Showing posts with label Milton Keynes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Milton Keynes. Show all posts

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Jurassic Golf course heading to Milton Keynes!

A new Jurassic Golf course is heading to thecentre:mk shopping centre for summer 2013!

Emily and I went shopping at thecentre:mk today and were NOT expecting to do, or see anything related to Minigolf. However, as is so often the case, my 'minigolf radar' spotted a sign (and dinosaur) advertising a coming attraction at the shopping mall!


From the 28th of March until the 22nd September Queens Court at thecentre:mk will be home to a Jurassic Golf Adventure Golf course!


We're looking forward to revisiting the shopping centre and giving the Minigolf course a play when it's set-up. Looking on thecentre:mk website it give further details about the course. It'll be a 12-hole Adventure Golf course with twelve dinosaurs and a range of other obstacles. For more information and price details check out the Jurassic Golf web page. The business behind the course also has its own website (and intro video).

Back in July 2011 we visited and played the 9-hole Crazy Golf course that was set-up at thecentre:mk for the summer season.

Milton Keynes is home to four permanent Miniature Golf courses. On our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour we've played two of them - the 9-hole Adventure Golf at Willen Lake and the 18-hole Adventure Golf course at Abbey Hill Golf Club. The two we haven't played (yet) are at Gulliver's Land theme park and Cosgrove Caravan Park.

Links:

Related Blog Posts:

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

A day out of fun and games in Milton Keynes and Northampton

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.

Before heading to the Centre: MK for some shopping we stopped off at Willen Lake to see if the minigolf course there was open. It wasn’t. We previously played the course in July 2007 when it became the 29th course played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

The Willen Lake Adventure Golf course

Another view of the Willen Lake Minigolf course

Last July we had played a Crazy Golf course at the Centre: MK, unfortunately there was nothing going on in the Middleton Hall area on this occasion (we’d also found some great Gluten Free Meat there in March 2011). But wandering around the shopping centre we did spot a Dalek and an Only Fools & Horses Reliant Regal!?

A Dalek and me at the Centre: MK

The Trotters' three-wheeler

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?


Even more disappointing was the fact that, as with the Peterborough version, they also have a Boom-A-Rang Air Hockey Table!

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

With Marc having beaten me in the Milton Keynes Winter Sports Challenge, picking up a win in the Pool discipline on his way to ultimate victory (despite having to play half way inside a Hurricane Simulator on a table with an ‘adverse camber’) I was right to be wary of him as an opponent, even if it was his 'debut' playing of the game of Bar Billiards.

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.

It, and Northampton as a whole, is worth a visit.

A view of The Church Bar & Restaurant

Links:

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Pirate Island Adventure Golf at Abbey Hill Golf Centre, Milton Keynes - Minigolf Course Played #281

Visiting and playing the Pirate Island Adventure Golf course at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre in Milton Keynes.

On Thursday 15th December 2011 while in Milton Keynes I headed to the new Pirate Island Adventure Golf course at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre. The 18-hole Adventure Golf course became the 281st played on the Crazy World of Minigolf.

Pulling into the car park at the Golf Centre the sight of the huge Pirate Ship struck me straight away! It's massive, bright and colourful and will surely lure people to play the course.

For adults it's £7.50 a round, which seems to be the going rate these days for an 18-hole round of Minigolf on the new wave of Adventure Golf courses. While not cheap, the Milton Keynes course was actually very good to play and the £7.50 seemed worth it. While I had the course pretty much to myself as it was 6pm on a cold Thursday in December, I imagine that the course is going to be very busy in the spring and summer. What is good though is that there are floodights so the last ticket sold for the course every day is at 8.45pm.

Pirate Island Adventure Golf course at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre in Milton Keynes
Photo: The view from the Car Park

Pirate Island Adventure Golf course at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre in Milton Keynes
Photo: Hole 1 - Putting into the Pirate Ship

Photo: Inside the Pirate Ship - Indoor Black Light Glow in the Dark Minigolf!

