Paradise Island Adventure Golf in Manchester

A revisit to the Paradise Island Adventure Golf course in Manchester.

On Thursday 28th December we visited Paradise Island Adventure Golf at the Trafford Centre in Manchester for a round with our friend and Finnish minigolf champion John Mittler. There are two 18-hole indoor courses at Paradise Island Adventure Golf and we picked the Temple Ruins minigolf course for our round.

Dressed for the occasion

Paradise Island Adventure Golf is our local course - a short drive up the M60 - and we've played there a few times on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. They were originally the 85th and 86th played on our travels back in 2009.

John playing the 18th

John got off to a brilliant start with an ace on the first hole, although this was followed by a pair of threes. I started off with three steady twos, while Emily shot two, three, two.

About to ace the 11th hole

At the end of our round I came out the winner with a score of 31 (five aces and no dropped shots), John shot a 37 for second place, while Emily shot the course par of 42.

My round of 31 beat the previous best in December

Check out the Paradise Island Adventure Golf website for more information and opening times.

Emily tackling the 17th hole

Paradise Island in Manchester was the last minigolf course visit of 2016 - and it's likely to be the last minigolf course we visit this year too!

In July this year we played the courses as part of the PIAG Open competition. On that occasion I shot a 39 (including a seven) and Emily had a 42 on the Temple Ruins course. We also had a round at the Paradise Island Adventure Golf centre at Cheshire Oaks this summer.

Related blog posts:
- Paradise Island Adventure Golf
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Manchester

Links:
- Paradise Island Adventure Golf
- The Trafford Centre

Videos:
- John Mittler Ace on Hole 8
- Richard Ace on Hole 11
- Richard Ace on Hole 18

What a year it's been!

2017 has been quite a year on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We've visited another 74 courses taking our total to 794 since September 2006. It's mad to think that when we began there were 'only' about 600 courses in the UK.

At Wellholme Park in Brighouse, Yorkshire in August

As we approach the 800th course visit - no doubt it'll occur at some point in 2018 - we're hearing about lots of new courses opening around the country. This year has seen a fair few new courses open and there looks to be at least 20 courses planned to open next year!

We've had some brilliant media coverage for our minigolf adventures too - with a particularly busy period during the summer when Crazy Golf was covered on TV, radio, online and in the press.


As well as playing purely for fun (as if) we've also competed in a number of competitions this year - winning some of them too.

We're looking forward to the new year and the next stages of our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We've already got flights booked for two trips!

Merry Christmas

Happy Christmas. We hope you have a great day.

Adventure Golf at The Printworks in Manchester

New indoor Treetop Adventure Golf course opening at The Printworks in Manchester.

There are plans to build a new indoor Adventure Golf course at The Printworks in Manchester City Centre, with the new jungle-themed Treetop Adventure Golf venue set to open in 2018.

The first Treetop Adventure Golf location opened in Cardiff in 2015 and like that site the new Manchester location will feature two 18-hole courses.

Members of the team behind the course have designed and built some great indoor adventure golf courses that we've played for fun and in competitions in places like Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Aberdeen, Manchester and Nottingham, as well as outdoor courses in Hastings.

We haven't made it to the Cardiff course yet, but have played a number of the other high quality Adventure Golf courses designed and built by the same people who created Treetop Adventure Golf

We're looking forward to playing the two new Treetop Adventure Golf  courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour when they open just down the road from us next year.

The team at Treetop Adventure Golf are also planning to open a course at the Highcross Shopping Centre in Leicester. Exiting times!

Related blog posts:
- Treetop Adventure Golf
- Indoor Adventure Golf
- Manchester

Links:
- Treetop Adventure Golf website
- The Printworks website

Minigolf bloggers

To celebrate my eleventh year of blogging at the Ham and Egger Files I wanted to highlight the hard work and dedication of others involved in the promotion and support of minigolf through their blogging.

