Not getting stang off of a fake wasp on a bollard

Someone had stuck a fake wasp onto the top of a bollard in hightown, Luton last week!?

Recently I spotted some interesting (if you're a fan of Bollards) links to the Bollards of London website in The Sun newspaper. You can also follow Bollards of London and Bollards of Britain on Twitter.

Links:
- Bollards of London
- Bollards of Britain

Receiving the OFBIMT Minigolf Trophy Orb...

...in the Car Park at Star City (the Las Vegas of the West Midlands).

'Birthday Boy' Oliver Florence presents the mysterious Green Orb to me. Note the 'unique' handshake Florence has applied

A more traditional approach to the trophy presentation

Me and the Orb

The Orb was my reward for winning the Oliver Florence Birthday Invitational Minigolf Tournament in December 2011.

The late presentation of the trophy was due to previous Champion Guy Martin forgetting to bring it to New Malden, having left it somewhere ending in 'ham'.

Link:
- "Glory for Gottfried as Martin's mistake fails to cloud celebrations"

Arcade Games at Star City – Air Hockey, Pool & Ping Pong

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.

Among the competitors in action at the Las Vegas of the West Midlands were reigning Worlds Air Hockey Champion Peter ‘The Puckmaster’ Jones, James ‘Ruthers’ Rutherford, Seth ‘Wandsworth’ Thomas, 'Squire' Richard Gottfried & Oliver ‘The Machine’ Florence.

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.

Links:
- 2011 Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championships in Hastings
- Crazy Minigolfers Play Air Hockey Tournament in Hastings
- The Undisputed International Worlds Crazy Air Squash Championships

Congratulations to Oliver Florence & Team for winning the South of England Earthworm Charming Championships

While Emily and I were busy revisiting the 'birthplace' of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in Southsea in late and playing some new courses too, our Minigolf Rivals and fellow keen odd-sportsmen Oliver Florence, Richard Skeggs and Leamington Spa-based Robert Clarke were competing at the South of England Earthworm Charming Championships - an event they won!

We had been invited us to be a part of the team, but due to the prior booking and trip to Southsea in our calendar we were unable to be a part of the Championship-winning side. In the competition the team collected a brilliant 193 worms.

The first South of England heat for the 2012 World Worm Charming Championships was organised by the Blackwater Valley Countryside Trust and saw 16 teams in total battle it out for the Worm Charming Title.

Back in July, one week after the 2011 World Worm Charming Championships that Ollie, Richard and Leamington Spa-based Robert Clarke had competed in, we took part in the Worm Charming Competition at St Mary’s Village Carnival in Edlesborough and finished in tied third place.

Photo: The team of Ollie, me (as a Chicken) and Kallum at the Worm Charming Competition at St Mary’s Village Carnival in Edlesborough

Links:
- Ollie's Blog Post from the 2011 'Worlds' "Charming fox worms his way to success at world championship"
- Ollie's Blog Post "Mexican rejection fails to keep charming trio off screen"

Winning the Oliver Florence Birthday Invitational Minigolf Tournament at Jurassic Encounter, New Malden

On Saturday 10th December 2011 nine Crazy Minigolfers, including me and Emily, headed to New Malden's 18-hole Jurassic Encounter Adventure Golf course to compete in the second bi-annual Oliver Florence Birthday Invitational Minigolf Tournament

The format for the 30th Birthday edition of the contest saw two contests take place, with a Doubles Pro-Am competition and an overall individual winner to be crowned - Scottish International Minigolfer Guy Martin headed into the event as the reigning and defending champion and a 20/1 shot in the pre-tournament betting. However, the final pre-tournament odds* saw Martin de-listed and therefore an 'other' at 10,012/1!?

In the 18-hole contest I won the individual contest by one-shot from AMF Asian Open Runner-Up Richard 'Gentle Touch' Skeggs. I scored an imperfect Par of 36.

You can read the full report over at Ollie's Blog - "Glory for Gottfried as Martin's mistake fails to cloud celebrations"

Photos from the event:

Photo: Birthday boy Oliver 'The Machine' Florence takes an action photo of defending champion Scottish International Minigolfer Guy Martin who was about to score a dreaded seven on the fourth hole!

