UrbanCrazy Minigolf at the London Golf Show 2014

UrbanCrazy minigolf will be at the London Golf Show 2014 held at Glow, Bluewater.

The team at UrbanCrazy will once again be at the 2014 London Golf Show with their innovative miniature golf layout and the PongCrazy table tennis game!

Taking place at Glow, Bluewater from Friday 14 to Sunday 16 November the 2014 edition is the 10th London Golf Show and features all things golf.

UrbanCrazy make a lot of great portable and permanent minigolf courses. They also stock a lot of balls and other crazy golf essentials

UrbanCrazy will have the 'Serpentine' minigolf course at the event - it's the newest addition to the portable course range they have. We're yet to play the Serpentine set-up on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, but have played many of the others they have.

I've attended the event for the last two years and enjoyed playing the UrbanCrazy games and having a look around the 'big' golf stuff too. Last year I also had a go of the puttup indoor putting game.

Playing UrbanCrazy's minigolf course at the 2012 London Golf Show

For more information on the London Golf Show check out the event website.

Bluewater is also home to two permanent 18-hole minigolf courses that make up Pirate Cove Adventure Golf (it used to be the site of an artificial putting minigolf course).

Links:
- UrbanCrazy
- London Golf Show 2014
- Glow Bluewater
- Bluewater

Related blog posts:
- UrbanCrazy
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- UrbanCrazy Minigolf at the 2013 London Golf Show
- Playing the new UrbanCrazy Minigolf course at the London Golf Show
- PongCrazy – the brand new game from UrbanCrazy
- Playing the puttup Indoor Golf Putting Game

Christmas Tree Maze at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

Ice Skate Vauxhall to set up a unique Christmas Tree Maze at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in London.

Researching ideas for a Christmas 'Do' Emily spotted that this year there'll be a Christmas Tree Maze at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in London!

Set up by Ice Skate Vauxhall, the Christmas Tree Maze will cover almost half a square kilometre and consist of hundreds of lit trees.

As well as the maze the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens will be home to an Ice Rink, a Christmas Street Food Market, family entertainment rides and stalls.

It sounds great.

Back in the summer of 2012 I competed in a Christmas Tree Throwing Competition and the Christmas Tree Maze sounds like great festive fun

Hopefully we'll get along to the Christmas Tree Maze this festive season.

Link:
- Ice Skate Vauxhall Christmas Tree Maze

Related blog posts:
- Christmas
- Maze
- Fun and Games at the Yattendon & Frilsham Village Fete

British Minigolf Rankings update from the BMGA

National Strokeplay Order of Merit and Season Only ranking list updates from the British Minigolf Association.

The official British minigolf rankings have been updated following the 2014 World Crazy Golf Championships held at the Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course in Hastings, East Sussex.

Richard Gottfried playing hole 2 at the 2014 World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings

Richard Gottfried's rankings in the Strokeplay Order of Merit for the 2013/14 season:
- Following the BMGA Star City Open - 12th of 74 places (135 players)
- Following the BMGA Star City Open & AGM changes - 11th of 79 places (135 players)
- Following the BMGA British Masters - 7th of 84 places (137 players)
- Following the BMGA British Championships - 10th of 85 places (138 players)
- Following the Splash Point Open - 11th of 85 places (138 players)
- Following the Midlands Open - 10th of 86 places (140 players)
- Following the BMGA Players Championship and BMGA British Open - 8th of 88 places (142 players)
- Following the BMGA English Open - 8th of 91 places (147 players)
- Following the World Crazy Golf Championships - 11th of 101 places (157 players)

Emily Gottfried with The Gommery Trophy for most holes-in-one at the 2014 World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings

Emily Gottfried's rankings in the Strokeplay Order of Merit for the 2013/14 season:
- Following the BMGA Star City Open - 42nd of 74 places (135 players)
- Following the BMGA Star City Open & AGM changes - 34th of 79 places (135 players)
- Following the BMGA British Masters - 26th of 84 places (137 players)
- Following the BMGA British Championships - 21st of 85 places (138 players)
- Following the Splash Point Open - 21st of 85 places (138 players)
- Following the Midlands Open - 21st of 86 places (140 players)
- Following the BMGA Players Championship and BMGA British Open - 26th of 88 places (142 players)
- Following the BMGA English Open - 26th of 91 places (147 players)
- Following the World Crazy Golf Championships - 28th of 101 places (157 players)

In the BMGA Season Only Rankings for 2014 Emily is in 16th place of 84 players, I am in 26th position.

