The Undisputed International Worlds Crazy Air Squash Championships

The Undisputed International Worlds Crazy Air Squash Championships took place at 'The Buttons' on Saturday 18th September 2010, with six contenders hoping to be crowned the Global Champion of the 'almost sport' of Crazy Air Squash and take with them the prized silver salver!


The Contenders were:
Scott Lancley (GBR)
Steve Gow (GBR)
Richard Gottfried (GBR)
Emily Gottfried (GBR)
Oliver Florence (GBR)
Gerhard Zimmermann (GER)

Match 1
Oliver Florence beat Emily Gottfried 9-7

Match 2
Gerhard Zimmermann beat Richard Gottfried 9-0

Match 3
Scott Lancley beat Steve Gow 8-5

Final*
Scott Lancley beat Gerhard Zimmermann 5-4

Final*
Scott Lancley beat Oliver Florence (just before kicking-out time) - score unknown!?

* The players with the largest winning margins from the preliminary round matches qualified for the finals

Final Rankings:
1st Scott Lancley
2nd Gerhard Zimmermann
2nd Oliver Florence
4th Steve Gow
5th Emily Gottfried
6th Richard Gottfried


Photos from the event:

Crazy Air Squash Hall of Fame:
2010 - Undisputed International Worlds Crazy Air Squash Champion - Scott Lancley
2009 - UK Air Hockey & Variants Champion - Scott Lancley
2008 - Crazy Air Squash Champion - Steve Gow

Crazy Air Squash Hall of Shame:
2010 - Richard Gottfried - a 9-nil drubbing (with 9 'own goals') in the Undisputed International Worlds Crazy Air Squash Championships

Results from the previous Crazy Air Squash contest in Hastings:
The Joy of the Amusement Arcade - Crazy Air Squash in Hastings

The Global Crazy Air Squash Tour will be back in Hastings again for another classic contest - full results, photos and a report will follow!

If you know of any other Crazy Air Squash tables outside of Hastings do let us know?

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Gottfried's Minigolf Reports – BMGA Players Championship & BMGA British Open

20th September 2010
Press Information
For Immediate Release

Minigolf Reports – BMGA Players Championship & BMGA British Open

Luton Minigolfer Richard Gottfried was in action in two minigolf tournaments in Hastings, East Sussex over the weekend, as the 18-hole Adventure Golf course at White Rock Gardens played host to the BMGA Players Championship and the BMGA British Open.


On Friday 17th September Richard tied for 11th place in the 29 strong field at the BMGA Players Championship with a round one score of 37(+1), one shot off making the cut to the second round. Brighton’s Peter Emmerson was the eventual winner of the competition.

In the two-day BMGA British Open, Richard made the cut for the second day for the fourth consecutive year with rounds of 38, 43, 40, and 35 for a first-day total of 156. His round of 35 (-1) was a new personal best on the Hastings course.

In the fifth round Richard scored a 33(-3) to record a second personal best, and ended the tournament with a 40 to card a 6 round total of 229 (+13) and finish in 28th place in the 56 strong field. Richard was also ranked 16th of 41 British Players in the tournament.

At the top of the rankings Sweden’s Eirik Seljelid lifted the trophy with a 7 round total of 229(-23), in second place was Finland’s Jouni Valkjärvi, with London’s Nick Chitty in third place.

Richard said “It was a great tournament weekend and I’m pleased with achieving the new personal best scores. I was a bit disappointed with my play though, it was very good at times, but was certainly lacking at others. After a poor start I was definitely more of an enhancement talent at the event rather than a contender, but my round of 33 in the British Open was a highlight, and I was only just outside qualifying in the Players Championships on Friday. I’ve got more practice to do and improvements to be made in my game before the next big event.”


Ends

Landmark minigolf courses visited and played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

The 200th minigolf course visited and played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour was the latest milestone achieved on our Adventurous Minigolf Odyssey.

