End of Season BMGA Tour Minigolf Rankings for 2013

Richard & Emily Gottfried's End of Season British Minigolf Association Tour Rankings for 2013.

The British Minigolf Association has published the final rankings for the 2013 UK Miniature Golf tournament season.

This year Emily and I were in our seventh year as British Minigolf Association Tour Pro players.

In the 2013 BMGA’s Official Strokeplay Order of Merit Rankings I finished in 11th place of 163 players, with Emily in 48th position.

Richard playing the final hole at the BMGA British Crazy Golf Open held in Hastings

In the 2013 BMGA Season Only Rankings I finished in 18th spot of 115 players with Emily ranked 27th.

Emily in a play-off against Paul Godding in the BMGA British Masters at Splash Point Mini Golf in Worthing. Ted McIver tends the flag

After achieving a 4th place finish in the 2013 BMGA British Masters competition I reached a career-high BMGA Tour ranking of 5th in the BMGA Strokeplay Order of Merit National Ranking List. My previous highest Minigolf rankings had been 7th in the 2010 BMGA Order of Merit and 5th in the BMGA Season Only Rankings for 2012.

My end of season position this year is the highest in the Strokeplay-only version of the Order of Merit, having previously finished the 2009/10 season in 11th place in the old combined strokeplay and matchplay Order of Merit.

Emily has had a great year on the BMGA Tour finishing third in the BMGA British Matchplay Championship in Boscombe, Dorset as well as winning the Category 3 title in the BMGA British Masters, and she was the Category 3 runner-up at the BMGA British Crazy Golf Open in Hastings.

Emily also became a two-time WMF World Adventure Golf Masters Women's Champion when she defeated reigning champion Ruth Burke in a play-off for the title. At the WMF World Adventure Golf Masters we competed as part of Great Britain 3 and finished in fifth place in the team event.

2013 BMGA Tour Season Results for Richard and Emily Gottfried:
- BMGA Star City Open - Richard = 13th, Emily = 18th (24-players)
- BMGA British Crazy Golf Open - Richard = 11th, Emily = 20th and Category 3 runner-up (33-players)
- BMGA British Masters - Richard = 4th, Emily = 12th and Category 3 winner (27-players)
- BMGA British Adventure Golf Open - Richard = 10th, Emily = 19th (23-players)
- BMGA British Matchplay Championship - Emily = 3rd, Richard = DNP (17-players)
- World Crazy Golf Championship - Richard = 21st, Emily = 51st (78-players)

Video of the 2013 BMGA British Masters at Splash Point Mini Golf in Worthing, by 2 Dog Imaging.


2013 WMF Season Results for Richard and Emily Gottfried:
- WMF World Adventure Golf Masters - Richard = 20th, Emily = 27th and Women's Champion (37-players)
- WMF World Adventure Golf Team Masters - Great Britain 3 (Richard Gottfried, Emily Gottfried, Craig Patterson and John Moore) = 5th of 7 teams

Great Britain 3 at the WMF World Adventure Golf Masters tournament in Hastings, East Sussex from l-r John Moore (c), Emily Gottfried, Richard Gottfried, Craig Patterson

There is one competition left on the 2013 BMGA Tour, with the BMGA British Club Championship taking place at Basingstoke Golf Centre.

The 2014 BMGA Tour tees-off at the BMGA Star City Open at Adventure Island Mini Golf in Birmingham on Sunday 26th January.

In the BMGA 2013 Season Rankings for Clubs Emily and the Cambridgeshire Mini Golf Club finished in second place. Richard and the Midlands Minigolf Club finished in third place of six teams.

The British Minigolf Association is the governing body for Minigolf Sport, including Crazy Golf and Adventure Golf. Formed in 1998 the BMGA organises Minigolf competitions for its members across the UK. The BMGA is a member of the World Minigolf Sport Federation and the European Minigolf Sport Federation. Two options are available for Membership of the British Minigolf Association. Further details can be found on the BMGA website.

World Minigolf Sport Federation Rankings

In the March 2013 edition of the World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) Minigolf Rankings Emily is in tied 130th place of 130 positions alongside players from Iran, China, Portugal, China and Thailand. A total of 140 players are listed in the WMF General Class (Adults) Women’s category.

