That Funky Golf Place in Birmingham

A visit to That Funky Golf Place at Becketts Farm in Wythall, Birmingham.

We played our first miniature golf course of 2020 on Sunday and it was a new one to tick off on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Putting through a Nursing Home hole

On our way back up to Stockport after a weekend down in Abingdon-on-Thames we called in to That Funky Golf Place at Becketts Farm in Wythall, Birmingham.

Hole 16 sees you play in a Boxing ring

The indoor venue is home to an 18-hole Crazy Golf course.

Hole 3 has a garden theme

That Funky Golf Place at Becketts Farm was the 942nd course we've visited overall since September 2006. It was the 540th course we've played. We've now been to 903 courses in the British Isles.

HMP Funky!

In our round we tied after both scoring rounds of 45.

Hole 1

Hole 11 has an 80's theme

Hole 11

There was something fishy about the loop-di-loop on hole 17

This is hole 10. Not the finish

Check out That Funky Golf Place's website for more information, opening times and prices.

Last year we visited a total of 82 new courses and played 36 of them.

So far this year we've visited five courses and played one of them.

Including my brother Christopher's own mini-tour of courses over the years we've been to a total of 965 courses.

When our travels began in 2006 there were around 600 courses in the UK. We estimate there are now 1,200 courses in the UK, with new places to play opening all the time.

World of Bun Throwing: A visit to Abingdon's County Hall Museum

World of Bun Throwing: A visit to Abingdon's County Hall Museum: On Saturday we were back in my home town and visited the County Hall Museum.

Check out the full post from our visit on my World of Bun Throwing blog.

The Chase

My episode of The Chase was on Pick at 5pm on Saturday, 28th December 2019. Did you catch it?

The episode was listed as Series 5, Episode 16. My episode has also previously been listed as Series 5, Episode 39.

It was recorded back in 2011 and aired on ITV in March 2012. Since then it's aired multiple times on ITV and Challenge TV. To my knowledge this was the first time it'd been on Pick.

This was almost a decade ago now!

I wonder when and where it'll be shown next...?

Junkyard Golf in Oxford's Westgate Centre

A look at Junkyard Golf in the Westgate Centre, Oxford.

We were back in my home town at the weekend and swung by Junkyard Golf at the Westgate shopping centre in the city centre.

Junkyard Golf in Oxford is home to three 9-hole indoor Crazy Golf courses.

You can find other Junkyard Golf venues in Manchester, London, Leeds and Liverpool.

Check out the Junkyard Golf website for more information.

The Junkyard Golf course was the second course we visited in 2020. The first was the Putting Green at the Park Square offices in Cheadle Heath.

Putting Green at the Park Square offices in Cheadle Heath

The first unplayable course visit of the year.

On New Year's Day we walked past the Miniature Golf course at the Park Square offices in Cheadle Heath, Stockport.

It's our nearest course. We've never been allowed to play it as it's for tenants of the offices only.

Minigolf Days in 2020

Two big minigolf days for your diary.

National Miniature Golf Day 2020 will be on Saturday 9th May.

I played the Pirate Cove Adventure Golf course in Aberavon, Port Talbot, Wales on National Miniature Golf Day last year

Miniature Golf Day 2020 will be on Monday 21st September.

We played the Crazy Golf course at Southport's Botanic Gardens on Miniature Golf Day last year

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year and all the very best for 2020.

On New Year's Eve 2018 we played the 18-hole indoor Roxy Golf course at Roxy Ball Room in Manchester

Playing at Paradise Island Adventure Golf in Manchester

Our last game at Paradise Island Adventure Golf for 2019.

The last minigolf course we visited this year was Paradise Island Adventure Golf at the Trafford Centre in Manchester.

Emily about to ace hole 1

We swung by for a game on Boxing Day!

We were still in the Christmas spirit

In our round on the Temple Ruins Adventure course Emily scored a brilliant win with a score of 31 to my 34. Emily's round included seven holes-in-one.

This year Emily has broken the course records on both of the 18-hole courses at Paradise Island Adventure Golf in Manchester.

In July Emily scored a course record on the Temple Ruins layout to win the Paradise Island Adventure Golf Open Championship with a round of 30, including seven aces.

In August she shot a 33 on the Tiki Hut Trail course to beat the previous record by one-shot.

We're looking forward to returning for more games at Paradise Island Adventure Golf in 2020.

The PIAG Manchester courses were the 85th and 85th visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour back in April 2009!

