Monday, December 26, 2011

Congratulations to Oliver Florence & Team for winning the South of England Earthworm Charming Championships

While Emily and I were busy revisiting the 'birthplace' of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in Southsea in late and playing some new courses too, our Minigolf Rivals and fellow keen odd-sportsmen Oliver Florence, Richard Skeggs and Leamington Spa-based Robert Clarke were competing at the South of England Earthworm Charming Championships - an event they won!

We had been invited us to be a part of the team, but due to the prior booking and trip to Southsea in our calendar we were unable to be a part of the Championship-winning side. In the competition the team collected a brilliant 193 worms.

The first South of England heat for the 2012 World Worm Charming Championships was organised by the Blackwater Valley Countryside Trust and saw 16 teams in total battle it out for the Worm Charming Title.

Back in July, one week after the 2011 World Worm Charming Championships that Ollie, Richard and Leamington Spa-based Robert Clarke had competed in, we took part in the Worm Charming Competition at St Mary’s Village Carnival in Edlesborough and finished in tied third place.

Photo: The team of Ollie, me (as a Chicken) and Kallum at the Worm Charming Competition at St Mary’s Village Carnival in Edlesborough

Links:
- Ollie's Blog Post from the 2011 'Worlds' "Charming fox worms his way to success at world championship"
- Ollie's Blog Post "Mexican rejection fails to keep charming trio off screen"

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year from The Ham & Egger Files

Wishing you a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2012!

Cheers,

Richard & Emily

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Pirate Island Adventure Golf at Abbey Hill Golf Centre, Milton Keynes - Minigolf Course Played #281

Visiting and playing the Pirate Island Adventure Golf course at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre in Milton Keynes.

On Thursday 15th December 2011 while in Milton Keynes I headed to the new Pirate Island Adventure Golf course at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre. The 18-hole Adventure Golf course became the 281st played on the Crazy World of Minigolf.

Pulling into the car park at the Golf Centre the sight of the huge Pirate Ship struck me straight away! It's massive, bright and colourful and will surely lure people to play the course.

For adults it's £7.50 a round, which seems to be the going rate these days for an 18-hole round of Minigolf on the new wave of Adventure Golf courses. While not cheap, the Milton Keynes course was actually very good to play and the £7.50 seemed worth it. While I had the course pretty much to myself as it was 6pm on a cold Thursday in December, I imagine that the course is going to be very busy in the spring and summer. What is good though is that there are floodights so the last ticket sold for the course every day is at 8.45pm.

Pirate Island Adventure Golf course at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre in Milton Keynes
Photo: The view from the Car Park

Pirate Island Adventure Golf course at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre in Milton Keynes
Photo: Hole 1 - Putting into the Pirate Ship

Photo: Inside the Pirate Ship - Indoor Black Light Glow in the Dark Minigolf!

Photo: Hole 3 - and the Driving Range

Photo: A pair of Pirates having a fight over some treasure on an island!

We've played similar courses to the Pirate Island Adventure Golf, most notably at Celtic Manor in Wales, but each of the holes were new ones to me. I really liked the first two holes, which made good use of the Pirate Ship. The island hole which required the use of two 'do it yourself' rafts was also very well designed and made. The whole look and feel of the course has been well crafted and you wouldn't think you're in Milton Keynes!

Photo: Hole 11 - A Snake

Photo: The Island and a Raft

Photo: A loop di loop

Photo: A BIG Minigolf Skull

Photo: Another Crocodile/Alligator for my collection

Photo: Sailing back to shore

In my one round I managed to hit a couple of holes-in-one and scored a 54(+18), but one-under using the course par of 55.

Later that evening I returned with fellow Minigolf 'Pro' Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley, where we had a close fought challenge match with me coming out the victor with a score of 52 to Marc's 53.

