Crazy Golf in Swanpool Park, Falmouth, Cornwall

Playing the Crazy Golf course in Swanpool, Falmouth.

The 631st course visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour was the Crazy Golf course at Swanpool Park in Swanpool, Falmouth, Cornwall.

The 18-hole Crazy Golf layout was the 32nd played on our tour of the South West of England and the 373rd played overall on our tour.

It's certainly a unique course. The colour of the concrete was very different to the norm. And the hole configurations weren't particularly normal. It was a real test and good fun too.

Its in an excellent location and we had brilliant weather on our visit.

In our match on the 18-hole course on the 7th June 2015 Emily scored 52 to take the win as I scored a 56.

The course is open all year round. For more information, opening times and prices visit the Swanpool Beach website.

Swanpool is a really nice spot to spend some time. As well as the Crazy Golf we did a bit of rock pooling, had a walk on the beach and relaxed at a seafront bar with some cold drinks and oysters. Bliss

We couldn't visit Swanpool Park and not see some swans!

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Mini Golf in the South West of England

Link:
- Swanpool Beach website

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Putting at Looe Bowling Club in Cornwall

Playing the Putting Greens at Looe Bowling Club.

Another marvellous putting green visited and played on our tour

While holidaying in Cornwall last year we made a surprise discovery of two grass Putting Greens at Looe Bowling Club at the very end of Marine Drive.

It was nice to spot the town centre sign for the Putting Green

Putting at the top of the lower course. The island in the background is known as Looe Island aka St George's Island aka St Michael's Island!

The pair of grass putting courses were the 29th and 30th visited on our tour of the South West of England and the 628th and 629th visited overall on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Follow the signs to the end of Marine Drive and you'll arrive at Looe Bowling Club and the two excellent putting courses

The Putting Greens at Looe Bowling Club are open from April to October

It was brilliant to find the courses and they were fun to play. They became the 371st and 372nd we've played since 2006.

What a course and what a view

A looooooong putt. Note the petanque piste behind Emily

The windy layout is great fun

They were certainly a unique couple of layouts, with plenty of twists & turns, dips & hills. And to top it off there was a magnificent view from the course.

Down on the lower course

Hole 3 on the lower layout

There's a wooden board/fence on the corner of the dog-leg third hole - something we've never seen on a grass putting course before

A view of the lower course

In our match on the upper course on the 6th June 2015 Emily scored 49, while I scored 48 to take the win. On the lower course I shot a 56, with Emily hitting a 61.

Emily with an uphill shot

For more information, opening times and prices visit Looe Bowling Club on Facebook.

Visitors to Looe Bowling Club are made very welcome

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Mini Golf in the South West of England

Link:
- Looe Bowling Club on Facebook

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems.

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The National Railway Museum in York

Visiting the National Railway Museum on our travels.

Last year we had a wonderful weekend in York. We love spending time Yorkshire and have visited a number of minigolf courses in the county during the last nine years of our tour around the UK.

The National Railway Museum is a real hands-on place to visit

On this occasion we were in the fine city to attend the International Postcard Expo at the racecourse. But a visit York isn't complete unless you also take a look around the National Railway Museum.

See what I mean!

It's a tremendous facility that is a must visit.

In amongst the million-plus objects and exhibits at the National Railway Museum

Driving

Hanging out on a faux InterCity 125

The 'Midland Express'

We spent a few hours wandering around the various exhibits - there are over a million of them there! There's so much to see the museum warrants more than one visit and we can't wait to return.

I was tuckered out as there was so much to see I had to have a nap on a bullet train

While on our travels we always enjoy popping into museums for a look around. Some other great museums we've been to are in Abingdon, Ipswich, Stevenage, Newbury, High Wycombe, Buckingham and Canvey Island.

Abingdon's County Hall museum is the venue for the curious tradition of bun throwing

As a keen collector of ephemera, researcher of social history and a miniature golf historian I'm a curator of the Crazy Golf Museum. A marvellous place full of memories, memorabilia and merchandise from the world of minigolf.

