Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Minigolf Challenge Match at TopGolf Watford

Results and report from the latest head-to-head Miniature Golf match-up between ‘Squire’ Richard Gottfried & ‘Rowdy’ Russell Fenner.

TopGolf Watford's Adventure Golf

On Tuesday 21st February I headed over the border into Hertfordshire to visit the TopGolf game centre in Watford and face-off against my old Dodgeball UK rival and sometimes Minigolf opponent ‘Rowdy’ Russell Fenner in a Challenge Match on the 18-hole Adventure Golf course.

Our last match-up in November 2011 had ended in victory for me with a score-line of 44-55, with Hatfield’s ‘Rowdy’ Russell hitting a few unfortunate shots to end some way off.

This time the game was to be much closer and more like some of the previous contests we’ve had at the course.

Over the front-9 I shot a 23 to Russell’s 29, but on the 10th hole an excellent fightback began from the Stevenage Borough fan as he scored a hole-in-one – the only one for either of us in the whole match.

'Rowdy' Russell Fenner playing the 10th hole at TopGolf Watford's Adventure Golf course - the scene for the match's solitary hole-in-one

Hole 11 was to prove slightly tougher though and ‘Rowdy’, a Tottenham Hotspur supporter, scored an unfortunate four on the stone circle obstacle hole.

Russell hitting his second shot on the 'green' at the stone circle 11th hole

Me playing my tee-shot on the 13th hole

With Fenner hitting a solid run of six twos on the back-9 there were just two shots in it heading into the modified and nightmarish 18th hole!

The way the final hole is now laid out means that a perfectly paced shot needs to be played as an approach to the ball connection mini-ramp and tunnel. Too light a shot, or slightly too hard, and another lay-up would be required, possibly two. Tackling the newly added, but slightly skewiff, central obstacle that contains an enclosed ramp, some netting and another exposed ramp would be the ploy of a madman and so both of us went for the lay-up safe two.

Russell was playing the even numbered holes, stepped up and nailed the two.

I stepped up, hit the tee shot, and waited. It stopped slightly shorter than Russell’s had, but not far enough that it required another lay-up. I also scored a two, which was enough to secure a victory of 46-48. Russell’s back-9 score of 19 to my 23 was very commendable indeed.

As is now tradition following a game on the Adventure Golf course we headed indoors to the warm to have a game of Pool. Russell won both games. The first seemed to take about half an hour as neither of us were playing particularly well, but to an outside onlooker they may well of thought we were playing the ‘snookers’ on purpose!

Another great evening of minigolf, looking forward to more challenge matches in warmer weather later in the year.

Photos of the TopGolf Watford Adventure Golf course prior to the game's start.





Link:
- TopGolf Watford

Previous Blog Posts:
- Minigolf at Watford TopGolf - Major Course Improvements & Match vs. 'Rowdy' Russell Fenner
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Putter King Miniature Golf Survey & PKSH2

The Putter King is giving the participants of the 2012 Putter King Miniature Golf Scavenger Hunt a chance to get a sneaky peek at the list of tasks for the #PKSH2 ahead of the full release on the 1st of March.

If you enter my name as the answer to the final question of the Putter King Miniature Golf Survey - Did someone refer you to this survey? (if so please enter that person's name) - it'll help me unlock the FULL official list for the 2nd Annual Putter King Miniature Golf Scavenger Hunt!


Cheers,

Richard

See the latest Blog Post over at The Putter King website - Attention Putter King Scavenger Hunters

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

A day out of fun and games in Milton Keynes and Northampton

A minigolf revisit, a Dalek, Bar Billiards and no Laser Tag - a trip to Milton Keynes & Northampton.

On Monday 20th February Emily and I headed off on a trip to Milton Keynes and Northampton.

We’ve been to MK a number of times and on my last visit I had faced-off against fellow Minigolfer Marc ‘The Roller’ Bazeley in the "MK Winter Sporting Challenge". We would have a re-match of sorts in Northampton later in the day.

