Prior to the Crazy Golfers Christmas Meet-up at Rileys in Victoria, Brad Shepherd and I met up at Wood Green before heading off to visit and play the Crazy Golf course at Alexandra Palace.
We followed a Brown Tourist Sign to point us in the right direction and one of the first things we spotted was another very interesting sign, this time outside a Pub!
Photo: The Pub Darts Sign
Photo: Brad 'Stops' by the Pub Darts Sign
We decided to come back and give the Jolly Anglers pub a go on our way back after playing at Ally Pally. Just a short distance further along Station Road we spotted a Darts Shop too! And it was on a 'Bradley Road'!!! Sadly it had closed down, so we couldn't get stocked up on any Darts supplies ahead of the evening's tournament.
Photo: Brad standing outside the old Darts shop on Bradley Road
After playing the Minigolf course at Alexandra Palace we had plenty of time to head back to the Jolly Anglers to warm-up with a few games of Darts.
Photo: Brad chucks some 'arrers
In between drinks and goes on the Quiz machine, Brad and I played five '301' games of Darts, with victories all going my way. However, in the evening's main-event Brad would get his revenge by beating me in our two meetings (group stage & semi-final) and eventually went on to win the 'Rivernear Worlds Professional Crazy Golfers Darts Championship'.
Photo: Me and the Dart Board at The Jolly Anglers pub
The Jolly Anglers pub was friendly enough and the board, while not super high-quality, was in good condition and we were able to play there for well over an hour. Their sign advertising the Darts did well!
Photo: The Jolly Anglers pub sign
Photo: The Brown Tourist Sign pointing towards Alexandra Palace
While they may not be places likely to be well known for habitat suitable for Crocodiles or Alligators on our recent travels we have managed to find a fair few Crocodiles/Alligators lurking on Miniature Golf courses at Bluewater Shopping Centre, World of Golf New Malden and on a Pirate Adventure Golf course in Milton Keynes!
On our travels around the UK and overseas Emily and I are always on the look out for places to eat out at Gluten Free.
As a Coeliac it is vital that I don't eat any food that would be unsafe, so options for dining can be quite limited. However, on our travels we've found some great places to eat at.
As well as tweeting about them when I find them and blogging about them here on The Ham & Egger Files, I also regularly submit reviews to the Travel Gluten Free website.
Links:
- Travel Gluten Free
- Coeliac UK - The leading charity working for people with coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis (DH). Their mission is to improve the lives of people with coeliac disease through support, campaigning and research.
While researching places to eat Gluten Free ahead of our trip to Edinburgh in August Emily had spotted that Findlays Butchers in Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland offer wide-range of Gluten Free products that are also available to order online.
While we were in Scotland we didn’t manage to visit the actual shop, but did walk by it, and wouldn’t have had anywhere to store the meat anyway. Instead we waited to buy some nearer to Christmas.
I ordered a Gluten Free Haggis (yet to try it) and two Gluten Free Black Puddings (one down, one to go). Black Pudding was one of my favourite meat dishes before I was diagnosed as a Coeliac and the Black Puddings from Findlays are very tasty. They do contain Oatmeal, however Findlays have made sure that the ingredients going into their products are uncontaminated and as safe for Coeliacs as possible.
Photo: The Gluten Free Haggis, one of the Gluten Free Black Puddings and the edge of the BIG Bone-In Beef Rib Roast
We also ordered a Bone-In Beef Rib Roast and this piece of meat was one of the best we have ever tasted.
Findlays have a variety of Gluten Free specialist products and plenty of other meats to choose from too. It’s easy to order and they have good packaging and delivery. I would use them again.
In March 2011 I had my first taste of Gluten Free Black Pudding when we spotted them (along with Gluten Free Sausages) on the Shaw Meats/Cumbrian Salami Company stall at the Centre MK Craft & Food Fair at Middleton Hall.
As a member of the Paradise Island Adventure Golf 'Golf Club' I receive their regular email newsletter with details of upcoming new and events (sign up here). In the latest issue there was the announcement that Paradise Island is now on facebook (find them here).
We’ve played at the centre for fun and in two Miniature Golf tournaments (which I won) with our last visit in 2009. The course was the 84th played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.
On our recent visit we found the course to still be in excellent condition, very playable and still every bit as challenging as before. The course has been designed to replicate famous holes from ‘Big’ Golf courses and each hole has a board next to it telling you the history of the hole, tips on how to play it and quotes from famous golfers.
In our Irregular Mini Golf Tour Match-up I defeated Emily 32-35 and then 26-33. The course record of 23 held by course designer Nick Ashfield still stands!
The course provides four different tee-off points to choose from (Juniors, Ladies, Mens and Competition) and the course is definitely a Par-3 set-up. While Holes-in-One are achievable on the course, they are very rare indeed and a two is a very good score on most of the holes.
The 9-hole Championship Miniature Golf course is located at the Trafford Golf Centre (formerly PlayGolf). The Minigolf course costs £5 a round for adults (£4 for under 16s) and a second round is only £2.50. It's well worth a play if you're in Manchester.
While having a wander around the centre we also spotted a Putting Practice hole next to the Driving Range.
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.
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.
Photo: The view from the Car Park
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.
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.
Photo: Me outside the VIP Entrance 
Photo: Brad chucks some 'arrers
Photo: Me and the Dart Board at The Jolly Anglers pub
Photo: The Jolly Anglers pub sign
Photo: The Brown Tourist Sign pointing towards Alexandra Palace
