Crazy Golf at Mundy Play Centre in Markeaton Park, Derby

The landmark 550th miniature golf course visited on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

While on our trip to the East Midlands on the 27th of March 2014 we visited Derby's Markeaton Park.

At Derby's Markeaton Park

Unfortunately the 17-hole (!) Crazy Golf course at the park's Mundy Play Centre wasn't open - it was an 'out of season' Thursday - so while it became the landmark 550th course visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, it wasn't added to our played course tally.

Looking at the satellite image of the course on Google you can see it used to be an 18-hole course - but old hole 8 has been removed!

Photos of the remaining seventeen holes of the course are below.

I've been looking forward to visiting the Crazy Golf course for ages as I first saw David Cameron MP playing it on a visit to the town (back when he was the leader of the opposition) and I have some correspondence from him about Minigolf following his visit!

Unfortunately I didn't get started on playing the course. This time.

Markeaton Park is currently part way through a restoration project and there was a lot of upgrade work going on while we visited. Many of the facilities are still open at weekends - my local source Jam Trubridge told me that the Crazy Golf was open today, as was the bouncy castle. You can find out more details about the restoration project on the Derby City Council website.

Interestlingly the park is also home to a Miniature / Light Railway!

Mundy Halt on the Markeaton Park Light Railway line in Derby

Links:

- Mundy Play Centre on Derby City Council's website

- Markeaton Park on Derby City Council's website

Related blog posts:

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Finding the Jan Van Haasteren Crazy Golf Jumbo Jigsaw Puzzle in Derby

A long quest to find an elusive Mini-Golf jigsaw puzzle is over!

After much searching on our travels around the UK, Emily and I finally found a missing piece of our Crazy Golf collection as we spotted the Jan Van Haasteren Crazy Golf jigsaw puzzle by Jumbo in Derby!

The Jumbo Crazy Golf jigsaw puzzle by Jan Van Haasteren comes in 1500 and 3000 piece sets

Derby's indoor market has a set of stalls - called Poynton's - consisting of a newsagent, a sweetshop and a treasure trove of jigsaw puzzles!

Emily is a big fan of Wasgij puzzles and together we've been hunting for the Jan Van Haasteren Jumbo 'Mini Golf' jigsaw since we spotted it in a temporary Christmas shop in Ipswich a couple of years ago (and we've rued the decision to not buy it then as it was at the start of a bout of Christmas shopping and we never made it back to the shop).

Emily scores a big win by finding the Jumbo Crazy Golf jigsaw puzzle by Jan Van Haasteren

Faced with a choice of the 3000 or 1500 piece puzzles we opted for the 1500 piece one as we'd need to buy a bigger dining table for the 3000 piece one to fit on!

The puzzle has four titles - Crazy Golf, Midgetgolf, Mini-Golf and Minigolf - and depicts a very crazy miniature golf course! Emily and I might have visited over 550 courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, but we've never seen one as wild and crazy as the one conjured up from Jan Van Haasteren's imagination!

On another recent road-trip we visited the village of Easingwold and spotted The Yorkshire Jigsaw Store there. It's another shop that is worth a look, and while the Jan Van Haasteren Minigolf jigsaw puzzle wasn't in stock, they did say they could've ordered it in for us.

Back in October 2013 the team at Putterfingers put together a great blog post entitled "5 Reasons a Crazy Golf Puzzle is Great Fun!".

Related blog post:
- Jigfest 2012!

Links:
- Derby Market Hall
- Poynton's
- Jan Van Haasteren's website
- Jan Van Haasteren on Twitter
- Jumbo Jigsaw Puzzles
- Jumbo Games UK on Twitter
- The Yorkshire Jigsaw Store
- The Official UK Puzzle Club

If you're in Rugby, and you feel hungry, who you gonna call...

GUTT BUSTERS!

Indoor Pirate Adventure Golf in Whitby

Playing the Indoor Pirate Adventure Golf course at Whitby's Pleasure Island Amusement Arcade.

