A visit to Southport Pleasureland

Southport Pleasureland, the 'Happy Halloween Capital of the UK!'

We recently returned to Southport for the first time since September 2009 and we were pleasantly surprised to see that the Pleasureland theme park had reopened. Not only that, but it looked to be doing very well and they had really gone to town on the Halloween theming.

We survived the haunted maze at Southport Pleasureland

In fact they've gone so far as to declare themselves the 'Happy Halloween Capital of the UK!'

I don't think I have ever seen so many pumpkins in one place before. There are thousands of them there!

The pumpkins came in all shapes and sizes

Plenty of characters too

Some were ominously congregating

Others were on their own

There were clowns

'Sleeping' ones

And more traditional Jack-o'-lanterns

Unfortunately since our previous visit the Moroccan Adventure Golf course has been removed as the park has had extensive changes made. The area that was once home to the minigolf course is now a pathway. A shame really.

The Adventure Golf course at Pleasureland Southport as it was just after the theme park had been left abandoned in 2009

What the same area looks like now

However, the rest of Pleasureland is great. We really enjoyed our wander round - especially the walk through the haunted maze.

We dared to enter the haunted maze

A view of the outside world from within the maze

We escaped - as did our shadows

Check out the Southport Pleasureland website for more information and opening times.

You can see the blog post from our visit to Pleasure Land in 2009 in our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour archives.

Southport is still home to plenty of other Crazy Golf options and a lot of other things to keep you entertained. We're looking forward to our next visit and keep 'em peeled for more blog posts from our trip to Southport that are coming up.

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Minigolf at Formby Golf Centre

Playing the Adventure Putting Green at Formby Golf Centre.

Heading for a day out in Southport Emily did a quick search online and spotted that Formby Golf Centre had a Minigolf course - so we had to swing by for a game.

There are a lot of obstacles on hole 4

The golf centre calls the course an 'Adventure Putting Green'.

On hole 8

It's an interesting layout and had a real mix of playing surface and obstacles, drawing inspiration from regular / big golf with it's long holes and lack of borders to rebound off, but with artificial Crazy Golf obstacles placed around the course. Including plastic volcanoes on the first and second holes!

Emily on hole 2

In our match-up Emily picked up the win 26-31, although I did ace hole one.

Hole 8

It was £3.50 a round and we received a nice welcome to the course, with the man there saying we could play a few rounds if we liked.

We replayed some of the tricky holes after our scoring round to see if we could get any more holes-in-one.

On hole 7

The 9-hole Mini Golf course at Formby Golf Centre was the 417th played and 714th miniature golf course visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour since September 2006.

Hole 1

The hill and hole at 1

Hole 2

Hole 3

The daunting hole 4

Hole 4 from the green - the cup is within a flat loop obstacle - reach after putting through a loop-di-loop and over a choice of two bridges! That's Crazy Golf!

Hole 5

Hole 5

The long hole 6

Hole 6 from the green

Hole 7

Hole 8

Hole 9

Hole 9 from the green

Formby Golf Centre also has a good looking driving range, Pitch and Putt layout and a popular Footgolf course. Check out the Formby Golf Centre website for more information.

Link:
- Formby Golf Centre

Videos:
- Playing Mini Golf at Formby Golf Centre - hole 1 - hole-in-one
- Playing Mini Golf at Formby Golf Centre - hole 5
- Playing Mini Golf at Formby Golf Centre - hole 9 - hole-in-one

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.

Playing Petanque in Edgeley, Stockport

Playing boules at the Woodstock Pétanque Club in Edgeley, Stockport.

Following our attendance at the Woodstock Pétanque Club open day in August, Emily and I joined the club and went along for our second competition day today.

The club play mostly for fun - but with a nice competitive edge - and the games are played in a doubles or triples format, which helps to mix things up a bit.

We recently bought some Geologic boules - after scouring the aisles of Decathlon sports superstores in Warrington and Stockport - and have been itching to get them scuffed up on the Edgeley terrain.

Emily's shinier boule is closer to the coche than my base-boule

Before we had a proper game Emily and I faced-off in a 'friendly', with Emily picking up the win 13-11 after I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Emily and her winning end

I managed to get my first win in club competition in the first of the two pairs games I played in the afternoon. Teaming with Carol H we defeated the duo of Keith and David H 13-7.

My Petanque name

My record at Woodstock Pétanque Club is now 1 win and 4 defeats. I'm certainly living up to my ham and egger name...

The Woodstock Pétanque Club meets-up on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of each month and welcomes new players. It costs just £10 for the annual membership, with a £1 fee per week when you play - with prizes up for grabs. The season runs from March to October. Although that may be extended into November if the weather isn't too bad and there are enough hardy souls to play against.

Check out the Woodstock Pétanque Club website and on Twitter and Facebook for more details.

Related blog posts:
- Pétanque
- Petanque
- Boules
- Petanque in Stockport

Links:
- Woodstock Pétanque Club on Twitter
- Woodstock Pétanque Club on Facebook
- Woodstock Pétanque Club website
- English Pétanque Association
- Decathlon
- Geologic

Sports Philatelists International and the Journal of Sport Philately

This year I joined the Olympin Club and through that I heard about Sports Philatelists International! As a collector of sporting postcards and Olympic memorabilia I had to join that club too.

This week I received the Fall 2016 issue of the Journal of Sports Philately in the post. Not only is the journal a great read and packed full of great images and info, but the club have taken the time and effort to mail it out with some fantastic stamps on the envelope. Take a look at the photo below to see what I mean!

What an envelope

Seeing these two stamps on the piece of post made me incredibly happy - and surprised! I never knew there had been a re-issue of the infamous Inverted Jenny stamp

For more information and joining instructions check out the Sports Philatelists International website and Facebook page.

Links:
- Sports Philatelists International
- Olympin Club
- The Inverted Jenny stamp 

New darts stuff

I recently treated myself to an early birthday and Christmas present by buying some new darts stuff from the Darts Performance Centre - and of course it was Peter 'Chatterbox' Sajwani branded merch!

A lovely lot of darting merch. And a new postcard too

In his debut at the 2015 BDO World Championships Peter Sajwani caused an upset with victory over the number one seed James Wilson.

I'm a member of the Sajwani Army. Not sure what rank I carry though?

The chatty underdog won a legion of fans with his post-match interview where he claimed "It doesn't matter what you score. What does matter is hitting the double. A gorilla can punch the ball 600 yards but can't putt."

Wise words indeed.

The excellent gorilla putting darts flight - one for the Crazy Golf Museum too...

We've found a lot of the pubs in our new local area have dart boards, fantastic to see. We always carry a set now just in case the opportunity to have a quick game arises.

'Peppering' the 20 bed with the new Sajwani Army flighted arrers

A Shanghai on 19s at the Queens Arms in Cheadle

Check out the Darts Performance Centre and their shop for some great kit.

I also picked up some Harrows and Eric Bristow darts kit from The Sport Shop while in Shanklin on a recent trip to the Isle of Wight

As that great sports writer (and fellow member of the Sajwani Army) Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley might say "All the gear, no idea."

Links:
- Darts Performance Centre
- Peter Sajwani, Darts player (Twitter and Facebook)

Related blog posts:
- Darts
- Peter Sajwani