In the BMGA Matchplay Order of Merit Rankings Emily is in tied 20th place of 55 players, I am in 38th position.

We are both ranked in the World Minigolf Sport Federation's General Class ranking lists. In the women's rankings Emily is in tied 120th position of 128 places (132 players). In the men's rankings I am ranked in tied 397th place of 413 places (419 players).

Related blog posts:
- World Crazy Golf Championships Report from Hastings
- World Crazy Golf Championships 2014 Videos
- World Minigolf Rankings for 2014
- Rankings
- Richard Gottfried's Minigolf Player Profile
- Emily Gottfried's Minigolf Player Profile

Links:
- British Minigolf Association (BMGA)
- BMGA on Facebook
- BMGA on Twitter

New gluten free products at Marks & Spencer

More new gluten free products in the M&S 'Made Without Wheat' range.

While shopping in Ipswich and Felixstowe we noticed that Marks and Spencer has introduced some new products to the Made Without Wheat range of gluten free items.

We're looking forward to trying them all out!

M&S sell gluten free Pork Cocktail Sausages that are very tasty. They've now introduced them in packs of ten, rather than the large tubs of 30 (and more)

Chicken Chunks and Chicken Breast Fillets are now part of the Made Without Wheat Range at Marks and Spencer

There are now Salmon Fillet Fishcakes and Cod Fillet Fishcakes in the Made Without Wheat Range at M&S

A lot of the Party Food at M&S is marked as gluten free too - as fans of Pork Cracklings and Scratchings we really liked the look and sound of the Crunchy Crackling Straws!

Check out the M&S website for details of the Made Without Wheat range and the other Gluten Free items they offer.

Links:
- Marks & Spencer website
- Marks & Spencer Made Without Wheat page
- Coeliac UK website

Related blog posts:
- New Gluten Free Beer and Cakes at M&S
- Gluten Free blog posts on The Ham & Egger Files
- Gluten Free Finds in London (and beyond) - October 2010

Arnold Palmer Putting Courses Crazy Golf pencils

Receiving some Arnold Palmer Putting Courses pencils in the post.

Pencils from the Arnold Palmer Putting Course in Prestatyn

I'm a big fan of Crazy Golf and I love collecting ephemera and merchandise from the game. Together Tim 'Ace Man' Davies and I have built up quite the collection of stuff. Among the items in The Crazy Golf Museum are a range of pens and pencils from courses around the world. While most Minigolf courses have plain pencils for players to mark the scores on their rounds, others have created branded ones.

After our recent visit to the excellent 18-hole Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course at Central Beach in Prestatyn, Wales I received a lovely gift in the post from the course owner. The two 'Arnold Palmer Putting Courses' pencils are very rare items indeed and only recently uncovered at the course.

The Crazy Golf course on Bastion Road in Prestatyn is a marvellous attraction and well worth a visit

The team at The Putting Penguin have also found some great pencils at miniature golf courses in the USA over the years.

Links:
- The Crazy Golf Museum
- Miniature Golf and Crazy Golf Pens and Pencils
- The Putting Penguin

Related blog posts:
- Crazy Golf in Prestatyn
- Crazy Golf Museum
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Ephemera

Indoor Crazy Golf in Felixstowe

Playing the Indoor Magical Golf Adventure course at Manning's Amusements in Felixstowe, Suffolk.

