The Telegraph Pole Appreciation Society

At the recent Dull Men's Club gathering in Preston I had the chance to meet Martin from the Telegraph Pole Appreciation Society. Who knew there was such a thing. But obviously and quite rightly there is.

Check out Martin's website and recent blog post about a telegraph pole I spotted on our visit to the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway heritage steam railway.

Interestingly (for some) Telegraph Pole Appreciation Day and Miniature Golf Day both fall on the 21st September each year.

New indoor Adventure Golf course in Edinburgh

There's a new Volcano Falls indoor Adventure Golf course in Edinburgh.

While on holiday in Edinburgh Emily spotted this bit of bus advertising about the new Volcano Falls indoor Adventure Golf course that has opened at Fountain Park in Edinburgh.

As part of the launch activity the course ran a Spot the Bus promotion

We've played the Volcano Falls course at Xscape in Castleford on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Junkyard Golf heading to Leeds

A new Junkyard Golf course is opening at The Light in Leeds.

The team at Junkyard Golf are taking their brand of indoor Crazy Golf to The Light in Leeds city centre.

The new Junkyard Golf course in Leeds will feature three courses

We've played the Junkyard Golf courses in Manchester and London on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, but still need to visit the course in Oxford.

For more information visit the Junkyard Golf website.

Many thanks to Leeds-based artist Jack Hurley for the tip-off about the course opening.

Petanque in Leeds City Centre

Spotting a Petanque Piste in Leeds City Centre.

We love visiting Leeds and go there quite a lot. On our last trip there we found ourselves exploring some new bits of the city and while having a wander on Saturday we discovered a Petanque Piste in Bond Court, just off Wine Street!

What a layout!
 

What a marvellous sculpture

We enjoy a game of Petanque / Boules and play at the Woodstock Petanque Club in Edgeley, Stockport.

The rules of boules

We'll have to take our boules with us on our next trip to Leeds.

Related blog posts:
- Petanque
- Leeds

Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf in Leeds

Visiting the new Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf venue in Leeds.

One of the 36 holes at Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf in Leeds

On Sunday 24th June we swung by the 822nd and 823rd courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour as we visited the new Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf centre in Leeds.

The Rules

The new Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf location has two 18-hole courses - the Jungle and Egyptian layouts.

A view of the Egyptian course

The current course records are 38 and 35

You can find Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf at The Cube in Leeds city centre. Check out the Jungle Rumble Adventure Golf website for more info, opening times and prices. We've previously played the Jungle Rumble courses in Bristol and Liverpool. We're yet to visit the Brighton course.

A view of the outside of the indoor Adventure Golf course

Happy Summerween!

Happy Summerween 2018.

Today is Summerween!

Summerween is celebrated on the 22nd June, or the second to last Friday of the month. This year they are one and the same

Related blog posts:
- Watermelons
- Summerween
- Halloween

Happy birthday Putt-Putt

Today marks the 64th anniversary of the first Putt-Putt course, set-up by Don Clayton in Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA back in 1954.

To mark the occasion I've spoken to a number of my fellow miniature golf enthusiasts and bloggers and they've shared photos of some of their favourite Putt-Putt courses.

Putt Putt in Richmond, Indiana. Photo by Tom & Robin at A Couple of Putts

Putt-Putt is the only patented game of miniature golf and began in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1954. In the 1960's Putt-Putt franchises began opening outside of the US, in locations such as the one on the postcard shown below, as well as Australia and Japan. You can read the Putt-Putt story on the Putt-Putt Fun Centres website.

The Putt Putt Fun Center course in Hickory, North Carolina photographed by Pat Sheridan of The Putting Penguin minigolf website

Putt Putt Pro Matt Bellner playing the course in Arlington, TX

Matt Bellner playing the Putt Putt course in Lake Charles, LA, USA

On the competitive side of the game, Putt-Putt tournaments have been played since 1959. You can read about the history of the PPA and APA on the Professional Putters Association website.

Putt Putt Fun Center in Richmond, Indiana. Photo by Tom Loftus and Robin Schwartzman at A Couple of Putts

Unfortunately the closest Emily and I have got to playing a Putt-Putt course is a postcard, some game tokens, a jigsaw puzzle and a photo one of my family took while in South Africa!

A Putt-Putt postcard from South Africa

I do have a lot of Putt-Putt tokens in my collection

The Putt-Putt course at Three Anchor Bay in Moullie Point/Sea Point in Cape Town, photo by Adam Trigg

A Putt-Putt Puzzle of a very crazy Miniature Golf course. Published by Hallmark Cards Inc. Many thanks to our friend 'Hacksaw' Jon Drexler for sending it across the pond to live in the Crazy Golf Museum

There used to be Putt-Putt brand minigolf courses in the UK, but they're long gone.

Check out the Putt-Putt website for more information on Putt-Putt brand minigolf. You can find out more information about Putt-Putt tournaments on the Professional Putters Association website.

Between 1958 and 2000 there were a number of newsletters and magazines produced and the online archive is a mine of information. My favourite Putt-Putt World cover is definitely that of the Summer 1982 edition (volume 24, number 3)!

Related blog posts:
- A Putt-Putt Postcard from South Africa
- Putt-Putt at Three Anchor Bay in Moullie Point/Sea Point in Cape Town
- A token blog post

Links:
- Putt-Putt
- Professional Putters Association (PPA)

Google Home Mini Golf

Google has created a miniature golf course!

The Google Home Mini Golf course is currently touring the US. I hope it comes to the UK at some point too. Check out the video of the course.



