Minigolf at Formby Golf Centre

Playing the Adventure Putting Green at Formby Golf Centre.

Heading for a day out in Southport Emily did a quick search online and spotted that Formby Golf Centre had a Minigolf course - so we had to swing by for a game.

There are a lot of obstacles on hole 4

The golf centre calls the course an 'Adventure Putting Green'.

On hole 8

It's an interesting layout and had a real mix of playing surface and obstacles, drawing inspiration from regular / big golf with it's long holes and lack of borders to rebound off, but with artificial Crazy Golf obstacles placed around the course. Including plastic volcanoes on the first and second holes!

Emily on hole 2

In our match-up Emily picked up the win 26-31, although I did ace hole one.

Hole 8

It was £3.50 a round and we received a nice welcome to the course, with the man there saying we could play a few rounds if we liked.

We replayed some of the tricky holes after our scoring round to see if we could get any more holes-in-one.

On hole 7

The 9-hole Mini Golf course at Formby Golf Centre was the 417th played and 714th miniature golf course visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour since September 2006.

Hole 1

The hill and hole at 1

Hole 2

Hole 3

The daunting hole 4

Hole 4 from the green - the cup is within a flat loop obstacle - reach after putting through a loop-di-loop and over a choice of two bridges! That's Crazy Golf!

Hole 5

Hole 5

The long hole 6

Hole 6 from the green

Hole 7

Hole 8

Hole 9

Hole 9 from the green

Formby Golf Centre also has a good looking driving range, Pitch and Putt layout and a popular Footgolf course. Check out the Formby Golf Centre website for more information.

Link:
- Formby Golf Centre

Videos:
- Playing Mini Golf at Formby Golf Centre - hole 1 - hole-in-one
- Playing Mini Golf at Formby Golf Centre - hole 5
- Playing Mini Golf at Formby Golf Centre - hole 9 - hole-in-one

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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Playing Petanque in Edgeley, Stockport

Playing boules at the Woodstock Pétanque Club in Edgeley, Stockport.

Following our attendance at the Woodstock Pétanque Club open day in August, Emily and I joined the club and went along for our second competition day today.

The club play mostly for fun - but with a nice competitive edge - and the games are played in a doubles or triples format, which helps to mix things up a bit.

We recently bought some Geologic boules - after scouring the aisles of Decathlon sports superstores in Warrington and Stockport - and have been itching to get them scuffed up on the Edgeley terrain.

Emily's shinier boule is closer to the coche than my base-boule

Before we had a proper game Emily and I faced-off in a 'friendly', with Emily picking up the win 13-11 after I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Emily and her winning end

I managed to get my first win in club competition in the first of the two pairs games I played in the afternoon. Teaming with Carol H we defeated the duo of Keith and David H 13-7.

My Petanque name

My record at Woodstock Pétanque Club is now 1 win and 4 defeats. I'm certainly living up to my ham and egger name...

The Woodstock Pétanque Club meets-up on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of each month and welcomes new players. It costs just £10 for the annual membership, with a £1 fee per week when you play - with prizes up for grabs. The season runs from March to October. Although that may be extended into November if the weather isn't too bad and there are enough hardy souls to play against.

Check out the Woodstock Pétanque Club website and on Twitter and Facebook for more details.

Related blog posts:
- Pétanque
- Petanque
- Boules
- Petanque in Stockport

Links:
- Woodstock Pétanque Club on Twitter
- Woodstock Pétanque Club on Facebook
- Woodstock Pétanque Club website
- English Pétanque Association
- Decathlon
- Geologic

Sports Philatelists International and the Journal of Sport Philately

This year I joined the Olympin Club and through that I heard about Sports Philatelists International! As a collector of sporting postcards and Olympic memorabilia I had to join that club too.

This week I received the Fall 2016 issue of the Journal of Sports Philately in the post. Not only is the journal a great read and packed full of great images and info, but the club have taken the time and effort to mail it out with some fantastic stamps on the envelope. Take a look at the photo below to see what I mean!

What an envelope

Seeing these two stamps on the piece of post made me incredibly happy - and surprised! I never knew there had been a re-issue of the infamous Inverted Jenny stamp

For more information and joining instructions check out the Sports Philatelists International website and Facebook page.

Links:
- Sports Philatelists International
- Olympin Club
- The Inverted Jenny stamp 

New darts stuff

I recently treated myself to an early birthday and Christmas present by buying some new darts stuff from the Darts Performance Centre - and of course it was Peter 'Chatterbox' Sajwani branded merch!

A lovely lot of darting merch. And a new postcard too

In his debut at the 2015 BDO World Championships Peter Sajwani caused an upset with victory over the number one seed James Wilson.

I'm a member of the Sajwani Army. Not sure what rank I carry though?

