A look at the indoor Mini Golf course at Laser Quest Derby.
Mini Golf at Laser Quest Derby. Photo by James Trubridge, May 2022
Many thanks again go to our friend and minigolf rival Jam Trubridge for sending over these photos of the indoor Mini Golf course at Laser Quest in Derby.
Mini Golf at Laser Quest Derby. Photo by James Trubridge, May 2022
Mini Golf at Laser Quest Derby. Photo by James Trubridge, May 2022
Mini Golf at Laser Quest Derby. Photo by James Trubridge, May 2022
Mini Golf at Laser Quest Derby. Photo by James Trubridge, May 2022
It'll be ace to play it on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in the future. We love playing both minigolf and laser tag so the 9-hole course is in the right location!
A look at the Mini Golf course at Laser Quest Derby.
A BIG thanks go to our friend and minigolf rival Jam Trubridge for sending over these snaps of the Mini Golf course at Laser Quest in Derby.
We love playing both minigolf and laser tag so the 9-hole course is in the right location. It'll be ace to play it on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in the future.
There's a crazy golf, tenpin bowling and laser tag centre in Canterbury, Kent.
The crazy golf, tenpin bowling and laser tag centre on Wincheap Industrial Estate in Canterbury, Kent has re-opened as Canterbury Leisure. The venue was formerly known as Play Islands.
It's a course we hadn't played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour before the pandemic, but one that is now on our to visit list.
Many thanks to my friend and minigolf rival Jam Trubridge for letting me know there's a minigolf course at the Laser Quest centre in Derby. The indoor layout is a 9-hole glow-in-the-dark course. It's a new local course for him and one we're looking forward to playing on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.
Galaxy Quest Mini Golf in Derby is the sister venue of the Galaxy Quest Mini Golf at Laser Quest Sunderland and another new course at Laser Quest Coventry.
A new Adventure Golf course is opening at the Everyone Entertained activity centre in North Shields.
As well as the 18-hole dinosaur Adventure Golf course Everyone Entertained will also be home to a laser tag arena, high and low rope courses, an adventure soft play centre, an arcade, high-tech quest rooms and virtual paragliding!
Everyone Entertained is planned to open in Summer 2020.
New indoor Crazy Golf course opening at Preston Guild Hall.
Part of the redevelopment of Preston Guild Hall includes the opening of a new Crazy Golf course. Trailer Trash Jim's Crazy Golf will be located on Level 1 of Level - Preston's new leisure and entertainment venue.
It sounds like a brilliant place as not only will there be an indoor Crazy Golf course on Level 1, but you can also play Laser Tag and Arcade Games. Level 2 has Ten Pin Bowling and Darts, while Level 3 of the centre is home to a Daredevil Assault Course.
Level at Preston Guild Hall opens on Friday 8th December.
I'm a big fan of Laser Tag, so it was a very pleasant surprise to see that there's a Laser Tag game arena at the Parrs Wood entertainment complex in Manchester.
At the Sector 7 Laser Tag Adventure it's the Reds versus the Greens
Parrs Wood is just down the road from us and the Sector 7 Laser Tag can be found within the Tenpin bowling centre. We can't wait to return for a game there.
In the seemingly everlasting Laser Tag war waged between the forces of the REDS, BLUES, GREENS, and YELLOWS, players in our Laser Tag Rankings have taken part in battles in 'laser-war-torn' places including Birmingham, Hemel Hempstead, Bristol, London, Peterborough, Crawley, New Brighton, Cannock, Whitstable, Skegness, Rayleigh and Milton Keynes. Links:
- Tenpin Parrs Wood
- Parrs Wood Manchester
Over the years I've played a fair bit of laser tag and so, while on a trip to Milton Keynes today it was great to spot that a brand new lazer tag arena was opening!
Suiting up ready to battle the Reds alongside my Green team-mates
Having spent a few hours mallratting and playing some Pool at the Hollywood Bowl my friend Cat and I were wondering what to do next. I knew there was a laser tag in the town - a sport Cat had never played before! Me and my sporting rival Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley had played a game of laser tag in the town as part of an MK sporting challenge a few Christmases ago.