Photo: Emily 'Lemony' Gottfried takes a snap of Birthday boy Oliver 'The Machine' Florence Putting at the Jurassic Encounter course

Photo: 'Squire' Richard Gottfried taking a shot

Photo: A tricky second Putt awaits Seth 'Clockwork Orange' Thomas

Photo: Seth 'Clockwork Orange' Thomas lines up the plant pot putt

Photo: With the crowd looking on Seth 'Clockwork Orange' Thomas hits his 'recovery' shot (it didn't go in)

Photo: Emily 'Lemony' Gottfried Putting on the 18th hole 

Photo: 'Squire' Richard Gottfried spots another fake Crocodile/Alligator to add to his collection!

*The final 'odd' odds were:
- Florence 5/2
- Thomas 3/1
- Gottfried 7/2
- Cooley 6/1
- Skaggs 7/1
- Jones 10/1
- Clark 12/1
- Rutheringtons 33/1
- Pragnell 1,001/1
- Other 10,012/1

Links:
- The Minigolfer Blog
- Jurassic Encounter Adventure Golf website
- World of Golf New Malden website
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

The "Buttons Committee" Mini-Golf-Gold-Fish Classic at Weymouth

Video - The Buttons Committee at Weymouth Pirate Adventure Mini Golf - Feeding the Fishes



The 'Buttons Committee' had their First (Impromptu) Meeting at Reading Services on the M4 back in February 2011!

Minigolf News - "Emily 'Lemony' Gottfried signs for the Cambridgeshire Mini Golf Club!"

In the latest Minigolf Transfer News Emily 'Coach' Gottfried has signed for the newest Minigolf Club in the UK - the Cambridgeshire Mini Golf Club.

Emily, a former member of the Midlands Minigolf Club and the reigning WMF Women's World Adventure Golf Masters Champion, sealed the deal through a series of texts with CMGC Captain James 'Ruthers' Rutherford while seated at the 'Sheen Sisters Table' during a meal out at PJ's Restaurant in Covent Garden, London.

The CMGC was formed in August 2011 by former Green Mini Golf Club member James 'TheRocket' Rutherford. Surrey-based players Oliver 'The Machine' Florence and Richard 'Gentle Touch' Skeggs are the other two current club members.

Details of how to join the Cambridgeshire Mini Golf Club can be found on the CMGC website.

Worm Charming Competition at St Mary’s Village Carnival in Edlesborough

Making our debut in a Worm Charming Contest alongside a Worlds Championship Competitor.

On Saturday 2nd July 2011 fellow Minigolfer and Blogger Oliver 'The Machine' Florence invited me to the St Mary's Village Carnival in Edlesborough to compete in their annual Worm Charming Competition. With Florence having competed in last week's World Worm Charming Championships in Cheshire it would have been rude and quite silly to turn down such an offer, so off we headed.

With Emily and I living a mere 11 miles from the village of Edlesborough (which lies in Buckinghamshire, rather than Bedfordshire as I thought), and with our nephew Kallum (a keen bug hunter) staying with us for the weekend, we arrived a good hour or so before the Walton-on-Thames based Ollie, so had a good look around the Fete/Carnival (Fetarnival?) and had a go on a lot of the games and stalls. When the announcements for the Worm Charming were being made we headed straight to the MC - St Mary's Village Carnival chairman Gordon Gray - to nab a Plot. We drew number 68.

It wasn't "the worlds" but the Worm Charming Competition at Edlesborough Carnival was brilliant fun. All 20 minutes of it.

Once Ollie arrived our team of Freebooters posed for a team photograph at our Plot.

Ollie tested the ground using his professional Worm Charming equipment.

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And then after giving the Plot a liberal dousing of water before the off, we got underway with our Worm Charming.

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With the skill and experience of one-third of the 112th Ranked Worm Charming Team in the World we began using a mixture of techniques including 'simulating the movement of a mole' using a Garden Fork, beating the ground using small bits of wood - one of which was the leg off of a small coffee table - and dressing like a Chicken. Fellow Minigolf Pro Richard 'Michael Skaggs' Skeggs, a member of Ollie's team, had dressed like a Fox in the Worlds, and with the thinking that 'the early bird gets the worm' was worth a shot. It didn't work.

Video of the team in action.

Despite our best efforts, professional equipment, enthusiasm and Chicken costume we finished in tied third place in the 12 team competition. The winners were a group of four girls who managed to get two worms. The runners-up were a team of children in Plot 67 who got one worm, which was the biggest of the three worms caught. Everyone else got none.

