Dinosaur Safari Adventure Golf Course Played at the A1 Driving Range in Arkley, Hertfordshire

Another new Miniature Golf course played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour!

Last month while on an On The Buses Event around Elstree & Borehamwood me, Emily and Brad Shepherd spotted the building of a new Adventure Golf course in Arkley, Hertfordshire. Today, a group of us headed there to have a game. It became the 262nd course played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

The course is an 18-hole 'Dinosaur Safari' Adventure Golf and features a variety of holes, with hills, ramps, plateaus, rocks and water hazards.

There are also a number of Dinosaurs around the course. None of them gave us any problems though.

To enter the course and meet the 'Live Dinosaurs' you have to enter through a Time Travel 'Device'!

A sound piece of advice on this sign!

To mark our visit we held a Minigolf Competition to crown the Arkley Dinosaur Safari Golf Classic Champion.

Four players teed-off in the event with me and Emily teaming up to take on my Minigolf (and BIG Golf) rival Jon 'El Pato' Angel and his partner Cheryl 'Shuffler' Joseph.

In the Individual Event I defeated Jon by one shot, scoring a 41(+5). Emily and Cheryl tied for third place with scores of 49(+13).

In the Doubles Event Emily and I defeated Jon and Cheryl by one-shot - 90 vs. 91.

In the Doubles Matchplay Emily and I won 1-up.

In the Boys Against Girls Match Jon and I won 83-98.

After the Adventure Golf we also had a go on the Driving Range, a warm-up of sorts for our yet to be completed 'Best of 5 Pro Spirit Challenge Tour' Competition!

Video introduction of the course visit with a 'special' guest appearance by Jon 'El Pato' Angel.


Previous Blog Post About The Course - New Dinosaur Safari Adventure Golf opening at the A1 Driving Range in Arkley, Herts (near Elstree & Borehamwood)

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"Morning Campers!" A British Holiday Camp Exhibition at Stevenage Museum - with Crazy Golf!

Stevenage Museum in Hertfordshire is currently running an exhibition about British Holiday Camps.

The exhibition, entitled "Morning Campers!" looks at British Holiday Camps through the years and has a number of displays and interactive elements, one of which is Crazy Golf!

The exhibition even has an interactive Mini Golf course to play.

The "Morning Campers!" exhibition at Stevenage Museum runs from the 16th of July until the 3rd of September 2011 and is well worth a visit.

Along with Tim 'Ace Man' Davies, I am a Curator (and 'Janitor') of The Crazy Golf Museum. The aim of The Crazy Golf Museum is to show visitors the history of the game, collections of scorecards, tokens, badges, scorecards, flyers, balls, putters, games etc. and act as the worldwide archive for Miniature Golf and Crazy Golf ephemera.

Link to The Crazy Golf Museum

Blog Post - Miniature Golfers Launch ‘The Crazy Golf Museum’

Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Andover Crazy Golf - Minigolf Course Played #255

The 255th course we played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, and the third of the day on the 15th July was the Crazy Golf course at the Charlton Lakeside Pavilion in Andover, Hampshire.

The visit was entirely unexpected and only happened as we took a wrong turn on our way to the Stonehenge Golf Centre in Larkhill, Wiltshire!? Luckily for us the course was open until 8pm.

In our 18-hole Irregular Mini Golf Tour Match-up I defeated Emily 44-47.

Video: A different way to play the 18th Hole


Related blog post:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Bracknell Crazy Golf - Jocks Lane Park - Minigolf Course Played #254

The second minigolf course of the day played on Friday 15th July 2011 was at Bracknell's Jocks Lane Park.

There is an 18-hole Crazy Golf course there, which actually consists of two 9-hole courses. The front-nine holes are Swedish Felt B-Run type Miniature Golf, while the back-nine holes are a farm-themed Crazy Golf course.

In our Irregular Mini Golf Tour Match-up...I defeated Emily.

The park is also home to a Miniature Railway, organised by the Bracknell Railway Society.

Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Go for 'broke' at Ladbrokes in Stevenage Old Town - Missing Letters Sign

This is probably the best sign 'fail' that I've spotted to date. It's brilliant.

Maidenhead Adventure Golf - Minigolf Course Played #253

On Friday 15th July 2011 we visited the brand new Adventure Golf course in Maidenhead.

The course was the 253rd played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and is located at the Maidenhead Golf Centre.

The course is a 9-hole set-up featuring bunkers and water hazards and is very good fun.

In our Irregular Mini Golf Tour Match-up...Emily defeated me 26-28.

Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Cwmbran Table Tennis Classic 2011

The traditional curtain-raiser ahead of the Cystadleuaeth Minigolff Cymraeg (Welsh Minigolf Tournament) is a side-tournament in A.N. Other Sport or Game. Last year we played a Darts tournament, and in 2009 we played Boules.

However, this year the side-event took place after the main-event at the 2011 Cwmbran Table Tennis Classic.

In the final match Seve Kukielka defeated (destroyed) me, 21-3 in a not close at all Final. In doing so Seve became a two-time Side-Tournament Champion, having won the 2009 Boules Tournament in Swansea (Abertawe), where he also beat me in the final.

Jas beat Cindy in the third/fourth place play-off match.