Before heading to the Centre: MK for some shopping we stopped off at Willen Lake to see if the minigolf course there was open. It wasn’t. We previously played the course in July 2007 when it became the 29th course played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

The Willen Lake Adventure Golf course

Another view of the Willen Lake Minigolf course

Last July we had played a Crazy Golf course at the Centre: MK, unfortunately there was nothing going on in the Middleton Hall area on this occasion (we’d also found some great Gluten Free Meat there in March 2011). But wandering around the shopping centre we did spot a Dalek and an Only Fools & Horses Reliant Regal!?

A Dalek and me at the Centre: MK

The Trotters' three-wheeler

We then headed back on the M1 up to Northampton. It’s somewhere we’ve never, properly, visited before. On the way to the Manchester Miniature Open minigolf competition in 2009 the hire car we were driving had caught fire just outside Northampton Services and we’d received a tow to the rental office in the town, but that’s as far as we’d previously got.

This time though we managed a good walk around the town centre and it was a nice enough place to spend the afternoon.

In the Tourist Information Centre we had spotted a leaflet for the Laser Force arena in the town centre and ahead of meeting up with Northamptonshire’s number one Crazy Golfer Marc ‘The Roller’ Bazeley we decided to scout it out.

First off we looked inside the Sol Central leisure complex, but couldn’t find the laser tag. We did however find an Amusement Arcade that was closed.

The closed Fun Station at Sol Central in Northampton

We eventually found the arena, but unfortunately the Laser Force laser tag at Sol Central is closed on Mondays (except in holidays).

The Laser Tag in Northampton is closed on Mondays

From the posters and adverts outside it looks like a good set-up and we’d like to play there in the future. It’s also got a ‘Machine City’ zone! I wonder what fellow Laser Tagger Oliver ‘The Machine’ Florence knows about this?


Even more disappointing was the fact that, as with the Peterborough version, they also have a Boom-A-Rang Air Hockey Table!

You can just about see the Boom-A-Rang Crazy Air Squash Table in the background

We met up with ‘The Roller’ who took us on a bit of a mystery tour of the bits of the town centre we’d not yet seen. The undoubted highlight of this was visiting “the third most hated building in Britain” – the town’s Greyfriars Bus Station. While posing for a photo outside it we also got a beep from a passing car!?

Marc and me at the Greyfriars Bus Station in Northampton!

With the Laser Tag closed, a dearth of Miniature Golf in Northampton and the other Laser Maze in the town centre now closed down we headed to the Crown & Anchor pub for the main-event of the day’s contest – Bar Billiards.

We found the table in a corner of the quite spacious Crown & Anchor pub and luckily no one was playing. We did notice that Monday nights were competition nights in the Northants Bar Billiards Association! With league games played between 7.30pm and 10.30pm.

The Bar Billiards table in the Crown & Anchor Pub in Northampton

With Marc having beaten me in the Milton Keynes Winter Sports Challenge, picking up a win in the Pool discipline on his way to ultimate victory (despite having to play half way inside a Hurricane Simulator on a table with an ‘adverse camber’) I was right to be wary of him as an opponent, even if it was his 'debut' playing of the game of Bar Billiards.

Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley has a read of the rules of Bar Billiards

In our first head-to-head match-up, Umpired by Emily, Marc picked up the win with a final score of 190 points. I had notched up a score of 800, but this was lost as I knocked down the dreaded Black Peg on the last ball shoot-out.

I score 100

Almost inevitably in our second game – a triple-threat match including Emily – the balls failed to be released from the table after putting our pound coin in, so we had to get ‘The Man’. However, as this was not a seaside Amusement Arcade (aka 'The Buttons') Emily refused to get #TheMan, so I had to ask at the bar.

The table was promptly fixed and the balls released. As an added bonus we got a chance to see the ‘inner workings’ of a Bar Billiards table as the top section had to be lifted up to get at the ball release mechanism!

In the three-way-dance match I scored a win with a final score of 750 points, with Marc and Emily both knocking down the Black Peg to wipe-out their scores of 400 and 340 respectively.

