the sports students can try these days.

Ministers say parents, teachers and community sports clubs need to pull in the same direction to persuade more children to carry on exercising and doing sport outside school.

And, I would add, after they leave school. None of my daughters (aged 18 to 22) participates regularly in sport, although they do exercise from time to time.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls says: "We now need to raise our game to persuade more children to make the right choices and exercise outside school – children exercising more, and sport in the holidays and after school so all children can do at least five hours a week."

Three hundred minutes a week sounds a bit hardcore, and there will be those who say it is not the Government's place to tell kids how to spend their leisure time.

But Ministers have to be concerned because of the escalating obesity crisis.

Figures reported to councillors in Bristol last week showed that nearly one in five Year 6 children in the city is obese. That is clinically obese. Presumably at least as many again would be classed as overweight.

And this is not just a small survey – 80 per cent of the primary population took part in The National Child Measurement Programme.

Bristol is using its Healthy Schools programme, recognised as one of the best in the country, to try to help tackle this.

Pupils are very well informed about what they should and should not eat.

So I'm sure they'd tell me that I should not succumb to the temptation of the large bar of chocolate a colleague gave me yesterday.

I'll try – though I meet need it for medicinal purposes if the twinges I'm starting to experience turn into full blown aches and pains later.

PS Although as a follower of one of the lowliest football league teams, Chester City, I generally stick to the line that results don't matter as much as the sporting spirit in which the game is played, I would like to point out that our team achieved a record third place out of five last night (with only a little bit of cheating!)