In the WMF General Class (Adults) Men's category I am ranked in tied 406^th place of 406 positions. A total of 413 players are in the list and I sit alongside GB team-mates Scott Lancley and Brad Shepherd, and players from Russia, Hong Kong, Norway and China.

Overall Great Britain is ranked 18th of 29 Nations, with Germany at number one, Austria at two and Sweden at number three.

The November 2013 edition of the WMF Rankings is due to be published soon.

Related Blog Posts:

- Miniature Golf Player Profile of Richard Gottfried

- Miniature Golf Player Profile of Emily Gottfried
- A New Career High Minigolf Ranking!

Links:

- British Minigolf Association

- BMGA Roll of Honour 2013

- Final Season Only Rankings published

- End of season BMGA Strokeplay Order Of Merit
- World Minigolf Sport Federation

More gluten free beer, ale and lager

Trying a dozen different gluten free beers, ales and lagers.

For my recent birthday Emily bought me a selection of gluten free beers from Gluten-Free Shop Ltd.

The twelve gluten free beers, ales and lagers

The Beer/Lager Starter Pack contained a dozen bottles of gluten free beer, lager and ale – the majority of which I hadn’t tried before, and some I’d never even heard of.

It was interesting to see a canned gluten free beer too – Saxon made by Carlsberg.

Some of the alcoholic beverages contain less than 20ppm and so are able to use the crossed grain logo. One of the beers – Ambar – has a level less than 6ppm.

One of the beers was intriguing though as it doesn't have a crossed grain logo and so I am not going to be trying it, I'm sure I can find a beer lover to give it a go. The beer in question is the Wold Top Scarborough Fair IPA. The other Wold Top beer included in the pack was suitable for coeliacs and is the aptly named "Against the Grain".

It was great to receive such a range of gluten free beers and you can find more on the Gluten-Free Shop Ltd website.

Those beers included in the gluten free beer and lager starter pack were:

-          Estrella Damm Daura

-          Daas Blond

-          Dass Ambre

-          Hambleton's GFL

-          Hambleton's GFA

-          Wold Top Against the grain

-          Wold Top Scarborough Fair IPA

-          Crop Circle

-          Schnitzer Brau

-          Celia

-          Ambar

-          Saxon

Links:

-          Gluten-Free Shop Ltd

Related blog post:

-          Gluten Free Ales, Beers and Lagers

Check out Gluugle for Gluten Free Reviews

Through Twitter I recently found out about the Gluugle website. It's been set up by Caz from The Gluten Free Foodie blog and to date has reviews and listings for over 1,000 places for Coeliacs (and those following a gluten free diet) to visit, dine out and buy from!

On Gluugle you can:

• Add places that you've discovered to let everyone else know about great gluten free places
• Review places you've been and let people know what's good to eat there
• Search for places near to you and search for places when you travel.

So far I've submitted eighteen reviews and I'll be writing a lot more about the good and great places I find that can cater for people with Coeliac Disease.

Find out more about Gluugle here and do submit your reviews too - it's very quick and easy to do. You can search by keyword or postcode/location to find somewhere near to you and as well as the Gluugle website you can download the free Gluugle iphone app.

Links:
- Gluugle
- The Gluten Free Foodie

Related blog posts:
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac

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

Crazy Golfing at Shobnall Leisure Complex in Burton upon Trent

Visiting and playing the 541st Miniature Golf course on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour!

The 9-hole Crazy Golf course in Burton upon Trent

While in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire I made a visit to Shobnall Leisure Centre in the town as my friend, Minigolf rival and Midlands Minigolf Club member Jam Trubridge had told me there was a Crazy Golf course there.

Arriving at 6pm on a cold November evening I was warmly greeted by the staff and asked them what time the Minigolf course was normally open – luckily for me the reply was “It’s never closed”.

Playing hole 9 on Shobnall Leisure Complex's Crazy Golf course

I was expecting the Miniature Golf course visit to be the 541^st overall, but yet another closed course visit (having previously been to 215 courses that I couldn’t play for one reason or another). However, as it was open and available to play it become the 326^th course played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour since September 2006.