As an aside, Kallum became possibly the first person injured in a Worm Charming Contest! With the St John Ambulance medics being pressed into service after he either got bit by a Red Ant (we did find loads of them in our plot), or was stang off of a Wasp while fetching some water for us. This meant that for part of the 20 minute competition we were down to two players, as when Kallum returned from the First Aid Tent he decided to play his Catch a Mouse game he had won on a Tombola.

When we got home Kallum managed to 'Charm' loads of worms in our back garden!? A text from Ollie in the evening confirmed that conditions had been less than ideal in Buckinghamshire, as he'd managed to get a worm out of the ground in his garden in under a minute once he'd got home!

The St Mary's Village Carnival has a different theme each year, with 2011 being 'Pirates'. Driving into Edlesborough via Eaton Bray you could see that the villages had gone to great lengths to decorate houses, pubs and shops in the area. The event itself also saw many people dressed up as Pirates. As Freebooters from lands near and far, me, Kallum and Ollie wore Skull & Crossbones Wristbands while we were Worm Charming.

Some examples of the Pirate decorated houses are below, along with some more snaps of the Carnival itself.

A Captain Pugwash Ship

A Pirate Ship with its cannon aimed at passers-by!

One house allowed you to vote for your favourite type of Pirate!

Me and Ollie competed in the 'Chicken in a Basket' Target Game

I didn't dress as a Chicken for this game

The man stands watch over the basket, a dangerous position indeed!

Video of me and Ollie playing the Chicken in a Basket game.

Kallum on the Crockery Shy

Kallum plays Whack a Rat

Kallum lobs a wet sponge at me!

I missed spectating at the Cow Pat Bingo as I was putting the Chicken costume back in the car, but was told the event did not involve a real Cow!?

Unfortunately we all missed the much hyped "sausage eating contest for dogs and their owners" that had been mentioned in the Dunstable Today news story "Hidden treasures at village carnival carnival!" - what a spectator sport that would have been!

A great fun day out. I'm looking forward to the 2012 event!

St Mary's Village Carnival Website

St Mary's Village Carnival on Facebook

Oliver Florence's account of the day (and his report of the 2011 World Worm Charming Championships)

Almost worth a blog post - Well worth a blog post

My fellow minigolf blogger, and BMGA Tour rival (and sometimes minigolf doubles partner) Oliver 'The Machine' Florence has blogged about our pairing in the recent BMGA English Open. You can real all about it here.

Crazy Golf, Public Toilets and seagulls - this story has it all! "Sullied Skeggs sees off seagulls to seal Minches win"

The latest Minigolf Blog Post from my BMGA Tour rival and fellow Crazy Golf Blogger Oliver 'The Machine' Florence is certainly an interesting read:

"Sullied Skeggs sees off seagulls to seal Minches win"

Tweet: Crazy Golf, Public Toilets and seagulls - this story has it all!

Minigolf Doubles Match - The Richards vs. The ***** - Hastings Seafront Crazy Golf

On Thursday 12th May 2011 a Minigolf Doubles Match took place at the Hastings Seafront Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course pitting the team of 'Squire' Richard Gottfried & Richard 'Gentle Touch' Skeggs (aka The Richards) against the mighty combination of Oliver 'The Machine' Florence & Emily 'Coach' Gottfried (aka The *****).

In the 18-hole Strokeplay Contest 'The Machine' & 'Coach' won with a score of 86, compared to the Gottfried/Skeggs Combo's score of 99.

In the individual scores Emily won the Irregular Mini Golf Tour contest with a 41, Richard G was runner-up on 43, Oliver was third with 45, while Richard 'Michael Skaggs' Skeggs was a long way off on 56!

Minigolf Spotted in Hong Kong! It's at the YMCA!

Emily has spotted an advertisement for Minigolf (as part of an 'Easter Camp') on the wall of a YMCA in Hong Kong!

Fellow Minigolfers Oliver 'The Machine' Florence & Richard 'Gentle Touch' Skeggs played Hong Kong's Shek O Obstacle Golf Course, and also created a Beach Minigolf Course on their trip to Asia last year - "Sand and sausages as Asia gets new course."

Garden BBQ Minigolf

At the first BBQ of the season on Sunday 13th March 2011 we decided to have a spot of Minigolf in the Garden.