Videos of the course (15/12/11)






Links:
- Pirate Island Adventure Golf at Abbey Hill Golf Centre
- Blog Post - A new Mini Golf course in Milton Keynes - Pirate Island Adventure Golf at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre
- Photos of the course, by our fellow Minigolf Travellers Paul & Owen Johnson, at MiniatureGolfer.com
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Friday, December 23, 2011

MK Winter Sporting Challenge - Minigolf/Adventure Golf, Air Hockey, Quasar Laser Tag & Pool

On Thursday 15th December 2011 me and Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley met up in Milton Keynes for a "Best-of-Three, no wait make it Best-of-Five Games Series" for the title of MK Winter Sporting Challenge Champion! We had planned to play a lot of Quasar Laser Tag at the Tenpin Mega Bowl at MK Leisure Plaza, however there were no spaces in games until 9pm! So with time to spare we headed to the brand new Pirate Island Adventure Golf at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre for a game of Minigolf.

Photo: Not me & Marc having a Pirate Battle on a Minigolf Island!

As I had arrived in MK before Marc, I had managed to get a game in beforehand (making it minigolf course #281 played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour!). Not that my warm-up game helped too much in our challenge match. Under floodlight conditions we hit the 18-hole course and it's excellent Pirate-theming for a match played in very cold conditions.

Photo: Marc Putting on a Double Plateau Hole

Photo: Richard on a Raft attached to a Minigolf Island

To say the match was one-sided in the early stages would be an understatement as Marc, the BMGA British #89, raced ahead over the Front-9 holes.

Video - Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley Plays the 10th Hole at Pirate Island Adventure Golf:


Photo: Marc has a testing second Putt on the 18th hole

But by the 17th hole the match was level on both Strokeplay and Matchplay! I stepped up first and hit a two, Marc played his first shot which ended in the rocks, played his second and waited... and it ran just passed the hole and he had to settle for a very unfortunate three. The final scores - Richard 52, Marc 53.

Game One - Winner - 'Squire' Richard Gottfried

Following the Minigolf match we decided to head back to the Mega Bowl to have a warm game of Quasar.


While we were waiting for the 9pm game slot we decided to have a game of the Crazy Golfers Favourite - Air Hockey. Despite leading for most of the (10-minute!) match I lost 8-9 after scoring an own goal in injury time. The game conditions were quite interesting, with just two of us and with no Emily to fetch #TheMan when the Puck went flying off the table there were a lot more throw-ins than usual!


Game Two - Winner - Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley

With 9pm approaching we headed to the check-in desk, signed the disclaimer (no running, no swearing, no fighting, no rifle-butts to the face etc.), found out that it would just be a one-on-one match and then waited to be called through to the Briefing Room. While we were waiting to go through Marc had the opportunity to have his photo taken with one of his Minigolf heroes!

Photo: Marc and his Minigolf Hero

Once in the Briefing Room the man said that before we could play we would have to watch "The DVD"! He seemed quite apologetic that we'd have to sit through it, however Marc and I were quite excited as in all the times we've played Laser Tag we've never had a briefing through a TV/DVD! The video was very informative, told us we were playing "Q-2000" and that once the film was over we'd be led to "The Vesting Room"!


The Milton Keynes Quasar Arena was very maze-like, with narrow passages leading to a central hub. With the game beig a solo battle the bases were unfortunately not in play. The game saw each of us trying to track the other down and in the quite big arena you had to take your opportunities and use the element of surprise on your opponent. Marc managed to do this and scored more hits, ending the game with a win for the REDS.

Photo: RED Marc and GREEN Richard

In the Quasar Stats for our game Marc was playing as RED 9 while I was GREEN 12. Marc won with a Hit Ratio of 0.9% after firing 855 shots and scoring 1,600 points! Inconceivably I was shown to have fired 4,003 times in our battle and ended with a Hit Ratio of 0.1% and 1,000 points!?

In the Never Ending Laser Tag War waged between the forces of the REDS, BLUES, GREENS, and YELLOWS players in the Laser Tag Rankings have taken part in Laser Battles in 'laser-war-torn' places including Birmingham, Hemel Hempstead, Bristol, London, Peterborough, Crawley, New Brighton, Cannock, Whitstable, Skegness, Rayleigh and Milton Keynes.

Updated Laser Tag Rankings following the MK Battle:

Click to enlarge image

Game Three - Winner - Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley

With the series at two-wins-to-one in Marc's favour we headed to the Pool tables. The table we played on seemed to have a bit of a slope and was also a bit troublesome if you were shooting from one end of it, as you had to open the door to the Hurricane Simulator arcade machine to get any sort of leverage!?


The other Pool table was out of order, but happened to be the one with any chalk in the chained up chalk holder!


