Sunday, July 21, 2013

Minigolf Report – Gottfried’s Tee-Off at New Minigolf Course in Barnard Castle

21st July 2013
Press Information
For Immediate Release

Minigolf Report – Gottfried’s Tee-Off at New Minigolf Course in Barnard Castle

Richard Gottfried 3rd and Emily Gottfried 5th in UrbanCrazy Challenge tournament. 

Luton Minigolfers Richard and Emily Gottfried were in action at the launch of the new UrbanCrazy designed 9-hole Minigolf course at Scar Top, Barnard Castle in County Durham on Saturday 20th July.

In the two-round UrbanCrazy Barnard Castle Minigolf Challenge competition Richard and Emily competed against fellow Great Britain International Players and members of the British Minigolf Association. After 18-holes Richard finished in third place in the nine-player event on a total of 36(par). First-round leader Emily scored a 22 in round two to slip to tied fifth place alongside Jon Angel with the pair finishing on 38(+2).

Richard Gottfried playing hole 3 at Barnard Castle

Emily’s first round score of 16(-2) tied the course record set earlier in the day by Newcastle’s John Moore and Richard. Birmingham’s Chris Harding also managed to match the score of 16.

Richard said “We had a great day playing at the new Barnard Castle course and I was pleased to get the course record too. My third place in the UrbanCrazy challenge match was a nice end to a packed day of activities.”

Emily Gottfried playing hole 6 at Barnard Castle

Emily said “My first round was brilliant, and but for a small blip on the 8th hole I was on course to break the current course record. Unfortunately I couldn’t continue my performance into the second round, which was a shame. However I still greatly enjoyed the competition. The people of Barnard castle and all of the staff and representatives from UrbanCrazy were really supportive, and the course is set in a beautiful location, so I look forward to going back again.“

During the Minigolf course party launch the GB and BMGA players acted as coaches for members of the public and were each assigned to play in a group during the first-ever ‘Inter-Mayoral Minigolf Challenge’ competition held to support Teesdale YMCA. The contest saw ten Mayors and consorts from the local area compete in the charity event. Emily’s team was runner-up, while Richard’s team tied for third-place.

Ends

The Piece of Cheese Cottage in Hastings

While in Hastings old town recently I spotted a very eye-catching building - the Piece of Cheese Cottage!

The Piece of Cheese Cottage in Hastings

In all my many visits to the town for Crazy and Mini Golf tournaments I've never seen the place before. It's certainly very different.

One of the sides of the building - the only three-sided cottage in England - has a blue heritage plaque on it that makes an interesting claim!


The cottage was built for a £5 bet in 1871 and is the second smallest in the country. The Piece of Cheese Cottage is also available to stay in from only £55 per night! I may be making a booking soon as it's very close to the seafront and the town's Miniature Golf courses.

Link:

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Postcards of Luton – Yes they do exist!


While in Rome recently Emily was looking for a postcard to send home to me, but it wasn’t until she was on her journey to the airport to fly home that she managed to get one. As they were flying back into Luton a colleague of hers jokingly asked if the town had any postcards of its own, and was amazed when Emily said there was.

It’s true, you can get at least four designs that I know of in the town’s library and tourist information centre. Emily went so far as to buy one for her colleague to prove it.

This led to some Twitter chatter on the topic and I had to buy more of the postcards to prove they really existed. In fact I cleared out the supply in Luton’s central library – the librarian thought it was funny that someone actually wanted to buy the postcards (especially at 6.30pm on a Wednesday evening) as there’s not generally much call for them in the age of other quicker forms of communication. The views of the town centre on the cards aren’t the most modern either. It’s been many a year since Lunn Poly was on George Street!

If you’re a fan of Postcards then do check out the Reflections of a Bygone Age website and Picture Postcard Monthly!

Monday, July 15, 2013

Some photos of the Little Oasis Crazy Golf course in Margate, Kent

Photos of the Little Oasis Minigolf courses in Margate (June 2013).

My brother Christopher recently swung by Margate in Kent and managed to get three snaps of the Crazy Golf course at the ‘Little Oasis’ in the Cliftonville area for me.

It’s not looking in the best shape!




The Little Oasis has two 18-hole Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf courses. Emily and I have played both of them – numbers 37 and 215 on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We last played there in April 2011 and the course we played was in a decent enough condition.

Unfortunately he didn’t have time to visit the excellent Strokes Adventure Golf course on Westbrook Promenade on his quick trip to Margate.

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Sunday, July 14, 2013

Mini Golf by Simon Martin

New Minigolf book from photographer Simon Martin.

