The Floodgate turns one

Happy birthday to The Floodgate in Digbeth.

The Floodgate in Digbeth, Birmingham opened it's doors a year ago today.

Pit-Pat table golf at The Floodgate in Digbeth, Birmingham

It was brilliant to be the first player on the Pit-Pat table golf layout as I'm a big fan of the minigolf and pool crossover game.

You can also play on indoor baseball batting cages and a curling rink at the competitive socialising venue.

Visit The Floodgate website for more information, opening times and prices.

Check out the blog post from my visit to The Floodgate.

Opening The Floodgate

The Floodgate in Digbeth turns one this weekend.

The Floodgate in Digbeth, Birmingham officially opened it's doors a year ago this Sunday.

Pit-Pat table golf at The Floodgate in Digbeth, Birmingham

It was nice to be the first player on the Pit-Pat table golf layout on the pre-opening night a year ago today as I'm a big fan of the minigolf and pool crossover game.

You can also play on indoor baseball batting cages and a curling rink at the social sports venue.

Visit The Floodgate website for more information, opening times and prices.

Check out the blog post from my visit to The Floodgate.

Crazy Pool

A look at minigolf and billiard hybrid games.

We've seen a fair few variations and hybrids of minigolf, pool, snooker & billiards games on our travels. These have included Crazy Golf Pool and Pit-Pat, as well as some Crazy Golf obstacles that have been created using old pool and snooker tables.

We visited Skegness in 2011 and there was a sign for Crazy Pool on the promenade. It shared the sign for The Original Crazy Golf but there wasn't a trace of any tables when we were there.

A sign for Crazy Pool in Skegness, Lincolnshire back in 2011

Roxy Ball Room in Liverpool's Hanover Street will be home to a Crazy Pool game when it reopens later this month. It'll be an 8-table layout and I'm intrigued to see what the set-up is.

I first saw the game of Pit-Pat (obstacle billiards) in Vienna, Austria back in 2010 - it's like minigolf but played with cues.

You can find official Pit-Pat courses indoors at The Floodgate in Digbeth, Birmingham (where it's called Pit-Pat Table Golf) and outdoors at Watermouth Family Theme Park and Castle in Devon (where it is known as Crazy Snooker).

The only other full-size outdoor Pit-Pat layout in the UK was in Littlehampton. Sadly it became a lost course in 2017.

A selection of the minigolf and cue-sport crossovers we've seen on our travels

Related blog posts:
- Crazy Snooker Pool Billiards Golf and Pit-Pat
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour - courses we've visited to date

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Crazy Golf and Crazy Snooker at Watermouth Family Theme Park and Castle in Devon

There are Crazy Golf and Crazy Snooker courses at Watermouth Family Theme Park and Castle near Ilfracombe in North Devon.

One of the places to visit on our post-pandemic bucket list is Watermouth Family Theme Park and Castle near Ilfracombe in Devon.

There's a 9-hole Crazy ‘Fountain’ Golf course there AND a Crazy Snooker layout. When I checked with the theme park the team confirmed it is a Pit-Pat layout. That makes it the only outdoor Pit-Pat course in the UK!

Watermouth money

Two of the tokens in my collection come from Watermouth Castle. I found them at an antiques fair back in 2015 and I found out they date from before 1992.

What a happy castle

I wonder how much 10 Gnolds are worth these days? Not that I'd part with the coin

Visit the Watermouth Family Theme Park and Castle website for more information.

A visit to The Floodgate in Digbeth, Birmingham

Checking out The Floodgate, a new experiential entertainment venue in Digbeth.

Last Wednesday I headed down to Birmingham to check out the new indoor entertainment venue at the Custard Factory in Digbeth.

The Floodgate is home to three activities - indoor baseball batting cages, curling and Pit-Pat table golf.

As a BIG fan of all things minigolf-related my main interest was the Pit-Pat table golf.

Pit-Pat is similar to crazy golf in that you have to play over, up, through and around different obstacles on each of the tables. The main difference though is that you use a cue rather than a club.

After checking out the baseball cages in the main bar area I walked through a corridor to find the curling rink.

The baseball batting cage

Curling

A little further down the corridor was a sign for Pit-Pat and then to the left was a doorway into the Pit-Pat course.

The Pit-Pat layout is split into three, with most of the tables in one large retro graffiti art covered room. The tables have been UV painted and so there's a nice glow-in-the dark look to it.

Table 12 can be found all on its own in a very cool black & white room. The mono look is a very nice contrast to the UV sections.

Tables 13 to 18 then follow, with more graffiti art on the walls and some tricky obstacles including a bridge, ramp & net, pipes and a loop-di-loop to tackle.

It was brilliant to be the first person to play the UK's first and only indoor UV Pit-Pat Table Golf course. I had five rounds at The Floodgate, scoring 47, 51, 37, 34 and 36. I was very happy with my rounds in the 30s and the 34 was very sweet as I shot four aces.

I'd previously played Pit-Pat at the UK's only previous course back in 2014. Sadly that course in Littlehampton became a lost course a couple of years ago.

As I was leaving to catch my train back home the Pit-Pat area began to fill up with more players taking to the tables.

This is a nice obstacle and hole to play into

It was nice to see people enjoying the batting cages and curling too, along with the street food and well stocked bar.

Table 18

Check out The Floodgate website for more information, opening times and prices.

The Floodgate is housed in this old building built in 1938

The Floodgate in Digbeth opens tonight

Good luck to the team at The Floodgate in Birmingham as the venue opens today.

The new entertainment spot is home to the UK's first indoor UV Pit-Pat Table Golf course.

Pit-Pat at The Floodgate

The 18 Pit-Pat tables are set in a graffiti art covered glow-in-the-dark area.

You can also play on the indoor baseball batting cages and a curling rink at the social sports venue.

Visit The Floodgate website for more information, opening times and prices.

Check out my videos from my visit on Wednesday for a taste of the Pit-Pat Table Golf course.