Since the 30th September 2006 we have:
- Played 202 minigolf courses
- Played minigolf in seven countries
- Played the two highest minigolf courses in the UK - both up The Great Orme Mountain in Llandudno - 1 & 2
- Played minigolf in each home nation in the UK
- Visited a total of 279 minigolf course locations
- And to date Richard Gottfried has played a total of 99 minigolf tournaments (BMGA Tour events & Independent competitions)

Other landmark courses visited and played in the last four years were:
#1 - Portsmouth/Southsea (Treasure Island) - Adventure Golf (Victory Trail)
#25 - Great Yarmouth (Jungle Golf at the Gardens) - Crazy Golf
#50 - Tampere, Finland - Beton
#75 - Guildford (Stoke Park) - Swedish Felt
#100 - South Shields, Tyneside (Smugglers Cove) - Adventure Golf
#125 - Swansea/Abertawe (Singleton Boating Lake) - Crazy Golf
#150 - Southport (The Masters Putting Course) - Arnold Palmer Putting Course
#175 - King Putt (North West Las Vegas, USA) - Indoor Mini Golf

The 100th course location visited overall was at Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk at the 9-hole Arnold Palmer course at Pops Meadow Putting Green.

The 200th overall course location visited was at the Kingsway Golf Centre in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire. The 9-hole Crazy Golf course has now been replaced with The Himalayas Putting Course (which became the 196th minigolf course we played).

The 250th course location visited overall was the Garden Minigolf in East Finchley.

Like the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour on Facebook, check out our YouTube channel and follow me and Emily on Twitter.

A more fruitful minigolfing roadtrip - the north east vs. the south east...

Our minigolfing roadtrip to the north east of England proved to be far more fruitful for actually playing minigolf and crazy golf courses than the south east minigolf tour we did the week before!

It was great to hit the 200th Crazy World of Minigolf Tour course played (at Castleford's Xscape Centre), and also to get the ball rolling on the next step of the tour, and the next goals of getting to 300 courses visited, and then hopefully played! 21 locations to go for the former, 98 more to go for the latter!

Conyngham Hall, Knaresborough, Yorkshire - Minigolf courses played #201 and 202

Following the playing of our 200th Minigolf course on the Crazy World of Minigolf, and prior to reaching Newcastle to practice for the Newcastle Open tournament, we stopped off at Knaresborough in Yorkshire as the course list on MiniatureGolfer.com showed there were courses there and it wasn't too far off the beaten track to visit.


We did find the courses, and very good they were too.

Course played #201 was the 18-hole Minigolf Putting Course at Knaresborough's Conyngham Hall Gardens. #202 was the 9-hole Crazy Golf course next to it. In all of our travels the Crazy Golf was definitely the best example of its type (that being a fibreglass base with metal obstacles). We've played versions of the course that have been truly horrible, but this - along with the very well maintained Putting Course - were a pleasure to play. There was also a Mini Golf/Pitch & Putt course that looked fantastic and was quite busy too, unfortunately we didn't have time to play it as well.














As the winner of the Knaresborough-leg of the Irregular Mini Golf Tour competition I received a wood-turned Mushroom 'Trophy', made by a local artisan. A very fine addition to my trophy shelf!

Knaresborough itself was a lovely town to spend some time in, with some very nice views to be had (the town's train bridge/viaduct over the river looks great) and many houses throughout the town have painted doorways, and some have artwork like the Civil War piece below.









Links:
- Conyngham Hall Grounds website
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Not a course played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

At the Xscape centre in Castleford they also had a big two lane TopPutt Putting Machine. We didn't play it.



Links:
- Castleford
- Mini Golf in Castleford
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Castleford Xscape Cosmic Golf

A visit to Xscape and the 199th AND 200th minigolf courses played!!!


On Saturday 11th September 2010 we played the 199th and 200th courses on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour when we visited the Xscape Centre in Castleford.

Both course were Blacklight Indoor Minigolf courses - here they were called 'Cosmic Golf'!



The 199th course played was the 6-hole 'Search for Atlantis Mini Golf'.

Course played #199 - photos







The 200th minigolf course played on our tour was the 9-hole 'Curse of the Mummy in 3D' course.
Course played #200!!!







Both courses were good fun and reminded us a lot of our time in Las Vegas earlier this year when we played the two King Putt courses (1 and 2).







