Coral Island amusement arcade in Blackpool

A look at the Coral Island amusement arcade in Blackpool.

A view of Coral Island and the Tower

I revisited the excellent Coral Island amusement arcade while in Blackpool yesterday.

The skull at the entrance recently suffered a fire. Luckily it didn't cause any real damage

Coral Island is one of my favourite amusement arcades. We've visited a LOT of arcades on our travels to over 200 seasides in the UK since 2006 and it's the only place we've found to have an Pirate Flyer Laser Gun Indoor Monorail!

The view from the Pirate Flyer Monorail

Visit the Coral Island website for more information.

Related blog posts:
- Pirate Flyer Laser Gun Monorail in Blackpool
- Amusement Arcades
- Blackpool

Pennywise the Clown's amusement arcade. In Rhyl

I wonder if the pool balls float down there?

Related blog posts:
- Clown
- Pool
- Rhyl
- Amusement Arcades

Pirate Flyer Laser Gun Monorail in Blackpool

Riding a monorail inside Blackpool's Coral Island amusement arcade.

The Pirate Flyer monorail in Blackpool

I'm a big fan of seaside Amusement Arcades, Monorails and Laser Tag. So when I first saw the Pirate Flyer Laser Gun Monorail ride at the Coral Island Amusements in Blackpool back in 2009 I was amazed.

Can you spot Emily in the crowd below the monorail?

On our recent return to the seaside resort I had to have another go on it.

Well worth a go if you're in Blackpool

Unfortunately the guns in our Monorail car didn't work and no scores were given. And there was a fairly long queue for the £2 ride. But it was still fun to ride the rail above the crowds of people enjoying the arcade games below.

A nice bit of ephemera

There's a blacklit tunnel section of the ride

Coral Island is one of my favourite amusement arcades - and we've visited a LOT of arcades on our travels to over 200 seasides in the UK

Related blog posts:
- Monorail
- Amusement Arcades
- Blackpool

Link:
- Coral Island, Blackpool

Video:
- Pirate Flyer laser monorail ride at Coral Island in Blackpool

Ham and Egging in a Bridlington Amusement Arcade

What a prize!

As a big fan of the 2p falls machines in seaside amusement arcades AND a ham and egger what better things to find in a Bridlington penny falls than these pieces of tat!

Ham & Egger Key Rings - now there's an idea for merchandise...

Related blog posts:
- The Ham & Egger Files – An Introduction
- Amusement Arcades
- Tat Challenge

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Property of Machine

As a collector of amusement arcade, crazy golf and theme park ephemera and tokens I'm always on the lookout for interesting bits and pieces.

While en route to Clacton-on-Sea we stopped off in Colchester, Essex and spotted a coin stall at the street market. I had a quick look through and managed to find four tokens for my collection. Check out the pics below to see one of them.

What sort of amusement?

Look at that rampaging man! Is that The Machine?

My fellow collector Tim 'Ace Man' Davies sent me a link to Mals Machine Tokens which has got a LOT more details on tokens! You can see more on the token above on the Samson page.

Check out Tim's haul of Crazy Golf, Mini Golf, Adventure Golf and Putt-Putt tokens on The Crazy Golf Museum and MiniatureGolfer.com websites.

Related blog posts:
- Token
- Oliver 'The Machine' Florence

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

Report from the 2014 Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championship in Hastings

Portugal's Nuno Cunha wins the Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championship 2014.

Nuno Cunha and his prize of a big round pound received from Buttons Committee member Emily Gottfried

After the World £2 Tat Challenge the second of the amusement arcade championships contested at the Old Town Amusements in Hastings during the World Crazy Golf Championships weekend is the much sought after World Crazy Air Hockey Championship.

Amusements in Hastings, full of fun

This year a total of 32-players registered to compete and 31 actually turned-up.

With Peter 'The Crazy Aced Assassin' Jones making a welcome return to Hastings many of the crowd was eagerly anticipating seeing this wildman of the pucks in action. Unfortunately he was to be defeated at the hands of the Portuguese Man O' War Nuno Cunha who was in rampant form and won 7-4 in the semi-finals.



The other semi-final saw and all-Dodd match-up take place, with Matt picking up the win 5-3. Helen had defeated top talent including 'Squire' Richard Gottfried and Steve Lovell (by Rock Paper Scissors!?) in the preliminary stages.

Squire crashing out to Helen Dodd in the prelims. As per usual

Peter Roughley vs. Chris Hillman in quite a battle in the main arena

Local lad Ted McIver faces-off against Rhyl Professional Peter Jones on table 3

After a tie in the round stages Helen Dodd and Steve Lovell tied, with the crowd demanding a decision a brutal game of Rock Paper Scissors followed with Helen picking up the win

Dodd vs Dodd. Unfortunately Rob Dodd was unable to compete this year

The Puckmaster vs the young pretender

Cunha and Dodd with the eyes of the world (of Air Hockey in Hastings) on them

While Nuno would go on to be robbed by a cruel bounce-out on the very last hole of the World Crazy Golf Championships on the Sunday he had no such luck in his match in the final against Matt Dodd. He was on the ball (puck?) in the match, and while it was a closely contested match Nuno would take the grand prize and title of Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Champion for 2014.