Hole 1 at the indoor Adventure Golf course in Felixstowe

Over the years we've visited the seaside resort of Felixstowe a lot. It's so close to Ipswich that when we're there to visit family and friends we'll pretty much always make the short drive to the coast for a bit of a wander and a game of miniature golf.

At the indoor Magical Adventure Golf at Manning's Amusements in Felixstowe

The 5th course we ever played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour was the indoor Golf FX course at Manning's Amusement Arcade on the sea front. The course was refurbished a few years ago and renamed 'Magical Golf'.

Playing hole 2 of the indoor Adventure Golf in Felixstowe

Having had a quick look around the Sunday market at Manning's we dashed into the arcade for a round on the 12-hole indoor Crazy Golf course (13-holes if you count the tricky lucky last hole) to escape the rain and have a fun competitive round.

Emily on hole 11 at Manning's - a very tough hole

Matching scores for the first six holes Emily took the lead on the 7th with a four to my five, but a five on the 9th let me back in the game and a disastrous six on the 12th hole with it's multitude of tunnels to aim your putt at meant that I picked up the win 39 to 41.

Emily playing on hole 12 - a killer hole this time round

Looking on the Manning's Amusements website 2015 is the 70th year of the entertainment venue!

How I can often look after playing a round of Crazy Golf

Walking to the town centre we also had a look at the outdoor 9-hole Fantasia Adventure Golf on Sea Road. Unfortunately (and luckily because of the weather) it was closed for the day. The course was the 7th played on our Tour.

Fantasia Adventure Golf on Sea Road in Felixstowe

Links:
- Manning's Amusements website
- Manning's Amusements on Twitter
- Manning's Amusements on Facebook

Related blog posts:
- Felixstowe
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour List
- Indoor Mini, Crazy and Adventure Golf courses
- Indoor Adventure Golf at Mannings Amusements in Felixstowe

Jackpots Crisps are Gluten Free

Finding a new range of gluten free crisps.

While in Ipswich, Suffolk at the weekend we popped to the large Asda for supplies as I knew I'd struggle to dine out safely while in the area. Perusing the aisles we spotted a brand of crisps we hadn't seen before and had a read of the ingredients / caveats / allergy advice etc. and were very pleased to see that three of the four flavours of Jackpots Crisps on sale in the store were gluten free.

Jackpots Crisps - Sweet Thai Chilli, Mature English Cheddar & Spring Onion and Sea Salt & Cyder Vinegar flavours

We munched our way through the tasty mature English cheddar and spring onion flavour and when we were heading home from East Anglia we went back to Asda to pick up some more bags for our cupboard in our flat in West Anglia.

Jackpots Crisps are made from potatoes grown at Fairfields Farm Wormingford, Colchester, Essex. Hopefully we'll see Jackpots Crisps on our travels. It looks like they're stocked in quite a few places.

I also managed to pick up some of the great Scott's Gluten Free Raspberry Butterfly Cakes on our two trips to the Asda supermarket.

Related blog posts:
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac

Links:

- Jackpots Crisps
- Asda

- Coeliac UK

3,000 pumpkins for Halloween!

3,000 candlelit pumpkins are lining the Canalside Steps in King's Cross, London for Halloween.

Pumpkins at KX - 3,000 of them for Halloween 2014!

Walking home along the towpath of the Regent's Canal last night I was amazed to see 3,000 pumpkins lined up on the Canalside Steps!

A grand total of 3,000 pumpkins line the Canalside Steps of the Regent's Canal in King's Cross, London ready for Halloween

They are there all day today and tomorrow and worth a look if you're in the King's Cross area.

The pumpkins must look brilliant by candlelight

There were some really well carved and fun looking pumpkins.

Some of the brilliantly carved pumpkins for Halloween

Everywhere seems to going Halloween-mad this year. On my walk to work I also had a go at a 'Guess the weight of a giant pumpkin' competition that Sourced Market in St Pancras International Station were running.