A view of the course from hole 4

The course was of the fibreglass and felt variety, with a number of obstacle on the course in addition to dog leg hole layouts, unfortunately there wasn’t a ‘Humpty’ on the course – an obstacle I’ve found on many courses of this type.

Hole 8 - a roll of the dice - I came close to acing the hole

The courses, manufactured by DK Fibreglass, play the best when they are laid out on a solid foundation. Thankfully the 9-hole course at Shobnall Leisure Complex was built on concrete foundations which meant the ball rolled well and the course stayed in place (unlike a course of this type Emily and I once played in Lytham St Anne’s).

The 9-hole Crazy Golf course is reasonably priced at £1.80 a round and it was good fun. Unfortunately my round went for a Burton* as I didn’t score a single hole-in-one. In the chilly and shivery conditions I shot a round of 24(+6).

The 9-hole Crazy Golf course at Shobnall Leisure Complex in Burton upon Trent

Mark and the team at the leisure centre were really nice and friendly and asked lots of questions about the world of Minigolf – they were also knowledgeable about the game and had heard about tournaments. It was really nice to visit a new place and receive such a great welcome, I’ll definitely be heading back to Burton and the leisure centre, and Emily and I are looking forward to a tour of all the other Mini, Crazy and Adventure Golf courses we’re yet to play in the East Midlands!

The course and leisure centre get the thumbs up from me

Shobnall Leisure Complex also has a Pitch & Putt Miniature Golf course on the site, as well as football, table tennis, bowls, rounders, tennis and badminton and more. Check out the leisure centre's website for opening times and price details.

A very dark view of the Pitch & Putt Mini-Golf course at Shobnall Leisure Centre

You can also find Shobnall Leisure Complex on Facebook.

Related blog posts:

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Links:

- Shobnall Leisure Complex

* Is it possible to visit, talk, or write about Burton upon Trent without using the phrases “gone for a Burton”, or “went for a Burton”? I think not...

UrbanCrazy Minigolf at the 2013 London Golf Show

Playing UrbanCrazy's "Signature" Miniature Golf course at the London Golf Show at Earl's Court.

UrbanCrazy have lots of balls to choose from in their product catalogue!

On Friday 8th November I headed along to the London Golf Show to support Minigolf business UrbanCrazy who were exhibiting their Signature Minigolf course layout.

The UrbanCrazy Signature Minigolf course at the 2013 London Golf Show

Jon 'The Stance' Angel teeing-off (and en route to victory) in our Minigolf challenge match

Jon plays a shot over the ramp on hole 4

Lining up a shot on the Casino hole

At the show they had set-up a 6-hole course highlighting the range of possibilities available from the Signature course design. There was also a 7th bonus hole-in-one challenge hole to play to win a prize from Monarch airlines.

Playing the bonus 7th hole

The course was the 324th played and 539th visited on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour since 2006!

In a series of Crazy Golf challenge matches I lost to Jon 'El Pato' Angel by quite a few shots - 21(+9) vs. 17(+5) - the bumpy hole 3 my undoing. I then defeated Richard '147' Linden 15(+3) vs. 17(+5), before I teamed with UrbanCrazy's team member Adam (who needs an official nickname) in a doubles match against the team from World Golf Net. The match went to the wire with victory going to us with a scoreline of 35(-1) to 38(+2) for the World Golf Net duo.

In addition to the Minigolf course UrbanCrazy had their brand new game - PongCrazy - at the show. Check out my blog post and video of a PongCrazy match here.

Last year the team at UrbanCrazy had a 9-hole (plus bonus hole) course layout at the London Golf Show and fellow Minigolfer Oliver 'The Machine' Florence and I had five rounds on the tricky course. That layout was the 308th course played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

The Signature course from UrbanCrazy offers a huge number of possible layout permutations and they reckon that they'll have tried each and every one of the them in 44-years time!

UrbanCrazy are also sponsors of the Great Britain Minigolf Sport Team.

Related blog posts:

- PongCrazy – the brand new game from UrbanCrazy

- UrbanCrazy blog posts

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour List & Links

Links:

- UrbanCrazy

- London Golf Show

Playing the puttup Indoor Golf Putting Game

Giving the puttup putting game a play at the 2013 London Golf Show.