This year we visited 82 miniature golf layouts and revisited and replayed a lot of courses too.

• In 2018 we visited 64 courses.
• In 2017 we went to 74 courses.
• In 2016 we visited 47 courses.
• In 2015 we went to 84 courses.

We've now been to 941 courses since September 2006.

New Thetford Garden Centre Adventure Golf course

New Adventure Golf course planned for Thetford Garden Centre.

There are plans to create a new Adventure Golf course at Thetford Garden Centre in Norfolk.

We've played a number of minigolf courses at Garden Centres on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and look forward to revisiting Thetford when the new course is built.

A look back at our minigolfing adventures in 2019

A look at our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour to date.

This year we visited 82 miniature golf layouts. Of those we were able to play at 36 courses.

When our travels began in 2006 there were around 600 courses in the UK.

The North Bay Mini Golf course in Scarborough

In June we visited our 900th course overall when we played the North Bay Mini Golf course in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

Playing the North Bay Mini Golf course in Scarborough

In December we visited our 900th course in the UK when we played the indoor Pirates Cove Adventure Golf course at the New York Thunderbowl in Kettering, Northamptonshire.

Playing the Pirates Cove Adventure Golf course at the New York Thunderbowl in Kettering

It's been a year of variety and we've seen so many interesting and quirky courses.

The first new course visited in 2019 was the Plonk Golf course in Shoreditch, London

We also revisited and replayed a lot of excellent courses that we'd already ticked off on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour 'To Play' list.

We've now been to 941 courses since September 2006.

The first course visited this year featured a volcano

As did the last new course we played

902 of the minigolf venues have been in the British Isles. 39 of the layouts were overseas.

The first new course we played in 2019 was at Fletchers Family Garden Centre in Eccleshall, Staffordshire

We've played 539 courses on our travels, many of them multiple times.

A number of the other 402 courses we haven't played have been out-of-season, closed, flooded, derelict or abandoned.

• In 2018 we visited 64 courses.
• In 2017 we went to 74 courses.
• In 2016 we visited 47 courses.
• In 2015 we went to 84 courses.

How many minigolf courses will we visit in 2020?

Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas.

We hope you have a brilliant festive season.

Arcade Club in Leeds

A visit to Arcade Club in Leeds.

We visited the new Arcade Club venue in Leeds yesterday. What a place!

Earlier this year we visited the original Arcade Club in Bury and were very impressed by the selection of games on offer to play.

Always nice to visit Pac-Land

Once you've paid your entry fee (we paid £16 per adult) you get to play hundreds of games all set on free play.

Three floors of fun

It's an amazing place to spend anything from a few hours to a whole day.

A very small selection of the hundreds of games available to play

As someone who grew up going to arcades in the 80's and 90's it's superb to relive those memories by playing arcade classics like Pac-Land, The New Zealand Story and Bubble Bobble. But I also really like the fact there are games available that I'd only had a glimpse of back in the day, or those that were out of my price range to play.

Pac-Land

One of those was The Last Bounty Hunter, a live-action on-rails LaserDisc light-gun game. Back in the day it would've been one of the expensive 50p or a pound a go games I could only dream of playing. Watching older players pumping the machine full of money while firing away at a selection of bad guys and then seeing the really cheesy cut scenes as the actors die is indelibly burned on my mind like screen burn on a CRT monitor.

The Last Bounty Hunter

I easily got my money's worth by playing The Last Bounty Hunter and managed to get to the third stage. I could've spent more time on it but I had to wander and play other games.

The ground level is home to pinball tables, quirky Japanese import games, old racing and driving games and new arcade machines.

As a big fan of Resident Evil games there was one game I spotted and immediately wanted to play. After waiting for some other players to finish their go Emily and I jumped on the Taito game Elevator Action Death Parade. It was brilliant.

We arrived at 11.30am and there was a steady flow of people of all ages into the venue while we were there. Even though it was busy, there was a nice buzz and we never felt cramped in playing machines and there are plenty of games on offer we didn't have to wait long to play any games.

Tempest. I'd never played the arcade game before, but I love the Atari Jaguar version

There were still plenty of games I could've had a go on there but there just wasn't time.

The Neo Geo section

We're looking forward to our next visit to Arcade Club. There will also be a new Arcade Club venue opening in Blackpool next year. Wonderful news.

Bubble Bobble, a true classic

You can find Arcade Club at the Abbey Retail Park in Kirkstall, Leeds.

Arcade Club - retail entertainment done right

Check out the Arcade Club website for more information, opening times and prices.