Back in March 2015 we met up with fellow pro minigolf, blogger and course reviewer Pat Sheridan of The Putting Penguin. We had a fun round at Putt in the Park in Wandsworth, London

Some of the bloggers post regularly, others for specific events and others on a mixture of channels and platforms. Here's a list of the active blogs I know about:

• Adventures in Minigolfing by Marion Homer
• Mini Golf App
• Mini Golf Guide
• Minigolfnews.com
• Putterfingers
• Putting Edge
• The Ham and Egger Files by Richard and Emily Gottfried
• Two Crazy Golfers
• UrbanCrazy
• Waddling to the Top - The Putting Penguin blog by Pat Sheridan

These are four great minigolf review websites that aren't technically blogs, but are brilliant resources:

• A Couple of Putts
• Mini Golf Review Site
• Mini Golf Reviews
• The Putting Penguin

There are also two Vlogs I know of:

• Allan Cox - The Putter King
• Rainforest Adventure Golf's Vlog

And there's one minigolf podcast:

• Mini Putthead podcast

There are also a number of minigolf players and courses out there who use their own websites, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to post about their activities. Check out the Minigolf List I curate on Twitter, there are more than 1,100 accounts in it.

Matt Bellner, aka Mattie 5, is another Pro Putter worth a follow on social media.

There are also a number of blogs that have become dormant over the years and they are listed below:

• Forever Pushing Buttons by Seth Thomas
• Have Putter Will Travel by Jon Drexler
• Mini Ballin'
• Mini-Golf Adventures
• Putt Putt Long Island
• The Force Report by Marc Chapman
• The Minigolfer by Oliver Florence
• The Putter King
• The Putting Predictor
• Tiger World by Tiger Pragnell
• Minigolf Blog by Will Donnelly

If you know of any other minigolf blogs I may have missed, do get in touch!

Do check out the guest blogs posted here on the Ham and Egger Files too.

Blogiversary of the Ham and Egger Files

Today marks eleven years since the Ham and Egger Files began.

Playing hole 5 of the 11-hole Crazy Golf course at York Golf Range in Towthorpe near Strensall earlier this year. The course was #764 on our travels

I'm often asked how a blog that is (predominantly) about minigolf has the name the Ham and Egger Files? Well, it didn't initially start out life as a minigolf blog.

Back on the 21st December 2006 I published my first post about how I planned to participate in as many obscure and minority sports as I could and see what would happen with the modicum of sporting ability I have!

The term 'ham and egger' has connotations ranging from that of 'ordinary person' to that of 'loser'. The origin of the term stems from prize fighters whose modest skills wouldn’t let them win large purses. Therefore, the fighter or their manager (who received a percentage of purses won) were never able to afford to eat better than ham and eggs.

My second ever blog post was also on the 21st December and about the fine sport of Finger Jousting.

This post is the 2,750th!

Last year I celebrated my blogiversary by playing the Lost Valley Adventure Golf course at Amazonia in Bolton. The course was #720

Our interest in minigolf and what would become our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour had actually begun on the 30th September 2006, but I didn't publish a post about the sport until the 29th January 2007 when I announced my joining of the British Minigolf Association - a competition circuit I made my actual debut on in Southend-on-Sea on the 28th April.

Emily putting at the 11-hole Pirate-themed Adventure Golf course at the Funland Themepark in 2008. The course was the 69th played on our tour. The blog post about our visit doesn't include a single photo of me, that's a rarity!

Since my first year of blogging Emily and I have visited nearly 800 miniature golf courses, played in hundreds of tournaments and competed in lots of different sports and games. I've won quite a few titles along the way too, not too bad for a Ham n' Egger.

This year I won The Butler Cup Holiday on the Buses Crazy Golf tournament in Prestatyn, one of two tournaments I won in Wales

Thank you to everyone who has ever read a post, commented, shared, or guest blogged on the site, it's very much appreciated.

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. Please do sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.

A festive surprise from Fun Fore All

It was wonderful to receive a nice festive package from the team at Fun Fore All in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania - I can't wait to open it!

It's always lovely to get a bit of post

Check out my blog post for more info about their Holiday Lights Mini Golf extravaganza.

A look at the Holiday Lights Mini Golf at Fun Fore All

From November 17th to January 2nd Fun Fore All's two 18-hole Miniature Golf courses have been transformed into a fully playable walk-through holiday lights experience.

For more information and the schedule for the Holiday Lights Mini Golf check out the Fun Fore All Fun Park website.

American Golf 2017 Season Review on Sky Sports Golf

The season review of the American Golf Championship Tour is on Sky Sports Golf.

Over the last nine weeks Sky Sports Golf has featured the American Golf Championship Tour. This year more than 7,500 players competed in a total of 17 tournament categories at 168 venues in the hope of qualifying for one of the 252 grand final spots. The season review show will be on Sky Sports Golf at 11pm tonight (Tuesday 19th December) and repeated at 9pm tomorrow.

