Latest Tat Challenges in Hastings

Results of the first-ever 60p Tat Challenges.

Tat Challenge veteran in action at the first 60 pence Tat Challenge in Hastings

Last month saw Kate Kelly crowned the Worlds £2 Tat Challenge Champion at the Old Town Amusements in Hastings and this month saw two more Tat Challenge contests take place in the East Sussex seaside resort.

The variation on the classic format of the sport saw competitors use 60 pence worth of two penny pence pieces to win as much tat from the buttons at the amusement arcade next door and a few from the Old Town Amusements.

The loot won by the winner of the first-ever 60p Tat Challenge

The first shootout took place on the evening of Saturday 22 November and five of the finest exponents of the endurance game took on the challenge to see how much they could win with just thirty bronzes.

The gold medal went to Will Donnelly who scored an amazing four pieces of Tat with his stake.

Will 'The Winner' Donnelly and his haul at the amusement arcade in Hastings

Results from 60p Tat Challenge Player's Championship #2 - Hastings, 23 November 2014
1st - Will Donnelly - 4 pieces of tat
2nd - John Moore - 3 pieces of tat
3rd - Seth Thomas - 2 pieces of tat
4th - Richard Gottfried - 1 piece of tat
5th - Dave Donnelly - 0 piece of tat whatsoever

A happy/surprise John 'Big Al' Moore with three minions in his winnings

Seth 'Two Bits' Thomas and his winnings

Richard Gottfried and a 'lego' man from the tupenny falls

The biggest hands in the sport of Tat Challenging, but Dave Donnelly drew a blank in the first-ever 60p Tat Challenge

Shootout two in the short form of the game saw Seth, Richard and Big Al return and were joined by Huntingdonshire's newest son and avid tatter Steve Lovell. Local competitor John 'Big Top Ted' McIver was unfortunate as he missed the start of the contest, as well as the end, as he was waylaid en route to the arena by his need to buy some chips.

With a bit apiece Steve and Seth picked up the win. The other competitors blanked. But at least Ted got some chips.

Steve Lovell and Seth Thomas are happy with their 'haul'. Each winner got to keep the one piece they'd won

Results from 60p Tat Challenge Player's Championship #2 - Hastings, 23 November 2014
1st (tied) - Steve Lovell and Seth Thomas - 1 piece of tat each
3rd (tied) - John Moore and Richard Gottfried - 0 pieces of tat each
DNS/DNF - John McIver

Following both contests the players continued to amass quite a haul of prize goodies, including an awful lot of minions and 'lego'.

Lots of Minions in the Buttons

A Lego logo above some not Lego bricks and figures in the two pence falls

60p Tat Challenge Hall of Fame
#1 - Will Donnelly
#2 - Steve Lovell and Seth Thomas

Related blog posts:
- Report from the 2014 Worlds Tat Challenge in Hastings
- Tat Challenges

Crazy Golf in Prestatyn

A revisit to the Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course in Prestatyn, Wales.

At the Crazy Golf course in Prestatyn

In August 2009 we visited and played the excellent 18-hole (19 if you count the 'Top Hole') Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course on Bastion Road in Prestatyn. The course was the 147th we played and the second to last played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour visit to Wales.

Emily lining up a Putt on the 6th at Prestatyn's Crazy Golf course

While on our Holiday on the Buses weekender in Prestatyn in September 2014 we visited the course a few times and on our first walk passed we saw our friend and fellow minigolfer Peter Jones practicing!

Spotting Peter Jones at the Prestatyn Crazy Golf course

The course is in great condition and has some classic and tricky obstacles and putts. It's well worth a visit and has some of the friendliest course owners we've encountered on our travels.

On hole 9 of the Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course in Prestatyn

Check out the photos of the marvellous miniature golf course below.

Part of the Holiday on the Buses weekender organised by the On The Buses Fan Club included a Crazy Golf competition - The Butler Cup. As there were semi-pro players on the holiday this year there were two categories in the competition and Emily won the Pro Event!

Emily Gottfried - Holiday on the Buses Crazy Golf Competition Pro Champion 2014

Before playing the tournament we had a bit of a warm-up and after my round I rang the bell on the Lucky Last Hole to win a FREE GAME.

A rare thing to see - me with a FREE GAME voucher!

Check out MiniatureGolfer.com's page for the course where you can see photos taken by our friends and fellow minigolf tourists Paul & Owen Johnson, and Jam Trubridge.

Related blog posts:
- Minigolf Course Visit No. 147 - Arnold Palmer Putting at Prestatyn
- 'The Butler Cup' On the Buses Crazy Golf Tournament
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Wales
- Prestatyn

Darts in London - Arrers and Ablutions

Playing some darts at the White Horse and Bower pub in London.

First off Happy New Year to all.

For my first blog post of 2014 I’ve avoided two of my normal topics – Minigolf and Gluten Free stuff – and the suggestion from Anthony Pope on Twitter for a blog about #PacketHam, to bring you a post about a recent visit to a pub in London last year for a game of Darts.