Marc plays a shot off of a cushion

Emily goes for the 200-hole in the Black Peg Shoot-Out

In the games we seemed to favour the top-left-hand corner of the table and the balls seemed to ‘collect’ here quite often!

One view of 'Jiff Corner'

A nice line of balls 'protecting' the Red ball

Game three was another one-on-one match between me and ‘The Roller’ and was another victory for Marc, this time with a 660 points to zero score-line after I’d wiped-out from 1,050! Marc also picked up his ‘career best’ break with a score of 530 points in one visit to the table, after I had opened with my ‘day best’ of 350 with my first three shots following the start.

Going for a double score with the Red ball

The final game saw Marc pick up his third win on 'home soil' with a score of 1,090 to zero, as I once again knocked down the Black Peg as the ball dropped into the 200-hole. On this occasion the result would not have been affected even if I had potted the last ball cleanly without hitting the peg, as under the watchful eye of the Umpire both players were forced to ‘go for it’ in the last ball shoot-out!

Marc taking on the shot for the 200-hole

Commenting on his Bar Billiards victories Marc ‘The Roller’ Bazeley said “I’ve still got some way to go before I’m mixing it with the Pros, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon nonetheless.”

After the fun of the Bar Billiards we went for another wander around town and headed to (the) Shipmans pub on (the) Drapery for a drink. Unfortunately there were no pub games on offer in this long, thin pub. We did however discuss the game of "Hood Skittles", which is now on our list of Pub Games to play!

To round off our fun day in Northampton we headed to The Church Bar & Restaurant on Bridge Street as we had spotted they offered a Gluten Free menu. The food and surroundings were excellent.

It, and Northampton as a whole, is worth a visit.

A view of The Church Bar & Restaurant

Links:

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Drinking and 'Pub' Games at the 29th Luton Beer & Cider Festival

Dominoes, Table Skittles and Gluten Free Beer at the Luton Beer & Cider Festival.

On Friday 17th February we headed to the 29th Luton Beer & Cider Festival at the High Town Sports & Arts Centre in Luton.

The souvenir glass from the Beer Fest and a hand of my Dominoes

Ahead of the event I’d been informed by the Beds & Mid Herts Coeliac Group that there would be four Gluten Free Beers on offer (in amongst the many beers, ciders and perries)! I'd also spoken to one of the organisers, who is a Coeliac, and found out the beers would be available on the foreign beers stand.

The four GF beers available were from Green's and were the Bottle Conditioned Re-fermented Blonde, Brown and Dark Ales & Greens Discovery. I chose a bottle of the Blonde Beer and would definitely buy it again. It was excellent that the Beer Festival had chosen to include Gluten Free beers on the roster too. I'm a big fan of Cider and Perry, but it's nice to go to a Beer Fest and actually have the choice to buy a Beer if I want to. 

The four Gluten Free Beers available. There were plenty of posters around the venue advertising the beers, along with a factsheet explaining what Coeliac Disease is.

In amongst the drinking me and Emily played some Dominoes in a best-of-3, 5 & 7 series to decide the Luton Drink Club Dominoes Champion.

A Dominoes game in 'action'

The main hall at the Beer Fest housed a vast array of ales and was where the four Gluten Free beers were being sold.

Me with a Gluten Free Ale and another 'third' of strong Cider!

The hall also housed the CAMRA stand where they had two Pub Games available to play – Shove Ha’penny and Table Skittles!

The Table Skittles at the CAMRA stand

The Shove Ha'penny Board

Me lining up a swing on the Table Skittles

An excellent evening with lots of different drinks to try. Roll on the 30th Luton Beer & Cider Festival!

Links:

Blog Posts:

Friday, February 17, 2012

Winning a Putter Fingers Mug

Latest minigolf prize goes on display

As a winner of the 'Where's Spike?' online competition run by Crazy Golf business Putter Fingers I received my prize of a Putter Fingers Mug earlier this week.