A pre-final interview with Gemma Care from Sky Sports

Along with Peter Jones I competed in the grand final of the American Golf Adventure Golf Championships after winning the Welsh Regional Qualifier back in April. We featured on the show back on the 7th November.

In action on the Ryder Legends course at The Belfry

Check out my blog post to see more of the Ryder Legends Mini Golf course at The Belfry in Sutton Coldfield.

Visit the American Golf website for more information on their Championship Tour.

PLONK Golf at the Sidewinder pub in Brighton

There's a new PLONK Golf minigolf course at the Sidewinder pub in Brighton.

The team at PLONK Golf have created a new minigolf course at the Sidewinder pub in Brighton.

The course is the only pub beer garden Crazy Golf course in Brighton and features 9-holes. It's open until 10pm daily.

Check out the PLONK Golf and Sidewinder websites for more info.

PLONK Golf also have minigolf courses in London at venues in Battersea, Brixton, Hackney, Dalston and London Fields. They also recently launched PLONK PUZZLE PUTT - a Crazy Golf Escape Room!

The team are also taking a course on tour around the UK in 2018.

On our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour we've played the Plonk Golf courses at Efes Snooker Club in Dalston and at the Duke of Edinburgh pub in Brixton.

Puttshack indoor minigolf opening in London

New indoor minigolf course opening at Westfield London in March 2018.

A new concept in miniature golf is opening its doors at Westfield London next year as Puttshack launches four indoor minigolf courses featuring new technology to show real-time leader-boards, video highlights and interactive holes. The venue will also have a large bar and restaurant.

The Puttshack idea is a joint venture between ping pong venue Bounce and TopGolf. Further Puttshack courses are planned to open in the City of London and Lakeside in Essex.

Check out the Puttshack website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for more info.

Happy Christmas Jumper Day

There was only one choice of festive knit to wear on Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day this year.

On Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day people all over the UK will be pulling on a seasonal jumper and donating to the great cause.

Check out Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day website for more info and ways to donate.

Car park fireplace

It's not every day you pull into a hotel car park and find it's got its own fireplace. But that happened to us on our visit to Felixstowe last week!

An outdoor fireplace. Quite a novelty

It was a very cold day when we left the seaside town

The Premier Inn on Undercliffe Road West in Felixstowe was built on the site of the Ordnance Hotel - previously the seaside resort's oldest hotel.

A real fire would've been quite welcome

Related blog posts:
- Felixstowe
- Abandoned
- Derelict
- Car park
- Hotel

Mr Mulligan's Space Golf opening in Newcastle

Mr Mulligan's Space Golf set to touch down in Newcastle.

The countdown is on for the latest of Mr Mulligan's Adventure Golf courses to launch on Newgate Street in Newcastle in the New Year. The space-themed layout is the first of it's kind from the team behind the Mr Mulligan courses - with other venues focussed on pirates, dinosaurs and jungles.

You'll be unlikely to find any dinosaurs - like this one in Cheltenham - at the new Mr Mulligan course in Newcastle

The Newcastle Space Golf venue will have three 9-hole indoor Adventure Golf courses, as well as a restaurant and late-night bar.

We've visited and played most of the Mr Mulligan's Adventure Golf courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, most recently at the new Lost World indoor Adventure Golf course in Cheltenham.

Other Mr Mulligan's venues can be found at Castleford, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Woking, Sidcup, Tonbridge and Stevenage. There are also plans for more new sites in the coming year!

Check out the Mr Mulligan's Adventure Golf website and Newcastle course Facebook Page for more information and updates on the launch.

Links:
- Mr Mulligan's Adventure Golf website
- Mr Mulligan's Adventure Golf Facebook Page

Related blog posts:
- Newcastle
- Mr Mulligan
- Indoor Adventure Golf
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Charity Darts Night - England vs. Stockport

England vs. Stockport Challenge Match at Stockport County FC.

Next week sees a special darts challenge match take place at Stockport County FC, with England taking on a Stockport select team in a charity darts night in aid of Chris 'Millzy' Mills.

Doors open at 7pm, for a 7.30pm start

It looks like it's going to be a cracking night of darts with the England vs. Stockport match contested in a 10 vs. 10 format and featuring some legendary darts players including Tony O'Shea, Scott Waites, Lisa Ashton, Darryl Fitton, Dean Winstanley, Lorraine Winstanley, Nathan Aspinall and more!

Golfbaren minigolf in Sweden

Finding out about the Golfbaren minigolf courses in Sweden.