In our match Marc won, with me still having three balls left to pot when Marc nailed the black for victory.

Game Four - Winner - Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley

After playing Pool we (I) tried to make the series a best-of-seven event, but Super Mario Kart wouldn't accept any of our coins and someone had jammed a pound coin and a ten pence piece in the coin slot of Out Run 3, putting paid to any chance of another win for me.

Overall Champion of the MK Winter Sporting Challenge - Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley

Ultimate MK Games Champion Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley said "I knew it was going to be tough, especially after the minigolf. But I always believed in myself and that belief was justified."

Perennial Runner-Up ‘Squire’ Richard Gottfried said “Well done to Marc on his big win at the games. It was well deserved indeed and he was unlucky not to beat me at the Minigolf too! I’m looking forward to some more games of Laser Tag and visits to #TheButtons soon.”

The new Pirate Island Adventure Golf course at Abbey Hill Golf Centre in Two Mile Ash is well worth a visit and we'll be heading back again. Hopefully we'll get to play the Quasar with more people next time too.

Links:
- Pirate Island Adventure Golf at Abbey Hill Golf Centre
- Tenpin - Milton Keynes
- Blog Posts - Air Hockey
- Blog Post - Quasar in Milton Keynes
- Blog Post - A new Mini Golf course in Milton Keynes - Pirate Island Adventure Golf at the Abbey Hill Golf Centre
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Crazy Golfers Christmas 'Do' in London - Darts Tournament at Rileys Victoria!

Brad 'The Fist' Shepherd wins the 'Rivernear Worlds Professional Crazy Golfers Darts Championships' in 14-player field

Shepherd makes it three wins in three years at Crazy Golfers Crimbo Shindigs!

The un-Bronze Bully Prize!
Photo: The un-Bronze Bully Prize!

On Monday 19th December 2011 thirteen of the World’s best Crazy Golfers and Snooker Ace/Juggler Richard '147' Linden met under the Arrivals Board at Victoria Station (how romantic) before heading to Rileys Victoria for an evening of shenanigans in the 2011 Crazy Golfers Christmas ‘Do’.

Previous years have seen the group play Minigolf in 2009 (a busman’s holiday) and Indoor BIG Golf on a simulator & a bit of Putting in 2010. But for the 2011 Open Invitational event there were a few new options suggested, including Tenpin Bowling, Darts, Laser Tag and Table Football.

With Bowling Alleys either charging too much (read 'extortionate'), or not bothered about the potential booking from the group it was decided that Darts would be a good option and after some research on the Bachelor of Darts’ Capital Arrows website the venue for the ‘Do’ was found and a booking made for three Dart Boards at Rileys Victoria. What was even better was the Boards were free to book!

The 14 players would be vying for the Christmas Champion Title and the un-Bronze Bully in the ‘Rivernear Worlds Professional Crazy Golfers Darts Championships’! Players got into the festive/darts spirit by donning Christmas hats and gaudy shirts for the night out.

Photo: Action from Board 3. Trevor 'The Wraith' Robertson on the oche in his match against Emily 'Ah Bristow' Gottfried. Alan 'Stormin' Norman is the scorer

At 7pm the players began practising their throws and the competitors could get an early idea of who the opposition would be. While the praccy was underway a draw/bracket/format was organised by EmilyLemonyCoach, TevorTheWraithSmeethino and Brad.

Of note is the fact that Seth ‘Zen’ Thomas had brought his own Snooker Cue, which many players thought was a Javelin in a case when they met at Victoria. Unfortunately with so much ‘arrers action going on the group never had time to play any Pool or Snooker. Perhaps next year...

Photo: Seth 'Zen' Thomas and his Pool Cue in a case at Victoria Station. Also pictured, Alan 'Stormin' Norman (l) and Steve 'F1' Gow

One of the early favourites for the tournament victory was Gareth ‘Colleen’ Holmes, who while not present on the Minigolf-scene of late (since a devastating tackle from Brad at an Air Hockey table in Hastings which put him on the disabled-list), was thought to be a challenger as someone said he’d “played a bit of Darts before.” Where he’d played, how long ago and against who is still unclear!? On the walk to Rileys ‘Oh’ Chris Jones had also stated that he’d played before and wasn’t bad, however he then said "But that was 32 years ago!"

