Revisit to the Hello Campers Exhibition at Stevenage Museum

On Saturday 3rd September Emily and I made a revisit to the excellent 'Hello Campers' exhibition and display at Stevenage Museum in Hertfordshire.

I previously visited the exhibition in July.

The exhibition charted holiday camps from their beginnings through to the heyday in the 1960's and 70's and also included a small section on Crazy Golf and Minigolf.

The exhibition has now closed, but if you're in the area Stevenage Museum is well worth a visit.

Along with Tim 'Ace Man' Davies I am a Curator of The Crazy Golf Museum.

The Crazy Golf Museum's aim is to show visitors the history of the game of Miniature Golf, collections of scorecards, tokens, badges, scorecards, flyers, balls, putters, games etc. and act as the worldwide archive for Minigolf and Crazy Golf ephemera.

Link to The Crazy Golf Museum

Blog Post - Miniature Golfers Launch ‘The Crazy Golf Museum’

Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Gluten-Free in Edinburgh: Guest reviews

Gluten-Free in Edinburgh: Guest reviews: The following guest post of reviews comes from Richard Gottfried : Kings Manor Hotel – Best Western, Brunstane We booked into the Kings...

Minigolf Article on the blog Smitten by Britain

You can check out a piece I've written about minigolf for the excellent blog Smitten By Britain at "Favorite Minigolf Courses in the UK".

The Smitten by Britain blog is a blog all about the best of British and is run by American Britophile Melissa Stoey and covers subjects including culture, sports, travel, history, food & drinks and books - it's the home of the Britophile and all things British.

Link - Smitten by Britain

The Brown Sign Way - A Website and Blog Dedicated to Tourist Attraction Signs

I recently discovered the website and blog of The Brown Sign Way via some facebooking related to Minigolf.

The Brown Sign Way and Follow The Brown Signs are written by Amanda Hone and are well worth a look if you’re interested in travelling, signs (obviously), the UK & new and interesting things to do.

Before checking out the The Brown Sign Way blog I wasn’t aware there were a grand total of 93 different types of Brown Sign Symbols, ranging from 10 Pin Bowling, to Museums, to Windmills, to Zoos, with Golf also included, but not specifically Crazy or Mini Golf in the ‘93’.

Looking through our photo archives from the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour (and beyond) I found a few examples of Brown Signs I’ve snapped en route to, or at, places we’ve travelled to.

I found that the excellent Strokes Adventure Golf Course in Margate, Kent (course played #34) has the most photographed Brown Signs in my collection.

 

There are probably many more Brown Signs we’ve passed by on the way to some destination, or been side-tracked by on one of our many road trips around the UK.

Photo: The Brown Sign at the Merlewood Hotel (Gwesty) in Saundersfoot, Wales (the location of an unplayed Miniature Golf course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour)

Check out the who, what, how, when, where’s section on the The Brown Sign Way blog to find out more about these useful tools for pointing tourists in the direction of attractions.

Photo: The Brown Sign (and a White one too) at Conyngham Hall Park, Knaresborough

On our road trip around the Welsh coast in August 2009 we spotted this Brown Sign (below) in Penarth that shows just one of the many different ways that Miniature Golf (and variations such as Pitch & Putt, Minigolf and Crazy Golf) can be spelled in the Welsh language.

The Crazy Golf at the Rhylstone Gardens in Shanklin Old Town on the Isle of Wight (#65) is the most well signposted Miniature Golf course I've found to date, boasting seven signs on the walk to the course!

As well as Brown Signs in our photo archive, my search also turned up a number of other signposts (and the like), which I’ve snapped away at as they say something to do with Miniature Golf.

Photo: A Black Sign showing the way to the Crazy Golf course in Tonbridge, Kent 

Photo: A Blue Sign showing the way to the Putting course at Greenhill Gardens in Weymouth, Dorset 

Photo: A White Sign pointing towards a Miniature Golf course in Penarth, South Wales 

Photo: A 'non-standard' Brown wooden sign at the entrance to the Crazy Golf course in Tredegar Park, Newport, Wales (oddly stating it's a Putting Green!?)

Link to the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Links to The Brown Sign Way & Follow The Brown Signs

I'm also a fan of the Missin Letters Blog which looks for signs that are missing letters in them.

