Minigolf at Charnwood Golf Complex in Loughborough

A visit to the Miniature Golf course at Charnwood Golf Complex.

A view of the Charnwood Minigolf course

On Saturday 29th August we visited the 9-hole Minigolf course at Charnwood Golf Complex in Loughborough.

It's a nice little course

The course was designed and built by UrbanCrazy and is a great skill-based layout.

The colourful third hole. Emily aced it

In our match-up I scored 16(-2) with Emily hitting a 25(+7). The course was the 670th visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and the 388th played.

The tricky second

I had a pleasing ace on the first

And I got a hole-in-one on the ninth

A tough long hole, but it has a forgiving green

Up and around

Another view of the third

Another tricky hole position

For more information on the course, opening times and prices visit the Charnwood Golf Complex website.

Links:
- Charnwood Golf Complex
- UrbanCrazy

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- UrbanCrazy
- New Miniature Golf course open in Loughborough

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Minigolf Report from the Midlands Invitational Tournament in Nottingham

Gottfried third in the Midlands Invitational Tournament in Nottingham

Leagrave minigolfers Richard and Emily Gottfried competed in the eighth edition of the Midlands Invitational Tournament held on the 18-hole Temple Trail course at The Lost City Adventure Golf centre in Nottingham on Sunday 30th August.

Richard finished in third-place in the Midlands Club Championship after scores of 34, 33 and 34 for a total of 101(-7). Eleven players competed in the event.

Richard and his bronze medal

Emily played in the Guest Invitational event and recorded rounds of 36, 36 and 40 for a total of 112(+4) and fourth place in the five-player event.

Emily playing hole 10 at The Lost City

The Midlands Invitational Tournament was won by Michael Smith with a score of 95, with Chris Smith runner-up on 100.

The Midlands Guest Invitational and overall leaderboard was won by Andy Wilde with a 91, with Steve Lovell in second place on 95 and Edward Pope third on 110.

Richard said “It's always nice to play in a Midlands club event and I'm very pleased to get third-place. It was very close between me and Chris Smith for the silver medal and it's a shame I couldn't put away more aces on the front-9. I'm happy with how I played and to drop just one shot in 54-holes was quite an achievement. Thanks to the MMGC for organising the event and The Lost City for hosting.”

Richard playing hole 5 at The Lost City Adventure Golf

“Having recently watched three quarters-of-an-hour of Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom really helped my play as the course pipes in the theme tune on a loop.” He added while incanting the word “Kalima”.

Emily said “The tournament was fun, although I was disappointed with my performance overall as I didn’t get enough aces, and dropped more shots than I should have done.”

In the overall leaderboard Richard was fifth of sixteen players, with Emily twelfth.

The Midlands Minigolf Club are the reigning and two-time BMGA British Club Champions. For more information visit the club’s Facebook page.

The Lost City Adventure Golf is home to two 18-hole courses – The Temple Trail and Sacred Skull Pass.

An amazing animatronic adventure golf alligator

On our minigolf travels we've seen a whole host of animal obstacles in themed miniature golf courses. Crocodiles and Alligators often appear and today I spotted the best one yet!



We were visiting The Lost City Adventure Golf course in Nottingham for the 2015 Midlands Invitational Tournament and saw the great animatronic alligator on the Sacred Skull Pass course.

The Alligator 'secured' behind the fence

Check out The Lost City Adventure Golf website for more info.

Related blog posts:
- Fake Crocodiles! Or are they Alligators?
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Nottingham (The Cornerhouse) - The Lost City Adventure Golf

Like the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour on Facebook, check out our YouTube channel and follow me and Emily on Twitter.

Getting sharked

While we were in Nottingham for the Midlands Invitational Minigolf Tournament we made sure to go along to The Beach in the city centre after a tip-off from our friend and rival Jam Trubridge. It was well worth a visit. As well as picking up some great postcards and an interesting amusements token for my collections I also got up close to a BIG shark!

Sharked

Check out the Nottingham Beach website for more info.

On our travels to over 650 courses we've spotted a lot of minigolf sharks too!

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Celiac Awareness Day 2015

Celiac Awareness Day is on 13 September.

The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) is the group behind Celiac Awareness Day, taking place on Sunday 13 September.

Coeliac Disease (Celiac in the US and Canada) is a lifelong autoimmune disease caused by intolerance to gluten and the only treatment is to adhere to a strict lifelong gluten free diet.

In the UK it's estimated that 1 in 100 people have the condition, in the USA the figure is 1 in 133.

It's important to know and remember that Celiac/Coeliac is NOT an allergy, it's NOT a preference, it's NOT a fad, it's NOT a diet, it's NOT an intolerance, it's NOT a choice - it's an AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE.

I've been a Coeliac (and a Celiac when in the US) since May 2008

Visit the Celiac Central website for more information on their work and Celiac Awareness Day.