On Thursday 20th March 2014 Emily and I decided to head to the seaside resort of Whitby, one of the east coast towns we were yet to visit on our tour of the UK seaside.

Emily teeing-off on hole 1 of the Pleasure Island Adventure Golf course in Whitby

We hadn't planned to visit Whitby on our road-trip that saw us take a journey up to Newcastle Upon Tyne and back over four days, but having had a stopover in Northallerton we decided to make the relatively short trip to spend some time beside the seaside.

While walking along the harbour-side towards the beach the signs for the indoor Pirate Adventure Golf course at the Pleasure Island Amusement Arcade caught my eye!

You will find the 9-hole course laid out in the left-hand corner of the well presented arcade.

On our travels we've visited and played at well over 500 courses and 30+ have been indoors. We thought the look and feel of the course at Pleasure Island was very well done. It was very piratey and nautical and when you climbed the stairs to the top deck of the course (hole 5) you'd never know you were in an amusement arcade in North Yorkshire!

It's well worth a play and is only £2 a round.

Our fellow Minigolfer Adventurers Paul and Owen Johnson visited the course in 2010 and you can see their photos on the excellent MiniatureGolfer.com. The course appears to have had a refurb since then.

The Pleasure Island Adventure Golf course is well worth a play if you're in Whitby and it's great to be able to have a Putt there whatever the weather.

A Crocodile (or Alligator) lurks below the bridge near the 1st and 9th holes

The course was the 544th visited and 327th played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour since 2006.

In our match-up I beat Emily, putting her to the sword 20 vs. 32. But she made me walk the plank!

Walking the plank on hole 9!

The amusement arcade is also home to that other seaside favourite - the shooting gallery.

The Treasure Cove Shooting Gallery at the Pleasure Island Amusement Arcade in Whitby

Related blog posts:

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour - List and links for all Miniature Golf courses visited to date

- Arnold Palmer Minigolf Putting Course in Whitby

- Not playing the Mini Golf course in Whitby
- Fake Crocodiles! Or are they Alligators?
- Indoor Minigolf, Crazy Golf and Adventure Golf courses

WMF International Minigolf Rankings for 2013 Season Published

End of 2013 International Minigolf Season Rankings Published by World Minigolf Sport Federation.

Emily and I have both moved up in the World Minigolf Sport Federation General Class Minigolf Rankings released for the 2013 International Minigolf Season.

Minigolfer Emily Gottfried at the 2011 WMF Nations Cup in Stockholm

In the women's ranking list Emily is up to tied 114th place (of 120 places/123 players) from 130th (of 130 places/140 players). 

Minigolfer Richard Gottfried at the 2011 WMF Nations Cup in Stockholm

In the men's ranking list I am up to tied 372nd place (of 388 places/394 players) from 406th (of 406 positions/413 players).

In the General Class rankings Great Britain has moved up three places to a new high of 15th place of 29 countries.

Emily and I both competed in the 2013 WMF World Adventure Golf Masters tournament on the seafront Pirate Adventure Golf course in Hastings, England last June. The event saw us represent Great Britain for a fifth time since 2008, when we made our GB debut in the WMF Nations Cup in Tampere, Finland.

Our Great Britain 3 team, also comprised of John Moore and Craig Patterson, finished the competition in 5th place of 7 teams.

The Great Britain 3 team at the WMF World Adventure Golf Masters in Hastings

In the individual events Emily became a two-time WMF World Adventure Golf Masters Women's Champion, defeating the defending champion Ruth Burke in a sudden-death play-off.

I finished the WMF World Adventure Golf Masters in 20th place of 37 players, with Emily in tied 27th place.

British players are ranked in the following positions in the latest update of the WMF General Class Rankings.