The Mug has taken up a spot on my trophy shelf, well for a cup of coffee at least...

The Putter Fingers Mug sitting amongst some of my other minigolf winnings

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Putter King Miniature Golf Scavenger Hunt - A Riddle!

Opportunity to unlock a PKSH task early!


The first 20 people to solve the riddle will receive a bonus chance to ‘unlock’ one of the Putter King Miniature Golf Scavenger Hunt tasks ahead of the launch date of the 1st March 2012!


Links:

Previous Blog Post:

#PKSH2 on twitter

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

London, an Old Routemaster Bus, Crazy Golf and Bar Billiards

A blog post about a Bus on a Minigolf course. And Bar Billiards!

Reading the excellent website about London - Londonist - I spotted a story about new uses for old buses - "Recycled Routemasters: New Uses For Old Busses". One of the photos showed an old Routemaster Bus on the 9-hole Crazy Golf course at Rocks Lane Multi Sports Centre in Chiswick, London.

I visited this course in April 2011 when it became the 214th played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Crazy Golf in Chiswick, London
The old Bus at Rocks Lane Multi Sports Centre in Turnham Green, Chiswick

Re-reading my blog post I noticed that the second hole at the course is called 'Bar Billiards'! This dog-leg right-hand hole doesn't look like any Bar Billiards table I've seen before, or played recently, but more like a right-angled Pool/Billiards table!

Crazy Golf in Chiswick, London
The 'Bar Billiards' second hole

Blog Links:

Links:

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Emily's Minigolf Photo is 19th in Minigolfnews.com Minigolf Photo Competition


Emily’s photo of me playing the 16th hole in the final of the 2011 WMF World Adventure Golf Masters competition at the Hastings Pirate Adventure Golf course finished in 19th place of the 20 finalists in the Minigolfnews.com Minigolf Photo of the Year Competition vote. The picture garnered a total of 118 points (2.8%).

Prior to the voting the Minigolfnews.com team picked the top 20 images from the 116 photos that had been submitted by 30 photographers at Minigolf courses and events in 2011.

You can view the final rankings here.

Emily's submitted photo: Richard Gottfried playing at the WMF World Adventure Golf Masters tournament in Hastings


Links:

Monday, February 13, 2012

Bar Billiards in Baldock & Knebworth

Playing Bar Billiards at two pubs in Hertfordshire.

On Saturday 11th February 2012 me and two friends visited a couple of pubs in Hertfordshire for a few games of Bar Billiards.

Having rung round the pubs in Herts & Beds that are listed on the AEBBA map of Bar Billiards tables earlier in the day I had found out that The Red Lion in Studham, Beds no longer has a table. Nor does the Bedford Arms in Hitchin, having changed to a standard Pool table. We'd also found The Bucks Head pub in Little Wymondley has also removed their Bar Billiards table, but does offer free Dominoes, Cards and Cribbage to customers.

I did find that The Chequers Inn at Knebworth still had a table and I'd heard via twitter that The Orange Tree in Baldock also had one, so off we headed.

Bar Billiards in Baldock & Knebworth
The Bar Billiards table at The Orange Tree in Baldock
First up was a visit to The Orange Tree, where we spotted the table positioned in the 'public bar', quite nicely near to a real log fire to keep punters and players warm. After a quick run through of the rules I took on Simon in a game.

Bar Billiards in Baldock & Knebworth
The Orange Tree Bar Billiards Rules
To decide who would break we played a hand of Rock Paper Scissors. I lost.

Bar Billiards in Baldock & Knebworth
Simon 'Practice' Hall takes a shot
Simon may have won the break, but when the match came to the closing stages the score was 800 to nil, with Simon having wiped out his score by knocking down the dreaded black peg! He did however manage to score 200 points by sinking the last white ball to make the result 800-200.

