Taking a look at the building of the new pier in Felixstowe.
Last weekend we visited the seaside town of Felixstowe in Suffolk. It's probably our most visited seaside as we take a trip there pretty much every time we go back to Ipswich to visit friends and family. On this occasion we had a look at the pier as it's undergoing a great deal of redevelopment!
How the pier looked in January 2015.
The pier entrance building in May 2011.
And in December 2011.
On our visit last year we walked UNDER the pier for the first time and saw this ominous message!
A visit to the miniature golf course at the end of Southend Pier.
On Saturday 25th June we headed to the seaside town of Southend on Sea for a day out of fun and games. Starting with a visit to the new Southend Pier Crazy Golf course - 1.3 miles out at sea!
Olga the Octopus
Emily in action on the pier's latest attraction
The 12-hole layout is on the world's longest pleasure pier and is brilliant fun.
Putting through Olga the Octopus
It's a great layout and even though there are some tough holes and obstacles, there are still plenty of hole in one opportunities.
During our visit we competed in a 12-player contest to crown the end of the pier champion. Featuring a cast of veterans, GB internationals, national tour champions and a sprinkling of rookies, the highly competitive event saw me take the win. Former British Master Chris Jones and regular 'do' champion Brad Shepherd were second and third.
The competitors give the course a double thumbs up
Results of the Southend Pier Invitational Tournament 2016:
1st ‘Squire’ Richard Gottfried – 31
2nd Chris ‘Stretch’ Jones – 34
3rd Brad ‘The Fist’ Shepherd – 37
4th (tied) Lionel ‘The Spoon’ Bender – 39
4th (tied) Gareth ‘Lemsip’ Holmes – 39
6th (tied) Marc ‘The Roller’ Bazeley – 42
6th (tied) Alan ‘Stormin’ Norman – 42
8th Taji ‘Not Seth’ Rafferty – 44
9th Emily ‘Lemony’ Gottfried – 46
10th Paul ‘Flip Flops’ O’Connor – 50
11th Cat ‘Helter Skelter’ Patterson – 52
12th Lhurlyn 'Hole-ing' Holmes – 59
DNS Madeleine 'The Caddy' Bender
DNS Steve 'F1' Gow
The tournament in full swing
Gareth on hole 1
Brad teeing-off
Chris lining up a putt
Lionel in action
Brad on a tricky obstacle
Chris and Lionel putting
Emily on the tee
Marc on a very tough middle hill hole
Emily on the pier
Emily and Olga
Lhurlyn finishing her round with a hole in one
Paul O'Connor on the last hole
The Southend Pier Crazy Golf course is well worth a play and it's a great addition to the entertainment on offer in the town. Visit the Southend Pier Crazy Golf course website for prices and opening times.
New Miniature Golf course at the end of Southend Pier.
A view of Southend Pier on one of our visits to the seaside resort
There's more great news for fans of minigolf as Southend-on-Sea has a new Crazy Golf course!
The 12-hole layout is situated above the sea itself as it's on the world's longest pleasure pier!
The Southend Pier Crazy Golf course is a Swedish Felt B-Run type of course (this photo is of the course that used to be on South Parade Pier in Southsea, Hampshire) - a nice, colourful and tricky layout
We love visiting Southend. while attending a family 'do' in the town back in 2003 the Adventure Island course became the first Emily and I played. That's three years before our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour began in Southsea. I also made my competition debut on the national minigolf tour in the town and we've also played the Arnold Palmer Putting Course on the promenade a number of times over the years.
Southend Pier is undergoing a redevelopment and as well as the Crazy Golf course there will be a refurbed cafe, pop up shops and a pier postal service - so you can get a special postmark on postcards and other mail sent from the end of the pier. Sounds marvellous.
See the poster below and visit the Southend Pier Crazy Golf course website for prices and opening times. We can't wait to visit and take on the challenge of 'Olga the Octopus'!
Playing minigolf on the pier in 2011. The helter skelter isn't there anymore. The rollercoaster is though
The course is no longer there, but on our recent revisit to the great seaside we spotted a banner on the pub at the dry land-end of the pier about the Pirate Bay Adventure Golf course
We had a good look around on our stroll along the pier but there's no sign of any miniature golf courses. There's still a lot of fun to be had there though.
If you win 100,000 tickets you can get one of these MASSIVE Minions in the Amusement Arcade
You can also go tenpin bowling there
Check out the Clacton Pier website for more information on the rides, attractions and entertainment on offer. On this trip we spotted that the old metal tokens used for rides and games on Clacton Pier have been replaced by a new Fun Card. More info and prices are available on the pier website.
One of the old Clacton Pier tokens from my collection. I love the address of the pier - No. 1 North Sea!
We're looking forward to returning to Clacton for more seaside fun in the future.
A Crazy Golf course visit from the Gottfried family archives.
My brother Christopher travels around the country a fair bit and while on the pier in Paignton, Devon he spotted a Crazy Golf course!
The 9-hole Crazy Golf course on Paignton Pier. Photo by Christopher Gottfried (12 October 2012)
Emily and I are yet to reach that part of the UK - we've been as far as Weymouth* on the south coast and Weston-super-Mare** on the north coast of the south west of England. We're hoping to get down there soon though as there are stacks of great places to explore.
Other courses visited, but not played, by Christopher include Brighton (Crazy Golf), Margate (Cliftonville, Little Oasis Crazy Golf), Herne Bay (Mini Golf), Newquay (Mini Golf) and Mundesley (Adventure Island Golf).
* On the way back from the first-ever Weymouth Open tournament in 2008 I did however take a wrong turn and ended up in Bridport.
** In our pre-Crazy World of Minigolf Tour days we did have a holiday in Minehead.
While on Weston-Super-Mare's Grand Pier we had a chance to play our first ever Laser Maze!
As big fans of Laser Tag (and all manner of other amusements) we couldn't wait to give it a go.
It's quite like playing one of the dreaded 'Automatic Lock-In' games on The Crystal Maze, in that you have to reach a target at one end of the room and return to touch another button to complete the task, all in the fastest possible time, and without breaking any of the Laser Beams!
I managed to beat Emily with a score of 399.4 to 427.0.
On Weston-Super-Mare's Grand Pier I got to have a play on one of my all-time favourite seaside amusements - The Shooting Shack. This time it was a Pirate-themed Gallery.
I managed to rack up a score of 300, I believe this is an all-time Personal Best!
.jpg "THE END IS COMING - for Felixstowe Pier")
.JPG "Under Felixstowe pier")
