Plans for a new Crazy Golf in Bideford, Devon

There are plans for a new Crazy Golf course in Bideford, Devon.

The new business would also include a cafe, bounce area and arcade games.

We visited Bideford on our tour of the South West of England back in 2015. We had a look for the Crazy Golf course in Park Avenue but it was long-gone.

We did however visit the Pebble Ridge Adventure Golf course in Westward Ho!.

It'll be nice to get back down to visit the South West of England on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in the future.

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Captain Jack's Adventure Golf in Scarborough

New Adventure Golf course now open in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

Captain Jack's Adventure Golf is now open next to the observation wheel in Scarborough's South Bay.

Visit Captain Jack's Adventure Golf website for more information.

The new Adventure Golf course is located where the Futurist Theatre once stood.

On our travels we see minigolf courses everywhere - even where there aren't any. Last June I took this photo of the empty plot of land and we thought it'd be an ideal location for a course.

Captain Jack's Adventure Golf course landed on this spot

Minigolf in Scarborough

Last summer we revisited Scarborough and had a brilliant long weekend playing minigolf on the seaside resort's courses.

The North Bay Crazy Golf course was the 900th course we've visited overall and the 861st in the British Isles.

Scarborough's two bays have got a lot of choice for fans of minigolf, with a nice mix of Crazy Golf, Putting Greens, Pitch & Putt and Adventure Golf.

We're looking forward to returning on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in the future.

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Puttstars Rochdale

A walk-by look at the new Puttstars minigolf venue at Rochdale Riverside.

The new Puttstars indoor minigolf centre at Rochdale Riverside entertainment, leisure and shopping centre is opening in August. It had been due to open in April but was delayed by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Puttstars is a new concept from the Hollywood Bowl Group and the Rochdale venue will feature three 9-hole minigolf courses.

The first Puttstars location opened at the Thorpe Park shopping and entertainment site in Leeds in March this year.

A third Puttstars location is opening up in York next month too.

Visit the Puttstars Mini Golf website for more information.

At Puttstars a week too early. The doors are closed, but the signs are up and social distancing / Covid-19 measures are in place

We're looking forward to playing the Puttstars Mini Golf courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in the future.

Related blog posts:
- Puttstars
- Rochdale

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Adventure Island Crazy Golf in Mundesley, Norfolk

A look at the Adventure Island Golf course in Mundesley. July 2016.

The 12-hole layout became the 406th played and 692nd visited overall on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

We've now been to 949 courses since 2006.

Visit the Adventure Island Golf Mundesley Facebook Page for more information.

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Hi Doctor Nick!

It's always fun spotting Simpsons-related stuff while out and about.

I saw this sticker for the Kings Cross Tattoo Parlour while down in London last year.

What a strapline!

Related blog posts:
- The Simpsons

The Godfather in Rhyl

Not the first Godfather takeaway we've seen on our travels.

The Godfather takeaway in Rhyl

Putt18 World Pro League - Week 2 Results

Results from week 2 of the Putt18 World Pro League.

Play has been completed in the second week of the Putt18 World Pro League.

New Zealand's Matt Ansley once again won the week, this time with a four-round total score of 253 after rounds of 65, 62, 62 and 64.

Great Britain's Dave Gomm was second with a total of 256 after rounds of 66, 67, 64 and 59. The round of 59 was, at the time made, the lowest competitive round scored, the lowest Putt18 World Pro League round and the British record.

However, New Zealand's John Ansley finished the week in third place scoring 263 with rounds of 70, 72, 58 and 63. The 58 setting the bar for the other competitors.

A total of 21 players from four countries are competing in the inaugural Putt18 World Pro League.

I finished this week's competition in 11th place having shot rounds of 69, 73, 76 and 72 for a total of 290 and 42 points. A nice improvement after my shaky start to the tournament with rounds of 81, 79, 84 and 84 for a 328 total last week.

Putt18 World Pro League Table after 2 events

1 - Matt Ansley (NZL) 215 (2)
2 - Dave Gomm (GBR) 178 (2)
3 - Cameron Couper (NZL) 150 (2)
4 - John Ansley (NZL) 149 (2)
5 - Nathan Lamplough (AUS) 125 (2)
6 - Faye Ansley (NZL) 120 (2)
7 - Steve Lovell (GBR) 117 (2)
8 - Luke Lord (AUS) 108.5 (2)
9 - Josh Mars (AUS) 105 (2)
10 - Pat Sheridan (USA) 99 (2)
11 - Allan Cox (AUS) 92.5 (2)
12 - Cameron Fincher (GBR) 70 (2)
13 - Tom Loftus (USA) 55 (2)
14 - Matt Roadhouse (USA) 46 (2)
15 - Aaron Kaminski (USA) 44 (2)
16 - Richard Gottfried (GBR) 43 (2)
17 - Shelley Cooper (GBR) 40 (2)
18 - Randy Rice (USA) 31 (2)
19 - Gary P Shiff (USA) 14 (2)
20 - Karl R Barth (USA) 7 (2)
21 - James Gilderdale (NZL) 5 (2)

Week 3 of the Putt18 World Pro League tees-off next Wednesday.

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More information on the Putt18 golf game mat can be found on the Putt18 website.

Remnants of Blockbuster Video

Finding some more traces of the lost brand.

We've always enjoyed exploring our surroundings, looking for and hunting out interesting things. We've seen quite a few ghost signs on our travels and many of these are hangovers from another time, some even dating back over a hundred years.

Since we found the remains of Blockbuster Video just up the road from us in Fallowfield, Manchester we had a look to see if there were any other former branches still showing signs of the brand.

We were in luck as on our walks around Cheadle Hulme and Marple we spotted the ghostly outline of a sign, as well as an old QuikDrop box.

The outline of the old big ticket logo of Blockbuster is still visible behind the Majestic Wine sign. A modern day ghost sign

The QuikDrop slot is the only part of the former Blockbuster Video Express in Marple that hasn't been painted over. It's now a Post Office

It'll be interesting to see if we spot any other traces of the brand once we're back out on the road on Crazy World of Minigolf Tour travels.

You can actually play a Blockbuster Video crazy golf hole at Ghetto Golf in Digbeth, Birmingham!

The Blockbuster shop hole at Ghetto Golf Birmingham

Judging the Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club PUTT PARTY contest

We had a brilliant time judging all of the entries into the Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club's PUTT PARTY contest on Saturday morning.

Putting at home with the Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club

The PUTT PARTY was a Show & Tell of the Mini Golf holes created by residents of Knowle West in Bristol and the culmination of a lot of hard work and crazy golfing fun.

During lockdown and over summer the Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club has created a home-based minigolf club for local residents. Having received supplies of arts and crafts materials the club members were challenged to create their own crazy golf holes.

It was superb seeing the innovations, classic styles, wild, wacky and mega minigolf constructions and tricky to pick a winner.

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Yesterday was our finale Putt Party, where Knowle West-ers showcased our DIY Mini Golf Hole’s with one another over zoom, drawing the virtual ClubHouse meetings to a temporary pause. We can’t thank our in-house Mini Golf VIP’s @emslemsgottfried & @richard_gottfried all the way from Stockport enough. What a tricky judging time they had. They fed back beautiful comments on all the houses holes, really respected our community with words of encouragement and praise for our different skillsets and mini golf crafting skills. Comments included ‘wow, I wasn’t expecting that!’ & ‘you had it all!’ 949 Mini Golf Holes 🕳 visited. We cannot wait for you to visit us in Knowle West (when restrictions allow). #superstars #mr&mrs #minigolfchamps #thankyousomuch #diygolfcourse #communityfirst

A post shared by #FilwoodFantastic Mini Golf (@filwoodfantasticminigolf) on Jul 26, 2020 at 5:39am PDT

After everyone had demonstrated their crazy golf layout and talked through the ideas behind it we entered into deliberation before declaring the Alford family the winners of the Mini Golf Artists Award 2020 for their excellent Crocodile hole.

