Mini Golf at the Camden Town Brewery in London

Playing the 302nd course on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour - Mini Golf in a Brewery!

On Saturday 4th August 2012 we headed along to the Camden Town Brewery in London as we'd been told about a Minigolf competition taking place there!

My Minigolf rival and sometimes team mate Kevin Moseley had tweeted me to let me know about the event and so we made sure to add the date to the diary. We've played a few Crazy Golf courses in pub beer gardens on our travels, but never heard of a Miniature Golf course being set-up in a brewery!

A lot of beer kegs and the tee-off area of hole 1 at Camden Town Brewery's Mini Golf course

From 12pm to 8pm on the 4th August the team at the Camden Town Brewery were running "The Brewmaster's Open" Mini Golf competition on a five-hole Minigolf course supplied by UrbanCrazy.

A view of the 'Brewmaster's' ingenious Minigolf course layout

The unique venue and course layout was a real attraction and the price of a round of Minigolf also including a pint at the end. "Lots of free beer" was the prize on offer to the winner at the end of the day, with a free case of beer to any player managing a perfect round of five holes-in-one!

Southsea's Number One Minigolfer Christopher Gottfried is impressed with the Mini Golf course

Our group of six arrived at 2pm to find the course record had been set at 10. As well as competing in the overall Brewmaster's Open we had decided to play a three-round 'Pro / Semi-Pro' event amongst our group to make a day of it. The Camden Town Brewery had a great atmosphere, with a busy bar, plenty of seating inside & out, and the Olympics on a big screen TV. It was a nice setting for a few hours of Minigolfing and Drinking.

The group of Crazy Golfing 'Pro' Players. From l-r Richard Gottfried, Christopher Gottfried, Alan Norman (seated on keg), Emily Gottfried, Seth Thomas, Simon Hall

Our group split into three groups of two for the first two-rounds, with the final round to be played in reverse leaderboard order in two groups of three players.



I play hole 5 at The Brewmaster's Open Minigolf Tournament

Having scored an 8(-2) in round one Alan 'Stormin' Norman set the new course record and had gained a two-shot lead over me and three-shots over Seth 'Clockwork Orange' Thomas. He followed up the 8 with a 9(-1) to retain his lead heading into round three.

I celebrate yet another hole-in-one on hole 1 at The Brewmaster's Open

Following a 'refreshment break' in the bar of the brewery we headed back onto the course to complete the 'Pro' contest and also see if Alan was still at the top of the leaderboard in the overall day-long contest. Indeed he was.

The 'Pro' & 'Semi-Pro' Minigolfers take a 'refreshment break' at the Camden Town Brewery during The Brewmaster's Open tournament

The final round saw Alan score an 11(+1) to take the victory in our contest, I scored a disappointing 12(+2) and slipped to third place, with Seth Thomas shooting a 10(par) to move up one place to second.

Alan 'Stormin' Norman plays hole 2

My brother Christopher finished in fourth place, scoring rounds of 13, 11 and 11 for a total of 35(+5) and showing the experience he gained in the one and only BMGA Tour event he ever played in - the 2008 Brighton Open.

Christopher Gottfried playing hole 5 at The Brewmaster's Open

Emily and Simon 'Practice' Hall tied for fifth place with a score of 36(+6). Simon, playing in his first tournament, did manage a best round of 10(par) to earn a place on the Brewmaster's Open Leaderboard in tied third place!

The Brewmaster's Open course and competition had one of the best scorecards produced for it - a Beermat advertising the event along with a scorecard on the reverse! A really great piece of Miniature Golf ephemera.

Some pints and a beermat advertising The Brewmaster's Open

After the final round we headed back to the bar for some celebratory drinks and food. As we were leaving we had to grab a final look at the leaderboard and saw that Alan had been joined at the top of the leaderboard with another player who had scored an 8! Over 200 people played the course during the day and luckily for Alan no-one managed to better the 8 during the day, so he became the Champion of the first-ever Brewmaster's Open!

I was happy with my best round of 9 to tie for the runner-up spot along with Seth Thomas and a few other players.

Seth 'Clockwork Orange' Thomas plays hole 3 while Luton's third best Minigolfer Simon 'Practice' Hall looks on

The Camden Town Brewery is well worth a visit and you can find it located under the railway arches of Kentish Town West Overground Station.