Quite apt too, considering the PDC’s Ladbrokes World Darts Championship has just finished and this weekend sees the start of the BDO’s Lakeside World Professional Darts Championship.

On the 17th of December Emily and I met up with friends and fellow Minigolfers (and sometime bloggers) Oliver ‘The Machine’ Thomas and Seth ‘Clockwork Purple’ Thomas in London for some pre-Christmas drinks. We all wanted a game of Arrers and so we consulted the excellent online resource that is Justin Irwin’s Capital Arrows website.

One of the latest listings was for the White Horse and Bower pub at 86 Horseferry Road in the section on pubs with dartboards in Victoria and Pimlico.

At the Darts

Arriving at the pub in dribs and drabs we couldn’t instantly see the dart board, but after Emily asked the man behind the bar where it was we were shown it was at the back of the pub behind a screen. As Capital Arrows said, it was in a secluded spot.

If you do head to the White Horse and Bower do take your own darts as the pub issue ones were not a matching set. Ever the mercilessly competitive character Oliver had brang his own darts, while Seth and I hadn’t. Oddly for a Darts meet-up in December Seth had also failed to bring his Pool Cue! Emily hadn’t brought any darts with her as she was to play the part of Tony Green for the evening.

In the three-player tournament the first round of qualifying saw all three of us playing in a 301-match. Oliver and his own darts won, meaning Seth and I had to battle it out to meet him in the final.

Seth got the win against me after some dismal efforts at getting the double, setting up a clash with The Machine.

The final saw the players face-off in a best-of-three legs match that was quite the battle. In the end Oliver chalked one up in the win column with a victory over Seth and his new purple dyed hair. A precursor to the colourfully coiffed Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright’s loss in the PDC World Final perhaps.

A great fun start to the evening that was only marred by the fact that the only working lavatory in the White Horse and Bower pub on our visit was the disabled facility! All the other toilets were out of order!? This was unfortunate on a number of levels as the disabled toilet was right behind the Oche, so our matches were interrupted on a number of occasions by other patrons doing their ablutions.

We Minigolfers love our darts and we’ve played a number of events amongst ourselves both on and off the BMGA Tour, with outdoor ‘Links Darts’ at the seaside in Hastings and a couple of Christmas tournaments too. Our great Minigolf rival, Links Darts Champion and friend Sean ‘The Sandman’ Homer also rocked up to a PDC qualifying event for the UK Open tournament once!

Tim 'Ace Man' Davies at the Oche at the now demolished White Rock Gardens Adventure Golf course in Hastings. Venue for the first, and to date only, Links Darts tournament in 2008. Also pictured are Ace Man's opponent Rich 'The Bass' Hopkins (in black) and Sean 'Freebird' Homer (in orange, scoring) look on.

Check out the links below for further details about the great sport of darts.

Links:

- Justin Irwin’s Capital Arrows

- The White Horse and Bower pub on the Shepherd Neame website

- Darts-related blog posts on the Ham & Egger Files

- Professional Darts Corporation (PDC)

- British Darts Organisation (BDO)

Revisiting the Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf course

Replaying the 18-hole Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf course in Dorset.

In early July we were back in Boscombe, Dorset for the first time in a few years. In 2009 we'd played the Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf course at the BMGA British Doubles Championship.

At the time the course became the 108th course played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Photos of the 18-hole course (July 2013).

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 1

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 2

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 3

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 4

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 5

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 6

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 6 - the Pipe

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 6 - the Green

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 7

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 8

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 9

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 9 - the Green

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 10

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 11

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 12

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 13

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 14

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 15

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 16

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 17

Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf - Hole 18

Prior to this year's BMGA British Matchplay Championships Emily faced-off against her Cambridgeshire Mini Golf Club team-mate Seth 'Sethers' Thomas in the CMGC Matchplay Championship.

Emily Putting on hole 4

In game one Emily took the victory 1-up. Game two saw Seth take a 3&2 win while the decider saw Seth edge a 1-up victory to take the series win and the CMGC Matchplay Championship title.

Seth tackles hole 6

Local character Mick 'The Man' Gisbourne was also in residence at the Boscombe Chine Gardens course during the championship weekend and played against Emily and Seth in 'The Boscombe Jiggle' competition.

Seth leading the way in the three-player event

In the one-round contest Seth won with a round of 36(par), Emily was second with a 40(+4) and Mick The Man was third with a round of 48(+12).

Mick The Man has a tricky and long second shot coming up in 'The Boscombe Jiggle' contest

The Boscombe Mini Golf course is in a nice location and easily accessible (it's also a stop on the Bournemouth to Boscombe Land Train). Well worth a play if you're in the area.

The floral train at Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf course in Dorset

Emily was third in the 2013 BMGA British Matchplay Championships and fellow Minigolfer Brad 'The Fist' Shepherd was keen to inspect her winnings after the competition!

Stop! Thief!

Related Blog Posts:

- Minigolf Course Visit No. 108 - Boscombe Chine Gardens

- Crazy world of Minigolf Tour

Links:

- Boscombe Chine Mini Golf