The indoor Swing by Golfbaren course in Stockholm

I've been chatting with my friend, minigolf rival and legend of the sport Hans Olofsson about his brand of minigolf over in Sweden - Golfbaren.

Translated as Golf Bar, there are now four Golfbaren venues in total, with three outdoor courses and an indoor venue. It's a great concept and proving incredibly popular.

Golfbaren in Aspudden, photo by Mikaela Thörn

You can find the Golfbaren courses in Kristineberg, Aspudden (Hägersten) and Allén (Gothenburg), and the Swing by Golfbaren indoor minigolf course in Stockholm. The indoor course has a 1930's Speakeasy theme with plenty of food and cocktails to go with the miniature golf.

We met up with Hans and miniature golf professional Andreas Sollman for a game of Crazy Golf at Plonk Golf in Brixton while they were visiting London in February 2016. That course was the 676th we've visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. How time flies!

We've also visited the wonderful city of Stockholm - where we represented Great Britain in the 2011 WMF Nations Cup tournament played on the Tantogårdens Bangolf courses in Tantolunden Park, Södermalm. It'd be marvellous to return to the city to explore even more of it.

Check out the Golfbaren and Swing by Golfbaren websites to find out more about the courses. Each of the locations is also on Facebook and Instagram.

Links:
- Golfbaren Kristineberg
- Golfbaren Aspudden
- Golfbaren Allén
- Swing by Golfbaren

Related blog posts:
- Stockholm
- Sweden

Minigolfnews.com blog - End of the minigolf season – and the year ahead...

Check out my new blog post on Minigolfnews.com.

Adventure Golf on Sea Road in Felixstowe

One of our most visited minigolf courses is the Fantasia Adventure Golf course on Sea Road in Felixstowe. We never fail to swing by to look at the layout - even if it's out of season. It was definitely unplayable in the snowy weather conditions we faced in the seaside town yesterday.

A snowy Fantasia Adventure Golf in Felixstowe

Here's a blog post about the course from a better day in 2016.

The 9-hole course was the 7th we ever played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour way back in 2007!

Related blog posts:
- Felixstowe
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Mar's Mini Golf in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Finding out about Mar's Mini Golf - a 3D Glow in the Dark course in Saskatoon, Canada.

As I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting minigolf courses and stories I found out about Mar's Mini Golf in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The 3D Glow in the Dark course recently celebrated it's 5th birthday.

The undersea theme at Mar's Mini Golf

You need to putt through this shark's mouth

A skeleton pirate captain

We've putted through some whales on our travels

I'm a BIG fan of glow in the dark minigolf courses although there aren't very many in the UK. Some new indoor minigolf courses are applying glow in the dark elements, or have a few holes that are blacklit, but not many go all out on it.

The 200th course we played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour was a 3D glow in the dark course - the only one I've played - it's in Castleford, Yorkshire.

It'd be brilliant to revisit Canada - we had our honeymoon in Toronto and Niagara Falls.

Check out the Mar's Mini Golf website and photo gallery for more information.

Golfer's Putter Pool

While perusing the charity shops in Felixstowe at the weekend Emily spotted this brilliant looking golf/pool crossover game - Golfer's Putter Pool! At three quid it was a must buy.

Golfer's Putter Pool

We've been collecting miniature golf items since 2006 and hadn't seen this particular game before.

The game was made in the year 2000

We have however seen a few variations of hybrid minigolf/golf/pool/snooker/billiards games including Crazy Golf Pool and Pit-Pat, as well as some Crazy Golf obstacles that have used pool and snooker tables.

In October we played Crazy Golf Pool at Krazy Golf Lydney in the Forest of Dean

I first saw the game of Pit-Pat (obstacle billiards) in Vienna, Austria - it's like Crazy Golf but played with cues

The 7th hole of the Golf Apocalypse course in London used a snooker table

Hole 5 of the Plonk Golf course at Efes Snooker Hall in Dalston, London involved a pool table

Emily spotted the Snooker Golf course in Blankenberge, Belgium

Betway, sponsors of the UK Snooker Championship, have also created a version of Crazy Snooker. Check out the Putterfingers blog to see more.

98% gluten free

If something is 98% gluten free it's 100% useless to me.

What a peculiar percentage to opt for, I wonder who their target market is?

Sadly there are very few 100% gluten free places for Coeliac diners. Cross-contamination with gluten containing food means that even 99% gluten free places are a big risk for people with Coeliac Disease.