The chatty underdog won a legion of fans with his post-match interview where he claimed "It doesn't matter what you score. What does matter is hitting the double. A gorilla can punch the ball 600 yards but can't putt."

Wise words indeed.

The excellent gorilla putting darts flight - one for the Crazy Golf Museum too...

We've found a lot of the pubs in our new local area have dart boards, fantastic to see. We always carry a set now just in case the opportunity to have a quick game arises.

'Peppering' the 20 bed with the new Sajwani Army flighted arrers

A Shanghai on 19s at the Queens Arms in Cheadle

Check out the Darts Performance Centre and their shop for some great kit.

I also picked up some Harrows and Eric Bristow darts kit from The Sport Shop while in Shanklin on a recent trip to the Isle of Wight

As that great sports writer (and fellow member of the Sajwani Army) Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley might say "All the gear, no idea."

Links:
- Darts Performance Centre
- Peter Sajwani, Darts player (Twitter and Facebook)

Related blog posts:
- Darts
- Peter Sajwani

Adventure Golf at Walton Hall and Gardens in Warrington

Playing the Adventure Mini Golf course at Walton Hall and Gardens in Warrington.

Back in July 2008 we visited Walton Hall and Gardens in Warrington and visited the Crazy Golf course and Putting Green there.

The new layout is very different to the old one

Earlier this year a new Adventure Golf course opened up on the site of the old Crazy Golf course, a course that had been in the park since 1973 and was originally of the Eternit Miniature Golf format.

On the 18th September we met up with our friends and minigolf rivals Jon and Cheryl Angel for a round on the new course. We had great weather for the round on the tricky course.

Playing the last hole

My new 'local' knowledge must of played a part as I picked up the win with a score of 49. Emily and Jon tied for the runners-up spot on 52, with Cheryl picking up the bronze medal with a score of 65.

Jon 'El Pato' Angel lining up a putt

In the team event Jon and Emily won with a combined score of 104 to 114.

Emily in action

Cheryl playing the toughest hole on the course

The new course became the 702nd visited and 413th played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour since September 2006.

There's also a nice looking Pitch & Putt layout at Walton Hall and Gardens. We might give that a play in the future.

The Pitch and Putt course at Walton Hall and Gardens

Check out the Walton Hall Gardens website for more information, opening times and prices for the Minigolf courses in the park.

The Putting Green at Walton Hall and Gardens

As a fan (and curator of a) quirky museums we were interested to see a Cycle Museum at Walton Hall and Gardens too.

The museum was just closing as we were heading out of Walton Hall and Gardens

We did manage to grab a quick look around though. There were some interesting exhibits

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Minigolf Course Visit No. 115 - Walton Hall Gardens Crazy Golf
- Minigolf Course Visit No. 116 - Walton Hall Gardens Putting Green

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 now sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter.

Happy Miniature Golf Day 2016!

Celebrating Miniature Golf Day with a round of Pitch and Putt at Bruntwood Park in Cheadle, Cheshire.

Having a putt around on Miniature Golf Day

The 21st of September is ALWAYS Miniature Golf Day. It's set in stone and a rule, so who are we to argue? To mark the great occasion we nipped along to our new local mini golf course at Bruntwood Park for a round of Pitch & Putt.

The GIANT Footgolf hole. The cups on the Pitch and Putt course were quite large too

Luckily we were in time to sneak in three holes as the man had already collected in the flags and the last group of Footgolfers were halfway through their round. When he heard about the importance of Miniature Golf Day he grabbed some flags and put them out on the 1st, 2nd and 7th holes so we could get in a mini round of minigolf. That was absolutely brilliant of him.

Emily's golf ball takes flight

Last month we visited Bruntwood Park and had a look at the course, but unfortunately didn't have time for a round. Having had a taste of the layout this evening we'll definitely be heading back for a game. The holes are just long enough to be a challenge, but short enough that you won't spend a lot of time pitching, lobbing and hacking your way round. Perfect for putters like us.

A little chip and run to the hole

The result of our quick minigolf match-up was Richard 3-4-3, Emily 5-7-4. We can't wait for the rematch.

The 7th hole had a lot of leaf fall from the silver birch tree - Emily's balls got quite well camouflaged in it!

September is a BIG month in the mini game and our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. In addition to Miniature Golf Day, next Friday we celebrate 10 years since our travels began, and last weekend we reached the MASSIVE milestone of the 700th minigolf course visit.

Bruntwood Park's minigolf course became the 695th visited when we had a gander at it on the 14th August. It's now the 414th that we've managed to play.

Related blog posts:
- Mini Golf Dates for your diary
- Pitch and Putt at Bruntwood Park, Cheadle
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Links:
- Bruntwood Park on Cheadle Golf Club's website
- Bruntwood Park on Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council's 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.

You can also sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter.