Crazier Golf at Boom: Battle Bar, Leeds

There's a Crazier Golf course at Boom: Battle Bar in Leeds.

Boom: Battle Bar in Leeds

Emily spotted the distinctive sign and colour scheme from afar as we were having a wander round Leeds city centre before heading for lunch at our favourite restaurant, The Oxford Place. 

We played Crazier Golf at the Boom: Battle Bar in Norwich in-between the various pandemic lockdowns

A look at a discarded scorecard

We NEVER throw our minigolf scorecards away!

The Rules of Crazier Golf

Visit the Boom: Battle Bar website for more information.

Junkyard Golf in Camden, London

A new Junkyard Golf venue is opening in Camden, London this year.

The team at Junkyard Golf are opening a new London crazy golf venue, with their largest site being created in Camden.

Visit the Junkyard Golf website for more information.

2023 British Minigolf Association Tournament Calendar

Details of the 2023 BMGA Tour events.

The British Minigolf Association has published the tournament calendar for the 2023 season.

Visit the British Minigolf Association website to find out more, and details of how you can join the BMGA.

Please note: events are subject to change. Further events may be added to the BMGA Tour schedule.

Adventure Golf at Legoland Windsor

A new Adventure Golf venue is being created at Legoland in Windsor.

Legoland Windsor was previously home to an outdoor crazy golf course, but it's long gone.

The new Adventure Golf venue at Legoland Windsor will be an indoor attraction containing four individually themed courses.

They will be more new courses for us to visit on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

We're big fans of Lego and have long thought a Lego-themed layout - both in real-life and toy form - would be a winning idea.

We never got the chance to play the old Mole-in-One Mini Golf at Legoland Windsor before it closed in 2013. However, it didn't have much, if any, Lego theming to it.

Visit the Legoland Windsor website for more information.

Mini Golf 'Days' in 2023

There are two 'miniature golf days' each year.

National Miniature Golf Day is always on the second Saturday in May. In 2023 that will be Saturday 13th May.

The other minigolf day, Miniature Golf Day, is always on the 21st September. In 2023 that will fall on a Thursday.

And then every Monday is 'Minigolf Monday'. #MinigolfMonday

Happy New Year

All the very best for 2023.

Mini Golf at the Peter Cowen Golf Academy in Rotherham

A look at the Mini Golf course at the Peter Cowen Golf Academy in Rotherham.

The Mini Golf course at the Peter Cowen Golf Academy in Rotherham was the 1,004th visited and 562nd played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Visit the Peter Cowen Golf Academy website for more information.

Golden Putter Mini Golf in Clifton Park, Rotherham

A look at the Golden Putter Mini Golf course in Clifton Park, Rotherham.

The Golden Putter Mini Golf course in Rotherham was the 1,003rd course visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Visit the Golden Putter Mini Golf website for details of the course and its sister sites in Birmingham and Warwick.

Level X in Middlesbrough

A new indoor entertainment with crazy golf will be opening in Middlesbrough in 2023.

Level X is being created by the team at Lane7.

Crazier Golf at Boom: Battle Bar, Sheffield

There's a Crazier Golf course at Boom: Battle Bar in Sheffield.

Visit the Boom: Battle Bar website for more information.

Crazy Pool at Roxy Ball Room, Sheffield

There's Crazy Pool at Roxy Ball Room in Sheffield.

Check out the Roxy Ball Room website for more information.

Crazier Golf at Boom: Battle Bar, Ipswich

There's a Crazier Golf course at Boom: Battle Bar in Ipswich.

Check out the Boom: Battle Bar website for more information.

Miniature Golf Days in 2023

There are two 'miniature golf days' each year.

National Miniature Golf Day is always on the second Saturday in May. In 2023 that will be Saturday 13th May.

The other minigolf day, Miniature Golf Day, is always on the 21st September. In 2023 that will fall on a Thursday.

Golf Fang Crazy Golf opening in Leeds

A new Golf Fang Crazy Golf venue is opening in Leeds.

Golf Fang (formerly Ghetto Golf) is opening a new Crazy Golf venue in Kirkstall, Leeds in 2023.

Visit the Golf Fang website for more information.

You can find other Golf Fang crazy golf venues in Liverpool, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow and Sheffield. There are also plans for a Golf Fang to open in Cardiff too.

Happy Christmas

We wish you a very merry Christmas.

Christmas Crazy Golf courses from our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Adventure Golf at Stockhill Park in Nuthall

There are plans for a new 18-hole Adventure Golf course at Stockhill Park in Nuthall, Nottingham.

It'll be another new course for us to visit on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Gloryholes Golf in Derby

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Blogiversary of the Ham and Egger Files

I've been blogging for 16 years today.

People often ask me how it is that a blog about minigolf has the name the 'Ham and Egger Files'? The answer is that it didn't initially start out life as a minigolf blog.

The first post

I published my first post about how I planned to participate in as many obscure and minority sports as I could and see what would happen with the sporting ability I have!

What is a Ham & Egger?

The term 'ham and egger' has connotations ranging from that of 'ordinary person' to that of 'loser'. The origin of the term comes from prize fighters whose modest skills wouldn’t let them win large purses. Therefore, the fighter or their manager - who received a percentage of purses won - were never able to afford to eat better than ham and eggs.

Lots of blogs

Since that first post 16 years ago I have published more than 5,190 posts and received more than 2.3 million pageviews!

Admittedly a large number of the blog posts have been about minigolf.

The Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Our interest in minigolf and what would soon become our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour had actually begun on the 30th September 2006, but I didn't publish a post about the sport until the 29th January 2007 when I announced that I had joined the British Minigolf Association - a competition circuit I made my actual debut on in Southend-on-Sea on the 28th April 2007.

Since then we've visited 1,010 miniature golf courses. 965 of those have been in the British Isles, while 45 have been in overseas countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and the USA.

Other sports & games are available

If you're wondering what happened to the quest to play lots of different sports, that has continued and I've participated in some very interesting events over the years!

A massive thank you goes out to everyone who has ever read one of my posts, commented, shared, or guest blogged on the site, it really is very much appreciated.

Fantasia Adventure Golf in Felixstowe

A revisit to Fantasia Adventure Golf in Felixstowe, Suffolk.

We revisited the 9-hole Fantasia Adventure Golf in Felixstowe, Suffolk on our recent return to East Anglia to visit family and friends.

It's one of our most visited courses and was originally the 7th visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

There are plans to turn the site into residential properties - meaning that the course would be no more. A shame as it's always been fun to play.

The course opened in 1997/98 and was one of the first adventure golf layouts to open in the UK.

Hopefully this wasn't the last time we visited the course

The end of Blockbuster Video in the UK

The last Blockbuster Video shop ceased trading in the UK on this day in 2013.

Blockbuster Video entered the UK video rental market in 1989 following the purchase of Ritz Video.

In 2013 there were over 500 Blockbuster locations in the UK. Throughout that year the number dwindled until October when only 264 shops remained. On the 16th December 2013 all stores ceased operations.

It's amazing that there are still clearly visible remnants of the brand on the high street and on retail parks nine years later.

If you're lucky, and know where to look, you might find a QuikDrop box hiding in plain sight

The first Blockbuster Video store had opened in Dallas, Texas, USA on the 19th October 1985.

The very last Blockbuster Video store in operation is in Bend, Oregon, USA.

We live near an abandoned Blockbuster Video store here in Manchester. It's always an eerie, interesting and nostalgic thing to drive past the old shop at Fallowfield Retail Park.

Blockbuster Video in Fallowfield, Manchester - soon to become a Lidl

The sign about the closure is still on the window there.

At its peak in 2004 there were more than 9,000 Blockbuster stores around the world. 500+ of which were in England, Scotland and Wales. Interestingly in Northern Ireland the Xtra-Vision brand was used by the owners in-line with the Republic of Ireland.

Blockbuster certainly wasn't the first video rental shop brand, but it was at one time the market leader.

Our travels have taken us to a number of former Blockbuster stores:

• Abingdon, Oxfordshire
• Ashton, Bristol
• Barnsley, South Yorkshire
• Basingstoke, Hampshire
• Billingham, Teesside
• Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester
• Chester, Cheshire
• Chorley, Lancashire
• Clacton-on-Sea, Essex
• Colne, Lancashire
• Failsworth, Manchester
• Fallowfield, Manchester
• Felixstowe, Suffolk
• Filton, Bristol
• Great Moor, Stockport, Greater Manchester
• Hastings, East Sussex
• Leigh, Greater Manchester
• Luton, Bedfordshire
• Marple, Greater Manchester
• Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire
• Nuneaton, Warwickshire
• Oldham, Greater Manchester
• Prescot, Lancashire
• Shanklin, Isle of Wight
• Southampton, Hampshire
• Telford, Shropshire
• Wisbech, Cambridgeshire
• Wythenshawe, Manchester

We've found a few other video shops along the way too:

• Video Express in Swansea
• Video Rentals at The Village Top Shop in Thorpe Hesley, Rotherham
• Shahenshah Videos in Luton
• Deane Video Centre in Bolton
• Video Box Office at the Happy Shopper Wayfairer Discount Store in Ilkeston
• Video Future in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent
• The Movie Box in Manchester
• Jubilee Films video in Ashton-under-Lyne

Other video shops we've been to include B.V.C. - Bolton Video Centre in Little Lever, Bolton and 20th Century Flicks in Bristol - and both were still trading!