Aces Minigolf Gloucester - now open!

The new Aces Minigolf course at Dobbies Garden Centre in Gloucester is now open.

All the very best of luck to our friends at Aces Minigolf who are opening to the public for the first time at Dobbies Garden Centre in Gloucester today!

We had a fun time visiting the course for an invitational tournament last weekend.

Here's a look at the layout.

Take a look at the Aces Minigolf Gloucester Facebook Page for more information, opening times and prices.

Aces Minigolf Gloucester at Dobbies Garden Centre

A visit to the new Aces Minigolf course at Dobbies Garden Centre in Gloucester.

Our friend, long-time minigolf rival and often time team-mate Seve Kukielka has created Aces Minigolf Gloucester - a superb 12-hole miniature golf layout at Dobbies Garden Centre in Gloucester.

We visited the course on Sunday to play a few rounds and compete in the Aces Minigolf Gloucester Invitational Tournament.

The event was the first minigolf competition we've played in since 2019 and it was fun to be back in action.

The course is a nice, tricky layout with interesting and unique hole designs, all within a very pleasant setting.

Aces Minigolf Gloucester was the 967th course visited overall on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and the 550th played since September 2006.

Aces Minigolf Gloucester opens to the public on Friday 9th July.

Check out the Aces Minigolf Gloucester Facebook Page for more information, opening times and prices.

We're looking forward to many more visits to the excellent course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in the future.

Aces Minigolf Gloucester opening next month

The new Aces Minigolf course at Dobbies Garden Centre in Gloucester will be opening to the public on Friday 9th July.

The 12-hole course's opening hours will be:

• Monday - Saturday 9:30am - 6pm (Last tee off time 5:15pm)
• Sunday 10:30am - 4:30pm (Last tee off time 3:45pm)

Check out the Aces Minigolf Gloucester Facebook Page for more information.

We're looking forward to playing the new course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

A sneak peek of Aces Minigolf Gloucester

Check out the Aces Minigolf Gloucester Facebook Page for some sneak peeks of the course design and the progress of the build.

We're really looking forward to playing the new course when it opens at Dobbies Garden Centre in Gloucester next month.

More information can be found on the Aces Minigolf Gloucester Facebook Page.

Aces Minigolf Gloucester

A new minigolf course is opening at Dobbies Garden Centre in Gloucester.

Work is underway on the new Aces Minigolf course at Dobbies Garden Centre in Gloucester.

Check out the Aces Minigolf Facebook Page for more information.

The 12-hole minigolf layout is the brainchild of my minigolf rival and doubles partner Seve Kukielka. Seve has been playing tournament minigolf since the mid 2000's, is highly ranked in the British Minigolf Association Order of Merit and has won a number of competitions over the years.

We're really looking forward to playing the Aces Minigolf course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Garden Centre Minigolf

We've played a few miniature golf courses at garden centres on our travels and they have become a popular spot to set up a course.

Archery in Cwmbran

Playing in a mini 'backyard' Archery contest in Cwmbran.

It has become a great tradition on visits to our friends, the Kukielka family, in Cwmbran, Wales that we compete against each other in a sporting contest of some sort.

Over the years we've played Crazy-, Mini- & Adventure Golf, as well as Petanque/Boules, Finger Jousting, Darts and Table Tennis.

For 2014 it was to be Archery!

With a board set-up and a BBQ on the go I took the opportunity to get in some praccy as the last time (and one of the first times) I'd picked up a bow was while playing Archery Tag in Guildford in April last year.

Richard arching in Cwmbran

A random draw was made to decide the playing order for the six archers. I was drawn to be first, followed by Seve, Cindy, Emily, Jas and Leo.

Having a quick search online to find the official rules of Archery and the points scoring system we opted for the 5 Zone ('GNAS') method where you score by colour - White equaling 1 point, Black 3, Blue 5, Red 7 and Gold 9.

In both the 5 Zone and 10 Zone ('World Archery') scoring methods an arrow that is touching a line separating zones (known as a 'line cutter'), scores the value of the higher scoring zone

It was originally planned for each player to have ten arrows, but with two arrows getting lost over the fence during practice and the light fading it was decided to have eight each rather than breaking up play by retrieving already fired arrows from the target.

The very model of an Archer - Jas Kukielka

I managed to score a 7 with my first arrow before missing the target with my next two shots, but then hit two 5's in a row and a 1 and a 7 to finish for a total score of 25.

A highish score, but not a lot of grouping going on!

Next up was Seve - victor in the 2009 Boules tournament and 2011 Table Tennis contest - who scored a 1, 3 and 3 for a total of 7.

Seve was not the 'Best in the World' at Archery

Cindy was next up and scored an impressive 11 points and landed every arrow at least somewhere on the board, even if they didn't all score.

Not an arrow on the ground when Cindy's around

Emily was fourth to fire and the less said about her go the better as she scored 0.

No caption required

Jas was the penultimate player to step up to the mark, but apart from a purple patch in the middle of his go, scored a lot of misses to finish on 15 points. Still good enough for second-place.

Silver medalist Jas

The last great hope to topple me and surpas the clubhouse lead was Leo - 2010 Darts Champion - but it was not to be, as he managed to score 1 point. Much to the chagrin of Emily who was hoping for some sort of repechage play-off for last-place.

Receiving the coveted Gold medal from Jas

To win by such a big margin I must of been channeling the spirit of San Marino's top Archer - Emanuele Guidi - who I met at the London 2012 Olympic Games!

A great fun evening with a BBQ and some great gluten free Fish & Chips from the Fairwater Fish Bar in Coed Eva too. If we had a garden I'd certainly think about getting some Archery gear.

Who knows what the next Kukielka-Gottfried sporting contest will be...

Related blog posts:
- Playing Archery Tag in Guildford
- Cwmbran

Link:
- Website of Archery GB - the governing body for the sport of archery in Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Cwmbran Table Tennis Classic 2011

The traditional curtain-raiser ahead of the Cystadleuaeth Minigolff Cymraeg (Welsh Minigolf Tournament) is a side-tournament in A.N. Other Sport or Game. Last year we played a Darts tournament, and in 2009 we played Boules.

However, this year the side-event took place after the main-event at the 2011 Cwmbran Table Tennis Classic.

In the final match Seve Kukielka defeated (destroyed) me, 21-3 in a not close at all Final. In doing so Seve became a two-time Side-Tournament Champion, having won the 2009 Boules Tournament in Swansea (Abertawe), where he also beat me in the final.

Jas beat Cindy in the third/fourth place play-off match.

The tournament saw each of the six players drawn into two groups, with each player playing each other once, with the winner from Group A taking on Group B's runner-up and vice versa.

The group matches were played to 11 points, with the semi-finals and final played to 21.

In Group A:
Richard lost to Cindy 11-8
Cindy beat Emily 11-6
Emily lost to Richard 11-5

Group A Winner - Cindy
Group A Runner-up - Richard

In Group B:
Seve lost to Jas 11-4
Jas beat Leo 13-11
Leo lost to Seve 11-6

Group B Winner - Jas
Group B Runner-up - Seve

Semi-Finals
Cindy lost to Seve 21-14
Jas lost to Richard 21-18

3rd/4th Play-Off
Jas beat Cindy 11-6

Final
Seve beat Richard 21-3

Photo: A shell-shocked Richard attempts to score a point against the merciless Seve

Photo: Seve receives the Cwmbran Table Tennis Classic Tournament Trophy from Emily

The 2012 Side-Tournament Sport or Game is undecided, suggestions welcome?

Cwmbran Darts Classic 2010

Boules Invitational Tournament 2009

Boules Invitational Tournament at The Mumbles

A Kukielka vs. Gottfried family sporting clash in Swansea.


On Saturday 15th August the Gottfrieds met the Kukielkas at Southend Park at The Mumbles in Swansea for the first Boules Invitational Tournament.


After a series of qualifying rounds it was me versus Seve Kukielka in the final match of the morning to decide who would be winning the prestigious silver salver.


After Seve took the lead I fought back but eventually lost, and took what would eventually be the first of my two sporting runner-up places of the day.