Simpsons stickers

I always keep an eye out for interesting street art and have some seen some nice pieces, including these Simpsons ones while out and about on my travels.

Spray can Bart in Manchester

Homer the hockey player

I didn't know Homer was a Tractor Boy!

Lizard Queen Lisa

I wouldn't have thought Rugby League was that popular in Springfield

Who knew Barney Gumble was an Inter Milan fan

Related blog posts:
- Street Art
- The Simpsons

Happy Eater

Do you remember Happy Eater?

Did you used to stop at Happy Eater, or were you more of a Little Chef fan?

Happy Eater restaurants were once a familiar sight on A-roads in the South East and Midlands of England. Set up in 1973 Happy Eater was created as a competitor to Little Chef.

The brand was eventually bought out by it's big rival Little Chef in the mid-nineties. The last Happy Eater closed its doors in 1997.

Neither brand exists on the roadsides of England anymore.

Interestingly if you visit Mauritius you can still dine at a Happy Eater restaurant!

Lost brands

We've seen traces of a number of old and defunct brands that were big in the 80s and 90s on our travels around the country. These have included Woolworths in Stoke-on-Trent, Woolworths Big W in Edinburgh, Kwik Save in Barrow-in-Furness, Blockbuster Video in Fallowfield, Tandy in Hitchin, RadioShack in Lytham Saint Annes and Toys R Us in Ancoats and Warrington.

Urbex - Blockbuster Video in Fallowfield

A look at the remains of the old Blockbuster Video store in Fallowfield, Manchester.

Blockbuster Video lives on in Manchester. In a way.

Kind of.

One for International Beer Day - Crazy Golf in Beer, Devon

A look at a crazy golf scorecard from Pecorama in Beer.

Happy International Beer Day.

Here's an item from the Crazy Golf Museum archives - a minigolf scorecard from the Crazy Golf course at Pecorama in Beer, Devon. Donated by Nigel Lutt.

------------

Sign-up to receive the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour enewsletter

Minigolf in a brewery

Happy International Beer Day.

We competed in The Brewmaster's Open at the Camden Town Brewery eight years ago this month.

This is still one of the best minigolf scorecards I've seen

It was a superb event played on a portable 5-hole minigolf course from UrbanCrazy set up in a brewery! More than 200 players competed in the tournament.

------------

Sign-up to receive the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour enewsletter

CLUB GOLF crazy golf beer

Today is International Beer Day.

I spotted this Crazy Golf beer at the Club Golf minigolf pop-up at Coal Drops Yard in King's Cross, London in February this year.

It was the last new minigolf course I played before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

------------

Sign-up to receive the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour enewsletter

Minigolf beer at Holeymolies indoor minigolf course

Happy International Beer Day.

Did you know that the Holeymolies indoor miniature golf course in Skelton-in-Cleveland, Teesside has its own beer?

The minigolf course was the 500th played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

------------

Sign-up to receive the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour enewsletter

Urbex - Toys R Us in Warrington

A look at the remains of the old Toys R Us store in Warrington, Cheshire.

19th Hole minigolf beer for International Beer Day

Today is International Beer Day.

Uncle Stuart's Brewery and Beer Shop at Wroxham Barns in Norfolk created the 19th Hole Beer to commemorate the staging of the 2011 BMGA English Open minigolf championships at Wroxham Barns.

To our knowledge it was the first minigolf beer in history!

------------

Sign-up to receive the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour enewsletter

Crepes R Us

NOT Toys R Us.

Related blog posts:
- Stickers
- Toys R Us

Pitch & Plakks now available to pre-order online

The new Pitch & Plakks minigolf game is available to pre-order online.

Post contains affiliate links

We found out about Pitch & Plakks minigolf course toy back in May and backed the Kickstarter to get the game made.

Pitch & Plakks will be released in November and we're looking forward to receiving this early Christmas present.

You can pre-order the game - with a discount - online now.