Links:
- The National Railway Museum
- The Crazy Golf Museum

Related blog posts:
- Museum
- York
- Yorkshire
- The Crazy Golf Museum
- Funicular Railway
- Miniature Railway
- Train

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems.

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60 ways to get more out of your golf - play more minigolf

#48 is all about Crazy Golf.

In November last year I was named Officially Britain’s Craziest Golfer by Today's Golfer magazine and in a follow-up I was recently asked to contribute to a feature that appears in the April 2016 edition (on sale from 18th February to 16 March).

The magazine has collected together 60 ways to get more out of your golf in 2016. At number 48 is an interview where I've selected some of the top hot spots to putt on mini, crazy and adventure golf courses in the UK.

The HUGE windmill on the Oddballs Crazy Golf course in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire gets a mention in the Today's Golf article. Check out the magazine to see where else I selected

The issue of Today's Golfer also contains a look at the new miniature golf course at The Belfry.

Lovely to see some big coverage of the mini game.

Check out the Today's Golfer website to read my interview from last year at "This bloke has played 640 crazy golf courses. Just one question... why???"

Link:
- Today's Golfer magazine

Related blog posts:
- Officially Britain’s Craziest Golfer
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Richard Gottfried's Minigolf Player Profile

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems.

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Anglo-American Summit of the World Finger Jousting Federation

News from the Anglo-American Summit of the World Finger Jousting Federation.

Visit the World Finger Jousting Federation website for details of the recent Anglo-American Summit of the WFJF. An historic and landmark event in the fine sport of finger jousting.

President of the WFJF, and Lord of the Joust, Julian Gluck meets Richard Gottfried, British Consul to the Federation and head of operations in Europe

Back in 2006 I became the first international member of the WFJF. Check out the news item heralding my arrival.

Check out this video of a finger jousting contest between Squire Richard of Surleigh and Sir Myles of Hampshire.



Related blog posts:
- Finger Jousting
- The second ever blog post on the Ham & Egger Files

Links:
- World Finger Jousting Federation website
- World Finger Jousting Federation on Facebook

Expanded free from range at Morrisons

Great to see more gluten free products in the Morrisons free from range.

As someone with Coeliac Disease I'm always on the hunt for new and interesting gluten and wheat free food and drink. So I was very pleased to see that Morrisons have really gone to town on their expanded range of Free From products.

Look at that, just look at that. What a sight. What a delight

Yowzers! There are plenty of pie options in the fridge at Morrisons in Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire. This time I bought a very nice No-G Chicken, Bacon and Leek Pie for my dinner, and a Lemon Pie for Emily to try. I had a nibble to and it was marvellous. I've also got a Morello Cherry and Chocolate Tart in the fridge. We've also tried some of the products in the Great Food range before and they are very good too. We'll have to try the Pure products in the future

There is also some new gluten and wheat free bread from Newburn Bakehouse now in stock at Morrisons, including a sourdough loaf

Related blog posts:
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac

Links:
- Morrisons
- No-G
- Great Food
- Newburn Bakehouse

Crazy Golf in St Martins, near Looe in Cornwall

En route to Looe, Cornwall on the 6th June 2015 we visited the Parkdean Looe Bay Holiday Park in St Martins for a quick stop-off. There was a Crazy Golf course there. It looked like fun.

Unfortunately we couldn't find anywhere to hire putters from

The course became the 627th visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and the 28th during our tour of the South West of England.

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Mini Golf in the South West of England

Link:
- Parkdean Looe Bay Holiday Park website

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems.

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2016 World Alternative Games in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales

The World Alternative Games, the multi-sport event for quirky, odd and obscure games, is back for its third-edition this year.

The festival of sport will be taking place in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales between the 12th and 29th August 2016 and features an action packed calendar of events for people of all ages and abilities.

Athletes at the World Alternative Games compete in the Corinthian Spirit

We organised the Finger Jousting Championships at the 2012 and 2014 events. In the first-year there were 35 events, with over 60 titles up for grabs in 2014.