You can see the winning design in the Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club Facebook Group and Instagram.

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HUGE congratulations to @thegurtlife Dan, Lucy & Rowan for their Winning design at our Finale Putty Party on Saturday morning. Novers (g)Nasher came from no-where and stole first place with a cranking automated croc mouth, a slide for the ball and a direct swift hole in one action. Unbelievable!!! Dan’s family holds the title of The Mini Golf Artist 2020! He’ll be collecting his trophy and prize set from the Filwood Fantastic market next Saturday at @filwoodcentre #welldone #expecttheunexpected #communityforthewin #welldonedan #aloveofcrocs

A post shared by #FilwoodFantastic Mini Golf (@filwoodfantasticminigolf) on Jul 26, 2020 at 5:48am PDT

The multi-level layout had moving parts to open the croc's mouth, a ramp, tunnel, a playable tee-off point and a nice green.

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I may have got a little carried away with the build for today’s @filwoodfantasticminigolf inaugural diy hole building competition. Chuffed to take the win with our entry, The Novers Gnasher! A run down of the materials used: The shell of the croc was from our neighbours old To Let sign and covered with an old yoga mat. The hand crank is from some random screws, bottle tops and left over wood from a garden project. The ball goes through the crocs mouth Into a cardboard tube before travelling down a 2 metre slope, through an old drainage pipe (to slow the ball down), arriving on finishing green. The only cost was £1 for the hinges in the crocs mouth! #lockdownproject #minigolf #knowlewest #diygolfcourse

A post shared by The Gurt Life (@thegurtlife) on Jul 25, 2020 at 12:02pm PDT

We're looking forward to seeing the creation scaled-up and included in the full-size Crazy Golf course being built at the Filwood Community Centre later this year.

Visit the Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club's Facebook Group and the Filwood Community Centre website for more information.

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Lost shops - Toys R Us in Warrington

A look at the old Toys R Us store in Warrington.

In our continued look at old, defunct and lost shops we took a walk round the old Toys R Us store in Warrington, Cheshire at the weekend.

Toys R Us ceased trading in the UK back in April 2018 and the Warrington location has been empty since then. The site will become a car dealership in the future.

While very little of the signage is still in place you can still clearly see ghost signs of the TOYS R US and BABIES R US logos on the building.

Working at Toys R Us

My first job while at university in the year 2000 was as one of Geoffrey's helpers at the Luton store. I worked on the video game and electronics section.

We never had these branded bollards at the Gipsy Lane store in Luton

A look round the Warrington location

Here are some more snaps and videos of the store as it looked in July 2020.

The approach to the store

These branded stones are very very nice

Ghost signage

The lettering from the old sign is still visible on the side of the building

Note the markings on the ground

Coronavirus social distancing warnings

The container loading bay. When I worked at Toys R Us I spent parts of my evening shifts unloading the containers

One of the few signs still on the building. While it's unbranded, the Toys R Us typeface is recognisable

Toys R Us and Babies R Us ghost signs

The overgrown trolley bay at the front of the store

An empty trolley bay

A 'tombstone' to the dead brand

Toys R Us in Ancoats, Manchester

I took a look at the old Toys R Us store at the Central Retail Park in Ancoats, Manchester just prior to it's demolition in March 2019.

Check out photos of that location from two visits in February 2019 - one / two.

We had a look at what's left of the old Central Retail Park last Friday.

Lost shops

We've seen a number of other old and defunct brands on our travels around the country including Woolworths in Stoke-on-Trent, Woolworths Big W in Edinburgh, Kwik Save in Barrow-in-Furness, Blockbuster Video in Fallowfield, Tandy in Hitchin and RadioShack in Lytham Saint Annes.

