Southport Seafront Golf Classic Pitch & Putt course

A visit to the Southport Seafront Golf Classic Pitch & Putt course.

While in Southport on Saturday 8th October we visited the 715th course on our Crazy World  of Minigolf Tour - the Southport Seafront Golf Classic Pitch & Putt course.

The course looks very well maintained

The course can be found beside the pier and lakes and looked like a very nice miniature golf layout.

A seagull guarding his patch

Unfortunately we didn't have time for a round on this occasion.

My eagle eye spotted this GOLF sign above an old public lavvy block

The kiosk

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World  of Minigolf Tour
- Southport
- Pitch and Putt

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The Lakeside Inn at Southport, Britain's Smallest Pub

A visit to Britain's Smallest Pub, The Lakeside Inn at Southport.

While on our recent day out in Southport we were walking along the prom and noticed a pub in the distance. Once we saw the sign outside declaring it to be 'Britain's Smallest Pub' we had to stop there for a drink.

Another miniature thing visited on our travels

The Lakeside Inn measures 22ft by 16ft and lays claim to being Britain's Smallest Pub.

Britain's Smallest Freestanding Pub

It's a brilliant little pub with a surprising amount of seating - mostly outside - with great views of the giant lake.

A lovely lakeside view

We'll definitely go back on our next visit to Southport.

Great views and plenty of space for a nice sit down. The Lakeside Inn at Southport is well worth a visit

Back on our roadtrip along the Lincolnshire coast in 2011 we discovered the Smallest Pub on the Planet at the Cleethorpes Light Railway. That pub - The Signal Box Inn - now also has a miniature golf course in its games area!

Related blog posts:
- Pub
- Pubs
- Southport

Southport Golf Links - England's first Municipal Links Golf course

A visit to England's first Municipal Links Golf course - Southport Golf Links.

As a miniature golf historian I was quite interested to walk passed Southport Municipal Golf course on our recent trip to the seaside town. Opened in 1912, the course is England's oldest municipal links course.

The Art Deco clubhouse looked marvellous

A nice touch on the outside of Southport Golf Links

On our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour we've visited and played a number of historic courses including:

• The world's first Miniature Golf course - The Himalayas at St Andrews which opened in 1867.
• England's first Crazy Golf course on South Parade in Skegness was opened in 1926. There's still a course on the site today.
• England's first Pitch & Putt course purpose built for use by members of the public opened on Southsea seafront in 1914.

Related blog posts:
- The Himalayas Putting Course at St Andrews, Scotland
- The Original Crazy Golf in Skegness
- Southsea Golf Links
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

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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GIANT pumpkin at the CW Shenton Farm Shop in Handforth

As a fan of the ludicrous - especially if it's advertising something - I was overjoyed to see the BIG inflatable pumpkin outside the CW Shenton Farm Shop on Wilmslow Road on my drive into Handforth today. Marvellous to see.

The MASSIVE pumpkin was certainly eye catching

Check out this blog post that shows me photographed next to, on, or inside a number of ridiculous things.

A couple of Octobers ago we visited Mead Open Farm in Bedfordshire where I also got a high-five off of a giant inflatable pumpkin witch.

Related blog posts:
- We Sell Xmas Trees
- Pumpkins
- Wacky Waving Arm-Flailing Inflatable Tube-man

Link:
- CW Shenton Farm Shop

A visit to Southport Pleasureland

Southport Pleasureland, the 'Happy Halloween Capital of the UK!'

We recently returned to Southport for the first time since September 2009 and we were pleasantly surprised to see that the Pleasureland theme park had reopened. Not only that, but it looked to be doing very well and they had really gone to town on the Halloween theming.

We survived the haunted maze at Southport Pleasureland

In fact they've gone so far as to declare themselves the 'Happy Halloween Capital of the UK!'

I don't think I have ever seen so many pumpkins in one place before. There are thousands of them there!

The pumpkins came in all shapes and sizes

Plenty of characters too

Some were ominously congregating

Others were on their own

There were clowns

'Sleeping' ones

And more traditional Jack-o'-lanterns

Unfortunately since our previous visit the Moroccan Adventure Golf course has been removed as the park has had extensive changes made. The area that was once home to the minigolf course is now a pathway. A shame really.

The Adventure Golf course at Pleasureland Southport as it was just after the theme park had been left abandoned in 2009

What the same area looks like now

However, the rest of Pleasureland is great. We really enjoyed our wander round - especially the walk through the haunted maze.

We dared to enter the haunted maze

A view of the outside world from within the maze

We escaped - as did our shadows

Check out the Southport Pleasureland website for more information and opening times.

You can see the blog post from our visit to Pleasure Land in 2009 in our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour archives.

Southport is still home to plenty of other Crazy Golf options and a lot of other things to keep you entertained. We're looking forward to our next visit and keep 'em peeled for more blog posts from our trip to Southport that are coming up.

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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