Links:

- Camden Town Brewery

- Camden Town Brewery - Photos of The Brewmaster's Open on Facebook

Related Minigolf and Beer Blog Posts:

- Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in Pub Beer Gardens

- Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in and around London

- A New Minigolf Beer - The '19th Hole' from Uncle Stuart's Brewery at Wroxham Barns, Norfolk

- Pub Games

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Ephemera

Bar Billiards in Baldock & Knebworth

Playing Bar Billiards at two pubs in Hertfordshire.

On Saturday 11th February 2012 me and two friends visited a couple of pubs in Hertfordshire for a few games of Bar Billiards.

Having rung round the pubs in Herts & Beds that are listed on the AEBBA map of Bar Billiards tables earlier in the day I had found out that The Red Lion in Studham, Beds no longer has a table. Nor does the Bedford Arms in Hitchin, having changed to a standard Pool table. We'd also found The Bucks Head pub in Little Wymondley has also removed their Bar Billiards table, but does offer free Dominoes, Cards and Cribbage to customers.

I did find that The Chequers Inn at Knebworth still had a table and I'd heard via twitter that The Orange Tree in Baldock also had one, so off we headed.



The Bar Billiards table at The Orange Tree in Baldock

First up was a visit to The Orange Tree, where we spotted the table positioned in the 'public bar', quite nicely near to a real log fire to keep punters and players warm. After a quick run through of the rules I took on Simon in a game.



The Orange Tree Bar Billiards Rules

To decide who would break we played a hand of Rock Paper Scissors. I lost.



Simon 'Practice' Hall takes a shot

Simon may have won the break, but when the match came to the closing stages the score was 800 to nil, with Simon having wiped out his score by knocking down the dreaded black peg! He did however manage to score 200 points by sinking the last white ball to make the result 800-200.


Lining up a shot

As the table at The Orange Tree was positioned against a wall/under a window it was only possible to play shots at the 200 & 100 holes from the left hand side of the table. Not a major obstacle really. I did like the fact that there were three sizes of cue available to use. As the pub was busy and there was a door behind the baulk line end I opted to use the 'baby' cue which was only about two and a half foot long.

Having had two games at The Orange Tree we decided to head over to Knebworth and The Chequers Inn for a game or two.

When I had phoned ahead earlier in the day the man at the pub had confirmed they still had a table and said that the baize on it had been relaid. The table did look and play nicely indeed, with the balls rolling very smoothly indeed. But unfortunately in the second game a lot of the balls kept getting 'stuck' in the pockets after being potted!? This meant for much of our second 'three-way-dance' match we were not playing with a full deck!

Simon picked up wins at The Chequers Inn. Both games once again went to a shootout on the 200 hole.

Interestingly the table at The Chequers Inn had a different layout to the table in The Orange Tree and was also different to the only other table I'd actually played, at The Strathmore Arms in St Paul's Walden. Both of those tables had three obstacles (one with 'mushrooms' the other with 'pegs'), but the table at The Chequers Inn had four mushrooms, with one guarding the 200 hole, one at the 100 hole (which was not marked as a scoring hole) and the other two were in front of each of the 50 holes. It certainly made the table a lot harder to score points on. The positioning of the table at The Chequers Inn also meant that shots at the 200 hole in the last ball shootout could only be made from the right hand side of the table.



The Bar Billiards table at The Chequers Inn at Knebworth - this one had four spots and four 'mushrooms'! Shooting for the 50s was very difficult

There was a nice old rules sheet/poster on display next to the table at The Chequers Inn. it was originally revised in 1973 and reprinted in 1976 and described "The Game of Bar Billiards - sometimes called Russian Bagatelle, Skittle Billiards or Snookerette etc."

This rule sheet had the rules laid out for playing the game using the 'first arrangement' and 'second arrangement' and it was this second type of rules the table had been set up for, with the previously mentioned four peg/skittle marks. There was also a good section on the sheet on 'How to Promote Interest' in the game.

The nice old Bar Billiards rule sheet at The Chequers Inn

An enjoyable day out at two different pubs, playing a fun and very tricky game. On an incredibly cold day it was nice to be in two very warm pubs.

Related Blog Posts:
- Another new game played – Bar Billiards
- Snow causes blog post in Guildford

Link:
- The All England Bar Billiards Association
- The AEBBA Rules of Bar Billiards

2012 Luton Invitational Minigolf Tournament - New Year's Day Crazy Golf at Woodside Animal Farm

Results and photos from the 2012 Luton Invitational Minigolf Tournament at Woodside Animal Farm, Slip End Village near Luton.

Luton's Emily 'Lemony' Gottfried became the first player to retain the Luton Invitational Tournament title as she defeated 'Squire' Richard Gottfried in the 2012 edition of the competition.

Reigning Luton Invitational Tournament minigolf champion Emily 'Lemony' Gottfried with the 2012 LIT prize of a magnetic Rat 

Emily 'Lemony' Gottfried tees-off on hole one to begin what would be her successful defence of the LIT title

The fourth staging of the event saw only two players compete as Simon 'Practice' Hall failed to make the 2pm tee-off time as he was in no condition to perform.

Emily won the tournament with a score of 47(+11) to Richard's 49(+13), with Emily hitting two Aces on the 18-hole course. Richard scored zero holes-in-one.

Two-time Luton I.T. Minigolf Champion Emily 'Lemony' Gottfried said "I am very pleased to be the first LIT Champion to retain my title, and I am obviously also very happy with my successful start to 2012."

'Squire' Richard Gottfried said "Well played to Lemony for a big minigolf win to start the new year. I always enjoyed starting the year by visiting Woodside Animal Farm. I was disappointed not to win the competition though and doubly annoyed to have fallen over and hurt my knee on the hill on the 15th hole. This year the animals were in high spirits too and we saw two Pigs attempting what looked to be a Piggyback! I think they failed though!"

Simon 'Practice' Hall said "I'm planning to be back in action at the 2013 edition of the event and hopefully it'll be taking place in the French Riviera."

Since 2010 the Luton Invitational Minigolf Tournament has been the traditional opening Miniature Golf event of the year on the Irregular Mini Golf Tour. In 2010 the players faced-off in arctic cold weather conditions, while 2011 was played in heavy drizzle. 2012's weather was mild, but drizzly.

Luton Invitational Tournament Honours Board:
2012 - Emily Gottfried
2011 - Emily Gottfried
2010 - Richard Gottfried
2006 - Joanne Tubby

On the 1st of January each year Woodside Animal Farm opens for a New Year's Day Party to raise money for the Keech Cottage Children's Hospice and Grove House charities.

Video: 'Squire' Richard Gottfried introduces the LIT from Hole 15 of the Woodside Crazy Golf course


Photos of the Luton Invitational Tournament on the Woodside Crazy Golf course:

Emily on Hole 2 - Chicken Run

Emily on her way to scoring a 7 on Hole 7. This would not dent her chances of the win though 

Emily on the Pond Drop hole

Richard on Hole 2 - Chicken Run

Richard on a downhill hole

A tricky second Putt for Richard

Richard on the 'Bags of Fun' hole

Richard 'drives' the Tractor on Hole 18

Photos of our wander around Woodside Animal Farm:

Richard feeds a Miniature Pony

An Alpaca eats some Carrot

The Minature (sic) Ponies!

One of the Pigs

Some Flamingoes

A couple of Lemurs

Archive of LIT Minigolf Results 2006-2012:

2012 Luton Invitational Tournament Results:
1. Emily Gottfried - 47 (+11)
2. Richard Gottfried - 49 (+13)

2011 Luton Invitational Tournament Results:
1. Emily Gottfried - 43 (+7)
2. Richard Gottfried - 51 (+15)
3. Simon Hall - 54 (+18)
4. Mystery Player - 57 (+21)

2010 Luton Invitational Tournament Results:
1. Richard Gottfried - 46 (+10)
2T. Emily Gottfried - 54 (+18)
2T. Mystery Player - 54 (+18)
4. Simon Hall - 57 (+21)

2007-2009 - Luton Invitational Tournament:
Not Played

2006 Luton Invitational Tournament Results*:
1. Jo Tubby - 54 (par)
2. Emily Gottfried - 56 (+2)
3. Richard Gottfried - 62 (+8)
* Note: Par used was 'Course Par' of 3 shots per hole, rather than 'BMGA Par' of 2 shots per hole.


The Woodside Animal Farm Crazy Golf course was the 4th course ever to be played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour back on the 27th October 2006. As of January 1st 2012 Emily and Richard have visited 444 Miniature Golf courses on the Tour.