Do you have a favourite old shop brand from the past?

The Simpsons art on an ice cream van

We spotted an interestingly decorated ice cream van in Cheadle on Friday.

It's always fun seeing The Simpsons in unexpected places

It's not the first time we've seen The Simpsons on an ice cream van - we saw this one in Leeds and another in Cheadle Heath.

This was on the High Street rather than Abbey Road

Related blog posts:
- The Simpsons

Urban Exploration - Central Retail Park in Manchester

A look at what's left of the old Central Retail Park in Ancoats, Manchester.

We went for a walk in Manchester city centre for the first time since March on Friday.

We've spent the pandemic within the confines of Stockport borough, save for a few incursions over the border to Fallowfield, Didsbury and Parrs Wood, so it was nice to see some different sights for a change.

Last year we'd walked past the old Central Retail Park in Ancoats and saw the beginning of the work to demolish the retail units. The site looks quite different now.

Desolate

The last signs standing

A view of the entrance roundabout

 

This was where Toys R Us used to be!

An old way in

There are plans to turn the area into a car park.

It's already looking car parky

It was a good spot to practice social distancing.

Related blog posts:
- Manchester
- Urban exploration
- Toys R Us at the Central Retail Park in Manchester
- Lost shops - Toys R Us in Ancoats, Manchester

New Shipwreck Adventure Golf in Swanage

There's a new Shipwreck Adventure Golf course in Swanage, Dorset.

Many thanks to our friend and fellow minigolf explorer Matt Dodd for letting us know there's a new Shipwreck Adventure Golf course at the Santa Fe Fun Park in Swanage, Dorset.

Check out the Santa Fe Fun Park website for more information.

It's another good reason for us to revisit Swanage. We had a great time in the seaside resort on our South West road trip in 2015. The existing Jurassic Adventure Golf course there was the landmark 600th UK visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We've now been to 949 courses since 2006.

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Volcano Falls Adventure Golf in Castleford

A look at the social distancing measures at Volcano Falls Adventure Golf in Castleford.

Many thanks to my friend and minigolf rival Henri Myers for sending over some photos from his visit to the 36-hole indoor Volcano Falls Adventure Golf centre at Xscape in Castleford.

 

Visit the Volcano Falls Adventure Golf website for more information.

The two Volcano Falls Adventure Golf courses in Castleford were among the 20 courses we visited in the first 20 days of 2020. So much has happened since then!

Our travels in January took us to minigolf venues in Oxford, Birmingham, Manchester, Northwich, Doncaster and Castleford.

Castleford is home to six miniature golf courses and 87-holes - all in the Xscape / Junction 32 Outlet Village area.

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Caddy Shack Mini Golf at Shanklin Seafront

A look at the new Caddy Shack Mini Golf course at Shanklin Seafront, Isle of Wight.

A massive thank you to our friend Philip Walsh for sending over some photos from his round at the new Caddy Shack Mini Golf course during his recent stay on the Isle of Wight.

The Caddy Shack indoor Mini Golf course can be found at Shanklin Seafront.

The rules

A sanitisation point and queuing area at the course

A glow-in-the-dark section of the course

Visit the Shanklin Seafront website for more information.

Shanklin Seafront is also home to two other outdoor minigolf courses - one is a Pirate-themed adventure golf layout and the other is a Jurassic course.

It'll be brilliant to make a return visit to the Isle of Wight on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We've had some day trips there in the past and played a lot of courses, but need at least a long weekend there to play them all.

Philip has also been to the brand new Shanklin Crazy Golf course, the Putting Course at Luccombe Hall Hotel, Rylstone Crazy Golf and Tea Gardens in Shanklin and the Mini Golf course and Billiard Golf tables in Puerto Colón, Tenerife this year.

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Pickle Rick's in Stockport

There's a Pickle Rick's Pizza place in Hazel Grove, Stockport!