I've also had a number of photographs that I've taken over the years published for one odd reason or another in a number of media and newspapers (such as the 'broke' Ladbrokes in Stevenage Old Town).

Crazy Golf in Luton - Charity Fun Day at Kent Athletic Club - 9-hole Minigolf

On the 29th August 2011 we headed to the Bank Holiday Charity Fun Day organised by the Kent Athletic Club at their club grounds on Tenby Drive in Luton, Bedfordshire.

One of the activities at the fundraising event for Macmillan Cancer Support was a 9-hole Crazy Golf course. The course became the 267th played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

In playing the course, Emily and I contested the Irregular Mini Golf Tour Kent(ish) Invitational Tournament title with the victory going to me with a score of 34 to Emily's 42.

At Kent Athletic Club (Luton)

The Crazy Golf course laid out on the football pitch of Kent Athletic FC

Putting on the temporary Crazy Golf course

Great to see a windmill obstacle on the Crazy Golf course

Emily plays a shot on the Minigolf layout

The holes on the course were very small indeed

I also won two prizes in three goes on the Tombola!

Winning

I have no idea why the Kent Athletic Club is so called and how it came to be in Luton!? Their website does say they have been established for over 50 years though. In competition Miniature Golf there is a Kent Minigolf Club.

Related blog posts:

- Crazy Golf & Minigolf Courses in and around Luton, Bedfordshire

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Link:

- Kent Athletic Club

Four Years and Eleven Months of Crazy Minigolfing!

As of today we've been on a Crazy World of Minigolf Tour for four years and eleven months!


Back on the 30th September 2006 we played what would become course #1 on our tour, the Victory Trail Adventure Golf course at Southsea's Seafront Treasure Island.

Any suggestions for how we should celebrate the five year anniversary of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour gratefully received!

Hillbilly Shooting Shack in Portobello & Joppa - Edinburgh's seaside

While on our mini-holiday to Edinburgh we found a Hillbilly Shooting Shack in one of the two amusement arcades in Portobello & Joppa.

Other blog posts about Shooting Shacks

The amusement arcade looked like it used to be much bigger and we also found a sign that pointed us in the direction of the now non-existent Fun Park.



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Musselburgh Miniature Golf Links (Pitch & Putt) - Fisherrow Links

On Sunday 21st August 2011 Emily and I were having a wander from our hotel in Brunstane, Edinburgh heading towards the seaside at Portobello & Joppa. Our first stop was at nearby Musselburgh where we found a Miniature Golf Links course at Fisherrow.

The course was a Pitch & Putt variety of Miniature Golf and there was a couple of large groups on the first few holes so we decided to give playing it a miss. However on a return visit we'd very likely play the course as it looked in great condition with some interesting bumps and hillocks.

It was £2.50 a round for adults.

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No Crazy Golf in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh

While in Edinburgh we were chatting to a stallholder at the Antique Market in the Grassmarket and she told us there used to be a Crazy Golf course in Princes Street Gardens.

We went for a wander through the park but couldn't find one.

We did however find the oldest pub in Edinburgh - The White Hart Inn, which was established in the Grassmarket in 1516. We sampled a few Whisky's while we were there too.

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Minigolf Putting Green at Powderhall Bowling Green, St Mark's Park, Edinburgh

During the break in the over 60s and over 50s British Cycle Speedway events taking place at the Edinburgh Falcons Club at Redbraes Park on Saturday 20th August 2011 we popped to the Powderhall Bowling Club, which uses one of its three Bowling Greens as a 9-hole Putting Course!

Time was getting on and as the course closed at 5pm the man at the course let us have a round on the proviso that we played quickly!

The Putting course was on a Bowling Green and while pretty flat was still fairly tricky in gauging speed and weight of the shots.

With time of the essence Emily decided she didn’t want to play so it was left to be a battle between me and my Midlands Minigolf Club team mate (and fellow 2008 BMGA British Club Champion) John ‘Thighs’ Moore.

After eight speedy holes, with the man watching us as he collected the flags in after we’d completed each hole, the scores were level with me and John scoring 3, 2, 3, 3, 3 2, 2, 2 and 3, 3, 2, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2 respectively.

I was first up to play the ninth hole and scored a dreadful four. John, the 2006 BMGA British Champion, stepped up and scored a two to take the victory 22 to 24.