Bar Billiards in Baldock & Knebworth
Lining up a shot

As the table at The Orange Tree was positioned against a wall/under a window it was only possible to play shots at the 200 & 100 holes from the left hand side of the table. Not a major obstacle really. I did like the fact that there were three sizes of cue available to use. As the pub was busy and there was a door behind the baulk line end I opted to use the 'baby' cue which was only about two and a half foot long.

Having had two games at The Orange Tree we decided to head over to Knebworth and The Chequers Inn for a game or two.

When I had phoned ahead earlier in the day the man at the pub had confirmed they still had a table and said that the baize on it had been relaid. The table did look and play nicely indeed, with the balls rolling very smoothly indeed. But unfortunately in the second game a lot of the balls kept getting 'stuck' in the pockets after being potted!? This meant for much of our second 'three-way-dance' match we were not playing with a full deck!

Simon picked up wins at The Chequers Inn. Both games once again went to a shootout on the 200 hole.

Interestingly the table at The Chequers Inn had a different layout to the table in The Orange Tree and was also different to the only other table I'd actually played, at The Strathmore Arms in St Paul's Walden. Both of those tables had three obstacles (one with 'mushrooms' the other with 'pegs'), but the table at The Chequers Inn had four mushrooms, with one guarding the 200 hole, one at the 100 hole (which was not marked as a scoring hole) and the other two were in front of each of the 50 holes. It certainly made the table a lot harder to score points on. The positioning of the table at The Chequers Inn also meant that shots at the 200 hole in the last ball shootout could only be made from the right hand side of the table.

Bar Billiards in Baldock & Knebworth
The Bar Billiards table at The Chequers Inn at Knebworth - this one had four spots and four 'mushrooms'! Shooting for the 50s was very difficult

There was a nice old rules sheet/poster on display next to the table at The Chequers Inn. it was originally revised in 1973 and reprinted in 1976 and described "The Game of Bar Billiards - sometimes called Russian Bagatelle, Skittle Billiards or Snookerette etc."

This rule sheet had the rules laid out for playing the game using the 'first arrangement' and 'second arrangement' and it was this second type of rules the table had been set up for, with the previously mentioned four peg/skittle marks. There was also a good section on the sheet on 'How to Promote Interest' in the game.

Bar Billiards in Baldock & Knebworth
The nice old Bar Billiards rule sheet at The Chequers Inn

An enjoyable day out at two different pubs, playing a fun and very tricky game. On an incredibly cold day it was nice to be in two very warm pubs.

Related Blog Posts:
- Another new game played – Bar Billiards
- Snow causes blog post in Guildford

Link:
- The All England Bar Billiards Association
- The AEBBA Rules of Bar Billiards

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Luton Sports Awards - Deadline Reminder

The deadline to send in nominations for this year's Luton Sports Network 'Luton Sports Awards' is Tuesday 21st February.

Emily and I would really appreciate nominations. Entry forms (with a deadline date of the 21st February) can be downloaded from the link here. A news item in the latest Luton Herald & Post, p.55 also mentions that entries can now be emailed in, but lists the deadline as Monday 13th of February.

Emily & Richard at the 2011 WMF Nations Cup in Stockholm, Sweden

Related Blog Post:
- Nominate Richard & Emily Gottfried for the Luton Sports Awards!

Links:
- Ham & Egger Files Year in Review
- Richard Gottfried Player Profile
- Emily Gottfried Player Profile
- Luton Sports Network homepage
- Luton Sports Awards
- Luton Sports Awards Nomination Form
- British Minigolf Association
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Bad Postcards - a Tyrannosaurus Rex at a 1960's Goofy Golf Miniature Golf Course

Via the Viz comic facebook page I saw a link to the BAD POSTCARDS tumblr page. I decided to have a look at what other 'Bad Postcards' would be on there and noticed that this excellent website of vintage American postcards from 1950 to 1975 featured a minigolf postcard!


An excellent website that's well worth a look. There are some great old 'bad' Postcards on there - including one of a Cigar Smoking Alligator!

