Where is the best Crazy Golf course in Dorset?

"Where is the best Crazy Golf course in Dorset?" - That's the question asked on a new promotional leaflet from the team at three Miniature Golf courses in Dorset.

A photo of Emily playing at Poole Park's Crazy Golf course appears on the leaflet

There's a photo of me playing a shot on the 12th hole at Poole Park's Crazy Golf course on the leaflet too

Over the years we've visited all three courses (including the course that was previously in Poole Park) and each is quite different. Rather than answering the question I'd suggest giving them all a play.

Playing Crazy Golf at Poole Park in October 2010

Emily at Boscombe Chine Mini Golf in July 2013

Playing at Sandbanks Crazy Golf in June 2009

On our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour we've visited over 570 courses and quite a few in Dorset. Check out my blog post 'Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in Dorset' for details of the courses we also played in Weymouth, Bournemouth, Southbourne and Fordingbridge between October 2008 and March 2013.

Some of my most viewed videos on my YouTube Channel are from visits to Poole Park. Check out this 'Pro' shot hole-in-one video.

Many thanks to Mick 'The Man' Gisbourne for sending along the new promotional leaflet.

Playing the old 9-hole Crazy Golf course at Poole Park in October 2009

There's also a grass Putting Green at Poole Park

Emily and I aren't the only Minigolfers adorning a promotional leaflet for a course - Paul 'Johnson Paul Johnson' Johnson and Chris 'Who' Harding are in the flyer for the Quest Krazy Golf course at Merry Hill in Dudley!

For locations, contact information, prices and opening times of the Sandbanks, Poole Park and Boscombe Minigolf courses check out the links below.

Links:

- Sandbanks Crazy Golf
- Poole Park Crazy Golf
- Boscombe Mini Golf

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour - List and links for all Miniature Golf courses visited to date
- Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in Dorset
- Dorset
- Sanbanks
- Poole Park
- Revisit to Poole Park in Dorset - Crazy Golf & Minigolf
- Boscombe
- A great piece of Minigolf ephemera
- Ephemera
- Merchandise

Finding the Jan Van Haasteren Crazy Golf Jumbo Jigsaw Puzzle in Derby

A long quest to find an elusive Mini-Golf jigsaw puzzle is over!

After much searching on our travels around the UK, Emily and I finally found a missing piece of our Crazy Golf collection as we spotted the Jan Van Haasteren Crazy Golf jigsaw puzzle by Jumbo in Derby!

The Jumbo Crazy Golf jigsaw puzzle by Jan Van Haasteren comes in 1500 and 3000 piece sets

Derby's indoor market has a set of stalls - called Poynton's - consisting of a newsagent, a sweetshop and a treasure trove of jigsaw puzzles!

Emily is a big fan of Wasgij puzzles and together we've been hunting for the Jan Van Haasteren Jumbo 'Mini Golf' jigsaw since we spotted it in a temporary Christmas shop in Ipswich a couple of years ago (and we've rued the decision to not buy it then as it was at the start of a bout of Christmas shopping and we never made it back to the shop).

Emily scores a big win by finding the Jumbo Crazy Golf jigsaw puzzle by Jan Van Haasteren

Faced with a choice of the 3000 or 1500 piece puzzles we opted for the 1500 piece one as we'd need to buy a bigger dining table for the 3000 piece one to fit on!

The puzzle has four titles - Crazy Golf, Midgetgolf, Mini-Golf and Minigolf - and depicts a very crazy miniature golf course! Emily and I might have visited over 550 courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, but we've never seen one as wild and crazy as the one conjured up from Jan Van Haasteren's imagination!

On another recent road-trip we visited the village of Easingwold and spotted The Yorkshire Jigsaw Store there. It's another shop that is worth a look, and while the Jan Van Haasteren Minigolf jigsaw puzzle wasn't in stock, they did say they could've ordered it in for us.

Back in October 2013 the team at Putterfingers put together a great blog post entitled "5 Reasons a Crazy Golf Puzzle is Great Fun!".

Related blog post:
- Jigfest 2012!

Links:
- Derby Market Hall
- Poynton's
- Jan Van Haasteren's website
- Jan Van Haasteren on Twitter
- Jumbo Jigsaw Puzzles
- Jumbo Games UK on Twitter
- The Yorkshire Jigsaw Store
- The Official UK Puzzle Club

“Mr October” on a Minigolf Calendar!

Featuring on the 2014 Fun-Sports & 3D ‘All Around Minigolf’ calendar.