London, Kent & Brighton based photographer Simon Martin recently completed his latest project entitled 'Mini Golf'.

'Mini Golf' by Simon Martin - a great coffee table book

From late 2012 until May 2013 Simon travelled around the UK photographing a range of Mini, Crazy and Adventure Golf courses, as well as following the competition players on the British Minigolf Association Tour circuit to capture portraits of the players.

Simon Martin (l) presents Richard Gottfried with a copy of 'Mini Golf' at the 2013 WMF World Adventure Golf Masters tournament in Hastings

The book produced is a brilliant document of his travels to Minigolf 'hot spots' such as Brighton, Wroxham, Herne Bay, Blackpool, Great Yarmouth, Birmingham, Hemsby, Cheddar, Margate, Newport, East Finchley, Camden, Worthing, Sidcup, Canvey Island, The Mumbles, Arkley, Cwmbran, New Barnet and West Horndon. There are a couple of courses in the book that even Emily and I haven't yet visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour!

The player portraits are a nice touch too - some of us stars of the BMGA Tour are actually quite photogenic!

For more information on the Mini Golf project and to view some of the book's images please check out the Simon Martin Photography website.

Links:

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Saturday, July 13, 2013

Caricatures by Howard the Celeriac

Howard the Celeriac – star of the eponymously named coeliac disease inspired comic strip website – recently put out a call for more suggestions for the site and also for fellow ‘Celeriacs’ (and ‘Gluters’) to send in their photos to be turned into caricatures.

As a big fan and contributor to the site I sent in a photo of Emily and I at Strokes Adventure Golf course and he turned it into this!

Howard the Celeriac Caricature

Brilliant.

Check out the Howard the Celeriac website where “All of your most painful gluten free moments pictorially represented for you in one place.”

Links:

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White Rock Gardens Mini Golf Putting

While in Hastings, East Sussex for the WMF World Adventure Golf Masters last month we had a wander through White Rock Gardens (formerly home to a great 18-hole Minigolf course) and spotted on the window of the Bowls Reception that "Putting" is available!


It's £3 for adults and £2 for seniors and juniors.

We're not sure where it's played – perhaps it's on one of the unused bowls greens on a rotation...


Next to White Rock Gardens there is another Putting course – we’ve visited it, but not played it yet.

We've played Minigolf on some other bowls greens on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour including a 9-hole layout at Victoria Park in Glasgow and a 9-hole course at Powderhall Bowling Green in Edinburgh.

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Playing Jurassic Mini Golf at the thecentre:mk

Playing a new Minigolf course in Milton Keynes.

On the 9th of June Emily and I visited and played the 318th course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.


The 12-hole Jurassic Golf course is located in Queen’s Court at thecentre:mk shopping centre in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.


We first spotted the course would be open during the summer on a shopping trip to Milton Keynes in March.


The Jurassic Golf course opened on the 28th of March and will be at the centre:mk until the 22nd of September 2013 and is open seven days a week.


The course is an Eternit/MiniatureGolf style of course and had some very good dinosaur theming and looks very good.


Unfortunately the balls used on the course are soft foam balls and don’t really work on the Eternit style course as they are not heavy enough to play rebounds, hold their line or fend off even a mild breeze! I’d be very interested in giving the course a play using our specialist competition Minigolf balls on the course.


In our match-up I defeated Emily 32(+8) to 42(+18).

The course was nice and busy and is a real attraction in the middle of thecentre:mk. Check out the Jurassic Golf Mobile Golf Courses website for more info, opening times and prices.


The course was the 529th we've been to on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour since September 2006!


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Friday, July 12, 2013

Gluten Free in Bournemouth, Boscombe and Southbourne, Dorset

Dining out Gluten Free in three Dorset seasides.

Before we headed to Boscombe, Dorset for the 2013 BMGA British Matchplay Minigolf Championships and a mini-holiday Emily and I had a search to see what options we had for dining out Gluten Free.

The best place we found for Gluten Free options was the brilliant Gluten Free Vegetarian UK blog that had lots of reviews and suggestions for restaurants and takeaways in the Bournemouth, Boscombe and Southbourne area.

We duly made a list of all the places to try. On our promenading through the seaside town we spotted most of the places on our list. One of the restaurants we were most looking forward to visiting was Natural Bourne Grillers. The online menu had certainly whetted our appetites and it was the first place we dined on Thursday.

So good was the food and service that we also booked a table for Friday night!