The competitors at the Official World Finger Jousting Championships in 2014

At the first edition of the event in 2012 I also won the World Alternative Games Egg Throwing Championships with my team mate Jas Kukielka. I also competed in the World of Grip and Portaputt contests in 2014.

About to win a world title

Find out more about the World Alternative Games on the official website.

Links:
- World Alternative Games website
- World Finger Jousting Federation website

Related blog posts:
- World Alternative Games

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems.

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Minigolf sharks in Sheffield

More miniature golf sharks sighted on our adventure golf travels.

Another minigolf shark captured on our adventures

While playing at the Paradise Island Adventure Golf course in Sheffield we spotted some more minigolf sharks!

Why would you need a Liferaft on an indoor Adventure Golf course?

Because of this!

Putting on the shipwreck on the Cinnamon Cove course at Paradise Island Adventure Golf in Sheffield

A view of the Shell Bay course. Home to a shark that didn't get away

Related blog posts:
- Mini Golf Sharks
- Paradise Island Adventure Golf in Sheffield
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems. You can also sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter.

A gluten free burger in a gluten free brioche-style bun!

We're always on the lookout for new and interesting gluten free food and we made a great discovery at Waitrose in Lutterworth, Leicestershire at the weekend when we spotted the packs of brioche style buns made by Just: Gluten Free Bakery!

What a find!

For dinner tonight we cooked up some gluten free burgers from the Co-Operative and put them in the brioche buns. They were delicious.

A fine burger, topped with bacon and cheese and stuffed in a nice brioche style bun. The free from Onion Rings from Tesco were great too. Note the healthy items on the plate

Check out the links below for more info on Just: Gluten Free Bakery.

Links:
- Just: Gluten Free Bakery website
- Just: Gluten Free Bakery on Twitter
- Just: Gluten Free Bakery on Facebook

Related blog posts:

- Gluten Free
- Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac

The Chilli Shop in Leeds

While we were up in Leeds to watch some live PDC darts and Hal Cruttenden's stand-up tour we stumbled upon a great shop in the Merrion Shopping Centre.

We were making our way to the First Direct arena for the kick-off of the 2016 PDC Premier League of darts and spotted the Chilli Shop. And what a marvellous shop it is too.

Our haul from the Chilli Shop in Leeds. The flyers for the shop also contain a version of the Scoville scale - a 'Survival Guide' to the hottest things on the planet!

As well as 50 free tasters of the world's best chillies there was all manner of other merchandise and snacks to buy.

Two things caught my eye - the first was 'The Museum of Pain'. This exhibits the hottest chillies in the world, some of which are a mind (and mouth) blowing two million plus on the Scoville scale! As a curator of The Crazy Golf Museum it was great to see the owner of the shop, Frank Jay, has taken the time and effort to display the array of chillies, trinkets, objects and info.

The Museum of Pain - it contains the world's hottest Easter Egg!

The second thing that caught my eye was the Chilli Challenge of the 'Hunger Games' where you got to play some darts, but with the caveat that if you didn't hit the bullseye to win the star prize (a bag of the world's hottest peanuts) you had to do a forfeit.

Darts, with a difference

I stepped up and scored a dismal amount that doesn't need to be recorded here. Needless to say that Emily was brave enough and stepped up to take my forfeit of a spoonful of a Chilli and Garlic condiment. I was more fearful of trying it due to cross contamination with all the gluten knocking around from the crackers used for tasters. For once, Coeliac Disease came to my aid!

We did return to the shop the next day and tasted a few other items and picked up some nice bottles of sauce, including the condiment which has a nice kick to it. We also bought a Goan Curry Sauce that is gluten free.

The Chilli Shop is well worth a visit if you're in Leeds. Do check out the Chilli Shop website for more info and details on how to order online.

Links:
- The Chilli Shop website
- The Chilli Shop on Facebook

- The Chilli Shop on Twitter

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow Richard and Emily on Twitter. You can also now sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter.