New Personal Best at Stockwood Park's Mini Golf course

Latest scores at 9-hole Pitch & Putt Miniature Golf in Luton.

I recently headed up to the Mini Golf course, Driving Range and Putting Green at Stockwood Park Golf Centre in Luton for a bit of practice and a game on the 9-hole Pitch & Putt course against my friend Oxana Nikandrova.

A view of the 9-hole Mini Golf course

The round of golf was Oxana's first-ever game and she scored an excellent 46(+19) on the par-27 course. I managed a new personal best round of 27(par) on the course.

The Putting Green at Stockwood Park

The course is well worth a visit, especially in lovely sunny weather. The Stockwood Park Golf Centre aslo has a good Driving Range and a Putting Green facility.

A view of the 18th hole on the BIG Golf course at Stockwood Park

Related Blog Posts:

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour - Course Played #30 Luton (Stockwood Park) - Mini Golf/Pitch & Putt

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

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

- Pitch & Putt Par 3 Golf at Stockwood Park
- Stockwood Park Big Mini Golf Match-up - Gottfried vs. Hall
- "A very British “keep calm and carry on” brown sign…." at the Follow The Brown Signs Blog

Link:

- Stockwood Park Golf Centre

Gluten Free Food & Beer (and Bar Billiards) in Baldock

Coeliac-friendly Fish & Chips and Beer. And a game or three of Bar Billiards.

The Fish 'n' Chick'n' fish & chip shop in Baldock, Hertfordshire caters for Coeliacs on the last Tuesday of the month when many of the items on the menu can be made Gluten Free. Emily and I revisited recently and once again found the food and service to be very good. It's well worth a visit.

We also visited the Orange Tree pub in the town for a few games of our new favourite pub game - Bar Billiards. I had previously played the table at the pub in February and on this visit we had a chat to the landlord Rob, who inbetween running the Pub Quiz, showed us the new extension to the pub (host to a pub games sporting event later this summer!) and also told us about the Gluten Free food and drinks they offer. The beer they have is the Hambleton's Gluten Free Ale and Gluten Free Lager.

In our games of Bar Billiards Emily defeated me two games to one. In Game one I picked up a win 980 to nil after Emily had wiped-out her score of 350 and I scored a white ball to the 200 hole on the sudden-death shoot-out.

In game two Emily shot her highest score to date to pick up a victory 1,160 points to 320, with Emily hitting a red ball to 20 and a white to a 50 hole to finish.

In the final game of the series Emily won a close game 580 to 430, scoring 100 in the sudden-death shoot-out.

A different view of the Bar Billiards table at The Orange Tree

Knocking down two mushrooms with one shot

Related Blog Posts:

- Bar Billiards in Baldock & Knebworth

- All Bar Billiards Blog Posts on The Ham & Egger Files

- Gluten Free Fish & Chips that we've found on our travels

- Gluten Free Ales, Beers and Lagers

Links:

- The Orange Tree Baldock

- Fish 'n' Chick'n' Baldock

- Coeliac UK

Knight School at Urquhart Castle

One of my Minigolf rivals, John 'Thighs' Moore, informed me of a class that he thought may be of interest to me as a 'Squire' - the Knight School at Urquhart Castle in Scotland!

For £7.40 you can join a Squire as he is being trained for Knight Hood at the castle, situated on the banks of Loch Ness, and see if you have what it takes to be a Knight and learn the chivalric code! Sounds like a bargain.

The events are running at Urquhart Castle this Easter and are running on Friday 6th April and Saturday 7th April.

Perhaps I'll attend a session in the future ...

Video of a Finger Jousting Match between me (Squire Richard of Surleigh) and my arch-rival Sir Myles of Hampshire in a point play rules Finger Jousting match at the Luton Finger Jousting Arena on the 25th March 2007.

Links:

- Knight School at Urquhart Castle

- Urquhart Castle

Related Blog Posts:

- Minigolf Nicknames

- Finger Jousting for four years

- Squire Richard of Surleigh's Coat of Arms, with Motto (translation: Through effort to the stars)

We Spotted a Brown Tourist Sign for a Milestones Museum in Basingstoke...