His quid prize was quickly spent as he gave Matt a rematch almost straight away. Nuno won that match too. Talk about rubbing salt into the wounds...

Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championships Hall of Fame:

2014 Nuno Cunha (POR)
2013 Chris Harding (ENG)

2012 Pasi Aho (FIN)

2011 Peter Jones (WAL)

2010 Kevin Moseley (ENG)

World Adventure Air Hockey Hall of Fame:

2013 Pasi Aho (FIN/GER)

The Undisputed International Worlds Crazy Air Squash Championships Hall of Fame:

2010* Scott Lancley (ENG)

* Note: the Air Squash tables were removed soon after, meaning the tournament became a 'normal' Air Hockey event.

Following the main-event Steve Lovell (Bully) and Steve Ragless (Stormtrooper) took each other on in a match. Nuno the Winner watched as Paul Preston acted as the ball boy - he was certainly dressed the part in his football socks!

Related blog posts:

- Air Hockey blog posts

Videos:
- Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championships 2014 in Hastings - Jones vs Cunha
- Worlds Crazy Air Hockey Championships 2014 in Hastings - Grand Final

Report from the 2014 Worlds Tat Challenge in Hastings

Results of the World Tat Challenge Amusement Arcade Tournament in Hastings.

Much like the World Crazy Golf Championships the 2014 World £2 Tat Challenge would not see an appearance by the defending champion, and with many new entrants mixing it up with the veterans of The Buttons the competition was set to be quite thrilling.

Why are they so happy? They didn't win.

As usual the players - all 33 of them - were ably led by The Buttons Committee straight from the first day's play of the World Crazy Golf Championships to the Old Town Amusement Arcade where they received the instructions and rules. Not for the first time a few of the more eager competitors had jumped the gun and already changed up their gold into coppers. This included Paul 'Johnson Paul Johnson' Johnson - a real veteran and the first-ever World Tat Champion - who had made a rookie error and only changed up a quids worth!?

A newcomer and a veteran at the 2014 World Tat Challenge in Hastings

With the countdown counted down the athletes were off and running and the battle for the tat was underway.

Paul Preston may be good at quizzes, but he's not much good at tat challenges

With some players scouting out the arcades in the preceding days (most notably the Greenheads and Lovell) the predictions were that the winning haul would be low and those halcyon days of winning as much as 40 bits o' stuff were long gone.

One of the most notable events of the competition was that after eighteen minutes of the twenty minute time-limit John 'Big Al' Moore still had about £4 left in change and hurriedly tried to win some more tat, but to no avail.

A bull and a donkey

Helen Dodd plays the buttons as Adam Kelly wins nothing

Peter Jones eyes up Steve Sturdy's machine, ready for a sharking perhaps

Mark Wood in action

Playing as a Stormtrooper proved difficult for Steve Ragless as he couldn't bend down to pick up any change or prizes!

A guilty looking John Moore!

It's just not Cricket. No, it's Brian Smith. Short-changed perhaps...

Fast hands Squire

Marion Homer took a two on her debut and drew a blank

Owen and The Johnson amid a flurry of tatting

This is what 90 pieces of tat looks like

2014 World Tat Champion Kate Kelly with her bag of winnings

With the challengers for the title declaring their winnings to Emily Gottfried there were rumblings of a tie, with the pace set at seven pieces of tat, but this was slightly blown out of the water by the ten pieces of tat that Kate 'Mrs Kelly' Kelly had managed to win from the 2p pushers to see her declared the winner.

Results of the 2014 World Tat Challenge

Results list from the 2014 World Tat Challenge (click to enlarge)

To date nine Tat Challenge competitions have been played with 799 bits of tat won for a total of £336. This year saw one less piece of tat won overall with 90 prizes won.

The Tat Challenge Order of Merit Rankings List

Tat Challenge Order of Merit Rankings List (click to enlarge)

£2 Tat Challenge Hall of Fame:

#1 - Paul Johnson - 9 pieces of Tat (World Title)

#2 - Richard Gottfried - 10 pieces of Tat

#3 - Alan Norman - 6 pieces of Tat +1

#4 - Polly - 11 pieces of Tat (World Title)

#5 - James Rutherford - 40 pieces of Tat

#6 - Richard Gottfried - 23 pieces of Tat (World Title)

#7 - Richard Gottfried and Mike Small - a tie with 32 pieces of Tat each

#8 - William Edwards - 8 pieces of Tat (World Title)
#9 - Kate Kelly - 10 pieces of Tat (World Title)

Related Blog Posts:

- Report from the 2013 World £2 Tat Challenge in Hastings

- Tat Challenge blog posts