Happy Christmas Jumper Day

There was only one choice of festive knit to wear on Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day this year.

On Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day people all over the UK will be pulling on a seasonal jumper and donating to the great cause.

Check out Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day website for more info and ways to donate.

Car park fireplace

It's not every day you pull into a hotel car park and find it's got its own fireplace. But that happened to us on our visit to Felixstowe last week!

An outdoor fireplace. Quite a novelty

It was a very cold day when we left the seaside town

The Premier Inn on Undercliffe Road West in Felixstowe was built on the site of the Ordnance Hotel - previously the seaside resort's oldest hotel.

A real fire would've been quite welcome

Related blog posts:
- Felixstowe
- Abandoned
- Derelict
- Car park
- Hotel

Mr Mulligan's Space Golf opening in Newcastle

Mr Mulligan's Space Golf set to touch down in Newcastle.

The countdown is on for the latest of Mr Mulligan's Adventure Golf courses to launch on Newgate Street in Newcastle in the New Year. The space-themed layout is the first of it's kind from the team behind the Mr Mulligan courses - with other venues focussed on pirates, dinosaurs and jungles.

You'll be unlikely to find any dinosaurs - like this one in Cheltenham - at the new Mr Mulligan course in Newcastle

The Newcastle Space Golf venue will have three 9-hole indoor Adventure Golf courses, as well as a restaurant and late-night bar.

We've visited and played most of the Mr Mulligan's Adventure Golf courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, most recently at the new Lost World indoor Adventure Golf course in Cheltenham.

Other Mr Mulligan's venues can be found at Castleford, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Woking, Sidcup, Tonbridge and Stevenage. There are also plans for more new sites in the coming year!

Check out the Mr Mulligan's Adventure Golf website and Newcastle course Facebook Page for more information and updates on the launch.

Links:
- Mr Mulligan's Adventure Golf website
- Mr Mulligan's Adventure Golf Facebook Page

Related blog posts:
- Newcastle
- Mr Mulligan
- Indoor Adventure Golf
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Charity Darts Night - England vs. Stockport

England vs. Stockport Challenge Match at Stockport County FC.

Next week sees a special darts challenge match take place at Stockport County FC, with England taking on a Stockport select team in a charity darts night in aid of Chris 'Millzy' Mills.

Doors open at 7pm, for a 7.30pm start

It looks like it's going to be a cracking night of darts with the England vs. Stockport match contested in a 10 vs. 10 format and featuring some legendary darts players including Tony O'Shea, Scott Waites, Lisa Ashton, Darryl Fitton, Dean Winstanley, Lorraine Winstanley, Nathan Aspinall and more!

Golfbaren minigolf in Sweden

Finding out about the Golfbaren minigolf courses in Sweden.

The indoor Swing by Golfbaren course in Stockholm

I've been chatting with my friend, minigolf rival and legend of the sport Hans Olofsson about his brand of minigolf over in Sweden - Golfbaren.

Translated as Golf Bar, there are now four Golfbaren venues in total, with three outdoor courses and an indoor venue. It's a great concept and proving incredibly popular.

Golfbaren in Aspudden, photo by Mikaela Thörn

You can find the Golfbaren courses in Kristineberg, Aspudden (Hägersten) and Allén (Gothenburg), and the Swing by Golfbaren indoor minigolf course in Stockholm. The indoor course has a 1930's Speakeasy theme with plenty of food and cocktails to go with the miniature golf.

We met up with Hans and miniature golf professional Andreas Sollman for a game of Crazy Golf at Plonk Golf in Brixton while they were visiting London in February 2016. That course was the 676th we've visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. How time flies!

We've also visited the wonderful city of Stockholm - where we represented Great Britain in the 2011 WMF Nations Cup tournament played on the Tantogårdens Bangolf courses in Tantolunden Park, Södermalm. It'd be marvellous to return to the city to explore even more of it.

Check out the Golfbaren and Swing by Golfbaren websites to find out more about the courses. Each of the locations is also on Facebook and Instagram.

Links:
- Golfbaren Kristineberg
- Golfbaren Aspudden
- Golfbaren Allén
- Swing by Golfbaren

Related blog posts:
- Stockholm
- Sweden

Minigolfnews.com blog - End of the minigolf season – and the year ahead...

Check out my new blog post on Minigolfnews.com.

Adventure Golf on Sea Road in Felixstowe

One of our most visited minigolf courses is the Fantasia Adventure Golf course on Sea Road in Felixstowe. We never fail to swing by to look at the layout - even if it's out of season. It was definitely unplayable in the snowy weather conditions we faced in the seaside town yesterday.

A snowy Fantasia Adventure Golf in Felixstowe

Here's a blog post about the course from a better day in 2016.

The 9-hole course was the 7th we ever played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour way back in 2007!

Related blog posts:
- Felixstowe
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Mar's Mini Golf in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Finding out about Mar's Mini Golf - a 3D Glow in the Dark course in Saskatoon, Canada.

As I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting minigolf courses and stories I found out about Mar's Mini Golf in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The 3D Glow in the Dark course recently celebrated it's 5th birthday.

The undersea theme at Mar's Mini Golf

You need to putt through this shark's mouth

A skeleton pirate captain

We've putted through some whales on our travels

I'm a BIG fan of glow in the dark minigolf courses although there aren't very many in the UK. Some new indoor minigolf courses are applying glow in the dark elements, or have a few holes that are blacklit, but not many go all out on it.

The 200th course we played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour was a 3D glow in the dark course - the only one I've played - it's in Castleford, Yorkshire.

It'd be brilliant to revisit Canada - we had our honeymoon in Toronto and Niagara Falls.

Check out the Mar's Mini Golf website and photo gallery for more information.

Golfer's Putter Pool

While perusing the charity shops in Felixstowe at the weekend Emily spotted this brilliant looking golf/pool crossover game - Golfer's Putter Pool! At three quid it was a must buy.

Golfer's Putter Pool

We've been collecting miniature golf items since 2006 and hadn't seen this particular game before.

The game was made in the year 2000

We have however seen a few variations of hybrid minigolf/golf/pool/snooker/billiards games including Crazy Golf Pool and Pit-Pat, as well as some Crazy Golf obstacles that have used pool and snooker tables.

In October we played Crazy Golf Pool at Krazy Golf Lydney in the Forest of Dean

I first saw the game of Pit-Pat (obstacle billiards) in Vienna, Austria - it's like Crazy Golf but played with cues

The 7th hole of the Golf Apocalypse course in London used a snooker table

Hole 5 of the Plonk Golf course at Efes Snooker Hall in Dalston, London involved a pool table

Emily spotted the Snooker Golf course in Blankenberge, Belgium

Betway, sponsors of the UK Snooker Championship, have also created a version of Crazy Snooker. Check out the Putterfingers blog to see more.

98% gluten free

If something is 98% gluten free it's 100% useless to me.

What a peculiar percentage to opt for, I wonder who their target market is?

Sadly there are very few 100% gluten free places for Coeliac diners. Cross-contamination with gluten containing food means that even 99% gluten free places are a big risk for people with Coeliac Disease.

I've just noticed there's also a "98% GF" sticker on the door too

Thanks to Jo Tubby for the tip-off about the sign.

A token blog post

I'm a collector of all sorts of minigolf ephemera, items and merchandise and love finding tokens. My friend, rival and co-Curator at the Crazy Golf Museum has a BIG collection of miniature golf tokens and I've got a pretty sizeable selection of other machine and arcade tokens.

A selection of Putt-Putt tokens

It's always nice to find a course still using metal tokens / coins. Some have moved to plastic 'credit' cards, whereas others have always used paper tokens (of which I've got a few from my wins on the Lucky Last Hole).

I won this Free Game Pass by firing the cannon on the Lucky Last Hole on the very first course we visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Does your course still use tokens? If they do please get in touch and share any photos of them.

Related blog posts:
- Tokens
- A gift from Paradise
- Property of Machine
- Clacton Pier
- Minigolf collectables from the Lost City Adventure Golf course in Nottingham
- Adventure Golf at The Pavilion Fun Park in Clacton-on-Sea

Link:
- Miniature Golf, Putt Putt and Crazy Golf tokens at the Crazy Golf Museum