One of the Brown Tourist Signs we spotted on our way to the launch of the new minigolf course at Basingstoke Golf Centre

...although the museum is of the living history variety, rather than a museum of milestones!

Another brown tourist sign spotted for the Follow the Brown Signs website though!

We didn't have time to visit on this occasion as we were heading down to Southsea.

Links:
- The Milestone Society
- Follow the Brown Signs
- The Milestones Museum, Basingstoke

Related Blog Posts:
- A Landmark On Our Travels - Photographing Our First Milestone
- The Brown Sign Way - A Website and Blog Dedicated to Tourist Attraction Signs

Not getting stang off of a fake wasp on a bollard

Someone had stuck a fake wasp onto the top of a bollard in hightown, Luton last week!?

Recently I spotted some interesting (if you're a fan of Bollards) links to the Bollards of London website in The Sun newspaper. You can also follow Bollards of London and Bollards of Britain on Twitter.

Links:
- Bollards of London
- Bollards of Britain

Last chance to watch me on The Chase on the ITV Player

Check out my latest TV Quiz Show Appearance online.

You can watch my appearance on The Chase from 5pm on Friday 2nd March 2012 at the ITV Player.

You can read a news story about my appearance on The Chase in the Herald & Post e-edition - "Richard is chasing a quiz-show dream"

Blog Post:

- Appearing on ITV's The Chase!

'Squire' Richard Gottfried receives O.B.E. Honour

Services to Crazy Golf pay off for Luton Minigolfer.

Luton Minigolfer 'Squire' Richard Gottfried has received the prestigious honour of being bestowed with an O.B.E.!

The award was announced today in a letter passed On By Emily.

'Squire' Richard Gottfried - Out Standing in his Field

Attending a Wrestling event for the first time in five years!

Last Friday night I headed to a Power Trip Wrestling event in Luton. I haven’t been to a Wrestling event since I went to the WWE TV Tapings for ECW, Raw and Smackdown at Earl’s Court back in April 2007.

I used to be a big wrestling fan and a bunch of us used to go and watch a lot of the All Star Wrestling shows back in Oxford in the 90’s. Nowadays I’m more likely to fast forward WWE Superstars and the WWE Experience but as it was PTW’s 5th Birthday show I thought I’d check it out.

I wasn’t disappointed, it was really good fun!

My favourite match saw El Technico Supremo (a Hulk Hogan-inspired Mexican wrestler gimmick – with an Italian accent) take on Shane Stevens in a great battle which was a mixture of some hard hitting action, high spots and comedy. It had the near capacity crowd of over 50 people cheering loudly. You can watch the match on the PTW YouTube Channel.

El Technico Supremo 'Hulks-up' in his match against Shane Stevens

The rest of the card saw a mix of tag-team and singles bouts, along with a 10-man Battle Royal and a PTW World title match between 'Sexy' Zizou Middoux w/ the PTW Wildcard Champion 'Perfect' P.T. Player vs. 'The Renegade' Marcus Phayer. I also enjoyed the opening bout between Chris Sharpe and the dastardly heel 'The Earl of Excellence' Robert Rochester-Rose!

The PTW show was raising funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust and was great fun and well worth the £5 entry fee for a good two and half hours of wrestling!

Links:

- Power Trip Wrestling on YouTube

- Power Trip Wrestling on Twitter

'Tenuously Linked to Wrestling' Blog Posts on The Ham & Egger Files:

- Richard & Emily Gottfried Compete in the 2011 UK Thumb Wrestling Championships

- Arm Champs II, Turks and Jobbing - a revisit to Great Yarmouth's Best Arcade Machine

- Jobbing to Arm Champs - the original Arm Wrestling Arcade Game

- Richard Gottfried - Next 'Broski of the Week' Woo Woo Woo, You Know It!

A revisit to Southsea on a lovely sunny day

A mini pub games crawl at the seaside.

After our visit to the new Minigolf course at Basingstoke Golf Centre Emily and I decided to make the most of the lovely sunny day by heading 45 minutes down the road to one of our favourite seasides – Southsea.