A quick online search came up with the result that the team behind Laser Planet in Watford was opening a new arena on Saturday 23rd April! What an unexpected bonus it was. I've been playing the game since I was a kid, and in recent years we've tried to play a bit around the country while on our Crazy Golf travels. But in all that time I've never played at a brand new arena on its opening day. Laser Planet was so new you could smell the fresh paint as you walked up the stairs!
We received a nice welcome and found that a game amongst the staff was about to begin. We could of had the arena to ourselves for a match (something that can be great fun as I've found in contests against veteran competitors like Marc and Emily) but on this occasion we opted for a three vs. three laser tag contest.
Before battle could commence we entered the briefing room - the most hi-tech I've seen to date - after which we suited up in our vests and laser guns and entered the arena. The entrance itself is really well done - I won't spoil the surprise though. Once inside the futuristic maze we headed to our base and waited for the siren to sound (I was part of the Green team, while Cat was in the Red squad).
The 20-minute match was brilliant. The game was marshalled to ensure the rules were adhered to - no running, no physical contact, no hitting other players with the actual laser gun etc. The man in orange certainly took a few errant laser shots from the players as he was wandering around the arena.
Laser Planet in Milton Keynes gets the thumbs-up from me. Great entertainment
Our match was very close - with only five points separating the teams - but the win went to the Greens. I was the second best player on our team (yee-haa), while Cat picked up the bronze medal in the runner-up Red team.
It took a bit of a search to find the entrance to Laser Planet, but we eventually found it having walked the wrong way around the Food Centre mall. Laser Planet is next door to the old Waitrose site with stairs leading up to the first-floor venue above the New Moon Chinese buffet restaurant.
I'll definitely return and Cat really enjoyed her first laser tag experience. I look forward to future battles between us!
In the Seemingly Everlasting Laser Tag War waged between the forces of the REDS, BLUES, GREENS, and YELLOWS players in our 'Laser Tag Rankings' have taken part in Laser Battles in 'laser-war-torn' places including Birmingham, Hemel Hempstead, Bristol, London, Peterborough, Crawley, New Brighton, Cannock, Whitstable, Skegness, Rayleigh and Milton Keynes.
The new venue opened on the 15 December and is located in the Old Foyles Bookshop on Charing Cross Road, between Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road.
A minigolf revisit, a Dalek, Bar Billiards and no Laser Tag - a trip to Milton Keynes & Northampton.
On Monday 20th February Emily and I headed off on a trip to Milton Keynes and Northampton.
We’ve been to MK a number of times and on my last visit I had faced-off against fellow Minigolfer Marc ‘The Roller’ Bazeley in the "MK Winter Sporting Challenge". We would have a re-match of sorts in Northampton later in the day.
We then headed back on the M1 up to Northampton. It’s somewhere we’ve never, properly, visited before. On the way to the Manchester Miniature Open minigolf competition in 2009 the hire car we were driving had caught fire just outside Northampton Services and we’d received a tow to the rental office in the town, but that’s as far as we’d previously got.
This time though we managed a good walk around the town centre and it was a nice enough place to spend the afternoon.
In the Tourist Information Centre we had spotted a leaflet for the Laser Force arena in the town centre and ahead of meeting up with Northamptonshire’s number one Crazy Golfer Marc ‘The Roller’ Bazeley we decided to scout it out.
First off we looked inside the Sol Central leisure complex, but couldn’t find the laser tag. We did however find an Amusement Arcade that was closed.
The closed Fun Station at Sol Central in Northampton
We eventually found the arena, but unfortunately the Laser Force laser tag at Sol Central is closed on Mondays (except in holidays).
The Laser Tag in Northampton is closed on Mondays
From the posters and adverts outside it looks like a good set-up and we’d like to play there in the future. It’s also got a ‘Machine City’ zone! I wonder what fellow Laser Tagger Oliver ‘The Machine’ Florence knows about this?
You can just about see the Boom-A-Rang Crazy Air Squash Table in the background
We met up with ‘The Roller’ who took us on a bit of a mystery tour of the bits of the town centre we’d not yet seen. The undoubted highlight of this was visiting “the third most hated building in Britain” – the town’s Greyfriars Bus Station. While posing for a photo outside it we also got a beep from a passing car!?
Marc and me at the Greyfriars Bus Station in Northampton!
With the Laser Tag closed, a dearth of Miniature Golf in Northampton and the other Laser Maze in the town centre now closed down we headed to the Crown & Anchor pub for the main-event of the day’s contest – Bar Billiards.
