Minigolf at Leopoldpark in Blankenberge, Belgium

A visit to Leopoldpark in Blankenberge, Belgium.

Emily visited three courses and a new country on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour when she went to Blankenberge, Belgium back in 2016

What a sight for minigolf fans

The seaside resort is home to a Minigolf course, a Crazy Golf and a Snookergolf layout. The three 18-hole courses at Leopoldpark became the 710th, 711th and 712th visited on the tour.

Since 2006 Emily and I have visited 1,045 miniature golf courses around the UK and overseas on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. As well as playing minigolf in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Jersey and the Isle of Man we’ve travelled to minigolf courses in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Spain (Lanzarote and Majorca), Sweden and the USA.

The Minigolf course (left) and Crazy Golf course (right) at Leopoldpark

Photos of the Minigolf course at Leopoldpark, Blankenberge.

Photos of the Crazy Golf course at Leopoldpark, Blankenberge.

Photos of the Snookergolf Billiards course at Leopoldpark, Blankenberge.

We've got some great old postcards from Blankenberge that show the miniature golf courses which used to be at Leopoldpark. It's great to know there are still courses on the same spot today.

The whole place looks marvelously bright and colourful.

The Petanque terrain at Leopoldpark in Blankenberge

Visit the Leopoldpark website for more information.

Pit-Pat Crazy Snooker Scorecard and a minigolf sign from Littlehampton

A couple of items from the Crazy Golf Museum's collection.

Here's a scorecard from the Pit-Pat Crazy Snooker course Littlehampton, West Sussex.

Pit-Pat Crazy Snooker Scorecard from Littlehampton

We played the course in 2014, two years after first visiting it. It was superb fun.

Unfortunately the course at Western Putting on Banjo Road in Littlehampton is long gone, along with the Crazy Golf and Putting layouts that were there too.

Mini Golf and Putting Leaderboard from Littlehampton

Many thanks to Anthony Pope for donating the items to the Crazy Golf Museum.

The Floodgate turns one

Happy birthday to The Floodgate in Digbeth.

The Floodgate in Digbeth, Birmingham opened it's doors a year ago today.

Pit-Pat table golf at The Floodgate in Digbeth, Birmingham

It was brilliant to be the first player on the Pit-Pat table golf layout as I'm a big fan of the minigolf and pool crossover game.

You can also play on indoor baseball batting cages and a curling rink at the competitive socialising venue.

Visit The Floodgate website for more information, opening times and prices.

Check out the blog post from my visit to The Floodgate.

Opening The Floodgate

The Floodgate in Digbeth turns one this weekend.

The Floodgate in Digbeth, Birmingham officially opened it's doors a year ago this Sunday.

Pit-Pat table golf at The Floodgate in Digbeth, Birmingham

It was nice to be the first player on the Pit-Pat table golf layout on the pre-opening night a year ago today as I'm a big fan of the minigolf and pool crossover game.

You can also play on indoor baseball batting cages and a curling rink at the social sports venue.

Visit The Floodgate website for more information, opening times and prices.

Check out the blog post from my visit to The Floodgate.

Crazy Pool

A look at minigolf and billiard hybrid games.

We've seen a fair few variations and hybrids of minigolf, pool, snooker & billiards games on our travels. These have included Crazy Golf Pool and Pit-Pat, as well as some Crazy Golf obstacles that have been created using old pool and snooker tables.

We visited Skegness in 2011 and there was a sign for Crazy Pool on the promenade. It shared the sign for The Original Crazy Golf but there wasn't a trace of any tables when we were there.

A sign for Crazy Pool in Skegness, Lincolnshire back in 2011

Roxy Ball Room in Liverpool's Hanover Street will be home to a Crazy Pool game when it reopens later this month. It'll be an 8-table layout and I'm intrigued to see what the set-up is.

I first saw the game of Pit-Pat (obstacle billiards) in Vienna, Austria back in 2010 - it's like minigolf but played with cues.

You can find official Pit-Pat courses indoors at The Floodgate in Digbeth, Birmingham (where it's called Pit-Pat Table Golf) and outdoors at Watermouth Family Theme Park and Castle in Devon (where it is known as Crazy Snooker).

The only other full-size outdoor Pit-Pat layout in the UK was in Littlehampton. Sadly it became a lost course in 2017.

A selection of the minigolf and cue-sport crossovers we've seen on our travels

Related blog posts:
- Crazy Snooker Pool Billiards Golf and Pit-Pat
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour - courses we've visited to date

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Crazy Pool at Roxy Ball Room in Liverpool

Liverpool's Roxy Ball Room venue on Hanover Street has received a makeover and is reopening on the 27th August.

One of the new games to play at Roxy Ball Room on Hanover Street will be Crazy Pool.

The team at Roxy Ball Room has described it as mash up of minigolf and pool.

It'll be interesting to see what the game is like and if it's Pit-Pat, or another variant on billiards and miniature golf.