While at this year's London Golf Show at Earl's Court I got to have a go on the puttup indoor putting game layout.

puttup consists of three obstacle components - Straight Putt, Pace Putt and Breaking Putt - and are a real tricky miniature golf challenge!

Playing the Putt Putt puttup hole

The set pieces are very well designed & crafted and are made from oak. Each piece comes with special wall mountings and rules carved into the wood.

The Straight Putt wall hanger and rules. Along with the day's leaderboard - with a magnificent 17 points from one player!

It's a great fun game and very tough too! I didn't manage to trouble the players at the top of the leaderboard and scored a paltry five points.

Having a go on the Breaking Putt puttup hole

The puttup team had created some great scorecards for the show - a great addition to my collection of Miniature Golf ephemera and that of the Crazy Golf Museum.

The range of puttup scorecards

Check out puttup on Twitter and Facebook and the puttup website.

The three-hole course was the 540th visited and 325th played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour since September 2006 and one of a very wide-range of Miniature Golf courses found in that time!

Links:

- puttup

- London Golf Show

Related blog post:

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

My top ten videos on YouTube

To mark my 500th YouTube video being uploaded here are the top ten by number of views since I put my first video on the site in February 2007.

1.       Crazy Golf at Poole Park - Hole 9 Pinball. 86,692 views.

2.       Castle Golf World Crazy Golf Championships 2011 - Final Sudden-Death Play-off - Holes1-4. 46,029 views.

3.       Crazy Golf at Poole Park - Hole 9 Pinball - hole in one. 35,760 views.

4.       Crazy Golf at Henblas Park. 27,210 views.

5.       Hither Green Swedish Felt Minigolf course visit - video 3 of 6. 19,456 views.

6.       Jobbing to Arm Champs II Arcade Machine. 17,275 views. The first video I ever uploaded to YouTube.

7.       UK Rock Paper Scissors Championship 2010 - The Grand Final. 5,398 views.

8.       Hither Green Swedish Felt Minigolf course visit - video 2 of 6. 4,179 views.

9.       Minigolf Trick Shot - Blindfolded Hole-in-One - Putter King Miniature Golf ScavengerHunt. 3,387 views.

10.   Hither Green Swedish Felt Minigolf course visit - video 4 of 6. 2,876 views.

My 500 videos have a combined 376,031 views! Thanks to everyone who has watched one (or more).

Do you have a favourite? Let me know if you do via the comments below.

PongCrazy – the brand new game from UrbanCrazy

Playing the brand new game from UrbanCrazy – the game is a cross between Table Tennis/Ping Pong and Crazy Golf/Minigolf.

At the 2013 London Golf Show at Earl’s Court I got a chance to play a brand new sport – PongCrazy!

Me and the PongCrazy Crazy Golf Ping Pong Table!

It’s a cross between Table Tennis and Miniature Golf and is great fun to play.

Here’s a video of an epic encounter between 'Squire' Richard Gottfried and Jon 'The Stance' Angel at the London Golf Show at Earl's Court on Friday 8th of November 2013.

This is also my 500th YouTube video!!!

The Rules of Play for PongCrazy

Check out the PongCrazy website to see the range of tables available to play the game.

Related Blog Posts:

- UrbanCrazy blog posts

- Ping Pong blog posts

- Table Tennis blog posts

- Wrong Pong blog posts

Links:

- PongCrazy
- UrbanCrazy
- London Golf Show 2013

Report from the 2013 World £2 Tat Challenge in Hastings

Rookie Player Wins World Title on his Debut in Hastings!

As has become tradition, following the first day’s play of the World Crazy Golf Championships an open-call went out to all of the players to participate in the World £2 Tat Challenge.

For the second year in a row a total of 30-players heeded the call and headed over to the hallowed venue that is what Wembley is to football, Twickenham is to Rugby Union, The Crucible is to Snooker (and indeed what Hastings Seafront is to Crazy Golf) – the Old Town Amusement Arcade!

The winner and losers from the 2013 World £2 Tat Challenge

With players changing their £2 stake into 2 penny pence pieces the rules briefing was given by Messrs Lancley and Gottfried before the call to arms was given.