WMF Women as at December 2013

• 114 (tied) Emily Gottfried

WMF Men as at December 2013

• 80 Michael Smith
• 88 James Rutherford 
• 250 Marc Chapman
• 271 (tied) Craig Patterson
• 372 (tied) Richard Gottfried
• 372 (tied) Scott Lancley
• 374 (tied) Martin Greenhead
• 374 (tied) John Moore
• 374 (tied) Alex (Tiger) Pragnell
• 374 (tied) Craig Small
• 374 (tied) Chris Wood
• 388 (tied) Brad Shepherd

GB players are also listed in the WMF World Ranking Lists for Seniors and Juniors.

Links:

- World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF)

- Mode of World Ranking List

- World ranking list men and women edition 31st December 2013 (General Class)

- World Ranking List - General Class

- World Ranking List - Youth

- World Ranking List - Seniors

- British Minigolf Association (BMGA)

- Great Britain Minigolf Team on Facebook

- Great Britain Minigolf Team on Twitter

Related blog posts:

- Miniature Golf Player Profile of Richard Gottfried

- Miniature Golf Player Profile of Emily Gottfried

- End of Season BMGA Tour Minigolf Rankings for 2013

- Emily Gottfried wins the WMF World Adventure Golf Masters Women’s Title in Hastings

- A New Career High Minigolf Ranking!

- World Minigolf Sport Federation Rankings Update (March 2012)

- Gottfrieds in the World Minigolf Sport Federation Rankings – Nov 11 Update

- Gottfried's in the WMF World Minigolf Rankings (November 2010)

- Gottfried's in the latest WMF World Minigolf Rankings (March 2010)

- Gottfried's in the WMF World Minigolf Rankings (Nov 09)

- Gottfried's in the WMF World Rankings

- Official WMF World Minigolf Rankings (Nov 08)

Crazy Golf at Valley Gardens in Harrogate

Playing the 328th miniature golf course on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Playing hole 3 of the Valley Gardens Crazy Golf course in Harrogate

On Saturday 22nd March 2014 Emily and I visited the spa town of Harrogate in Yorkshire.

While there we visited Valley Gardens and found the park is home to an 18-hole Crazy Golf course, a Pitch & Putt variety of Minigolf and a Disc Golf layout.

Of the three courses only the Crazy Golf was open for play.

Video: Minigolf visit to Valley Gardens in Harrogate
 

Video: Minigolf hole-in-one at Valley Gardens in Harrogate

The course cost £2.30 for adults to play and with the weather about to take a turn for the worse I paid for a round, with Emily on video and photo duty.

The course was the 328th played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and the 547th visited overall since 2006.

The layout is reminiscent of the European-style of miniature golf courses - often referred to as 'Eternit' courses. We've played official types of these standardised layouts in international tournaments in Finland and Sweden, and we've played some of them here in the UK too.

Playing the Pyramids hole at Valley Gardens

Speaking with the man in the hut he said the course had been in Valley Gardens for at least 20-25 years. it was quite a tricky course to play, as is often the case with all-concrete courses tackled with a low bounce golf ball.

Playing hole 7 of the Valley Gardens Crazy Golf course in Harrogate

For a quick round of Crazy Golf it was fun, and it was interesting to see the variety of Eternit obstacles realised in solid concrete obstacles.

Photos of the 18-hole Crazy Golf course at Valley Gardens in Harrogate.

Related blog posts:
- Not playing the Pitch and Putt Mini Golf course in Harrogate
- Ripon Spa Gardens
- Knaresborough Conyngham Hall
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Link:
- Valley Gardens, Harrogate

Not playing the Pitch and Putt Mini Golf course in Harrogate

A visit to the Pitch & Putt Miniature Golf course in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

Next to the 18-hole Crazy Golf course in Harrogate's Valley Gardens is another type of miniature golf course.

The Valley Gardens Mini Golf hut and Pitch & Putt course in the background

The Pitch & Putt course was closed as it was a bit too early in the season for it. It became the 548th course visited overall on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

There is also a Disc Golf course in the Valley Gardens park.

Related blog posts:

- Crazy Golf at Valley Gardens in Harrogate

- Ripon Spa Gardens

- Knaresborough Conyngham Hall

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Link:

- Valley Gardens, Harrogate

- Games in Parks in Harrogate District