Outside the Treasure Island Adventure Golf course in Southsea

We had a nice wander around the town and seafront, headed to the amusement arcades for some rattin’ and tattin’ and also had a quick look at the Treasure Island Adventure Golf course (location of the genesis of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour). Having played a fair bit of minigolf already during the day we decided not to play anymore, but instead grab some food and head to a few pubs.

Treasure Island Adventure Golf course in Southsea

Ahead of meeting up with my brother who lives in the town we went to the Barley Mow pub to check out the pub games they have on offer. The pub has some great signage on the wall outside advertising their games.

Pub games sign at the Barley Mow

We found a Bar Billiards table in the lounge bar, with a Pool table and Dartboard in the games room next door. The pub also has a nice little Patio/Beer Garden.

The Barley Mow's Bar Billiards table

In our game of Bar Billiards at the Barley Mow Emily and I tied on zero points when I wiped-out my 750 points on the black peg shoot-out.

The table was in great condition and very tricky too. There were also three posters detailing the rules of the game – one of which called it ‘Pokey Pokey’! On this rulesheet it called the pegs 'soldiers'! This is the first time I've seen the pegs on the table called this - they do look a bit like people with their arms outstretched. I haven't seen the game called 'Pokey Pokey' before either. I wonder what the origin of the name is?

The Barley Mow also had a sign-up sheet calling for people to join the pub team to take on others from The Eldon Arms, the White Horse and the King Street Tavern. We’ll definitely be heading back to the Barley Mow for a few drinks on our next visit to Southsea; it’s a great spot to spend some time and is just a short walk away from the seafront.

I line-up a shot

Emily playing Bar Billiards at the Barley Mow

The Simplified Rules of 'Pokey Pokey'!

Some of the signage at the Barley Mow

The Dartboard at the Barley Mow

After having a quick throw of some darts our next stop was to The White Horse. The Bar Billiards table here was the first one I never laid my eyes on when we had previously had a meal there. At that point I had no idea what the game was and it is only since watching Indoor League on DVD that I got bitten by the Bar Billiards Bug!

The Bar Billiards table at The White Horse pub

In our match Emily picked up a win 610 to 590 in an incredibly close game, which was finished when Emily scored 50, 30 and 30 with her last shot!

Emily makes a break

After the game at The White Horse we met up with my brother and headed to the King Street Tavern, only to find that they no longer have a Bar Billiards table. The pub did look nice enough and there was a selection of games on the bar and some local history books available for customers to read. As an aside, one of the books was 'Is Britain Great? 2' by the team at The Caravan Gallery based in the town - the book is well worth a look and includes a photo of the old Mushroom Hut on the now demolished Crazy Golf course at Felixstowe. We’ll head back to the pub for a pint there next time we’re in town.

The final stop on our mini-pub crawl on the Barmy Bar Billiards Trail in Southsea was to The Eldon Arms, the next pub along from the King Street Tavern. Here we found the Bar Billiards table to the left of the bar and in an area next to the Pool table and a dartboard. On Sundays the pub has free play Pool so that table was very busy.

The Bar Billiards table at The Eldon Arms

In me and Emily’s final match of our best-of-three series in Southsea I picked up a win 1,350 to 330 – my highest score to date. I managed to hit the 100 hole in the sudden-death shootout. This did however mean that our Southsea match ended at one win apiece, with the other match a draw. A re-match is on the cards next time we head to Southsea!

Christopher watches Emily playing Bar Billiards

Emily making a sudden-death shot

The final game of Bar Billiards saw me introduce Christopher to the game. He took to it like a duck to water and defeated me 840 to 710 in a close match that went the distance. In the sudden-death shootout he hit the 100 hole with a white ball to take the win. We also chatted to a few of the punters who were watching us play and explained the rules of Bar Billiards to them, they seemed intrigued by the game and thought it sounded more fun than Pool. It's a shame the pub didn't have a rulesheet available to let interested people know how to play the game. 

Christopher playing his first game of Bar Billiards

All in all a great finish to a long day out of fun and games in Basingstoke and Southsea!

Links and Related Blog Posts:

- Bar Billiards Blog Posts
- Minigolf Revisit - Treasure Island Adventure Golf in Southsea - Five Years Later...
- Five years on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- From the Vault - Southsea Minigolf 2006
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

- The Barley Mow
- All England Bar Billiards Association

Basingstoke Golf Centre - New Mini Golf courses played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Visit to the new 9-hole Minigolf course at Basingstoke Golf Centre and results of Minigolf Challenge Matches.