Check out my blog post about Celiac Awareness Day 2014.

In the UK, Coeliac Awareness Week is taking place from 11 to 17 May. For more information check out the Coeliac UK website and the Awareness Week page. Last year I was Minigolfing gluten free in Margate during Coeliac Awareness Week.

Related blog posts:
- Read my Gluten Free Journey blog on the Udi's gluten free website
- Celiac Awareness Day 2014
- Coeliac UK Awareness Week 2014 and the Gluten-free guarantee
- Minigolfing gluten free in Margate
- What a Day, Week and Month! (2013)

- Awareness Week: Coeliac Facts from Udi's Gluten Free

- Gluten Free
- Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac

Links:
- National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) / Celiac Central
- Coeliac UK

New Plonk Golf course in Hoxton

New Crazy Golf course opening in London this September.

A new minigolf course will be opening in London next month, as the team at Plonk Golf opening up a course at an undisclosed location in Hoxton!

The working Volcano hole at Plonk Golf in Dalston

It's always great to hear about new Crazy Golf courses in London. The original Plonk Golf course at Efes Snooker Hall in Dalston became the 596th visited and 360th played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in April this year.

Playing Plonk Mini Golf in Dalston earlier this year

You can find the original Plonk Golf course at Efes Snooker Club, 17B Stoke Newington Road, Stoke Newington, London N16 8BH. The nearest station is Dalston Kingsland (Overground). For more information and booking details check out the Plonk Golf website, Plonk Golf Hoxton page and the Plonk Golf Facebook page for news and updates. The new course will be a UV indoor mini golf - great news as there is certainly a lack of indoor black light courses in the UK!

One of the wacky Plonk Golf holes at the Efes Snooker Hall course

We've visited and played a number of mini golf courses in London since our tour began in 2006. Check out the Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in and around London blog post for info and links of where to play the game in the capital.

Links:
- Plonk Golf website
- Plonk Golf on Facebook
- Plonk Golf on Twitter
- Efes Snooker Hall on Twitter
- The House of Revelry website

Related blog posts:
- Plonk Golf Crazy Golf at Efes Snooker Hall in London
- Plonk Golf in Dalston, London
- Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in and around London
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Indoor Minigolf, Crazy Golf and Adventure Golf courses

Like the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour on Facebook, check out our YouTube channel and follow me and Emily on Twitter.

Banksy's Dismaland Bemusement Park

New temporary Bemusement Park open for the summer in Weston-super-Mare.

Renowned street artist Banksy has created a dystopian theme park on the site of the old Tropicana Lido in Weston-super-Mare called 'Dismaland', and the park features a Crazy Golf course.

We love visiting the British seaside and while there are some top spots for fun and entertainment, we've seen our fair share of dismal seaside resorts and deteriorating fun parks and amusement arcades amongst the 200 we've been to.

Having visited 669 Crazy, Mini and Adventure Golf courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour we have come across a large amount of derelict and abandoned courses.

One of the many many many derelict and abandoned miniature golf courses we've found on our tour

We've even played the Crazy Golf course at the end of the world!

What's more dismal, dystopian and crazy than playing a minigolf obstacle made of old tyres next to another that is made of the fuselage of a crashed plane. This was 'Golf Apocalypse' during the summer of 2012

Minigolf has been used in many artistic creations so it's not surprising to see a course pop-up at Dismaland. The 'Mini Gulf' layout features an oil caliphate theme, and the course is constructed from the old hockey pitch at Cheltenham Ladies College.

On our tour we've played art-based minigolf at the one-day only M!MS Mini Golf course in Bedford, Crazee Golf at the TinType Gallery in London, the Bompas & Parr food architecture course on the roof of Selfridges and Putt Putt #2 by TURF Projects in Croydon. We've also not played art courses in Clerkenwell and Folkestone, where the remnants of the old Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course were used to create a series of beach huts!

The '18 Holes' Crazy Golf art installation by Richard Wilson in Folkestone

Putt Putt #2 by TURF Projects was a temporary art installation minigolf course in Croydon

This year our friends over at A Couple of Putts created an art-installation course called Sparkle City Mini Putt in Spartanburg, South Carolina. While the team at The Putting Penguin have seen and reviewed a number of art-courses over the years. Earlier this summer my friend and crazy golf rival Gareth Holmes visited "The BEST Mini Golf Course in Venice" at artist's Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf.

Dismaland does look well worth a visit. Hopefully we'll get along before it closes for good on the 27th September this year.

As big fans of Crazy Golf we also run The Crazy Golf Museum - itself featured in the book Crap Days Out!

While you're in Weston-super-Mare there are plenty of other traditional seaside amusements to visit, along with three miniature golf courses.