First up was a three-player minigolf course utilising a selection of obstacles from the Crazy Golf Museum archives. Unfortunately the tricky layout stumped the players (myself, Oliver 'The Machine' Florence & Simon 'Practice' Hall), with all of us scoring Unlucky Sevens!









Next up Ollie and I competed in the 6-hole IMGT Luton SS (Stewing Steak) Classic Minigolf Competition. In a tense match-up played in seasonal conditions and with fading light, I won the match with a score of 25(+13) to Ollie's 27(+15).

"Go With The Flo" Minigolf Doubles Team finish 7th of 14 at the GMGC Green Doubles Minigolf Championship

28th February 2011
Press Information
For Immediate Release

Minigolf Report - "Go With The Flo" Minigolf Doubles Team finish 7th of 14 at the GMGC Green Doubles Minigolf Championship

Luton Minigolfer Richard Gottfried competed in the GMGC Green Doubles Championship at the 18-hole Minigolf course in Hither Green on Sunday 27th February. Richard teamed with Walton-on-Thames’ Oliver Florence in the six-round event and finished in 7th spot of 14 teams.

Photo: Co-Captain Oliver 'The Machine' Florence (l) and Vice-Captain 'Squire' Richard Gottfried

The tournament was played in a matchplay format over 18-holes and was split into two stages, with a draw for the round robin qualifying stage, and knockout play-offs for positions 1-8 and 9-14.

The pair finished with a win/loss record of played six, won two, drew two, lost two.

The tournament was won by Hither Green's Nick Sandqvist and James Rutherford.

Results for the "Go With The Flo" Minigolf Doubles Team - 27/02/2011
Match 1 - beat Gareth Holmes & Terry Exall 2up
Match 2 - drew with Nick Chitty & John 'Ted' McIver
Match 3 - drew with Seth Thomas & Chris Smith
Match 4 - lost to Seth Thomas & Chris Smith 4&2
Match 5 - lost to David Donnelly & William Donnelly by one-hole in a sudden-death play-off
Match 6 - beat Alan Norman & Marion Homer 2&1

Richard said “I’m very pleased with our team performance today. This was the first time we’ve competed as a pair and I thought we worked well together. It was great to be undefeated after three rounds, and we won the important 7th/8th place play-off to round off an intense day of competition at one of the toughest Miniature Golf courses in the UK.”

Ends

Photos from the event:

The GMGC Green Doubles Trophy - won by Nick Sandvist & James Rutherford

John 'Big Top Ted' McIver shares Richard and Oliver's good fortunes at the GMGC Green Doubles tourney today!?


Richard & Oliver with their winnings - and playing round one of an impromptu Rock Paper Scissors Match! Ollie goes one-up with Paper.

Richard draws level with Paper.

The duo tie on Rock.

Richard wins with Rock!

A fourth game sees Oliver win with Rock.

Oliver holds aloft the scoring table following the team's seventh place finish.

Richard Gottfried's Minigolf Doubles Career Record - at 28/02/2011 (last match 27/02/2011).

Minigolf Doubles Win/Loss Record (in all friendlies & full BMGA Tour events)
Played - 51
Won - 24
Lost - 22
Drawn - 5

Minigolf Doubles Win/Loss Record (in BMGA Tour events)
Played - 25
Won - 13
Lost - 7
Drawn - 5

Minigolf Doubles Record (in BMGA Warm-up Doubles events)
Played - 2
First - 0
Second - 1
Third - 0
Other - 1

Other Minigolf Doubles Information
12 playing partners (regular BMGA competition team mate is Kevin Moseley)
25 competitive matches
26 friendlies
35 matchplay matches
12 strokeplay format matches
1 point-play-system match
1 match decided by Coin Toss
2 BMGA Warm-up Doubles events

Minigolf Doubles Playing Partners To Date:
1 - Emily Gottfried
2 - Matt Smith
3 - Andy Gonsalves
4 - Owen Johnson
5 - Paul Johnson
6 - Kevin Moseley
7 - Chris Harding
8 - Simon Hall
9 - Leo Kukielka
10 - Christopher Gottfried
11 - Alan Norman
12 - Oliver Florence

Full Minigolf Doubles Record for Richard Gottfried - Click to Enlarge

Gottfried & Norman Team-Up, and Minigolf Doubles Record Update