We love playing minigolf, outdoors and indoors - whether it's a full size course, a video game or a board game we're super competitive! It'll be interesting to see who wins our games - and how many arguments we'll have while playing it...

Pitch & Plakks is the second game from the team at Plakks after they successfully launched the Plakks football game in 2019.

You can pre-order Pitch & Plakks through this link. Any purchases made through it will also support us to continue bringing you brilliant minigolf content.

Pitch & Plakks is going to be a nice addition to our collection of minigolf toys, games and board games.

Cornhill Cove Crazy Golf in Lincoln

New pop-up Crazy Golf course opening in Lincoln.

Lincoln city centre will be home to a pop-up Crazy Golf course this summer as Cornhill Cove opens in Lincoln's Cornhill this month.

Cornhill Cove is a seaside-style pop-up area and the Crazy Golf course tees-off on Thursday 13th August and will be open for a month.

The area will also be home to a bar and street food.

Visit the Cornhill Cove Facebook Page for more information.

------------

Sign-up to receive the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour enewsletter

New indoor adventure golf course heading to Reading

A new indoor adventure golf course is planned to open at The Oracle shopping centre in Reading, Berkshire and the news was covered on BBC Radio Berkshire afternoon's show yesterday.

I was a guest on the programme to talk about the wide world of minigolf.

The episode is available for 29 days and can be listened to at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08l9kc5

The piece about Crazy Golf begins at 3h 19m 50s.

The new venue at The Oracle in Reading will replace the House of Fraser department store. As well as indoor minigolf the location will also be home to a food hall and tenpin bowling.

------------

Sign-up to receive the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour enewsletter

Lost Blockbuster Video in Oldham

Last month we popped over to Oldham for our daily walk and a look for an old Blockbuster Video store on Ashton Road.

Sadly there were no traces of the brand visible at the former location. Until fairly recently the upstairs windows had retained the Blockbuster branding. Sadly they had been boarded up. Had the store been open I believe the old QuikDrop box is still in place. Next time we're over that way we'll take another look.

Interestingly the new shop in the building has retained a blue and yellow colour scheme and a Square is a kind of Block too

It wasn't all for nought though as we did spot an apt road name on the way back.

----

Check out more Blockbuster Video related blog posts

The Brewmaster's Open at the Camden Town Brewery in London

A look back at The Brewmaster's Open minigolf tournament at the Camden Town Brewery in London.

We competed in The Brewmaster's Open at the Camden Town Brewery eight years ago today. It was part of the brilliant summer of sport in the capital.

Ready to compete

It was a superb event played on a portable 5-hole minigolf course from UrbanCrazy set up in a brewery! More than 200 players competed in the tournament.

Playing hole 1

The scorecards were some of the best I've ever seen.

Beermat scorecards!

It was a marvellous day out.

Taking a 'refreshment break' at the Camden Town Brewery during The Brewmaster's Open tournament

Christopher Gottfried playing in The Brewmaster's Open at the Camden Town Brewery in London as Emily and Simon Hall look on

  

Hole 1

Inside the brewery miniature golf course

Alan Norman teeing-off the competition

Alan 'Stormin' Norman won The Brewmaster's Open with his round of 8. I finished in tied 2nd place alongside Seth Thomas.

The podium - me, Alan Norman and Seth Thomas

The leaderboard

We also played our own three-round tournament, you can read about it in my blog post Mini Golf at the Camden Town Brewery in London.

In action

Check out the Camden Town Brewery website.

Visit UrbanCrazy's website for more info on portable putting courses.

------------

Sign-up to receive the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour enewsletter

Tee-Rex Adventure Golf course at Cardiff Golf Centre

A look at the Tee-Rex Adventure Golf course at Cardiff Golf Centre in Old St Mellons.

The Tee-Rex Adventure Golf course at Cardiff Golf Centre in Old St Mellons, August 2019

It's been a year since we played the Tee-Rex Adventure Golf course at Cardiff Golf Centre.