2013 also saw the Buttons Committee make a radical change to the rules – with a 20-minute time-limit imposed! This meant that the play would be even more fast paced than usual and that bit more risky for the more canny ratty competitors who will often wait until their opponents are out of tuppenny bits to make their move and clean-up.

Scott 'Donkey Gringo' Lancley enforcing the rules

The frenetic competition took some of the newcomers by surprise and with some of the veterans sticking to tried and tested methods that weren’t quite right for the new format the results were very interesting indeed.

With time ticking down the players entered their scores with official referee Emily ‘Lemony’ Gottfried to record for the ages.

Taking an early tie in the clubhouse was the reigning and defending champion ‘Squire’ Richard Gottfried on five bits, with the lead shared by debutees Chris Hillman and Helen Dodd, along with Tat Veteran Trevor Exall and second time competitor Chris Wood.

Fast-paced action from the ratters, tatters and sharks - Steve Sturdy looks particularly confused/angry at being robbed of a prize by the looks of it!

Former World Tat Challenge Champions Paul ‘Johnson Paul Johnson’ Johnson then scored seven pieces to scoop the lead.

This group was soon trumped by William Edwards who amassed a total of eight pieces. With a few players left to declare at the end of the twenty-minute contest the contestants awaited the result. Sly old fox Terry ‘Cockney Tel’ Exall approached the ref with quite a haul, but 2013 was not to be his year, as he had managed to score an impressive, but not quite good enough unlucky seven pieces of tat to tie for second place.

Lemony and Donkey Gringo count up the final rankings

That meant that the new and undisputed 2013 World £2 Tat Challenge Champion was William ‘Insert Nickname’ Edwards who was elated to be crowned champion, receive the entire bag of goodies and the respect of his fellow competitors.

The 2013 World £2 Tat Challenge Champion - William 'Sideshow Bob' Edwards

Over the weekend William scored a remarkably unique Grand Slam of victories – winning the World Title in the Tat Challenge and finishing last of all the competitors (that managed to finish the six qualifying rounds) in the World Crazy Golf Championships!

While a grand total of 91 pieces of tat was won by the 30 players, there were two-player who ‘did a Chappers-Smith’ and drew a blank – these were Christian ‘Anthony Pope’ Fuchs and Steve ‘Teen Wolf’ Lovell who remarked he “should of put his mask and wolf hands in the prize pot.”

Top international player was Finland’s Pasi ‘Bruiser’ Aho from Germany who scored three, just edging out Spain’s Núria Meléndez Orriols who recorded two. ‘The Fox’ Christian Fuchs got the international ‘bronze’ after scoring nil.

Rank Player Country Tat Won

1 William Edwards ENG 8

2 Paul Johnson ENG 7

2 Terry Exall ENG 7

4 Richard Gottfried ENG 5

4 Trevor Exall ENG 5

4 Chris Wood ENG 5

4 Chris Hillman ENG 5

4 Helen Dodd ENG 5

9 Adam Kelly ENG 4

9 Keith Kellard ENG 4

11 Pasi Aho FIN 3

11 Steve Sturdy ENG 3

11 Kate Kelly ENG 3

11 John Moore ENG 3

11 Matt Dodd ENG 3

11 Ollie Greenhead ENG 3

11 Ruth Burke ENG 3

18 Will Donnelly ENG 2

18 Martin Greenhead ENG 2

18 Mark Wood ENG 2

18 Elizabeth Edwards ENG 2

18 Núria Meléndez Orriols SPA 2

23 Marc Chapman ENG 1

23 Steve Gow ENG 1

23 Brian Smith ENG 1

23 Gillian Edwards ENG 1

23 Neil Cottam ENG 1

23 Daniel Cottam ENG 1

29 Christian Fuchs GER 0

29 Steve Lovell  ENG 0

£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)

£2 Tat Challenge Order of Merit Ranking List:

The £2 Tat Challenge Order of Merit Ranking List

Related Blog Posts:

- 2013 World Adventure Tat and Air Hockey Challenges!

- Report and Results from the off-course Shenanigan Competitions in Hastings

- Tat Challenge blog posts