In the '200th Course Played Minigolf Classic Competition' Emily won by one shot with a 15-hole score of 45(+15) over the two rounds.

Since the 30th September 2006 we have now played 200 courses in 206 weeks (and re-visited many of them for tournaments and further fun rounds). We've also visited a further 78 minigolf course locations in that time - unfortunately many were closed, flooded, derelict or demolished!

Links:
- Cosmic Golf at Xscape website
- Xscape Yorkshire website

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Castleford
- Indoor Mini, Crazy and Adventure Golf courses
- Mini Golf in Castleford

Whitley Bay Mini Golf - Courses not played

Following the Newcastle Minigolf Open competition on the 12th September 2010 we headed to the seaside at Whitley Bay.

There are two 'Mini Golf' courses there - a 9-hole and an 18-hole set-up, both are Pitch & Putt courses. Unfortunately time was against us on our north east roadtrip so we didn't get a chance to play.

Gosforth Park Putting Green - Crazy World of Minigolf Tour unplayed course

We didn't play it as we weren't Club Members, nor paying members of the BIG Golf course.

Minigolf Report - Newcastle Open 2010

12th September 2010
Press Information
For Immediate Release

Minigolf Report – Newcastle Open at Gosforth Park


On Sunday 12th September Luton Minigolfers Richard and Emily Gottfried headed to Newcastle to compete in the inaugural Newcastle Open minigolf competition. The two-round tournament was played over 36-holes at the Mini Golf course at Gosforth Park.

Ten players competed in the event, with Richard finishing in 3rd place following a sudden-death play-off to decide the champion after three players tied on 79(+7) after regulation play. Newcastle’s Simon Hardie won the event after scoring a two on the first hole of the play-off, with Gottfried and Wallsend’s John Moore both scoring threes. The 2nd/3rd place play-off was decided on the 6th hole, with Moore hitting a two and Richard only able to manage a three.

Richard’s total of 72(+7) came after rounds of 41(+5) and 38(+2). Emily Gottfried was also competing at the event and finished in 6th place after rounds of 45(+9) and 41(+5) for a total of 86(+14).


The score of 38 achieved by Gottfried, Moore and Hardie is also a new course record at the Gosforth Park course.

Richard said “The Newcastle Minigolf Open was a great event, and there was some great local talent competing too. The Gosforth Park course was a good test of Putting ability. We are looking forward to returning north in 2011.”

Full results from the 2010 Newcastle Open
1st Simon Hardie (41,38) 79 (won on first hole of play-off)
2nd John Moore (41,38) 79 (took 2nd place on 6th hole of play-off)
3rd Richard Gottfried (41,38) 79
4th Michael Chipchase (41,42) 83
5th Paul Johnson (45,39) 84
6th Emily Gottfried (45,41) 86
7th Owen Johnson (48,44) 92
8th (T) Kayleigh Heslop (48,46) 94
8th (T) Jonny Mather (48,46) 94
10th Brian Kerr (50,47) 97

Ends

Latest BMGA Minigolf Rankings

In the latest British Minigolf Association Official Rankings update Richard Gottfried is 7th of 89 players in the BMGA Order of Merit, with Emily Gottfried in 35th place. In the BMGA Season-only Rankings for 2010 Richard is up to 9th place of 98 players, with Emily in 58th spot.

Results of the GMGC Club Tournament (09/09/10) at The Green Indoor Mini Golf

Minigolf Report
GMGC Club Tournament (09/09/10) at The Green Indoor Mini Golf in Hither Green

Richard Gottfried competed in the Green Mini Golf Club’s third Club Tournament on Thursday 9th September 2010. In the field of thirteen players Richard finished in 9th place in the 36-hole event with scores of 37(+1) and 43(+7) for a total of 80(+8) – adjusted to 82(+10) with the GMGC’s handicap scoring system. The tournament was won by Greenhithe's Marion Homer, her first minigolf tournament victory.

Richard said “I was very disappointed with my round of 43, and my 37 wasn't too great either. My only consolation was that in practice I did hit a new personal best on Swedish Felt with a score of 35 on the hard obstacle version of the course.”

In the un-handicapped scores Richard’s two rounds were only enough to see him ranked eighth.

Heading into the competition Richard had risen from 5th place of 21 players, to 4th of 23 in the GMGC Rankings. Following this week's tournament he has dropped down again to 5th spot of 24 ranked players.

Full results list from the GMGC Club Tournament 09/09/10
1. Marion Homer 52 49 = 101 (+42) 59
2. Andy Exall 39 32 = 71 ( +8 ) 63
3. Sean Homer 30 35 = 65 ( 0 ) 65
4. Julio Kent 37 37 = 74 ( +8 ) 66
5. Seth Thomas 40 38 = 78 ( +6 ) 72
6. Marc Chapman 36 31 = 67 ( -6 ) 73
7. Nick Sandqvist 34 32 = 66 (-10 ) 76
8. Michael Smith 36 31 = 67 (-12) 79
9. Richard Gottfried 37 43 = 80 ( -2 ) 82
10.Giuseppe R. 46 51 = 97 (+14) 83
11.Danyal 52 53 = 105 (+20) 85
12.David Donelly 51 55 = 106 (+16) 90
13.William Donelly 59 58 = 117 (+14) 103

Current Ranking List for the GMGC (as at 09/09/10)
1. Michael Smith -4
2. Nick Sandqvist -4
3. Marc Chapman -4
4. Sean Homer -2
5. Richard Gottfried 0
6. Oliver Florence +2
(24 players are currently ranked in the GMGC list).

Richard won the first GMGC Club Tournament on his last visit to Hither Green on the 6th August.

The GMGC are based at the Green Indoor Mini Golf course in Hither Green, Lewisham, London. You can check out the club and course website at The Green Indoor Mini Golf.

Ends

An almost fruitless minigolfing roadtrip

The recent south east minigolfing roadtrip was in some respects fruitful, but in others quite fruitless!

While we did find a number of minigolf courses, only one of them happened to be be playable - the 9-hole converted skatepark (!?) Crazy Golf course at Folkestone Sports Centre becoming course played number 198 on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour since the 30th of September 2006.

My performance in the 2010 Planet Hastings Crazy Golf Club Open minigolf competition wasn't much better either, finishing 12th of 21 players.

Some interesting minigolf and crazy golf information found, logged and archived, but not enough courses played for my liking!

Which will become the 199th and 200th courses played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour???

Minigolf course visited but not played - Tonbridge (Sportsground) - Crazy Golf - Closed for the day

Following our weekend in Hastings & other seasides and towns we headed to Tonbridge, Kent on our way home, primarily as we found out that there was a Gluten-Free restaurant there (Antonia's) where we could 'celebrate' my 12th place finish in the Planet Hastings Crazy Golf Club Open.

Before dinner we decided to have a wander around the town, the castle ruins and the park - and in the Sportsground we found the 18-hole Crazy Golf! Unfortunately it was closed for the day.

My Worthing Splash Point Mini Golf Course Review on www.theputtingpenguin.com

My Worthing Splash Point Mini Golf Course Review on http://www.theputtingpenguin.com/.

A review of my Crazy World of Minigolf Tour visit to the Splash Point Mini Golf Course in Worthing, West Sussex has been published online at http://www.theputtingpenguin.com/.

You can read my review of the excellent Splash Point Mini Golf Course (run by my BMGA Tour rivals Anthony Pope & Peter Emmerson) at
http://www.theputtingpenguin.com/files/minigolf/Splash_Point.htm

The Putting Penguin website was set up to showcase reviews of Miniature Golf courses around the USA and the world. The course review is the first The Putting Penguin has covered in England (and is their sixth country to have a review listed).

The visit to the Splash Point Mini Golf Course in Worthing was the 181st course played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour - http://hamandeggerfiles.blogspot.com/2010/07/splash-point-mini-golf-in-worthing.html

Check out http://www.theputtingpenguin.com/ for more reviews, and The Putting Penguin's tweets on Twitter at http://twitter.com/PuttingPenguin.

Pat, Mandy & Putt at The Putting Penguin have recently published a book about their first ten years - "10 Courses for 10 Years" - check it out here.