Fritton Minigolf and Crazy Golf - Not Played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

On our way from Lowestoft to Great Yarmouth on our recent roadtrip we made a detour to visit Fritton to see if we could find the two Minigolf courses there.

Our first stop was to the Golf Course at the Caldecott Hall Leisure Complex to play the Crazy Golf, however we found out that it had been removed as land was needed to extend the Golf Course

Next up was a flying visit to Fritton Lake to visit the Putting course, however the park was far too busy for us to make a stop as we wanted to spend plenty of time in Great Yarmouth.

Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

A Landmark On Our Travels - Photographing Our First Milestone

On a recent visit to Luton's Wardown Park Museum I picked up a leaflet about The Milestone Society and joined their Facebook group. Upon joining I was asked to keep my eye out and photograph any Milestones as they may be unknown to the society.

So, on our recent roadtrip to Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth, by way of Sudbury and Ipswich, I took the landmark first photo of a Milestone on our travels. The Milestone is on Ipswich's Albion Road (the A1071) and gives distances to London, Yarmouth, Woodbridge, St Margaret and Colchester.

Upon joining The Milsetone Society's Facebook Group my minigolf rival Anthony Pope quipped "You were their 10,000th member but sadly they were unable to think of any suitable measurement to recognise it by."

Link to The Milestone Society

The North Suffolk & South Norfolk Invitational Challenge Minigolf Tournament 2011

Last weekend intrepid Crazy Minigolfers Richard & Emily Gottfried competed in the Quadrennial Irregular Mini Golf Tour Competition known as the Irregular Mini Golf Tour North Suffolk & South Norfolk Invitational Challenge.

Photo: Emily tees-off at the most easterly Adventure Golf course in the country

Last held on the 9th and 10th of June 2007 the 2011 Irregular Mini Golf Tour NS&SN IC event saw five rounds and a total of 63-holes of Minigolf, Crazy Golf, Putting and Adventure Golf played.

The winner of the marathon event was Emily 'Nine Lives' Gottfried who led from start to finish and ended with a an eight shot winning margin over the 2007 Irregular Mini Golf Tour NS&SN IC Champion 'Squire' Richard Gottfried.

Day 1 - 6th August 2011
In the 12-hole first round at the most easterly Adventure Golf course in the British Isles - East Point Family Golf in Lowestoft, Suffolk - Emily won 32-34.

On the 18-hole Links Putting Course at Kirkley Cliffs in Lowestoft, Emily was the round winner once again with a score of 43 to Richard's 45, acing the final hole, while Richard carded a poor four.

Day 2 - 7th August 2011
At the 9-hole Crazy Golf course at the Merrivale Model Village both players tied on scores of 22.

Emily was the winner once again on the (now) 12-hole Windmill Theatre Adventure Golf course, carding a score of 25, to Richard's 29.

The final round was played out on the Pleasure Beach Adventure Golf course and saw both Richard and Emily score rounds of 30 on the 12-hole course.

The final scores were:
Emily - 152
Richard - 160

Emily retained her Aces Champion title at the event, scoring five holes-in-one compared to Richard's two Aces.

Commenting on her big Minigolf win Emily 'Nine Lives' Gottfried said "As the ‘local’ in the tournament I knew I had the edge. The Lowestoft mini-golf course was fun and the putting green was excellent- a win with an Ace following a poor 4 by Squire was the highlight. The Great Yarmouth courses are always well kept, and great to play. Squire put up a good fight, but I always knew I would win this weekend.”

From the Archives:

Results of the 2007 North Suffolk & South Norfolk Invitational Challenge Minigolf Tournament

The mammoth two-day, 11 round, 134-hole Irregular Mini Golf Tour North Suffolk & South Norfolk Invitational Challenge tournament was played out over seven courses in Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth. It had been planned to include the Crazy Golf, Adventure Golf and Golf FX courses in Felixstowe, Suffolk, however these were closed on our visit.

The seven courses played were:

1. East Point Family Golf - Lowestoft
2. Pirates Cove Adventure Golf - Great Yarmouth
3. Arnold Palmer Putting Course 18-hole - Great Yarmouth
4. Arnold Palmer Putting Course 9-hole - Great Yarmouth
5. Pleasure Beach Adventure Golf - Great Yarmouth
6. Jungle Golf at the Gardens - Great Yarmouth
7. Hollywood Adventure Golf - Great Yarmouth

The final scores were as follows
Richard - 338
Emily - 361

Photo: Richard & the 2007 Irregular Mini Golf Tour North Suffolk & South Norfolk Invitational Challenge Trophy

Despite coming second in the main tournament Emily did win the 'Aces Championship' by scoring 10 holes-in-one over the weekend.


The Future of Minigolf...

The next Irregular Mini Golf Tour North Suffolk & South Norfolk Invitational Challenge tournament is scheduled to take place in June or August 2015.

Blog link:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

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

Great Yarmouth Minigolf Course Revisits - 5th June 2011

On Sunday 5th June 2011 Emily and I headed to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk and we're lucky enough to make it there in time to play two of my favourite minigolf courses in the world - the 9 and 18-hole Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf/Putting Courses on the Seafront.

The story wasn't the same on one of our very first Crazy Minigolf Holidays, way back in February 2007, when all of the courses we visited in Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth were closed! This 'Irregular Mini Golf Tour' to the East Anglian coast really was the start of what would evolve to become the huge Crazy World of Minigolf Tour that we have been on for years now!

Thankfully on our return to Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth in June 2007 the courses were open.

Photo: Emily tees-off on the first hole of the 18-hole Arnold Palmer Putting Course

First of all we played the 18-hole course, and a fine example of an Arnold Palmer Putting Course it is too.

We first played the course on the 9th of June 2007 when it became the 22nd course played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

In our Irregular Mini Golf Tour Match-up...Emily defeated me 37-39.

Review at Miniaturegolfer.com here (2007)

Next we played the excellent 9-hole course.

The course was the 23rd played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in June 2007.

In our Irregular Mini Golf Tour Match-up...I defeated Emily 16-21.

Review at Miniaturegolfer.com here (2007)

Amazingly I managed to win a FREE GAME on the Top Hole! A feat I am not renowned for.

After the round on the 9-hole course Emily also managed to win a FREE GAME on the Top Hole - something that has never before happened to us on our many tours!

After playing the Arnold Palmer courses we went for a walk around Great Yarmouth and the next stop was at the Merrivale Model Village, which is now home to a Crazy Golf course. Unfortunately it was closed.

The Pleasure Beach Gardens course was closed for the day too.

The Hollywood Adventure Golf at the Windmill Theatre was also locked up. They have now changed the posters outside (they used to say 'Grazy Golf'!?).



The 18-hole Pirates Cove Adventure Golf course was closed by the time we reached it.

It was originally the 21st course we played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Emily and I are already looking forward to our next trip to Great Yarmouth.

Related blog post:

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

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

Arm Champs II, Turks and Jobbing - a revisit to Great Yarmouth's Best Arcade Machine

On Sunday 5th June 2011 we headed to Great Yarmouth for some minigolf and amusement arcade action, and I couldn't resist a revisit to the arcade that is home to the Arm Champs II Arm Wrestling Game. Bizarrely, a video of me losing (Jobbing) on it in February 2007 is my most viewed YouTube video!? At the time of writing this blog post it has 13,017 views!!!

Links:
- 2007 - Jobbing to Arm Champs II Arcade Machine
- 2009 - Arm Champs II – the rematch
- 2009 - Jobbing to Arm Champs - the original Arm Wrestling Arcade Game - the video in this match has had 1,236 views to date

The original video

Quasar in Great Yarmouth - Biggest in 'Great Britainshire'!?

On our visit to Great Yarmouth on Sunday 5th June 2011 we visited the 'Biggest Quasar in Great Britainshire' (according to the advert playing outside The Mint amusement arcade).

The 30 minute games are £5 each and are played out over a two-level Laser Tag arena. The games start on the hour, and as we had just bumped into fellow Minigolf tourist Peter Jones and I had spent time chatting to him about the Arnold Palmer course in the town, we missed the start of the next game by seven minutes.

As big fans of Laser Tag in all its forms we'll play there on our next visit.

Closed Minigolf courses in Great Yarmouth

Back in the early days of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, February 2007 to be precise, we visited Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth in the hope to play some of the many Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses there. Unfortunately, they were all closed!

On our return in June 2007 they were open!

We've since visited the courses in Great Yarmouth a number of times. Sometimes we've been lucky enough to play, other times we've had to play Bowlingo instead.

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

Great Yarmouth's Crazy Golf Courses, by day and by night...

...and closed both times! Probably because we were too late and too early to play!

While staying in Great Yarmouth following the Lost World Classic Minigolf Doubles Competition, and before the BMGA British Championships, we had a wander around and snapped a couple of the courses we have played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour before.

The Arnold Palmer Putting Courses - 9 & 18-holes (originally course played #22 and #23).





By day.




Video of the Arnold Palmer Putting Course at Great Yarmouth.


The Pirates Cove Adventure Golf Course.


While walking past the amusement arcades on Saturday night we did however spot a 'Putt! Championship' arcade minigolf game in the Silver Slipper!




We also noticed that the 'Grazy Golf' (sic) poster on Hollywood Indoor Adventure Golf at the Windmill Theatre that we spotted in May 2009 has been rectified!