Natural Bourne Grillers is a steakhouse & grill and all meals can be prepared gluten free! The chef told us that he has friends with coeliac disease so he makes a real effort to make sure the food at the restaurant is safe and tasty. It really was great and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Enjoying the BIG burger at Natural Bourne Grillers

On both days I opted for the 10oz bacon cheeseburger! It was a big burger (two 5oz steak mince patties in a good gluten free bun with plenty of cheese and nice bacon) and came with hand cut fries and a great coleslaw. On the Saturday we also went for the BBQ chicken wings which were very good. 

We will definitely be heading back again. There are plenty of other items on the menu and they have a number of daily specials and offers during the week. There is also no corkage fee when you take your own alcohol which is great.

On Saturday evening we headed to Tomlin’s Fish & Chip shop and restaurant. Another gluten free chippy to add to our list.

Fish & Chips at Tomlin's

We stayed in the Balincourt Hotel in Bournemouth (great location for the Boscombe Chine Mini Golf course), which can cater for Coeliacs for breakfast (and evening meals if required). There were gluten free cereals available and the full English breakfast was a great way to start the day.

We also saw that The Crooked Book shop in Boscombe has some gluten free options, but didn’t eat there on this occasion.

We're looking forward to our return to the Dorset coast already!

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Sainsbury’s Boredom Busters Getting People Garden Golfing

Supermarket encourages people to organise a game of garden golf this summer.

While down in Boscombe, Dorset for the BMGA British Matchplay Minigolf Championships I popped into the Sainsbury’s supermarket and spotted a sign from the new ‘Boredom Busters’ campaign encouraging you to ‘Organise a game of garden golf’ over the summer.


As a big fan of busting boredom I think it’s a great idea!

We now live in an apartment, but when we did have a garden I built a little garden golf course.

We also played some Crazy Golf with obstacles from a Crazy Golf Museum exhibit and I’ve also built a Minigolf course up on the roof of an apartment block as part of the Putter King Miniature Golf Scavenger Hunt.

I hope the Sainsbury’s Boredom Busters idea encourages more people to put(t) together some interesting garden Miniature Golf courses over the summer.


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Monday, July 08, 2013

Emily Gottfried third in the BMGA British Matchplay Minigolf Championships in Boscombe

8th July 2013
Press Information
For Immediate Release

Emily Gottfried third in the BMGA British Matchplay Minigolf Championships in Boscombe

Luton Minigolfer Emily Gottfried finished in third place of 17-players in the British Minigolf Association’s British Matchplay Championships at the Boscombe Chine Gardens Mini Golf course in Dorset on Sunday 7th July, winning four of six matches in the national event.

Boscombe Chine Mini Golf
Emily Gottfried playing the 17th hole at Boscombe Chine Mini Golf

The 2013 competition was the sixth edition of the tournament, but Emily’s debut in the event and her first tournament played on the 18-hole Boscombe course.

The first stage was played in a round robin format. After a one-hole loss to London’s Gareth Holmes in the first match Emily rallied to win against London’s Alan Norman by one-hole before defeating Bexhill-on-Sea’s Alex Pragnell 3&2.

Qualifying as the group runner-up Emily was drawn to face Cambridge’s Tony Kelly in the quarter finals. Their match was tied after 18-holes and went to a sudden-death play-off that Emily won with a hole-in-one at the fourth extra-hole.

The semi-final draw saw Emily face BMGA British number one Michael Smith. Going two holes up on the front nine holes Emily eventually lost 2&1 after a fightback from the defending champion.

In the third/fourth place play-off Emily was matched against Kent’s Mark Wood. The match ended in victory for Emily with a 3&2 win.

Emily said "I am extremely pleased with my performance in the tournament. To finish in third place in my first British Matchplay tournament is better than I expected. The course has its tough holes, but I enjoyed it and feel I that played well all day, throughout the beautiful hot weather and did myself proud."

Ends

Sunday, June 23, 2013

New Mini Golf course open in Barnard Castle

Brand new UrbanCrazy Miniature Golf course holding an official opening in Barnard Castle, County Durham in July.

The team at Minigolf course designers and builders UrbanCrazy have put the finishing touches to a brand new Mini Golf course in the town of Barnard Castle in County Durham.

The 9-hole layout opens on Saturday 20th July at 1pm and the official opening will see members of the public able to play the course for FREE!


Members of the Great Britain Minigolf Team will be on hand for tips and to take on in challenge matches.

Emily and I are looking forward to giving it a play and making it another course visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We’ve played a number of UrbanCrazy’s permanent and portable Mini, Adventure and Crazy Golf courses and they’re always great fun and a test of putting skill.

The course is open for play now and is operated by Barnard Castle Town Council. You can find it located at Scar Top, Barnard Castle, County Durham, DL12 8LY.

Links:
UrbanCrazy

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Emily Gottfried wins the WMF World Adventure Golf Masters Women’s Title in Hastings

22nd June 2013
Press Information
For Immediate Release

Emily Gottfried wins the WMF World Adventure Golf Masters Women’s Title in Hastings

Gottfried’s compete in the WMF World Adventure Golf Masters International Championship in Hastings.

Luton Minigolfers Richard and Emily Gottfried received their fifth Great Britain caps as they played in the third World Minigolf Sport Federation tournament held in the UK. Emily became a two-time WMF World Adventure Golf Masters Women’s Champion at the event defeating defending champion Ruth Burke in a sudden-death play-off at the third extra-hole after both players had tied after six rounds.

Emily Gottfried - 2013 WMF Women's World Adventure Golf Masters Champion

The 2013 WMF World Adventure Golf Masters took place at the 18-hole Pirate-themed Adventure Golf course in Hastings, East Sussex on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th June and saw a 37 player individual tournament take place along with a seven-team competition.

Great Britain 3 from l-r John Moore (c), Emily Gottfried, Richard Gottfried, Craig Patterson

Emily said “I'm unbelievably happy to win my second World Adventure Golf Master Women’s Title. It was a close-fought battle, with Ruth and I trading the lead between each of the six rounds, and then finally finishing on the same score. The play-off was tense so to win it with an ace on the third-hole was an exciting way to secure the title!"

As part of the Great Britain 3 Team Richard and Emily teamed with Newcastle’s John Moore and Brighton’s Craig Patterson as they took on Germany, Sweden, three other Great Britain teams and a WMF Allstar team comprised of players from Germany and Finland. The GB3 team made the cut for the final round and finished in fifth place overall, defeating the much fancied GB2 team in the contest. Germany won the event, with GB1 runners-up and Sweden in third place.

In the two-day individual competition played over seven-rounds Richard finished in 20th place scoring rounds of 36, 33, 33, 35, 33, 33 and 30 for a total of 233(-19). In the male category competition he finished in tied 12th place of 22 players.

Richard Gottfried hitting a hole-in-one


Emily Gottfried teeing-off in the sudden-death play-off
Richard said “It’s always special playing for the national team and I was pleased to put in a good performance for our team. I was very pleased to shoot a low of 29 in the team final and to finish 19-under par in the individual contest was a good result. Well done to Emily on her women’s title win too, she did very well to recompose herself after a fraught final round to secure the win through the play-off.”

Sunday 16th June also saw the second BMGA British Adventure Golf Open competition take place. The three-round tournament saw Richard finish in 10th place with Emily in 19th in the 23-player field. The result sees Richard move up one place in the BMGA Tour Strokeplay Order of Merit Rankings to 7th of 125 players, with Emily in 44th position. In the BMGA Season Only Rankings for 2013 Richard is in 9th place of 56 players and Emily is in 15th spot.

In the latest World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) Rankings Great Britain is ranked 18th of 29 countries.

Ends

Back blogging...

A crazily busy month both in and out of Minigolf!

The last month has been very busy what with moving house from sunny Luton to sunny Leagrave.

Still, this hasn’t stopped us from our Minigolf adventures and I will be writing some new blog posts detailing a couple of new Miniature Golf course visits on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, plus reports and photos from the third WMF World Adventure Golf Masters Tournament in Hastings (along with the off course Bar Billiards, Tat and Air Hockey shenanigans) and updates on our rankings in the WMF and the BMGA.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

2013 World Adventure Tat and Air Hockey Challenges!

Report from the off-course shenanigans in Hastings.

When in the Miniature Golf mecca that is Hastings, East Sussex it is almost guaranteed that after a hard days practice or competition on the seafront courses you'll find a bunch* of Crazy Golfers spending their time in one of the amusement arcades (or 'The Buttons' as a wise man once termed them, Christian Fuchs wasn't it). 
Pasi 'Bruiser' Aho was keen to get in some early practice
At the 2013 WMF World Adventure Golf Masters tournament it was no different as sixteen Minigolfers adventured into the Old Town Buttons for the 2013 World Adventure £2 Tat Challenge and Air Hockey Championships!
New Buttons Committee Member Johnny Waffles
With a truly international field competitors from Great Britain faced Swedes, a Finn who resides in Germany and an Englishman from the United Arab Emirates lined up for the seventh ranking Tat Challenge tournament.
Sweden's Bjorn Dinau approaches the field of play
With a number of debutees in the tourney it was left to new Buttons Committee member John 'YI' Moore to gather the players ready for the big event and also explain the rules of the contest, with some help from Richard Gottfried.
Thrilling action
In a truly enthralling contest there were a number of players racking up a nice haul of tat, while others fared less well, including veteran players including Emily Gottfried and Will Donnelly.
Will Donnelly had a bad day at the office
A shocking result came from former Worlds number one player James Rutherford who limped out of the contest with a meagre two bits of tat.
Even a double fire approach from James 'Ruthers' Rutherford was not enough to help him this time
Young gun Adam 'AK47' Kelly was heading for last place, but by tactically not declaring his score of zero until he'd done a bit of ratting enabled him to move up the leaderboard to lucky seventh.
Newcomer Craig Small is watched by veteran competitors Richard Gottfried and Adam Kelly
With a strong score of 32 (second only in the all-time list to James Rutherford's massive score of 40 in 2012) Richard Gottfried declared.
A smug Richard Gottfried on course for the win?
With Mike Small, Craig Small, John Moore and Torgny Kjellstrom the final players left with any two-pees in the contest it looked like the win was all but secured.
A mighty haul is shown to adjudicator John Moore
However, in an extraordinary debut from the Dubai-based player Mike Small managed to keep on winning tat and replenish his tuppenny bit ammo stockpile. With the crowd gathering and excitement building Small eventually ran out of money and his big haul counted.
The crowd are in awe of Mike Small's tatting
Astonishingly he also scored 32!
The crowd waiting to see the (tup)pennies and tat fall...
Deciding against a play-off, or even the traditional argument decider of Rock Paper Scissors the players agreed that the contest would be a draw.
Here are your winners - Mike Small (l), big bag of tat (m) and Richard Gottfried (r)
Each competitor in the event was allowed to choose one piece of tat as a memento from the 151 pieces the group had won, before the big bag of it was given away to other players in the arcade who had been watching in equal measures of amazement and confusion as the group of players had been in action!


The £2 Tat Challenge Order of Merit has been updated following the contest and now sees 54 players from seven countries ranked!


The next Tat Challenge takes places in Hastings in October and will be the WORLDS title match!

World Adventure Air Hockey 2013

In the World Adventure Air Hockey contest fourteen players faced-off to take the crown. With Sweden's Filiph Svensson and Torgny Kjellstrom receiving byes in the first round the results were:
- Chris Wood lost to Will Donnelly 5-6
- Ruthers beat Mark Wood 5-4
- Big Al Moore lost to Peter Eisenschmitt 2-7
- Pastie Aho beat Craig Small 7-1
- Mike Small beat AK47 3-2
- Paulli lost to Bjorn 6-7

In the quarter finals:
- Filiph bested Will D 7-4
- Ruthers beat Peter E 4-4
- Pasi defeated Mike Small 6-1
- Bjorn beat Torgny 7-3

In the semi finals:
- Filiph beat Ruthers 6-5
- Pasi beat Bjorn 3-2

Pasi and Filiph in Air Hockey action
In the grand final Pasi (the reigning World Crazy Air Hockey Champion) was bested by Filiph 4-3. Watch the video of the final moments of the match-up.


* Not sure what the collective term is for a group of Crazy Golfers is. Suggestions on a Postcard 

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Saturday, May 25, 2013

Two Miniature Golf Firsts

Visiting and playing the first two Miniature Golf courses in the world!

On the long and winding road that is the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour Emily and I have so far visited 528 Minigolf courses and played 317 of them. There have been a wide-range of designs, obstacles, layouts and hazards. Some of the courses were new, some were temporary and others had been established a long time.

Two of the courses we have played lay claim to being the first of their type in the world!

The third Minigolf course we ever visited on what was to become the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour was the Southsea Golf Links in Hampshire, England which according to the British Pitch & Putt Association opened in 1914 and was the first course in England, if not the World, to be purpose built for use by members of the public!

Richard pitching on hole 2 at the Southsea Golf Links
Pitching on hole 2 at the Southsea Golf Links

The 292nd and 293rd courses we played were at St Andrews in Scotland where we played The Himalayas Putting Courses, home to the St Andrews Ladies' Putting Club, and the world's first Minigolf course as it was first laid out in 1867!

Emily Putting at the 18th hole at The Himalayas in St Andrews
Emily Putting at the 18th hole at The Himalayas in St Andrews

Other courses and locations we've played at with a fair bit of history include Splash Point Mini Golf in Worthing where there has been Minigolf played on the site of the new course since the 1920's and the roof of Selfridges Department Store on Oxford Street in London which last year re-opened for the first time since the 1930's.

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