Top marks to Google for choosing minigolf in the campaign. The Google Home Mini Golf course looks great fun.

The course has been to New York and is currently in Chicago (until 17th June) before it moves on to Los Angeles (30th June to 5th July) and Atlanta (26th - 29th July).

Check out the Google Home Mini Golf website for more info.

New World Crazy Golf Champion crowned

Congratulations to Marc 'The Force' Chapman - the new World Crazy Golf Champion.

Marc Chapman has won his first World Crazy Golf Championship title. The championships took place at Hastings Adventure Golf on the 9th and 10th June, with the largest number of competitors in the field since 2005.

Marc 'The Force' Chapman - the new World Crazy Golf Champion

Marc took the world title and £1,000 prize money in the two-day event. His score was 226, 26 under par, beating last year’s top score by the Czech Republic’s Olivia Prokopova who took the 2017 title with a score of 235, 17 under par.

This is the ninth time the 32-year old from Canterbury, Kent has entered the tournament and said he was thrilled to win the title. Marc said “It feels amazing to finally become the World Crazy Golf Champion! It’s been a great personal ambition of mine to win this event and I have been close to it a few times before. I’ve only played in a few events in the last five years, which makes this win even more amazing to believe!”

Adam Kelly took runner-up prize of £750 and Michael Smith, former World Champion, took home £500 for third place.

Playing along side the seasoned crazy golf professionals was a separate novice category with a dedicated prize fund of £1,500.

The novice title and £500 went to Russell Smith from Tunbridge Wells. The runner-up Chris Horn took home £300, while third place went to Italian Mark Berezicki who won £200.

Russell said “It was a really fun day. The atmosphere at the course was fantastic and I am so pleased to have won the amateur title.”

Simon Tompkins of Hastings Adventure Golf, said “Congratulations to all our winners and a huge well done to everyone for taking part and making this a thoroughly enjoyable event.”

There were several other runner-up prizes. In total eight novices went home with prize money. The World Crazy Golf Championships tournament has been held at Hastings Adventure Golf since 2003.

You can see the full results of the competition online.

Check out the Hastings Adventure Golf website for more information, opening times and prices.

Swingers Crazy Golf in London's West End

A look at Swingers Crazy Golf in the West End of London.

Many thanks to Leland Carlson from the Dull Men's Club for sending me a snap of the A-board outside Swingers Crazy Golf that he spotted while having a wander round London's West End.

Street Food and Crazy Golf - an increasingly popular combination

Check out the Swingers Crazy Golf course website for more info, opening times and prices.

On my last trip to London last year I played at the 'original' permanent Swingers course near The Gherkin. It's a superb venue.

Emily walked past the new Swingers course while it was under construction last November.

Back in September 2014 Emily and I played the Swingers pop-up course in Shoreditch.

Summer Greens at Churchill Square in Brighton

There's a Crazy Golf course on the rooftop car park at Churchill Square shopping centre in Brighton.

The pop-up miniature golf course is part of a summer of fun and players can pick up a putter for a FREE round on Level 7 of the Churchill Square car park in Brighton.

Sounds great to me.

I hope some of my friends down in Brighton get along for a game - and nab me a scorecard and some snaps.

The course is open now and is on the roof until the 15th July. Check out the Churchill Square website for more information and opening times.

This is obviously not the rooftop Crazy Golf course. But I wonder if you can see this course and the pier from Churchill Square's rooftop course?

A Delightfully Dull, Brilliantly Boring Evening in Preston

Last month I was invited to be a speaker at the Dull Men's Club's 'Delightfully Dull, Brilliantly Boring Evening' at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in Preston.

I had a thoroughly enjoyable time as a guest speaker at the Delightfully Dull, Brilliantly Boring Evening at UCLan

The Dull Men's Club is where dull men — and women who appreciate dull men — share experiences of enjoying everyday, mundane things, far from glitz and glam — "Celebrating the Ordinary".

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

The keynote speaker at the event was Dr Sandi Mann, aka ‘Dr Boredom’, author of The Science of Boredom: The Upside of Downtime, who spoke to the attendees about the benefits of boredom and her research on the Thirty Habits of Boring People.

One of the highlights of the evening at UCLan

The pink post-it notes directing delegates to the lecture theatre were a bit bright for a dull event

We were on the 1st floor

Not far from here

The desk space in the lecture theatre was a lovely shade of grey

Some highlights of my presentation covered my travels on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and how I, along with Emily, had - up to that point - visited 815 miniature golf courses since 2006.

One of the scorecards displayed in my presentation

Some of the intricacies of the sport were also discussed, with the show & tell element on minigolf balls being a particular highlight.

Course #683 - Southend Pier Crazy Golf

Somewhat controversially the 'Delightfully Dull, Brilliantly Boring Evening' was anything but. With a range of characters talking about their hobbies, pursuits and interests the group could've spent a long time sharing stories and ideas. Perhaps next time there'll be a longer Dull Men's Club symposium to spend more time talking about dull and boring matters.

Showing off my Putter

The "Anorak of the Year 2017.4" was also announced one the night (".4" as we were 40% into 2018), with Roundabout enthusiast Kevin Beresford taking the title.

Following the event I visited the 816th course on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour when I swung by the indoor Crazy Golf course at Level Preston.

At Trailer Trash Jim's Crazy Golf course at Level in Preston

Links:
- The Dull Men's Club
- Dr Sandi Mann

Other dull blog posts can be found within the archives of the Ham & Egger Files...