I guessed the big pumpkin weighed 18Ib, 11oz, but on reflection I think that may be a little light

Find out more about the Pumpkins at KX on the King's Cross Halloween website.

That's a lot of pumpkins!

Happy Halloween!

Links:

- King's Cross

- King's Cross Halloween

- King's Cross N1C on Twitter

- Sourced Market

The old Crazy Golf course in Camber Sands

A revisit to the site of an old Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course in Camber Sands.

After playing the fun Crazy Golf course at Pontins Camber Sands Holiday Park and before we headed to Hastings for a weekend playing in the World Crazy Golf Championships, Emily and I had a drive down the Old Lydd Road in Camber to have a look at what had become of the old Crazy Golf course.

Not a lot to be honest.

The site of an old Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course in Camber Sands. Now just a patch of dusty gravelly land used as a car park. A real shame

Back in September 2010 we'd visited the site and found that the course had been ripped up to make way for a new Car Park. At least the old hut/kiosk was still there then.

You can see photos of the course as it was in 2002 on the excellent minigolf website MiniatureGolfer.com.

Related blog posts:
- Minigolf course location visited but no course to play - Camber Sands (Old Lydd Road)
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Link:
- Camber Sands Crazy Golf course on Miniature Golfer

Watermelon specialists

That's quite the specialist area to open up a business in!

Logman Ltd - a business on Caledonian Road in London that specialises in watermelons

I haven't seen the shop unshuttered yet. Specialising in watermelons must be a very secretive business.

Report from the 2014 Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championship in Hastings

Portugal's Nuno Cunha wins the Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championship 2014.

Nuno Cunha and his prize of a big round pound received from Buttons Committee member Emily Gottfried

After the World £2 Tat Challenge the second of the amusement arcade championships contested at the Old Town Amusements in Hastings during the World Crazy Golf Championships weekend is the much sought after World Crazy Air Hockey Championship.

Amusements in Hastings, full of fun

This year a total of 32-players registered to compete and 31 actually turned-up.

With Peter 'The Crazy Aced Assassin' Jones making a welcome return to Hastings many of the crowd was eagerly anticipating seeing this wildman of the pucks in action. Unfortunately he was to be defeated at the hands of the Portuguese Man O' War Nuno Cunha who was in rampant form and won 7-4 in the semi-finals.



The other semi-final saw and all-Dodd match-up take place, with Matt picking up the win 5-3. Helen had defeated top talent including 'Squire' Richard Gottfried and Steve Lovell (by Rock Paper Scissors!?) in the preliminary stages.

Squire crashing out to Helen Dodd in the prelims. As per usual

Peter Roughley vs. Chris Hillman in quite a battle in the main arena

Local lad Ted McIver faces-off against Rhyl Professional Peter Jones on table 3

After a tie in the round stages Helen Dodd and Steve Lovell tied, with the crowd demanding a decision a brutal game of Rock Paper Scissors followed with Helen picking up the win

Dodd vs Dodd. Unfortunately Rob Dodd was unable to compete this year

The Puckmaster vs the young pretender

Cunha and Dodd with the eyes of the world (of Air Hockey in Hastings) on them

While Nuno would go on to be robbed by a cruel bounce-out on the very last hole of the World Crazy Golf Championships on the Sunday he had no such luck in his match in the final against Matt Dodd. He was on the ball (puck?) in the match, and while it was a closely contested match Nuno would take the grand prize and title of Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Champion for 2014.

His quid prize was quickly spent as he gave Matt a rematch almost straight away. Nuno won that match too. Talk about rubbing salt into the wounds...

Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championships Hall of Fame:

2014 Nuno Cunha (POR)
2013 Chris Harding (ENG)

2012 Pasi Aho (FIN)

2011 Peter Jones (WAL)

2010 Kevin Moseley (ENG)

World Adventure Air Hockey Hall of Fame:

2013 Pasi Aho (FIN/GER)

The Undisputed International Worlds Crazy Air Squash Championships Hall of Fame:

2010* Scott Lancley (ENG)

* Note: the Air Squash tables were removed soon after, meaning the tournament became a 'normal' Air Hockey event.