Photo: Hole 3 - and the Driving Range

Photo: A pair of Pirates having a fight over some treasure on an island!

We've played similar courses to the Pirate Island Adventure Golf, most notably at Celtic Manor in Wales, but each of the holes were new ones to me. I really liked the first two holes, which made good use of the Pirate Ship. The island hole which required the use of two 'do it yourself' rafts was also very well designed and made. The whole look and feel of the course has been well crafted and you wouldn't think you're in Milton Keynes!

Photo: Hole 11 - A Snake

Photo: The Island and a Raft

Photo: A loop di loop

Photo: A BIG Minigolf Skull

Photo: Another Crocodile/Alligator for my collection

Photo: Sailing back to shore

In my one round I managed to hit a couple of holes-in-one and scored a 54(+18), but one-under using the course par of 55.

Later that evening I returned with fellow Minigolf 'Pro' Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley, where we had a close fought challenge match with me coming out the victor with a score of 52 to Marc's 53.

Videos of the course (15/12/11)






Links:
- Pirate Island Adventure Golf at Abbey Hill Golf Centre
- Blog Post - A new Mini Golf course in Milton Keynes - Pirate Island Adventure Golf at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre
- Photos of the course, by our fellow Minigolf Travellers Paul & Owen Johnson, at MiniatureGolfer.com
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Friday, December 23, 2011

MK Winter Sporting Challenge - Minigolf/Adventure Golf, Air Hockey, Quasar Laser Tag & Pool

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.

Links:
- Pirate Island Adventure Golf at Abbey Hill Golf Centre
- Tenpin - Milton Keynes
- Blog Posts - Air Hockey
- Blog Post - Quasar in Milton Keynes
- Blog Post - A new Mini Golf course in Milton Keynes - Pirate Island Adventure Golf at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

A new Mini Golf course in Milton Keynes - Pirate Island Adventure Golf at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre

A brand new Miniature Golf course is opening up in Milton Keynes on Friday 7th October 2011 as the Abbey Hill Golf Centre launches its brand new 18-hole Pirate Island Adventure Golf course.

According to the website the £775,000 Pirate Island Adventure Golf course will be open 7 days a week, come rain or shine.

Emily and I are looking forward to heading over to Milton Keynes to give the new course a go as part of our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour around all the Minigolf courses in the UK.

Many thanks to Lester at Tea Green Golf Club at Wandon End, near Luton, for the tip.

Monday, August 01, 2011

Crazy Golf at 'the beach' at The Centre: MK in Milton Keynes - Minigolf course played #263

Crazy Golf at 'the beach' at The Centre: MK in Milton Keynes - Minigolf course played #263


On Friday 29th July 2011 we visited and played the temporary 9-hole Crazy Golf course that has been set up at the Centre: MK Shopping Centre in Milton Keynes.

The Centre: MK has a 'beach' set up for the summer with a number of seaside amusements to enjoy, the Crazy Golf being one of them. The Beach will be open until the 31st of August 2011.

The Crazy Golf course was the 263rd played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

In our Irregular Mini Golf Tour Match-up Emily defeated me 25-28.


Milton Keynes is also home to another Minigolf course - the permanent 9-hole Adventure Golf course at Willen Lake. We visited and played the course on the 28th of July 2007 (#29).

Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Quasar in Milton Keynes

On our trundle around Beds and Bucks yesterday we headed to Milton Keynes as I was sure there was a Laser Tag there.

I thought there was one at the Xscape centre, but we found I was wrong, there is however a Quasar Laser Tag at the Tenpin Bowling Centre at the MK Leisure Plaza.


We were going to have a game, but with a battle having just begun and the next one exclusively for a kids birthday party we would have had to wait for a while to play. We have decided to head back in the near future.


Looking at the scoreboard at the centre, the war-raging at the MK Quasar was a classic struggle between the REDS and the GREENS.

With no new battle between us taking place in Milton Keynes the Laser Tag Rankings remain the same.