The 2014 3D & Fun-Sports 'All Around Minigolf Calendar'

The team at Minigolf businesses Fun-Sports and 3D have created a 2014 Wall Calendar featuring images from ‘All Around Minigolf’ and I’m Mr October!

Mr October (Herr Oktober) in the 3D & Fun-Sports 2014 Minigolf Calendar

The photo was taken by international Minigolfer Willi Hettrich from Germany at the 2012 BMGA British Open tournament held at Strokes Adventure Golf in Margate, Kent.

There are some great images from the world of miniature golf in the calendar featuring a range of courses, equipment, players, championship events and action.

The calendar will be hanging up in the Gottfried household throughout next year and is definitely a future exhibit in the Crazy Golf Museum. 

Links:

- 3D

- Fun-Sports

- Minigolf Kids Foundation

- Willi Hettrich

- Strokes Adventure Golf

A great piece of Minigolf ephemera

Spotting some famous Minigolf faces on a Crazy Golf course leaflet!

On my journey south from the east Midlands heading to Luton I made a stop at Northampton’s Roadchef services and while stretching my legs I perused the leaflets on display by the entrance/exit.

One that caught my attention was that for Quest Merry Hill – a great Krazy Golf, high ropes and Nerf combat arena centre in Westfield Merry Hill in Dudley.

On closer inspection I was surprised to see my Midlands Minigolf Club team-mates Paul ‘Johnson Paul Johnson’ Johnson and Chris ‘Who’ Harding on the front cover!

The Quest Merry Hill leaflet

Paul 'Johnson Paul Johnson' Johnson playing shot number ? on hole 7 at Quest Merry Hill

Chris also features on the inside, playing a shot on the 9th hole.

Chris on the 9th at Quest Merry Hill

When I spoke with Paul he was just as surprised as me to hear he was on the leaflet!

It’s a great piece of Minigolf ephemera and history and one I’ll be keeping in my collection of Miniature Golf stuff, as well as putting a copy in the Crazy Golf Museum.

The photos were taken during a visit by a group of us ‘Pro’ minigolfers in April this year when we were also filmed and interviewed on the BIG Krazy Golf open day.

It’s a great course with some unique hole layouts and obstacles. It’s also got some of the most vivid course colours I’ve seen on my Minigolf travels.

Related blog posts:

- Krazy Golf at Quest Merry Hill

- Quest Krazy Golf Video Now Online

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

- Ephemera

- Merchandise

Links:

- Quest Merry Hill

- Northampton Roadchef Services

- Pear Communications leaflet distribution

Minigolfer Jon Drexler Appears on a New Trading Card!

Geek A Week Superfan and Minigolf Pro Jon Drexler Features on a Brand New Trading Card.

International Minigolfer Jon 'The Black Knight' Drexler has been immortalised in a Trading Card as part of the 'Geek A Week' set by artist Len Peralta!

Jon, the BMGA National Open champion in 2002 and my Midlands Minigolf Club team-mate, is a well travelled player having competed internationally since 1999 when he made his debut at the for the United States National Team at the WMF World Minigolf Championships in Papendal, Netherlands.

As something of a geek myself and an avid collector of a number of things, including trading cards, I was really impressed by the Geek A Week cards and was obviously particular happy to see a Minigolf competitor on one.

Recently I've actually been sorting through a lot of my old wrestling, sports, sci-fi and comic book trading cards and the Geek a Week set is my new favourite.

Jon Drexler's Geek A Week Trading Card!

In addition to his 2002 visit to England 'The Black Knight' contested two World titles in the UK last year. In the 2012 WMF World Adventure Golf Masters tournament he finished in 11th place and was 12th in the 2012 Castle Golf World Crazy Golf Championship. Domestically Drexler plays in both United States Pro Minigolf Association (USPMGA) and Pro Putters Association (PPA) tournaments.

He has achieved one Pro victory on the PPA tour, winning the 2008 Virginia PPA Tour Martinsville Pro Tournament. In 2000 Jon won the Amateur Southwest Tour Player of the Year Awards, having won the Texas State Amateur Championship that year, and most recently received the 2012 Southern Tour Sportsmanship Award.

The Geek A Week project started as a one-year art challenge by US artist Len Peralta that saw him interview 52 of the world’s biggest and most influential geeks and then create a trading card for each of them.