Brad 'The Fist' Shepherd on the oche, with scorer Martin 'Smashin' Robertson
Photo: Brad 'The Fist' Shepherd on the oche, with scorer Martin 'Smashin' Robertson

With the competition format decided a draw was then held to decide the groups for the event.

All of the matches, except the final, would be played as one-leg shoot outs of 301 straight-in, double-out games. The final of the ‘Rivernear Worlds Professional Crazy Golfers Darts Championships’ would be played in a 501 game.

For the qualifying round the 14 players were drawn into three Pools and each assigned to a Dart Board to play round-robin matches. The top two players from each group would then qualify automatically to the last-8, with the three players who finished third in their groups meeting one another in a play-off to decide which two would qualify as players 7 & 8.

The remaining players would be placed into a Loser’s Pool to play-off in a round-robin format to decide places 9-14.

The top-8 would play in a knockout format to decide who would make the semi-finals and the losing four players would then play for positions 5-8. There would also be a 3rd/4th place match prior to the Grand Final.

Pool A / Dart Board 1

Seth ‘Zen’ Thomas

Jon ‘The Stance’ Angel


‘Oh’ Chris Jones

Gareth ‘Colleen’ Holmes

Richard ‘147' Linden


Pool B / Dart Board 2

‘Squire’ Richard Gottfried

Brad ‘The Fist’ Shepherd

Martin ‘Smashin’ Robertson

Lionel ‘The Spoon’ Bender


Pool C / Dart Board 3

Emily ‘Ah Bristow’ Gottfried

Trevor ‘The Wraith’ Robertson

Alan ‘Stormin’ Norman

Steve ‘The Rant’ Gow

Marc ‘The Professor’ Chapman

Due to unforeseen technical issues, the pre-prepared 'Walk-on' music for each player ahead of their matches was unavailable. It wasn't a big problem though as it would likely have been drowned out by the Christmas tunes anyway!

Automatically qualifying for the quarter-finals from Group A was Seth, with Martin and Brad joining him from Group B. Alan was the automatic qualifier from Group C.

In Group A and C there were players tied for the second and third places so a three-way 9-dart play-off was required to decide who finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th in each group. In Group A Gareth won with a score of 156 to qualify as group runner-up. Jon was third, scoring 113, and would go into the play-off pool for the third place players, joining Richard G and the third player from Group C. Richard L scored 70 and finished 4th in Group A.

In Group C Emily won the 9-dart play-off with a score of 127, with Steve qualifying for the three-way play-off against Richard G and Jon, having scored 117. Despite hitting treble-20 with one of his last three darts Marc scored 108 to finish fourth in the Group.

The highest three-dart score of the whole tournament was made by Trevor ‘The Wraith’ Robertson in a first-round match when he hit a great score of 111.

Before the matches in the last-8 could commence, the players who would be ‘seeded’ 7th and 8th needed to be decided. In the three-way play-off Richard G beat Steve, Steve lost to Jon, and Jon beat Richard G, meaning Jon qualified as number 7 and Richard as number 8. Steve would join Marc, Richard L, Chris, Trevor and Lionel in the Loser’s Pool for the ranking matches for places 9-14.

In these matches both Marc and Steve managed to complete their games before the Grand Final got underway and finished in 9th and 10th places respectively, with Marc winning four of his five round-robin games. Steve won two and lost three in the round-robin pool. Steve also managed to play the most competitive matches in the tournament, stepping up to the oche to compete in eleven matches overall!

Lionel, Chris, Trevor and Richard L did not complete all of their round-robin games and were tied in 11th place (or 11th, tied 12th and 14th to be ever so precise).

In the last-8 matches Emily lost to Richard G in a grudge match between the two Lutonians. Brad beat Martin in a re-match from the group stages. Gareth lost to Seth and Jon beat Alan.

In the games to decide the rankings from 5th to 8th place Emily lost to Martin who found some of his first-round form to get the win. Alan beat Gareth in an all-London encounter. Martin lost to Alan and Emily lost to bookies favourite Gareth.

In the semi-finals Richard G once again lost to Brad, as he had in their group match, with Brad progressing to the Grand Final. Earlier in the day the two had stumbled across a Pub in Wood Green advertising their Dart Board and had a few games, with Richard winning five-out-of-five, but he could not find the double against Brad in the semi-final.