Fella's Crazy Golf course near the pier in Weston-super-Mare

The old grass Putting course and Miniature Railway we visited in 2011 was removed a couple of years ago, but I've recently heard it's re-opened and called 'The Putting Shed'.

Putters Junction Signal Box

At Dismaland there are a limited number of tickets available each day, with 4,000 punters allowed in at £3 per person, which sounds reasonable. Check out the Dismaland website for more information, opening times and a site map.

Back in 2011 our friend and minigolf rival Kevin Moseley took us for a tour around Bristol and we spotted the Banksy artwork Well Hung Lover on Park Street

If you like your entertainment options to be unique and weird then I highly recommend a visit to the Novelty Automation arcade in London and the Under the Pier Show in Southwold, Suffolk too.

Link:
- Dismaland Bemusement Park website
- Banksy website
- The Crazy Golf Museum website

Related blog posts:
- Art
- Art Gallery
- Art Installation
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Weston-super-Mare
- Crazee Golf Art Exhibition to Open at the Tintype Gallery in London
- M!MS Empire Sunset Nine Hole Mini Golf course in Bedford
- Crazy Golf Course visited but not able to be played - Folkestone (Seafront) - 18-holes Art Installation
- Playing Bompas & Parr's Minigolf course on the roof of Selfridges
- Not playing Crazy Golf at Clerkenwell Design Week 2014
- Putt Putt #2 Crazy Golf in Croydon
- Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf
- Novelty Automation arcade in London
- Sparkle City Mini Putt in Spartanburg, South Carolina
- Crap Days Out - at The Crazy Golf Museum?
- Miniature Golf Putting at Weston-Super-Mare, plus a Miniature Railway
- Fella's Crazy Golf in Weston-Super-Mare
- Crazy Hills Putting Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf Course in Weston-Super-Mare

Like the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour on Facebook, check out our YouTube channel and follow me and Emily on Twitter.

Mr Mulligan's Pirate Golf in Milton Keynes

A visit to Mr Mulligan's Pirate Golf course in Milton Keynes.

On the way home from a recent trip to Milton Keynes I swung by Mr Mulligan's Pirate Golf at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre for a round on the 18-hole course.

Welcome to Mr Mulligan's Pirate Golf

Back in December 2011 the course became the 281st played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. It's changed a bit since my first visit. Most noticeable is the change of name from its previous incarnation as Pirate Island Adventure Golf.

A skull's eye view of the 18th and 2nd holes

The course itself was still in good condition and the huge pirate ship that houses the first two holes of the 18-hole layout is still a dominant site upon entering the car park at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre!

Hole 1 is an indoor hole, with hole two having upper and lower level tee-off points

The 'High Rise Pirates' tee-off area of hole 2

As it was a bit drizzly on my visit I was able to have a clear course ahead and behind me so got to enjoy the £8.25 round at a leisurely pace.

There's a pair of dueling pirates near the fourth hole

Mr Mulligan's Milton Keynes course is really tough, with some large minigolf holes, tricky obstacles and uneven greens. It's a course worthy of its par score of 55 (I shot a 51! And that included a hole-in-one on the very long fourth hole).

The very long fourth hole. Nicely aceable

You can find Mr Mulligan's Pirate Golf at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre on Monks Way in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK8 8AA.

The coffin is a new addition

You used to have to play over the gap and avoid the water

The Scallywag's Tee

A soggy green

Another one of the skellingtons on the course. There are loads of them there now!

There's a stack of treasure beyond the double plateau

You have to travel by raft to get on and off the island hole

Rummy the crocodile. Or is it an alligator?

A view from the island hole

I do like good theming

Visit Mr Mulligan's Pirate Golf website for details of the course, opening times and prices, as well as the other Mr Mulligan's Adventure Golf courses in Castleford, Nottingham and Woking. We've played at Castleford and Woking, but are yet to get to the Ramsdale Park Golf Centre course.

Related blog posts:
- Pirate Island Adventure Golf at Abbey Hill Golf Centre, Milton Keynes - Minigolf Course Played #281
- Milton Keynes
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Links:
- Mr Mulligan's Adventure Golf website
- Mr Mulligan's Adventure Golf, Milton Keynes website
- Mr Mulligan's Adventure Golf on the Abbey Hill Golf Centre website

Like the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour on Facebook, check out our YouTube channel and follow me and Emily on Twitter.
 

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Grünerløkka Minigolf Park in Oslo, Norway

Finding out about a Miniature Golf course in Norway.

As regular readers of the blog will know I do like a bit of post. Especially if it's minigolf-related. So I was very pleasantly surprised with a nice piece of ephemeral advertising that recently dropped through my letter box.

The Grünerløkka Minigolf Park can be found in Oslo

Many thanks to Anthony Pope from Splash Point Mini Golf course in Worthing, West Sussex for posting the leaflet from the Grünerløkka Minigolf Park in Norway to me. Anthony tells me he visited the Oslo course in December. Sadly it was closed when he arrived. It sounds like one of our visits on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour!