Amongst the geeks in Geek A Week version 4.0 are Ernie Cline  (Author - Ready, Player One), Jenny Lawson AKA The Bloggess (Author, Let's Pretend This Never Happened.), Alison Haislip (Actress/Host), Joseph Scrimshaw (Writer/Comedian), Parry Gripp (Viral Musician, formerly of Nerf Herder), Jen Yates AKA Cakewrecks (Author/Blogger), Richard Garfield (Creator, Magic The Gathering), Roy Thomas (Legendary Comic Book Writer) and Peter Sagal (Host, NPR's Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me!).

They join such luminaries as Kevin Smith (Film Director), Steve Jackson (RPG Designer), Edgar Wright (Film Director), Steve "Woz" Wozniak (Apple Co-Founder), “Weird Al” Yankovic (Comedy Singer-Songwriter), Mark Mothersbaugh (Musician), Felicia Day (New Media Actress), Guillermo Del Toro (Film Director), Stan Lee (Legendary Comic Book Creator), Seth Green (Actor), Jeri Ryan (Actress) and Wil Wheaton (Actor) amongst others that featured in Geek A Week version 2.0.

You can buy the Geek A Week: Version 4.0 Trading Cards (and others) at Len Peralta's Merch site.

The Jon Drexler Trading Card is a definite future exhibit at The Crazy Golf Museum!

Jon 'The Black Knight' Drexler (in red) enjoys a practice round with me and former World Crazy Golf Champion Keith 'Doc' Kellard in Hastings

Links:

- The Geeky Art of Len Peralta

- Geek A Week
- Geek A Week Blog

- Jon Drexler's Minigolf Blog "Have Putter Will Travel"
- Jon Drexler's Career Statistics at the PPA
- Paul and Storm

- Jon Drexler on Twitter

- Geek A Week on Twitter

- Len Peralta on Twitter

- Len Peralta on Facebook
- Geek A Week trading card set on Flickr
- Think Geek

Related blog posts:

- Ephemera

- Merchandise

Minigolf Postcards from sunny Worthing

Two new Postcards available from Splash Point Mini Golf in Worthing.

As an avid collector of Miniature Golf ephemera I was incredibly pleased to see that the team at Splash Point Mini Golf in Worthing, West Sussex had produced two brand new Minigolf Postcards.

Clearly delighted with the new Splash Point Mini Golf Postcards

Tim 'Ace Man' Davies and I have quite a collection of Mini, Crazy and Adventure Golf Postcards and we wrote an article for the December 2011 edition of the postcard industry magazine Picture Postcard Monthly.

A couple of the Splash Point Mini Golf Postcards heading into a postbox in Findon

It's interesting to note that despite travelling to almost 200 seasides in the UK and numerous inland Minigolf courses there is a dearth of postcards depicting the incredibly popular past-time of Miniature Golf. That's why it was so great that Splash Point Mini Golf has two new designs available for just 30p each.

The two designs of the new Splash Point Mini Golf course Postcards

At the recent BMGA British Masters tournament held at Splash Point Mini Golf I picked up a bunch of the nice Crazy Golf postcards and set about writing a few on the curse ready to post out. 

Scribbling a few lines about my 4th place finish in the BMGA British Masters Minigolf tournament at Splash Point Mini Golf in Worthing

Links:

- Splash Point Mini Golf

- Picture Postcard Monthly

- Postcardese

- MiniatureGolfer.com

- The Crazy Golf Museum

- British Minigolf Association

Related Blog Posts:

- All Postcard-related posts on the Ham & Egger Files

- Ephemera

- Merchandise

KMGC Greatest Hits: Volume One CD

While 'enjoying' a spring clean and general de-cluttering earlier today I found a rare Minigolf artifact in the form of a KMGC Greatest Hits: Volume One CD!

I believe I picked up the CD by the Kent Minigolf Club - at a Kent Open competition while at Strokes Adventure Golf in Margate in 2008 or 2009.

The club has other Minigolf merch available in the form of tournament balls from 2011 and 2012. I've also got a KMGC Calendar from 2008 somewhere!

Link:

- Kent Minigolf Club

Winning some Pirates Adventure Golf 'Treasure'

Winning a Pirates Adventure Golf Facebook Competition!

The team at Pirates Adventure Golf in Dundonald, Belfast, Northern Ireland have recently been running a number of online competitions to win Pirates Adventure Golf Goodies and I won the competition on Tuesday 11th December :-)

My prizes from the 'Guess the Number of Golf Balls Captain Jack Frost Fired at the Fort' Contest were three pin badges and a t-shirt. Some more great Minigolf items for my collection!

