Crazy Golf at Fenton Manor Sports Complex in Stoke

A look at the Crazy Golf course at Fenton Manor Sports Complex in Stoke-on-Trent.

While driving to Leicester on Sunday Emily found another miniature golf course for us to visit, so we took a slight detour to Fenton in Stoke to have a look for it.

Crazy Golf Land! The UK is certainly a land full of courses

The Crazy Golf course at Fenton Manor Sports Complex in Stoke became the 902nd course we've visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

It's amazing that after 13 years of our crazy golf travels we can still be shocked by what we find!

Having a wander round the course we were struck with how crazy the layout and obstacles looked.

The Crazy Golf course in Fenton is loopy!

It was only later that we realised that the course had been set up so that each hole was in the shape of a letter and the 9-holes spelled out the words CRAZY GOLF!

This is a C

We have seen that before on some fibreglass Crazy Golf courses, but never on a permanent, landscaped course.

Clearly an R

A

Z

Y

G

O

L

F

We noticed that hole 1 (C) used boules as obstacles! We're big fans of Petanque too so this was fun to see.

Hole C/1 and the Petanque obstacles. Crazy!

Four boules

Two boules

One of the boule obstacles

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Crazy Golf
- Staffordshire

Crazy Golfing at Shobnall Leisure Complex in Burton upon Trent

Visiting and playing the 541st Miniature Golf course on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour!

The 9-hole Crazy Golf course in Burton upon Trent

While in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire I made a visit to Shobnall Leisure Centre in the town as my friend, Minigolf rival and Midlands Minigolf Club member Jam Trubridge had told me there was a Crazy Golf course there.

Arriving at 6pm on a cold November evening I was warmly greeted by the staff and asked them what time the Minigolf course was normally open – luckily for me the reply was “It’s never closed”.

Playing hole 9 on Shobnall Leisure Complex's Crazy Golf course

I was expecting the Miniature Golf course visit to be the 541^st overall, but yet another closed course visit (having previously been to 215 courses that I couldn’t play for one reason or another). However, as it was open and available to play it become the 326^th course played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour since September 2006.

A view of the course from hole 4

The course was of the fibreglass and felt variety, with a number of obstacle on the course in addition to dog leg hole layouts, unfortunately there wasn’t a ‘Humpty’ on the course – an obstacle I’ve found on many courses of this type.

Hole 8 - a roll of the dice - I came close to acing the hole

The courses, manufactured by DK Fibreglass, play the best when they are laid out on a solid foundation. Thankfully the 9-hole course at Shobnall Leisure Complex was built on concrete foundations which meant the ball rolled well and the course stayed in place (unlike a course of this type Emily and I once played in Lytham St Anne’s).

The 9-hole Crazy Golf course is reasonably priced at £1.80 a round and it was good fun. Unfortunately my round went for a Burton* as I didn’t score a single hole-in-one. In the chilly and shivery conditions I shot a round of 24(+6).

The 9-hole Crazy Golf course at Shobnall Leisure Complex in Burton upon Trent

Mark and the team at the leisure centre were really nice and friendly and asked lots of questions about the world of Minigolf – they were also knowledgeable about the game and had heard about tournaments. It was really nice to visit a new place and receive such a great welcome, I’ll definitely be heading back to Burton and the leisure centre, and Emily and I are looking forward to a tour of all the other Mini, Crazy and Adventure Golf courses we’re yet to play in the East Midlands!

The course and leisure centre get the thumbs up from me

Shobnall Leisure Complex also has a Pitch & Putt Miniature Golf course on the site, as well as football, table tennis, bowls, rounders, tennis and badminton and more. Check out the leisure centre's website for opening times and price details.

A very dark view of the Pitch & Putt Mini-Golf course at Shobnall Leisure Centre

You can also find Shobnall Leisure Complex on Facebook.

Related blog posts:

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Links:

- Shobnall Leisure Complex

* Is it possible to visit, talk, or write about Burton upon Trent without using the phrases “gone for a Burton”, or “went for a Burton”? I think not...