A view of the new 9-hole Minigolf course at Basingstoke Golf Centre

On Sunday 25th March Emily and I visited and played the 283rd and 284th Miniature Golf courses on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour at the Open Day Launch of a new Mini Golf course at Basingstoke Golf Centre in Hampshire. The weather for the day out playing minigolf could not have been better.

In our first round on the new 9-hole course I defeated Emily by two shots with a score of 19(+1) to her 21(+3).

Emily plays Hole 4

In our next round we were joined by fellow GB international and two-time World Crazy Golf Champion Chris Harding. Chris scored a 16(-2), I had a 17(-1) and Emily hit a 19(+1).

At the event there were also two challenge matches, the first saw me, Emily, Chris and Basingstoke Golf Centre’s PGA Golf Professional Tony Cook play a one-round, 9-hole contest.

In the match Emily was the outright leader for the first seven holes, before Chris and I scored an ace each. This left a three-way tie for the lead with two to play. On hole eight I scored a two, while the other players each took a three. On the ninth Chris and I were both close to getting a hole-in-one but took twos, while Emily and Tony scored threes, meaning that I took the win. The scores from the match were:

- Richard Gottfried - 16(-2)

- Chris Harding - 17(-1)

- Emily Gottfried - 18(par)

- Tony Cook* - 22(+4)

* Tony is the course record holder, having previously scored a round of 14(-4)

From l-r Tony Cook, Richard Gottfried, Emily Gottfried & Chris Harding

In the team contest two teams of three players, led by me and Chris Harding, faced-off in a closely fought cumulative score strokeplay event. The players were selected by each of the team captains. I got first pick having upset Chris with a shock victory in a (best-of-3) Rock Paper Scissors match!

I play a shot on hole 2 - I scored an ace!

On my team were Jon Angel and Danny Angel from the Great Britain Minigolf Team sponsors UrbanCrazy, with Chris’ team containing David McConnachie and Steve Gorton.

Team UrbanCrazy - Danny, Jon and Richard

Team Invincible - Chris, David and Scott

Me and Chris play Rock Paper Scissors to decide who gets the first pick of the players in the team challenge

My team won the challenge match with a total of 62(+8), with Chris’ team hitting 64(+10). The match was very back and forth, with the teams tying on a number of holes too. The final hole to be played - hole 5 - is probably the toughest on the course, so there was a nervy finish to the match.

I was once again the lowest scoring player, this time with a round of 18(par). Chris Harding and David McConnachie tied for second on 19(+1). Jon Angel scored a 21(+3), with Danny Angel on 23(+5) and Steve Gorton on 26(+8).

Playing hole 9 of the Mini Golf course during the team match

Chris, Emily and I also had one final friendly round on the course, with me and Chris both shooting a 16(-2) and Emily hitting a 24(+6).

The Mini Golf course at Basingstoke Golf Centre was designed and built by UrbanCrazy – the sponsors of the Great Britain Minigolf Team. Photos of the course are below:

Hole 1

Hole 2 and the Putting Course in the background

Hole 2

Hole 3

Hole 4

Hole 5 - a nasty dog leg left!

Hole 6

Hole 7 - a very short, but tricky hole

Hole 8

Hole 8

Hole 9

Hole 9

A view of holes 7, 8 & 9

The five-hole minigolf practice area

We also took the opportunity to test our Putting skills on the 8-hole Putting Green at the centre. Chris and I faced-off in a challenge match, with Chris getting the upper-hand and winning with a score of 19(+3) to my 20(+4).

I play hole 1 on the Putting Green

Chris on the Putting Green

The two courses were the first new ones to be visited and played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in 2012 and the first since #282 at London’s Alexandra Palace back in December 2011.

Next stop... who knows where...!

Links:

- Basingstoke Golf Centre

- UrbanCrazy
- Photo of GB players on Heart Berkshire

Related Blog Posts:

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

- No Crazy Golf at Eastrop Park in Basingstoke