Back in August 2010 Emily and I visited and played at Pirates Adventure Golf. There are two 18-hole Adventure Golf courses there - Blackbeard's Adventure and The Captain's Challenge - and they became the 188th and 189th courses we played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. Very good fun and testing courses they are too. While in Northern Ireland we played a Minigolf Challenge Tournament (the NIBBAL-IT) against Northern Ireland's top Minigolfers - Mark 'The Horse Whisperer' Swain and Craig 'Kamikaze' McCallister, with the Bangor Minigolf Club members winning the contest.

The courses have played host to two British Minigolf Association tournaments when Pirates Adventure Golf was the venue for the BMGA Irish Open in 2006 and 2007.

Links:

- Pirates Adventure Golf Website

- Pirates Adventure Golf Facebook

- Pirates Adventure Golf Twitter

Related Blog Post:

- Pirates Adventure Golf in Belfast, Northern Ireland - Crazy World of Minigolf courses played #188 & #189

Hitting the 'Top Hole' in Crazy Golf

One of the aims of the game of Crazy Golf (once the 9, 12 or 18-holes of regulation play is done) is to 'WIN A FREE GAME' at the 'Top Hole'.

Not every minigolf course has one of these 'Lucky Last Holes', but those that do come with a variety of obstacles in your way to the hole, and that prized free game!

When you do 'Ace' the Top Hole you may find a cannon is fired, a bell rung, or a voice talking to you!

On our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour (currently standing at 251 courses played) I have only managed to win Free Games at four courses! Emily has won at three courses.

On our very first minigolf course visit on the 30th September 2006 I managed to Fire The Cannon and win a free game at the Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Portsmouth, but then I had to wait until the 4th of September 2009 and my 150th course visit to the Arnold Palmer Masters Putting Course, aka Crazee Golf, in Southport until my next win! After that it was at course played number 222 at the Adventure Golf in Fort Fun, Eastbourne on the 15th May 2011 that I next won a free game.


At one of our most recent minigolf course re-visits, Emily and I both won free games at the Arnold Palmer Putting Course in Great Yarmouth on Sunday 5th June.

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Ephemera

Like the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour on Facebook, check out our YouTube channel and follow me and Emily on Twitter.

Miniature Golfers Launch ‘The Crazy Golf Museum’

15th July 2010
News Release
For Immediate Release

Miniature Golfers Launch ‘The Crazy Golf Museum’

Two of the premier miniature golfers in the UK have joined forces to create The Crazy Golf Museum. Tim 'Ace Man' Davies and Richard 'Squire' Gottfried run the most visited websites and blogs on the subject of minigolf and crazy golf. The natural progression of this is to bring together all the information gathered over the years to create the World's First Virtual Crazy Golf Museum.

Tim and Richard’s joint goal is to create a Virtual Crazy Golf Museum online and then create a physical Crazy Golf Museum showing visitors the history of the game, collections of scorecards, tokens, badges, scorecards, flyers, balls, putters, games etc. and acting as the worldwide archive for Miniature Golf and Crazy Golf ephemera.

The Crazy Golf Museum’s ‘Curators’ have a vast archive built up over their many years playing the game, and are keen to enhance this with donations to help grow and support the collection in the future. The Virtual Crazy Golf Museum can be viewed at www.crazygolfmuseum.info

Tim 'Ace Man' Davies said of the launch “Crazy Golf has been at the forefront of sporting innovation since its conception. I'm enthused that we will be able to showcase the people's sport and its development to a worldwide audience.”

Richard 'Squire' Gottfried said “I’m really pleased that The Crazy Golf Museum is launching. The pooling of our minigolfing resources from our many years of playing the game will be a great resource for anyone who’s ever played, visited a course, or is into traditional pastimes. It’s going to be a great adventure in expanding the collection and setting up The Crazy Golf Museum.”

For more information on The Crazy Golf Museum please contact Tim or Richard at tim@crazygolfmuseum.info or richard@crazygolfmuseum.info

Ends

Notes for Editors
• Tim ‘Ace Man’ Davies is the most decorated Minigolfer in the UK and is a five-time World Crazy Golf Champion. For the past decade he has dominated the British Crazy Golf scene and would like to give something back.
• Richard ‘Squire’ Gottfried is a keen Minigolfer and has been blogging about his Minigolf Career and his travels to the UK’s courses for over four years at the Ham and Egger Files. To date he has visited 240 minigolf courses on his Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. During this time he has also won five BMGA Tour titles. Not a day goes by without him picking up his Putter!

Related blog posts:
- Ephemera
- Merchandise