Semi-Finalists Brad 'The Fist' Shepherd and 'Squire' Richard Gottfried
Photo: Semi-Finalists Brad 'The Fist' Shepherd and 'Squire' Richard Gottfried

In the second semi-final Seth beat Jon to book his place in the Grand Final against Brad.

Semi-Finalists Seth 'Zen' Thomas and Jon 'The Stance' Angel
Photo: Semi-Finalists Seth 'Zen' Thomas and Jon 'The Stance' Angel

Ahead of the Grand Final Richard and Jon met, in another re-match from earlier in the evening, to decide who would finish as the Bronze medallist. In the 301 contest Richard picked up the victory to claim a place on the Podium.

The Finalists Seth 'Zen' Thomas and Brad 'The Fist' Shepherd. With scorer Gareth 'Colleen' Holme
Photo: The Finalists Seth 'Zen' Thomas and Brad 'The Fist' Shepherd. With scorer Gareth 'Colleen' Holmes

With the un-Bronze Bully up for grabs, a fair few drinks imbibed and hunger setting in, the atmosphere for the final saw the other twelve players reaching a sort-of mild fever-pitch.

In the 501 straight-in double-out contest Brad ‘The Fist’ Shepherd managed to defeat surprise finalist Seth ‘Zen’ Thomas by hitting double-2, leading to a big cheer from the crowd as Brad realised his dream of winning the competitions at three Christmas ‘Do’s’ in three years! Marc the announcer declared Brad the winner and Gareth the scorer presented him with the coveted un-Bronze Bully to shouts of “Bully! Bully! Bully!” from the uproarious audience.

Video: Crazy Golfers Christmas Darts at Rileys London - The Grand Final


2011 Rivernear Worlds Professional Crazy Golfers Darts Champion Brad 'The Fist' Shepherd
Photo: 2011 Rivernear Worlds Professional Crazy Golfers Darts Champion Brad 'The Fist' Shepherd

With the matches over and the promise of some sore heads & throwing arms and bruised egos the next day, the merry minigolfers made their way to all corners of London and the Home Counties (and Canterbury) all looking forward to a Merry Christmas and dreams of toppling Brad’s reign as Crazy Golf’s Crimbo Champ in 2012!

Suggestions for sporting contests for the 2012 Crimbo Contest already include:
- Draughts/Kick-boxing
- Ludo/Fencing
- Connect-4/Arm-Wrestling
- Ping-Pong/Sumo

Other ideas more than welcome, please leave comments below...

Final Rankings and Win/Loss Records for the 2011 ‘Rivernear Worlds Professional Crazy Golfers Darts Championships’


More photos from the event:

Photo: Lionel 'The Spoon' Bender hits the Bullseye!

Photo: Snooker player and Juggler Richard '147' Linden reaches his 'perfect' score!

Photo: Marc 'The Professor' Chapman takes a closer look at Bully (censored version)

The 'Rivernear' Darts Tournament was the biggest in the history of Crazy Golf! In 2008 the first-ever (and only one to date) Links Darts tournament was contested at Planet Hastings Crazy Golf course at the end of the first day’s play of the 2008 BMGA British Minigolf Championships. That contest was won by Sean ‘The Sandman’ Homer. Perhaps the 2012 minigolf season will throw-up a meeting between Brad and Sean in a battle of the two ‘codes’ in a Grand Slam of Minigolf-Darts!

Links:
- The Minigolfers Christmas 'Do' 2010
- 2009 Christmas Crazy Golf Challenge at Devonshire Square
- Links Darts at MiniatureGolfer.com
- Justin Irwin, the Bachelor of Darts
- Rileys
- Rileys Victoria
- The World Darts Federation (WDF)
- The British Darts Organisation (BDO)
- The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC)
- The British Minigolf Association (BMGA)

More Darts Blog Posts on The Ham & Egger Files:
- Writing about a little bit of Britain on the Las Vegas Strip for Smitten by Britain
- The Las Vegas Darts Classic - Richard vs. Emily
- Cwmbran Darts Classic 2010
- Minigolf 'Links Darts' featured in We Love Darts magazine