I've just noticed there's also a "98% GF" sticker on the door too

Thanks to Jo Tubby for the tip-off about the sign.

A token blog post

I'm a collector of all sorts of minigolf ephemera, items and merchandise and love finding tokens. My friend, rival and co-Curator at the Crazy Golf Museum has a BIG collection of miniature golf tokens and I've got a pretty sizeable selection of other machine and arcade tokens.

A selection of Putt-Putt tokens

It's always nice to find a course still using metal tokens / coins. Some have moved to plastic 'credit' cards, whereas others have always used paper tokens (of which I've got a few from my wins on the Lucky Last Hole).

I won this Free Game Pass by firing the cannon on the Lucky Last Hole on the very first course we visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Does your course still use tokens? If they do please get in touch and share any photos of them.

Related blog posts:
- Tokens
- A gift from Paradise
- Property of Machine
- Clacton Pier
- Minigolf collectables from the Lost City Adventure Golf course in Nottingham
- Adventure Golf at The Pavilion Fun Park in Clacton-on-Sea

Link:
- Miniature Golf, Putt Putt and Crazy Golf tokens at the Crazy Golf Museum

End of the minigolf season – and the year ahead...

Here in the UK another year in the domestic minigolf tournament season has come to an end, which means it is the perfect time to look back and reflect on the year. However, this should be about more than rankings and stats. No matter how high or low you are on the leader board, or how many tournaments you took part in – if you enjoy participating in minigolf you have a story to tell.

There are plenty of opportunities to get your story out there, this can be about your achievements and what you've got planned for the 2018 season too, but it can also just be about your participation, and your enjoyment of the sport, spreading the news and awareness of minigolf in general.

Minigolf is a game for all. There are a huge variety of stories to tell and positive aspects to highlight to potential players, the media, sponsors, as well as wider sport, recreation and leisure communities.

The characters from the annual Holiday on the Buses Crazy Golf Competition in Prestatyn

There are a lot of communications channels to use to reach your audiences too! From newspapers, radio and TV, to blogs, social media and more, there’s a lot of choice when it comes to ways of getting your story out there.

Back in May this year I published my minigolf marketing eBook and it's received great reviews from a mix of people in the game. This marketing and communications guide has been designed for anyone interested or involved in minigolf.

I've been blogging about minigolf since 2006 and have played the game for as long as I can remember. I got seriously involved when I played in my first official tournament under the auspices of the British Minigolf Association back in 2007.

The podium of the first Great Northern Minigolf Open tournament. Held in Wigan back in April

Emily and I have been to almost 800 courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and have played in a number of events, facing-off against each other but also sometimes as team-mates.

At the Southend Pier Crazy Golf course - 1.3 miles out to sea. We held a tournament on the course last year

On our travels to courses and tournaments we are always keen to highlight the positive aspects of minigolf. Win or lose we've shared updates on tournaments we've competed in. Over the years this has earned us some brilliant local, regional, national and international media coverage.

This year I've added some variety to my minigolfing by competing in the MiniLinks Par-3 Miniature Golf tournaments in Lytham St Annes - they have a Winter Trophy tournament on at the moment, it's running from November to February

There are courses opening up all the time which means our 'To Play' list keeps growing! Minigolf is experiencing a real boom and it's a great time to be involved in the game.

This year I competed in a number of independent and national events – including the first staging of the American Golf National Adventure Golf Championships, which culminated in a grand final broadcast on Sky Sports.

Peter Jones in action - as I look on - during the American Golf National Adventure Golf grand final at The Belfry

Unfortunately my team-mate Peter Jones and I were unable to win the title but came very close, with a very respectable second-place finish.

Celebrating our big minigolf win in the American Golf Welsh Regional Qualifier at Clays Golf Centre in Wrexham

With the 2017 season done and dusted now is a good time to reflect on the highs and lows and look ahead to the 2018 season and beyond.

• Why do you enjoy playing minigolf? What made you take it up as a sport?
• What results did you get this year? Were they better / worse than you expected?
• What do you want to achieve next season?
• Where do you want to play?
• What new tournament opportunities are there?
• How are you preparing?

If you're looking for help with your sports marketing and communications activities, no matter how big or small, do get in touch. You can buy my eBook, The Minigolfer's Guide to Marketing, on Amazon.

You can find out more about our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour on the Ham & Egger Files blog.

Details of my results during the 2017 season can be found in my summary blog post.