The tournament saw each of the six players drawn into two groups, with each player playing each other once, with the winner from Group A taking on Group B's runner-up and vice versa.

The group matches were played to 11 points, with the semi-finals and final played to 21.

In Group A:
Richard lost to Cindy 11-8
Cindy beat Emily 11-6
Emily lost to Richard 11-5

Group A Winner - Cindy
Group A Runner-up - Richard

In Group B:
Seve lost to Jas 11-4
Jas beat Leo 13-11
Leo lost to Seve 11-6

Group B Winner - Jas
Group B Runner-up - Seve

Semi-Finals
Cindy lost to Seve 21-14
Jas lost to Richard 21-18

3rd/4th Play-Off
Jas beat Cindy 11-6

Final
Seve beat Richard 21-3

Photo: A shell-shocked Richard attempts to score a point against the merciless Seve

Photo: Seve receives the Cwmbran Table Tennis Classic Tournament Trophy from Emily

The 2012 Side-Tournament Sport or Game is undecided, suggestions welcome?

Cwmbran Darts Classic 2010

Boules Invitational Tournament 2009

A BIG Minigolf Roadtrip: Stonehenge Minigolf in Larkhill (& Hemsby). Plus visits to Maidenhead, Bracknell & Andover

Heading across to Wales to compete in the 2011 Cystadleuaeth Minigolff Cymraeg (Welsh Minigolf Tournament), Emily and I were planning on visiting and playing the Minigolf course at the Stonehenge Golf Centre in Larkhill, Wiltshire on Friday 15th July 2011.

Last week I had noticed that a Ham & Egger Files Blog Post about the Stonehenge BIG Mini Golf in Hemsby, Norfolk, had been linked to in a Blog Post on the Clonehenge Blog - which is "A blog about Stonehenge Replicas". The Clonehenge Blog is also on the lookout for more photos of 'Stonehenge' Golf courses, so if you do see one let them know. One of the other links on the Clonehenge Blog was to a previous Blog Post of theirs about the Stonehenge Golf Centre - a course I was previously unaware of!

Me at the Stonehenge BIG Mini Golf in Hemsby in June 2010

Interestingly the course at the Stonehenge Golf Centre is a Beton-style Miniature Golf course, more commonly found in mainland Europe, so I was intrigued to see what condition the course was in, as they are very good types of course to practice on, as they are very very tough (as we have found when on International Minigolf Duty).

Prior to reaching the Stonehenge Golf Centre in Larkhill I remembered that a new Adventure Golf course had recently opened in Maidenhead at the Maidenhead Golf Centre. So we headed there to have a game. That course became the 253rd course played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

We then headed back on the road, and our next location of Bracknell, where we had spotted on the MiniatureGolfer.com List of Courses that there was a Crazy Golf course at Jocks Lane Recreation Ground.

There was indeed a course there, which turned out to be an 18-hole course consisting of 9-holes of Swedish Felt B-Run and a 9-hole Farm-themed Minigolf layout. This was the 254th course played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

So, with two new course visits under our belts we set off again to visit the Stonehenge Golf Centre.

However, just ten or so minutes away, and with time running out to reach Larkhill before they closed for the day, we took a wrong turn and ended up on the road to Andover!

With no junctions to make a u-turn we decided to head to Andover as, once again, the MiniatureGolfer.com Course List had come up trumps and showed a Crazy Golf course at the Charlton Lakeside Pavilion. Luckily for us it was still there and was open until 8pm! So, we had a game there.

Interestingly, the course's second hole housed a Dolmen - which is what Stonehenge is a collection of!

I remember I had once had a discussion with Anthony Pope, from the excellent Splash Point Mini Golf course in Worthing (course played #181), about Dolmen as he was considering adding one to the course.

I also found an interesting way to Ace the 18th hole on the Andover Crazy Golf course.

With the time past 7pm we were too late to play at the Stonehenge Golf Centre in Larkhill, but still decided to head along to have a look to see if we could snatch a look at the course from beyond the fence.

We couldn't.

But we did spot a Putting course at the centre.

We then headed back on the road to Wales, and decided to drive past the real Stonehenge on the way. The car park was closed so there was nowhere to park up, but Emily did manage to grab the photo below.

I had visited Stonehenge with my family when I was a child, but Emily had never been, so it was a nice bonus to have a quick visit of sorts. We were both amazed at how close the road actually is to it, and unlike its neighbour, Woodhenge, was actually very visible to passing drivers.

As another bonus before we reached Wales, we also got to have a very nice two-course meal at The Barge Inn at Seend Cleeve, Wiltshire, which offers a great Gluten Free Menu for Coeliacs.

Our eight hour journey to Wales turned up some interesting 'finds' and was a nice start to a long weekend of fun in Cwmbran, Newport, Clevedon and Weston-Super-Mare.

Writing this blog post also reminded me of a Minigolf and Stonehenge-related story I had seen before with claims that Stonehenge was ‘part of crazy golf course for race of giant humans’.

Links:
Another closed course – Stonehenge, Hemsby

Crazy World of Minigolf Tour - course re-visit and played course #174 - Hemsby's Stonehenge BIG Minigolf

Hemsby Stonehenge BIG mini golf - course revisit - 4th June 2011

Clonehenge Blog

More from the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.