The inside of the promotional leaflet

The course is an 'Eternit' style of Miniature Golf and the 18-hole layout is approved for competitions by the Norwegian Minigolf Federation. Hopefully we'll get to give it a play one day.

The front, back and a bit of the middle

Emily and I actually appear on a minigolf promotional item - down in Dorset the courses put together a leaflet that asked the question "Where is the best Crazy Golf course in Dorset?"

Links:
- Grünerløkka Minigolf Park website
- Christiania Minigolf Club website
- Norges Minigolf Forbund website
- Splash Point Mini Golf website

Related blog posts:
- Ephemera
- Advertising
- Leaflet
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Anthony Pope
- Splash Point Mini Golf
- Eternit

Like the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour on Facebook, check out our YouTube channel and follow me and Emily on Twitter.

The Putting Penguin Minigolf App

Minigolf reviewing through the Putting Penguin App.

Our friends over at the Putting Penguin website have created a new app!

With Pat Sheridan of the Putting Penguin team on his visit to the UK in March

The minigolf app allows you to access a mobile version of the site, courses reviews and links. You can also submit course reviews through it.

I downloaded the app last week through the Play Store and reviewed the new Peterborough Minigolf course - the 382nd course played and 662nd visited overall on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Playing the Peterborough Minigolf course at Dobbies Garden Centre

Check out my review on the Putting Penguin website.

Download the Putting Penguin app for free in the Google Play Store.

Links:
- The Putting Penguin website
- The Putting Penguin on Twitter
- The Putting Penguin on Facebook
- Peterborough Minigolf

Related blog posts:
- The Putting Penguin
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Playing the new Mini Golf course at Dobbies Garden Centre in Peterborough
- Minigolf with The Putting Penguin at Putt in the Park

Like the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour on Facebook, check out our YouTube channel and follow me and Emily on Twitter.

WMF World Minigolf Championships 2015

The World Championships of Minigolf are taking place in Lahti, Finland.

This week sees the WMF World Minigolf Championships taking place in Lahti, Finland with 127 players from 19 countries and four continents lining up to compete.

The Great Britain men's team, sponsored by UrbanCrazy, will be in action and they face nine other teams in the four-day competition. You can follow all the results live online - the tournament tees-off from the 19th August 2015.

The 2015 WMF World Minigolf Championships are being held on the Feltgolf and Miniaturegolf courses at the Lahti Minigolf Centre. Good luck to all of the participants, especially those making their debut appearances on the world stage.

Emily and I made our debuts for the GB team at the 2008 EMF Nations Cup in Tampere, Finland and had a great time.

The 2008 Great Britain team - Jouni Valkjarvi (coach), John 'Big Top Ted' McIver, Marion 'Mation' Homer, Sean 'Freebird' Homer, Tim 'Ace Man' Davies, Steve 'F1' Gow, Emily 'Lemony' Gottfried, Andy 'Sarge' Booth, 'Squire' Richard Gottfried

We've also played for the national team in tournaments in Stockholm, Sweden and Hastings, England and we're both ranked in the WMF's international General Class ranking lists.

The GB team playing the Beton Concrete Minigolf course in Tampere, Finland

Emily playing the Swedish Felt minigolf course at the Manse Ratagolf Club in Tampere, Finland

Receiving some tips on the Middle Hill Eternit Miniaturegolf hole from Crazy Golf legend Tim 'Ace Man' Davies

In international minigolf action

Playing an incredibly long Feltgolf hole in Finland as Steve 'F1' Gow looks on

The World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) is the umbrella organisation of Minigolf sports association's worldwide and continental associations in Asia, Europe and America.

Following the recent WMF Delegates Conference eight new national minigolf federations were accepted into memebership, with Belarus, Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Togo, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam joining the existing 47 members. And this year New Zealand and Kenya are appearing in an international tournament for the first time.

The WMF is a member of SportAccord - the union for both Olympic and non-Olympic international sports federations, and organisers of international sporting events. The WMF is also a member of AIMS, the Alliance of Independent Members of SportAccord.



Check out the links below for more on the 2015 WMF World Minigolf Championships.

Links:
- WMF World Minigolf Championships website
- WMF World Minigolf Championships on Facebook
- World Minigolf Sport Federation website
- World Minigolf Sport Federation on Facebook
- British Minigolf Association website
- Great Britain Minigolf Sport Team on Facebook
- Lahti Minigolf Centre website

Related blog posts:
- Course Played #50 Tampere, Finland - Beton
- Course Played #51 Tampere, Finland - Eternit
- Course Played #52 Tampere, Finland - Swedish Felt (including the 'Story of the Rotten Shark'!)

Like the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour on Facebook, check out our YouTube channel and follow me and Emily on Twitter.