The course at St Mark’s Park was the 266th played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

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Cycle Speedway in Edinburgh - The British Veterans over 50s and over 60s Individual Championships

Blog post about spectating at a Cycle Speedway in Edinburgh - The British Veterans over 50s and over 60s Individual Championships in August 2011.

On Saturday 20th August 2011 we flew to Edinburgh for a nice weekend away. We’d managed to get the flights on easyJet incredibly cheap via a very good use of our Nectar Points and with us being on the first flight of the day we arrived in the city centre at 8.30am.

Ahead of the trip we’d spoken to our friend, Midlands Minigolf Club team mate and minigolf rival John Moore who told us he was also going to be up in Edinburgh on the Saturday and that he was heading to a great sporting event – Cycle Speedway!

Ever on the lookout for new and unusual sports to take part in, or spectate at, we met up with John and headed to Edinburgh’s Redbraes Park (home of the Edinburgh Falcons Club) and the British over 50s and over 60s Individual Championships of Cycle Speedway!

With ‘Tapes-up’ at 2pm we arrived in time to see the introduction of the riders who would be competing in the first event of the afternoon, the over 60s Individual British Championships.

According to the Edinburgh Falcons Cycle Speedway Club website the sport of Cycle Speedway came into being in the late 1940’s and grew out of Motorbike Speedway. Races take place on oval tracks 60-90m long and racers ride around the circuit in an anti-clockwise direction. In each race four riders race each other over four laps with the winner picking up four points, runner-up three, third-place two and fourth place picks up one point.

There was some great strategy in use in the races with riders battling to get the best of the track positioning and a few restarts due to some physical contact between riders. We saw a couple of crashes too. The event was great fun and free to attend! There were programmes for sale as well as T-shirts, along with refreshments. If you’ve never been to a Cycle Speedway event (and I’m guessing a lot of readers haven’t) it’s well worth a watch.

Full results and report from the British Cycle Speedway over 50s and over 60s Individual Championships

Edinburgh Falcons website

Photos from the over 50s competition

Photos from the over 60s competition - with us here and here

During the interval between the over 60s and over 50s events we went to a nearby pub for a quick drink and then on to St Mark’s Park and the Powderhall Bowling Club, which uses one of its three Bowling Greens as a 9-hole Putting Course! This would become the 266th Miniature Golf course played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour!

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Replay of Bedford's Russell Park Putting Green (Mini Golf)

I was in Bedford recently so took the opportunity to have a replay of the very testing 18-hole Putting Green Miniature Golf course in the town's Russell Park.

Last time out I scored a 48(+12), with a hole-in-one on the 15th hole and this time I scored a slightly better 46(+10) and an Ace on the 14th hole.

The course became the 184th played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour last July.

The course is in excellent condition with good equipment and scorecards. The price has risen slightly from £2.35 to £2.50 for adults.

I also noticed that they have a Table Tennis Table similar to the one in Luton's Wardown Park (see here & here), except with the one in bedford you can hire Bats and Balls from the Kiosk (£1.70 per hour) rather than bringing your own.

More from the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

From the Minigolf Archives - Results of our first-ever game of Adventure Golf against each other!

Following a recent dig through some boxes of thingamajigs, whatchamacallits, doobries and other assorted pieces of ephemera in our 'Archives' we unearthed a lost piece of pre-Crazy World of Minigolf Tour information!

The item in question was the long-lost scorecard from the very first game of Miniature Golf Emily and I ever faced off against each other in. A fine piece of ephemera for the Crazy Golf Museum perhaps...

From what we can remember we played the match using 'classic' Crazy Golf rules, that is to say both of our golf balls were in play at the same time, with the player whose ball was furthest from the hole taking their next shot first.

In the 9-hole contest Emily defeated me by three shots, scoring a 28(-2) to my 31(+1). Again as these were the days prior to knowing the 'proper' competition rules of Minigolf we used the course's Par rating which stood at 30 strokes.

Following the 2003 match in Southend on Sea we also played a round on the old Arnold Palmer Putting Course at Butlins Holiday Camp in Minehead in 2004, however the results of this contest remain lost in the ether.

In 2006 Emily and I made a resolution to visit as many UK seasides as possible, our first stop was in Portsmouth and Southsea where we played the course that would become #1 on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour - the 9-hole Victory Trail course at the Treasure Island Adventure Golf Complex on Southsea Seafront. We followed this up the next day with a match-up on the Warrior Trail and since then we've made visits to over 410 Miniature Golf, Crazy Golf, Mini-Golf and Adventure Golf courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, played in loads of Minigolf Tournaments on the BMGA Tour, won three Great Britain International Caps and in May 2011 Emily became the the WMF Women's World Adventure Golf Masters Champion!

We haven't done too badly on our Grand Tour of the UK's coastal resorts either, having visited over 135 seasides to date.

We have visited Southend on Sea a number of times since 2003 and on each occasion we've tried to play at least one of the three Minigolf courses in the town. Our first visit to the courses as part of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour was on the 31st March 2007 when the Inca Course became #14, the Aztec #15 and the Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course along the seafront became #16 played.

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

Wonderputt - A New Minigolf Computer Game...

...and the best one I've played to date.

As a follower of all things Minigolf-related I follow the Arts & Animation Studio Damp Gnat on twitter - the reason, they developed a Minigolf Computer Game called Adverputt a while back.

According to the Damp Gnat website their "current focus is on developing premium online games with a strong emphasis on design, quality and innovation." and with their new Miniature Golf game they certainly have delivered on that focus.

Wonderputt is played out on a changing landscape and features a variety of holes and obstacles that stand in your way to reaching the final Rocketship 18th-hole.

I really liked the way the ball reacted and the controls were very easy to pick up. Some of the holes were quite tricky too, but were well thought out and there are some great hole-in-one opportunities available.

The game is the best Minigolf/Crazy Golf computer game I have played to date and definitely has replay value.

By the way, my first score was 67,516 points and an impressive (even if I do say so myself) 13-under par, in a game that lasted 8 minutes and 4 seconds. I love the fact it gives you a bunch of stats at the end of the game.

Play Wonderputt

Play Adverputt

Me and My Many Minigolf Doubles Partners

On the 17th of May 2008 I teamed with Emily Gottfried in my first-ever Minigolf Doubles Match at the 2008 BMGA British Doubles Championships at Warwick. In that contest we lost the 18-hole matchplay match 2&1 to the duo of Sean Homer and Marion Homer, aka Casual Force.

Since that event I have teamed with 15 other players, using a total of 19 different team names. Some of these partnerships have lasted little more than one match, while others such as my pairing with Kevin 'Max' Moseley have lasted for two BMGA Tour Doubles Contests and were the third-placed team at the 2010 BMGA British Doubles Championships.

In official competitions this season I have teamed with Oliver 'The Machine' Florence as 'Go With The Flo' at the Green Doubles Championships (7th of 14 teams), Will 'Power' Collins at the Lost World Adventure Golf Pro-Am Classic (2nd of 12 teams) and with Scott 'Donkey Gringo' Lancley as 'Team Sqonkey' at the BMGA British Doubles Championships (7th of 14 teams).

To date I've teamed up for Minigolf Doubles Matches with the following players:
1 Emily Gottfried
2 Matt Smith
3 Andy Gonsalves
4 Owen Johnson
5 Paul Johnson
6 Kevin Moseley
7 Chris Harding
8 Simon Hall
9 Leo Kukielka
10 Christopher Gottfried
11 Alan Norman
12 Oliver Florence
13 Julio Kent
14 Richard Skeggs
15 William Collins
16 Scott Lancley

My Pairings have competed under the following 19 Team Names!
1 Die fantastische Gottfried Brüder
2 Go With The Flo
3 Gottfried & Collins
4 Great Britain Internationals
5 Kent-Squire
6 Luton Wanderers Minigolf Club
7 Midlands Minigolf Club
8 Parts Unknown Minigolfers
9 Squire Trelawney
10 Team Sqonkey
11 Team Squire
12 The Champs
13 The Nar-Wich Union
14 The Pineapple Bits
15 The Prospectors
16 The Richards
17 The Rudi Specials
18 The Thumbmasters
19 The Vagrants

My Minigolf Doubles Matchplay Win/Loss Record currently stands at:
Played 62
Won 31
Drawn 5
Lost 26

My Minigolf Doubles Record (Click to Enlarge)