Following the main-event Steve Lovell (Bully) and Steve Ragless (Stormtrooper) took each other on in a match. Nuno the Winner watched as Paul Preston acted as the ball boy - he was certainly dressed the part in his football socks!

Related blog posts:

- Air Hockey blog posts

Videos:
- Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championships 2014 in Hastings - Jones vs Cunha
- Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championships 2014 in Hastings - Grand Final

Report from the 2014 Worlds Tat Challenge in Hastings

Results of the World Tat Challenge Amusement Arcade Tournament in Hastings.

Much like the World Crazy Golf Championships the 2014 World £2 Tat Challenge would not see an appearance by the defending champion, and with many new entrants mixing it up with the veterans of The Buttons the competition was set to be quite thrilling.

Why are they so happy? They didn't win.

As usual the players - all 33 of them - were ably led by The Buttons Committee straight from the first day's play of the World Crazy Golf Championships to the Old Town Amusement Arcade where they received the instructions and rules. Not for the first time a few of the more eager competitors had jumped the gun and already changed up their gold into coppers. This included Paul 'Johnson Paul Johnson' Johnson - a real veteran and the first-ever World Tat Champion - who had made a rookie error and only changed up a quids worth!?

A newcomer and a veteran at the 2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings

With the countdown counted down the athletes were off and running and the battle for the tat was underway.

Paul Preston may be good at quizzes, but he's not much good at tat challenges

With some players scouting out the arcades in the preceding days (most notably the Greenheads and Lovell) the predictions were that the winning haul would be low and those halcyon days of winning as much as 40 bits o' stuff were long gone.

One of the most notable events of the competition was that after eighteen minutes of the twenty minute time-limit John 'Big Al' Moore still had about £4 left in change and hurriedly tried to win some more tat, but to no avail.

A bull and a donkey

Helen Dodd plays the buttons as Adam Kelly wins nothing

Peter Jones eyes up Steve Sturdy's machine, ready for a sharking perhaps

Mark Wood in action

Playing as a Stormtrooper proved difficult for Steve Ragless as he couldn't bend down to pick up any change or prizes!

A guilty looking John Moore!

It's just not Cricket. No, it's Brian Smith. Short-changed perhaps...

Fast hands Squire

Marion Homer took a two on her debut and drew a blank

Owen and The Johnson amid a flurry of tatting

This is what 90 pieces of tat looks like

2014 World Tat Champion Kate Kelly with her bag of winnings

With the challengers for the title declaring their winnings to Emily Gottfried there were rumblings of a tie, with the pace set at seven pieces of tat, but this was slightly blown out of the water by the ten pieces of tat that Kate 'Mrs Kelly' Kelly had managed to win from the 2p pushers to see her declared the winner.

Results of the 2014 World Tat Challenge

Results list from the 2014 World Tat Challenge (click to enlarge)

To date nine Tat Challenge competitions have been played with 799 bits of tat won for a total of £336. This year saw one less piece of tat won overall with 90 prizes won.

The Tat Challenge Order of Merit Rankings List

Tat Challenge Order of Merit Rankings List (click to enlarge)

£2 Tat Challenge Hall of Fame:

#1 - Paul Johnson - 9 pieces of Tat (World Title)

#2 - Richard Gottfried - 10 pieces of Tat

#3 - Alan Norman - 6 pieces of Tat +1

#4 - Polly - 11 pieces of Tat (World Title)

#5 - James Rutherford - 40 pieces of Tat

#6 - Richard Gottfried - 23 pieces of Tat (World Title)

#7 - Richard Gottfried and Mike Small - a tie with 32 pieces of Tat each

#8 - William Edwards - 8 pieces of Tat (World Title)
#9 - Kate Kelly - 10 pieces of Tat (World Title)

Related Blog Posts:

- Report from the 2013 World £2 Tat Challenge in Hastings

- Tat Challenge blog posts