The 18-hole dinosaur-themed Adventure Golf course was the 916th visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We've now been to 954 courses since September 2006.

Visit the Tee-Rex Adventure Golf website course for more information.

The Tee-Rex Adventure Golf course was built by the team at HM Adventure Golf in 2017.

Missing Wales

We really miss being able to visit Wales and normally by this point in the year would've already popped over the border a few times to visit friends, explore some new places, go to the seaside and play some minigolf.

It'll be brilliant when it's once again safe for us to visit.

------------

Sign-up to receive the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour enewsletter

Peterborough Minigolf at Dobbies Garden Centre

A look back at our first visit to Peterborough Minigolf at Dobbies Garden Centre.

It's been over five years since we first visited the Peterborough Minigolf course at Dobbies Garden Centre. Time certainly flies!

It only seems a short while ago that we swung by for a game.

It's a brilliant 12-hole course, full of testing layouts and obstacles. A nice test of putting skill.

The course was the 382nd played and 662nd visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We've now been to 954 courses in total since September 2006.

We actually revisited Peterborough Minigolf in February of this year on one of our last road-trips before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Visit the Peterborough Minigolf course website for more information.

The course was another superb build by the team at UrbanCrazy.

------------

Sign-up to receive the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour enewsletter

New minigolf course open in Hull

New pirate adventure golf course now open at East Park in Hull.

A new 9-hole pirate-themed crazy adventure golf course has opened at East Park in Hull.

Visit the East Park Pirate Golf Facebook page for more information.

Minigolf courses in Hull

As well as the new crazy adventure golf course at East Park you can play miniature golf at the Pirate Adventure Golf course at One Stop Golf and at the Putt Club indoor crazy golf course at TeamSport.

A Lost City Adventure Golf venue is also being built at St Stephen's shopping centre.

Hull has been on our to visit list for a few years and we look forward to heading there and playing the minigolf courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in the future.

------------

Sign-up to receive the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour enewsletter

Putt18 World Pro League - Week 3

I'll be teeing-off in week 3 of the Putt18 World Pro League at 4.45pm this Friday, 7th August.

You can watch my four rounds live on Facebook.

---

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

Related blog posts:
- Results from week 2 of the Putt18 World Pro League
- Results from week 1 of the Putt18 World Pro League
- Putt18

----

Sign-up to receive the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour enewsletter

Homer Burger

I saw this fun piece of Homer Simpson graffiti art at Ghetto Golf in Digbeth, Birmingham.

Related blog posts:

- Homer Simpson

- The Simpsons

- Ghetto Golf

New app at Lost World Adventure Golf in Hemsby, Norfolk

The Lost World Adventure Golf course in Hemsby has a new app.

The team at the Lost World Adventure Golf in Hemsby, Norfolk have introduced a new mobile scoring and loyalty app for the 9-hole course. It's available to download for free on Android and iPhone.

It looks very nice indeed and gives maps for each of the holes, details of the rules, a selfie function and more.

The loyalty points system is a nice touch too and is a continuation of the paper-based loyalty cards available at the course.

When you sign up to the app you automatically receive 300 points onto your card.

The Lost World Adventure Golf in Hemsby was the 88th course visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour back in May 2009. It's still one of our favourites and we have fond memories of competing in tournaments there.

We can't wait to get back for another round there in the future. I've downloaded the app ready to play. I'll be digging out our previous rounds to load into the History element of the app which allows you to view all your past games.

Each of the holes has a map in the top left corner. When you click on it a larger view will open with a tip on the best way to play it

Download the app to see how the animated action shows the skill shot route from tee to cup

The Lost World Adventure Golf app is available to download for free on Android and iPhone.

Visit the Lost World Adventure Golf website and Facebook Page for more details, views of the holes, opening times and prices.

I recently blogged about the social distancing measures in place at Lost World Adventure Golf in Hemsby.

---------

Sign-up to receive the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour enewsletter