Check out the Roxy Ball Room website for details of their eleven venues and the games on offer.

The Roxy Ball Room venue at Rainford Square in Liverpool is home to a crazy golf course. We're yet to play there on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

We have played minigolf at Boar Lane in Leeds and Deansgate in Manchester.

The new Withy Grove Roxy Ball Room in Manchester will also be home to a minigolf course.

Check out my blog post "Crazy Snooker Pool Billiards Golf and Pit-Pat" for a look at some of the stranger miniature golf and cue-sports crossover games we've played on our travels.

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Crazy Golf and Crazy Snooker at Watermouth Family Theme Park and Castle in Devon

There are Crazy Golf and Crazy Snooker courses at Watermouth Family Theme Park and Castle near Ilfracombe in North Devon.

One of the places to visit on our post-pandemic bucket list is Watermouth Family Theme Park and Castle near Ilfracombe in Devon.

There's a 9-hole Crazy ‘Fountain’ Golf course there AND a Crazy Snooker layout. When I checked with the theme park the team confirmed it is a Pit-Pat layout. That makes it the only outdoor Pit-Pat course in the UK!

Watermouth money

Two of the tokens in my collection come from Watermouth Castle. I found them at an antiques fair back in 2015 and I found out they date from before 1992.

What a happy castle

I wonder how much 10 Gnolds are worth these days? Not that I'd part with the coin

Visit the Watermouth Family Theme Park and Castle website for more information.

Swedish Felt Minigolf at the Askoe Wien Wasserpark in Vienna, Austria

A look at the Swedish Felt Minigolf course at the Askoe Wien Wasserpark in Vienna, Austria.

In March 2010 I visited the Askoe Wien Wasserpark in Vienna, Austria and got to play one of the toughest - and longest - Swedish Felt Minigolf courses in Europe.

The layout was the 163rd course played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Pit-Pat

The Askoe Wien Wasserpark was also the first place I spotted a Pit-Pat course (a cross between Billiards/Pool/Snooker and Minigolf!).

Minigolf Tag

On this day in 2013 it was Minigolf Tag (Minigolf Day) in Austria. The event was organised by the Austrian Minigolf Federation (Österreichischer Bahnengolf-Verband - OBGV).

Each year around 550,000 Austrians (15% of the country's population) play Miniature Golf.

It was an out-of-season visit so I didn't get to play the Miniature Golf course there

Mini Golf and Billiard Golf in Puerto Colón, Tenerife

A look at the Mini Golf course and Billiard Golf tables in Puerto Colón, Tenerife.

Many thanks to my friend Philip Walsh for sending over some snaps of the Mini Golf course and Billiard Golf tables at the shopping centre in Puerto Colón, Tenerife.

The Mini Golf course is of the Swedish Felt variety.

The Billiard Golf tables look great fun to play.

It's always brilliant to see different courses from around the world.

We've seen a few different types of snooker/pool/billiard golf courses and Pit-Pat tables over the years, but the one in Puerto Colón is a new variant of table top miniature golf billiards.

A visit to The Floodgate in Digbeth, Birmingham

Checking out The Floodgate, a new experiential entertainment venue in Digbeth.

Last Wednesday I headed down to Birmingham to check out the new indoor entertainment venue at the Custard Factory in Digbeth.

The Floodgate is home to three activities - indoor baseball batting cages, curling and Pit-Pat table golf.

As a BIG fan of all things minigolf-related my main interest was the Pit-Pat table golf.

Pit-Pat is similar to crazy golf in that you have to play over, up, through and around different obstacles on each of the tables. The main difference though is that you use a cue rather than a club.

After checking out the baseball cages in the main bar area I walked through a corridor to find the curling rink.

The baseball batting cage

Curling

A little further down the corridor was a sign for Pit-Pat and then to the left was a doorway into the Pit-Pat course.

The Pit-Pat layout is split into three, with most of the tables in one large retro graffiti art covered room. The tables have been UV painted and so there's a nice glow-in-the dark look to it.

Table 12 can be found all on its own in a very cool black & white room. The mono look is a very nice contrast to the UV sections.

Tables 13 to 18 then follow, with more graffiti art on the walls and some tricky obstacles including a bridge, ramp & net, pipes and a loop-di-loop to tackle.

It was brilliant to be the first person to play the UK's first and only indoor UV Pit-Pat Table Golf course. I had five rounds at The Floodgate, scoring 47, 51, 37, 34 and 36. I was very happy with my rounds in the 30s and the 34 was very sweet as I shot four aces.

I'd previously played Pit-Pat at the UK's only previous course back in 2014. Sadly that course in Littlehampton became a lost course a couple of years ago.

As I was leaving to catch my train back home the Pit-Pat area began to fill up with more players taking to the tables.

This is a nice obstacle and hole to play into

It was nice to see people enjoying the batting cages and curling too, along with the street food and well stocked bar.

Table 18

Check out The Floodgate website for more information, opening times and prices.

The Floodgate is housed in this old building built in 1938