Grand Final of the Namco Luton Business Bowling Championships 2011

Results of the 2011 Namco Luton Business Bowling Championships Grand Final

On Thursday 3rd November 2011 the EcoStyle Tenpin Bowling Team competed in the Grand Final of the Luton Business Bowling Tournament at Namco in Luton.

The winners of the tournament were Vauxhall, with G Casino runners-up. The EcoStyle Tenpin Bowling Team finished in third place.

Photo: The EcoStyle Tenpin Bowling Team from l-r Simon Hall (Captain), Emily Gottfried, Richard Gottfried

In May the EcoStyle-CEuk Team entered the second qualifying heat to attempt to qualify for the Ultimate Championship Final in November. In that event the team finished 4th. The EcoStyle Team were also runners-up to G Casino in the July qualifier.

Photo: Emily Gottfried with the certificate for being the "Worst Bowler Ever"! Her scores of 80 and 96 weren't that bad!

EcoStyle promotes awareness and understanding of renewable energy technologies. They design and manufacture demonstration models to teach renewable energy in schools and colleges, or for use as marketing tools within industry.

Previous Blog Posts:
- EcoStyle Tenpin Bowling Team Runners-up in Namco Luton Business Bowling Tournament
- EcoStyle-CEuk Tenpin Bowling Team 4th in Namco Luton Business Bowling Tournament

Stockwood Park Big Mini Golf Match-up - Gottfried vs. Hall

I recently faced-off against fellow Lutonian Simon 'Practice' Hall in a match-up on the 9-hole 'Mini Golf' (Pitch & Putt) course at Stockwood Park in Luton.

In the one-round contest I defeated Simon 35-57 in sunny but slightly windy weather conditions.

One of the Brown Tourist Signs pointing the way to Stockwood Park Golf Centre has taken a bit of a bashing and looks quite different to how it did last week!

The course was the 30th played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour back in August 2007.

EcoStyle Tenpin Bowling Team Runners-up in Namco Luton Business Bowling Tournament

On Thursday 7th July 2011 the EcoStyle Tenpin Bowling Team entered the third heat of the Luton Business Bowling Tournament at Namco in Luton.

The team of five were up against two other teams and finished as runners-up to Luton's G Casino.

In May the EcoStyle-CEuk Team entered the second qualifying heat to attempt to qualify for the Ultimate Championship Final in November. In that event the team finished 4th. They will next be in action at the fourth heat in August.

The EcoStyle Tenpin Bowling Team

From l-r Emily ‘Slow Hand’ Gottfried, Simon ‘Bowling Ball’ Hall, Clémentine ‘Striker’ Facque, James ‘Blaster’ Cunliffe, Richard ‘High Swing’ Gottfried

EcoStyle promotes awareness and understanding of renewable energy technologies. They design and manufacture demonstration models to teach renewable energy in schools and colleges, or for use as marketing tools within industry.

EcoStyle-CEuk Tenpin Bowling Team 4th in Namco Luton Business Bowling Tournament

On Thursday 5th May 2011 the EcoStyle-CEuk Tenpin Bowling Team entered the second heat of the Luton Business Bowling Tournament at Namco in Luton.

The team of five were up against the likes of Vauxhall, Boots and Superdrug and finished in 4th place of 8 teams.

A great event with some fun bowling. The EcoStyle-CEuk Team may well be entering the third qualifying heat to attempt to qualify for the Ultimate Championship Final in November!

Photos from the event:

Team Co-Captains - Simon Hall (l) of EcoStyle and Christopher Gottfried of CEuk

Christopher Gottfried in action

Christopher Gottfried

Richard Gottfried NOT wearing Reebok Classics for a change!

Richard Gottfried with his winner's certificate for being the best bowler on the night

Lane 4

The EcoStyle-CEuk Tenpin Bowling Team

EcoStyle promotes awareness and understanding of renewable energy technologies. We design and manufacture demonstration models to teach renewable energy in schools and colleges, or for use as marketing tools within industry.

CEuk is one of the main specialists in outdoor professional equipment. They supply Trojan handsaws in a variety of popular blade lengths, Stallion telescopic polesaws in two sizes, Nokota saw and lopper pruners, Noble folding saws plus the original Phat Strop tool attachment and CEuk Cooltex Tees and Hoodies.