Links:

Friday, February 10, 2012

Snow causes blog post in Guildford

My mate, fellow blogger, former minigolf doubles partner and "sometime adversary" Oliver 'The Machine' Florence has blogged about the snowy weather getting in the way of some Guildford-based activities today.

I had been scheduled to visit the town for some Bar Billiards and a walk around the castle, but snow and heavy traffic on the M1 put paid to that idea.

You can check out the excellent blog post at Ollie's brilliant blog at "Snow luck for Gottfried as Guildford curse strikes again".

Other Guildford Blog Posts at The Ham & Egger Files:

Links:

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Minigolf Zebra Thefts!?

A very odd minigolf news story!


The Putting Penguin team regularly shares interesting news items about Miniature Golf on their twitter profile.

Back in October 2010 we started up #MinigolfMonday and continue to try to get Minigolf 'trending' on twitter by using the hash tag #Minigolf on our tweets!

Blog Link:

Sunday, February 05, 2012

Putter Fingers Crazy Golf Competition for February 2012 - Where's Spike?

The Putter Fingers Crazy Golf team have launched their third online competition!

Visitors to the Putter Fingers website are being asked to look for Spike, the mascot for Putter Fingers.

To enter the 'Where's Spike?' online competition you’ll need to search the Putter Fingers website (high and low) before Friday 10th of February!



I had a go and found there may be a Red Herring thrown in for good measure!

Link:

Saturday, February 04, 2012

World of Bun Throwing: A new ‘Royal Bun Throwing Championships’ to be held

Check out my recent Bun Throwing blog post over at The World of Bun Throwing blog:

"A new ‘Royal Bun Throwing Championships’ to be held at Abingdon Vale Cricket Club"

Friday, February 03, 2012

Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf's new blog

I recently noticed that Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf has recently created a blog. You can check it out at "Jungle Rumble THE BLOG"

There are two Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf sites, each containing two 18-hole indoor miniature golf courses. One is in Bristol at the Cabot Circus Shopping Centre. When Emily and I visited the courses back in February 2010 they became the 161st and 162nd played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We were in Bristol preparing for the British Minigolf Association's BMGA English Open tournament that was taking place at Jungle Rumble.

The other Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf is at the Liverpool ONE Shopping Centre in Liverpool. The courses at this site were the 212th and 213th played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in March 2011. Once again we were visiting the courses ahead of a BMGA Tour event. This time it was the BMGA National Open tournament.

For details of other minigolf blogs (and links to other websites of interest) please check out the 'links' on the right hand side of the Ham & Egger Files web page.

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Minigolfnews.com - Minigolf Photo of the Year Competition!

One of Emily’s photos has been selected for the Minigolfnews.com Minigolf Photo of the Year Competition!

The Minigolfnews.com team selected the top 20 snaps from 116 submitted photos taken by 30 photographers at Minigolf events and courses throughout 2011.

Emily took the photo of me playing the 16th hole at the Hastings Pirate Adventure Golf course at the 2011 WMF World Adventure Golf Masters tournament last May.

Richard Gottfried at the 2011 WMF World Adventure Golf Masters tournament in Hastings

You can read the news item and view the photo shortlist at:

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Minigolf Info - "An Introduction to the British Minigolf Association" & "Starting Out In Minigolf"

Two of the Minigolf Sport Governing Bodies that I play competitive minigolf in have information available online about the sport of Minigolf, the rules of the game and the associations that administrate them.

You can check out the British Minigolf Assocations information flyer 'An Introduction to the British Minigolf Association' which has details about the BMGA, its competitions, benefits of membership and the (Abridged) Rules of Minigolf.

The World Minigolf Sport Federation has a brochure called 'Starting Out In Minigolf' and gives a background to the sport, basic rules and information on the four systems of Minigolf the WMF uses for their competitions.

You can join the BMGA as either a 'Tour Pro', or for free as a 'Standard' member. Full details can be found on the BMGA's Membership Page.


Links:
- The BMGA
- The WMF
- An Introduction to the British Minigolf Association (BMGA)
- Starting Out In Minigolf brochure by the World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF)