The Dull Men's Club 2017 Calendar

Launch of the Dull Men's Club Calendar for 2017.

For a number of years the Dull Men's Club has published a calendar to help people mark how they're celebrating the ordinary throughout the year. As longstanding members of the Dull Men's Club, Emily and I were selected to appear in the 2017 edition of the calendar for our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

The dullest people in the UK? You decide

The Dull Men’s Club is a place where dull men share thoughts and experiences, free from glitz and glamour, free from pressures to be in and trendy - free instead to enjoy simple, ordinary things. The club's mission statement is “It’s OK to be dull”.

The Dull Men's Club - where dull men, and women who appreciate dull men, share thoughts and experiences about ordinary things

Since we first found out there were so many miniature golf courses around the UK we've made it our mission to visit as many as possible on the 'tickable list'. Over the last ten years we've visited 716 courses - including some overseas - far exceeding the 600 or so there were initially believed to be in the country. With old courses left abandoned, or worse demolished, and new courses popping up all the time we don't quite know if we'll ever finally finish visiting all of them. But the journey we've had so far has been a lot of fun.

Enjoying a break from Crazy Golfing to have a nice sit down on a park bench at Canoe Lake in Southsea - the seaside town was where our Mini Golf adventures began in September 2006

The Dull Men's Club 2017 calendar also features a pencil enthusiast, cutlery sculptor, tombstone traveller, prefabricated buildings fan, lost glove spotter, a bubbleologist, giant pumpkin growers, a barbed wire enthusiast, a brown sign follower, village pump spotter, a vintage radio collector, and a couple who built a life-size railway station in their back garden.

The 2017 Dull Men’s Club calendar celebrates the men and women who were born to be mild

You can buy the Dull Men's Club 2017 Calendar from Stanford's website and shop for £9.99.

In advance of its publication the Dull Men's Club asked whether President Vladimir Putin's new calendar would be competing with its own and offered some comparisons - including me playing minigolf and Mr Putin enjoying some fishing.

Links:
- Dull Men's Club website
- Dull Men's Club Facebook Page
- Dull Men's Club Facebook Group
- Dull Men's Club on Twitter

Related blog posts:
- Dull Men's Club
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour List

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems. Please do sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.

Miniature Railway at Worden Park in Leyland

With our interest in Miniature Railways piqued after finding some lines in our new local area it got us thinking about where we've seen or ridden them on our travels in the last ten years. Minigolf and Miniature Railways do seem to go hand in hand at times.

A view of the Miniature Railway from the Miniature Golf course in Worden Park

In September 2009 we went on a road-trip to Blackpool and on the way home stopped off at Worden Park in Leyland, Lancashire to visit the Crazy Golf course there. Unfortunately it was closed. The park was also home to a Miniature Railway.

The lucky last hole at Worden Park's Mini Golf course. It's a similar layout to the Crazy Golf course at Hesketh Park in Southport

A pair of miniature engines

A view of the train underway from across the pond

Leyland isn't too far from where we live in Cheshire so perhaps we'll revisit the park for some Miniature Train/Golf fun next Spring.

Related blog posts:
- Miniature Railways
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Link:
- Leyland Society of Model Engineers

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems. You can now sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.

Happy Halloween 2016

Ah, Halloween. The one day of the year when being a Coeliac Disease victim pays dividends. I'll never tire of 'dressing up' as Patient Zero. What a costume.

Not brown bread yet

Related blog posts:
- Halloween
- Coeliac Disease
- Gluten - my Kryptonite
- What a perfect Crazy Golf obstacle for a Coeliac
- Funny things about being a Coeliac

Blackpool Pleasure Beach Express Miniature Railway

A forgotten miniature railway ride from our archives.

The Pleasure Beach Express steams ahead

Unfortunately I couldn't find any photos of the Blackpool Pleasure Beach Monorail in our photo archive for my previous blog post. However, I did see that we had a ride on the Pleasure Beach Express Miniature Railway back in 2008!

One of the other trains at the Pleasure Beach Express station

The train ride gives you a whistle-stop tour of the park

A view of the monorail track running through the Pleasure Beach

Into a tunnel on the Pleasure Beach Express

We first visited Blackpool together in April 2008 when we headed to the resort to compete in the Blackpool Pleasure Beach Open minigolf tournament on the park's new Adventure Golf course on the promenade. It was a brilliant trip with plenty of great memories. We returned the following year when I won the tournament!

Related blog posts:
- Blackpool Pleasure Beach 
- Miniature Railways

Link:
- Blackpool Pleasure Beach

The Blackpool Pleasure Beach Monorail

Spotting a disused monorail line in Blackpool.

In amongst the many many many different things I like to spot are monorails. On our recent trip to Blackpool I actually walked under one without realising. It was only when Emily mentioned that it looked like it wasn't used any more and pointed it out that I saw it.

The Blackpool Pleasure Beach Monorail was decommissioned in 2012 by which time there was only one station left on the loop. The ride ended its time as a sightseeing tour of the Pleasure Beach rather than an actual transportation system as it was when it first opened in 1966.

There is a claim that the Blackpool Pleasure Beach Monorail was the UK's first commercial monorail system. A claim also held by Butlin's - whose own monorail opened at the Skegness Holiday Camp in 1965.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any photos of us on the Monorail - or the ride in action - in our archives from trips to Blackpool in 2008 and and 2009. But I did find some other great photos that I'd forgotten all about!

Luckily there is still a monorail to ride in Blackpool - the indoor Pirate Flyer at Coral Island.

In the meantime check out this blog post about the monorail we got to ride at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach this summer.

Related blog posts:
- Monorail
- Blackpool

Link:
- Blackpool Pleasure Beach

Mini Golf at Puckpool Park on the Isle of Wight

A visit to the 12-hole Mini Golf Garden at Puckpool Park in Ryde.

Puckpool Park's Mini Golf Garden - Built in 2006 by the owners of Puckpool Tea Gardens

While on a recent trip to the Isle of Wight we managed to play a course that we didn't have time to on our only previous visit to the island back in 2009.

A view of the Mini Golf Garden from up the hill next to it

In our match-up on the Puckpool Park 'Mini Golf Garden' course I picked up the victory with a score of 30. Emily was runner-up with a round of 33, with Cat Patterson in bronze with a score of 39.

A nice straight shot was required on this tough hole

A tricky second shot

Emily tapping home a shot

The sign at the gates also said there was Putting in the park as well. We couldn't see any though.

There's lots to do in Puckpool Park. As well as the Crazy Golf course we also had a look at the Mortar Battery Emplacements

Could this be where the Putting course should be?

We did however see a sign for Petanque. They've got a very nice terrain there. And a Petanque team.

If we'd had more time we'd have had a game of Petanque. A fine sport

The Petanque Terrain / Boules Piste at Puckpool Park

All in all Puckpool Park was a nice spot for a round of fun minigolf. We'd play there again.

We played the course in some nice weather. But there'd obviously been quite a lot of rain earlier in the day

The Puckpool Park Mini Golf Garden was the 415th course we've played and the 705th visited overall on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

At course number 705

We've played a lot of types of minigolf over the years, but the Puckpool Park course was the first we'd seen called a 'Mini Golf Garden'.

Emily about to get a two from a tricky spot. And during a light mid-round shower

Photos of the 12-hole Mini Golf Garden at Puckpool Park.

Hole 1

Hole 1 - Green

Hole 2

Hole 2 - Green

Hole 3 - loop-di-loop

Hole 3 - the tyre loop and green

Hole 4

Hole 5

Hole 5 - Green

Hole 6

Hole 6

Hole 7

Hole 7 - Easter Island

Hole 8

Hole 8 - Green

Hole 9

Hole 9

Hole 10

Hole 10 - Green

Hole 11

Hole 11 - Green

Hole 12

Hole 12 - Green

Video:
- Hole in one at Puckpool Park

Related blog posts:
- Isle of Wight
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Link:
- The Old Barracks at Puckpool Park

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems. You can now sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.