We found the table in a corner of the quite spacious Crown & Anchor pub and luckily no one was playing. We did notice that Monday nights were competition nights in the Northants Bar Billiards Association! With league games played between 7.30pm and 10.30pm.
The Bar Billiards table in the Crown & Anchor Pub in Northampton
Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley has a read of the rules of Bar Billiards
In our first head-to-head match-up, Umpired by Emily, Marc picked up the win with a final score of 190 points. I had notched up a score of 800, but this was lost as I knocked down the dreaded Black Peg on the last ball shoot-out.
I score 100
Almost inevitably in our second game – a triple-threat match including Emily – the balls failed to be released from the table after putting our pound coin in, so we had to get ‘The Man’. However, as this was not a seaside Amusement Arcade (aka 'The Buttons') Emily refused to get #TheMan, so I had to ask at the bar.
The table was promptly fixed and the balls released. As an added bonus we got a chance to see the ‘inner workings’ of a Bar Billiards table as the top section had to be lifted up to get at the ball release mechanism!
In the three-way-dance match I scored a win with a final score of 750 points, with Marc and Emily both knocking down the Black Peg to wipe-out their scores of 400 and 340 respectively.
Marc plays a shot off of a cushion
Emily goes for the 200-hole in the Black Peg Shoot-Out
In the games we seemed to favour the top-left-hand corner of the table and the balls seemed to ‘collect’ here quite often!
One view of 'Jiff Corner'
A nice line of balls 'protecting' the Red ball
Game three was another one-on-one match between me and ‘The Roller’ and was another victory for Marc, this time with a 660 points to zero score-line after I’d wiped-out from 1,050! Marc also picked up his ‘career best’ break with a score of 530 points in one visit to the table, after I had opened with my ‘day best’ of 350 with my first three shots following the start.
Going for a double score with the Red ball
The final game saw Marc pick up his third win on 'home soil' with a score of 1,090 to zero, as I once again knocked down the Black Peg as the ball dropped into the 200-hole. On this occasion the result would not have been affected even if I had potted the last ball cleanly without hitting the peg, as under the watchful eye of the Umpire both players were forced to ‘go for it’ in the last ball shoot-out!
Marc taking on the shot for the 200-hole
Commenting on his Bar Billiards victories Marc ‘The Roller’ Bazeley said “I’ve still got some way to go before I’m mixing it with the Pros, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon nonetheless.”
After the fun of the Bar Billiards we went for another wander around town and headed to (the) Shipmans pub on (the) Drapery for a drink. Unfortunately there were no pub games on offer in this long, thin pub. We did however discuss the game of "Hood Skittles", which is now on our list of Pub Games to play!
To round off our fun day in Northampton we headed to The Church Bar & Restaurant on Bridge Street as we had spotted they offered a Gluten Free menu. The food and surroundings were excellent.
Following the first minigolf event of the BMGA Tour season at the Star City Open in Birmingham on Sunday 22nd January, a group of players headed to the amusement arcade attached to the Bowling Alley in the Star City Complex for an Air Hockey Tourney.
The first game to be played was on the closest table to the door and after a draw of sorts was organised by Emily ‘Lemony’ Gottfried play commenced with a match-up between perennial Air Hockey loser, ‘Squire’ Richard Gottfried, and the Welsh Worlds Air Hockey champ and side-tournament specialist Peter ‘The Dragon’ Jones.
Peter Jones (far side) faces-off against Richard Gottfried in the longest match ever!
Unbeknownst to the players the match would create something of a record result, as the machine was a bit broken! The final result saw 31 goals scored as the match seemed to be never ending. Normally the first player who scores 7 goals is the winner and the machine keeps the puck from being returned. However in the battle between Gottfried & Jones, Richard managed to get the upset win, with a slim victory of 16-15.
With the match going on for so long Richard retired from the rest of the contest due to exhaustion and went to have a nice sit down. This meant that Peter ‘The Crazy Aced Assassin’ Jones was back in the contest and would face Seth ‘Tooting’ Thomas in the ‘first’ round.
Before that contest could take place a new table needed to be found for the match between Ruthers and The Machine. Play then commenced after Ollie had put a deposit down for half an hour’s play on the Ping Pong table. In the Air Hockey match Ollie took control and defeated Ruthers 7-5 meaning The Machine would head to the final to face either Thomas or Jones. The defeated Ruthers consoled himself by heading to the Table Tennis table to take on and beat all-comers (except Seth, who was just too good). One notable result was the ‘Squire’ (ranked 50th alongside Brad ‘The Fist’ Shepherd in the 2010 World Series of Pong) coming out of retirement for one more match. He was swiftly beaten 11-6 by Ruthers.
Ping Ponger Ruthers awaiting new challengers
In the highly anticipated match-up between Worlds Champ Peter ‘Toy Truck’ Jones and the sporting polymath that is Seth ‘Clockwork Orange’ Thomas the result was an unexpected win to Thomas, who managed to take down the champ and win 7-3 to line up a contest against The Machine in the Grand Final.
The Machine warms-up for the Air Hockey final with a bit of Table Tennis
Having seen the photos of the Air Hockey matches online, and on being told he had wrongly assumed that Peter 'Indoor League' Jones had been dishing out lessons, Finnish player Pasi ‘Bruiser’ Aho commented “He's just giving you that false feeling of confidence and will strike back when it matters.”
With the first Air Hockey table used in the competition set to ‘Long Play’ the players couldn’t imagine that the event would befall some other controversy, but that is exactly what happened in the big final match-up. With Seth Thomas easing to a 6-2 lead against Oliver Florence what happened next could of been taken straight from a round of ‘What happened next?’ on TV game show A Question of Sport. As Ollie hit a goal to bring his score up to 3 goals, the puck got stuck in the goal mouth and couldn’t be retrieved, nor did it register on the scoreboard!
Seth Thomas and Oliver Florence face-off in the Air Hockey Final
Luckily Emily ‘I’ll get #TheMan’ Gottfried was on hand and went and got the man to come and have a look at the machine (the table, not Ollie). With much wrenching and fiddling the technician was unable to get the puck out, so instead turned off the table and gave the players their pound back.
Pucking Hell! The Air Hockey Puck gets stuck in the goal
This caused a dilemma as the result of the match was still undecided. To decide the ultimate winner of the Star City Air Hockey Contest, Seth and Ollie decided to play one game of Ping Pong as a decider!
The result of the Air Hockey Tournament is decided on a Ping Pong Table
In the end there seemed to be only one possible result as Seth took an early and commanding lead, as he had done on the Air Hockey, and finished the match by smashing in a result of 11-2 and leaving The Machine with the runner-up spot.
Following the final of the Air Pong competition Seth declared that “the fun isn’t over if I’ve still got money left” and proceeded to challenge players to games of Pool. First up was Richard who, apart from the break and potting one ball, spent the game speaking with Peter 'PJ#2' Jones on the sidelines.
Richard Gottfried enjoys a nice sit down on his way to a Pool defeat at the hands of Seth Thomas
With the Hurricane Simulator ‘Out of Order’ a doubles Pool match was proposed, with the line-up of England (Ollie & Seth) to take on the ‘Wales’ team of Peter and Richard. England won.
And that wrapped up the fun and games at The Buttons of Star City. For a change no Laser Tag was played. The next big arcade event will no doubt be a £2 Tat Challenge at the amusement arcades of Worthing, West Sussex in April.
On Thursday 15th December 2011 me and Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley met up in Milton Keynes for a "Best-of-Three, no wait make it Best-of-Five Games Series" for the title of MK Winter Sporting Challenge Champion! We had planned to play a lot of Quasar Laser Tag at the Tenpin Mega Bowl at MK Leisure Plaza, however there were no spaces in games until 9pm! So with time to spare we headed to the brand new Pirate Island Adventure Golf at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre for a game of Minigolf.
Photo: Not me & Marc having a Pirate Battle on a Minigolf Island!
As I had arrived in MK before Marc, I had managed to get a game in beforehand (making it minigolf course #281 played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour!). Not that my warm-up game helped too much in our challenge match. Under floodlight conditions we hit the 18-hole course and it's excellent Pirate-theming for a match played in very cold conditions.
Photo: Marc Putting on a Double Plateau Hole
Photo: Richard on a Raft attached to a Minigolf Island
To say the match was one-sided in the early stages would be an understatement as Marc, the BMGA British #89, raced ahead over the Front-9 holes.
Video - Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley Plays the 10th Hole at Pirate Island Adventure Golf:
Photo: Marc has a testing second Putt on the 18th hole
But by the 17th hole the match was level on both Strokeplay and Matchplay! I stepped up first and hit a two, Marc played his first shot which ended in the rocks, played his second and waited... and it ran just passed the hole and he had to settle for a very unfortunate three. The final scores - Richard 52, Marc 53.
Game One - Winner - 'Squire' Richard Gottfried
Following the Minigolf match we decided to head back to the Mega Bowl to have a warm game of Quasar.
While we were waiting for the 9pm game slot we decided to have a game of the Crazy Golfers Favourite - Air Hockey. Despite leading for most of the (10-minute!) match I lost 8-9 after scoring an own goal in injury time. The game conditions were quite interesting, with just two of us and with no Emily to fetch #TheMan when the Puck went flying off the table there were a lot more throw-ins than usual!
Game Two - Winner - Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley
With 9pm approaching we headed to the check-in desk, signed the disclaimer (no running, no swearing, no fighting, no rifle-butts to the face etc.), found out that it would just be a one-on-one match and then waited to be called through to the Briefing Room. While we were waiting to go through Marc had the opportunity to have his photo taken with one of his Minigolf heroes!
Photo: Marc and his Minigolf Hero
Once in the Briefing Room the man said that before we could play we would have to watch "The DVD"! He seemed quite apologetic that we'd have to sit through it, however Marc and I were quite excited as in all the times we've played Laser Tag we've never had a briefing through a TV/DVD! The video was very informative, told us we were playing "Q-2000" and that once the film was over we'd be led to "The Vesting Room"!
The Milton Keynes Quasar Arena was very maze-like, with narrow passages leading to a central hub. With the game beig a solo battle the bases were unfortunately not in play. The game saw each of us trying to track the other down and in the quite big arena you had to take your opportunities and use the element of surprise on your opponent. Marc managed to do this and scored more hits, ending the game with a win for the REDS.
Photo: RED Marc and GREEN Richard
In the Quasar Stats for our game Marc was playing as RED 9 while I was GREEN 12. Marc won with a Hit Ratio of 0.9% after firing 855 shots and scoring 1,600 points! Inconceivably I was shown to have fired 4,003 times in our battle and ended with a Hit Ratio of 0.1% and 1,000 points!?
In the Never Ending Laser Tag War waged between the forces of the REDS, BLUES, GREENS, and YELLOWS players in the Laser Tag Rankings have taken part in Laser Battles in 'laser-war-torn' places including Birmingham, Hemel Hempstead, Bristol, London, Peterborough, Crawley, New Brighton, Cannock, Whitstable, Skegness, Rayleigh and Milton Keynes.
Updated Laser Tag Rankings following the MK Battle:
Click to enlarge image
Game Three - Winner - Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley
With the series at two-wins-to-one in Marc's favour we headed to the Pool tables. The table we played on seemed to have a bit of a slope and was also a bit troublesome if you were shooting from one end of it, as you had to open the door to the Hurricane Simulator arcade machine to get any sort of leverage!?
The other Pool table was out of order, but happened to be the one with any chalk in the chained up chalk holder!
In our match Marc won, with me still having three balls left to pot when Marc nailed the black for victory.
Game Four - Winner - Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley
After playing Pool we (I) tried to make the series a best-of-seven event, but Super Mario Kart wouldn't accept any of our coins and someone had jammed a pound coin and a ten pence piece in the coin slot of Out Run 3, putting paid to any chance of another win for me.
Overall Champion of the MK Winter Sporting Challenge - Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley
Ultimate MK Games Champion Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley said "I knew it was going to be tough, especially after the minigolf. But I always believed in myself and that belief was justified."
Perennial Runner-Up ‘Squire’ Richard Gottfried said “Well done to Marc on his big win at the games. It was well deserved indeed and he was unlucky not to beat me at the Minigolf too! I’m looking forward to some more games of Laser Tag and visits to #TheButtons soon.”
The new Pirate Island Adventure Golf course at Abbey Hill Golf Centre in Two Mile Ash is well worth a visit and we'll be heading back again. Hopefully we'll get to play the Quasar with more people next time too.
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