Friday, November 30, 2012

End of Season BMGA Tour Minigolf Rankings for 2012

Details of Richard & Emily Gottfried's End of Season British Minigolf Association Tour Rankings for 2012.
 
Luton Minigolfers Richard & Emily Gottfried completed their sixth year as British Minigolf Association Tour Pro players at the 2012 BMGA British Club Championship.
 
The BMGA's final rankings for the 2012 season, along with the BMGA Roll of Honour have been updated and posted on the British Minigolf Association website.
 
Richard finished the season ranked in a career-high of 5th place in the 2012 BMGA Season Only Rankings. Emily was ranked 37th in the 120 player strong rankings.
 
In the BMGA Strokeplay Order of Merit Rankings Richard finished in 15th place of 96 players, with Emily in 41st place.
 
In the BMGA Matchplay Order of Merit Richard was ranked 15th of 60 players, with Emily in 41st place.
 
In the BMGA 2012 Season Rankings for Clubs Emily and the Cambridgeshire Mini Golf Club finished in second place. Richard and the Midlands Minigolf Club finished in third place of six teams.
 
The World Minigolf Sport Federation Rankings are due to be updated in December.
 
The British Minigolf Association is the governing body for Minigolf Sport, including Crazy Golf and Adventure Golf. Formed in 1998 the BMGA organises Minigolf competitions for its members across the UK. The BMGA is a member of the World Minigolf Sport Federation and the European Minigolf Sport Federation. Two options are available for Membership of the British Minigolf Association. Further details can be found here.
 
Related Blog Posts:

Links:

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Updated Miniature Golf Player Profiles for 2012

Following the end of the 2012 Minigolf Season the Miniature Golf Player Profiles for Minigolf, Adventure Golf and Crazy Golf Players Richard Gottfried, Emily Gottfried and Christopher Gottfried have been updated. Check them out at:

- Richard Gottfried's Minigolf Player Profile

- Emily Gottfried's Minigolf Player Profile

- Christopher Gottfried's Minigolf Player Profile

Links:
- British Minigolf Association
- World Minigolf Sport Federation

Monday, November 26, 2012

Minigolf Report – Gottfried’s Final Results & End of Season Review

26th November 2012
Press Information
For Immediate Release
 
Minigolf Report – Gottfried’s Final Results & End of Season Review
 
Luton Minigolfers Richard & Emily Gottfried’s 2012 British Minigolf Association Tour season came to an end on the 25th November at the 9-hole Mini Golf course at Basingstoke Golf Centre in Hampshire with both player's teams reaching the semi-final stage in the BMGA British Club Championship team tournament.
 
BMGA British Club Championship
 
In the BMGA British Club Championship on Sunday 25th November Richard played for the Midlands Minigolf Club and he and this three team mates finished the event in third-place for the second year in a row. Emily and her Cambridgeshire Mini Golf Club team were fourth in the twelve team event, which featured teams from seven of the BMGA’s Minigolf Clubs.
Richard Gottfried plays a shot on hole 1 of the Basingstoke Golf Centre Mini Golf course in a sudden-death play-off against the Midlands Minigolf Club B Team.
Both Richard and Emily's teams battled through to the semi-finals but were on the losing end in their games and had to face-off in the Bronze medal play-off match. In the 12-hole matchplay contest the Midlands Minigolf Club were victorious with a 2up scoreline.
CMGC Team Captain Emily Gottfried lines up a shot on hole 2 of the Basingstoke Golf Centre Mini Golf course in a match against Planet Hastings Crazy Golf Club.
Emily said “The British Club Championship this year was a fantastic tournament. I was really pleased to be selected as Captain of one of the two Cambridgeshire Mini Golf Club teams, and to lead them to fourth place in our first tournament as a group was a much better than I expected! We played really well as a team, and kept each other positive if we had a bad round. Hopefully next year we will achieve a podium finish!”
 
End of 2012 Minigolf Season Review
 
In the twelve full BMGA Tour events Richard entered in 2012 he achieved one BMGA Tour title victory, one third place and five other top ten finishes. The win came in July’s BMGA & Putterfingers Oswestry Games Championship.
 
Emily played in four full BMGA Tour competitions this year achieving three top ten finishes, with her best individual result coming as the runner-up in the Planet Hastings Crazy Golf Club Open in October.
 
2012 was the pair’s sixth year as BMGA Tour Pro players and both Richard and Emily gained their fourth Great Britain caps when they competed in the second WMF World Adventure Golf Masters tournament in Hastings in May. Richard finished the event in 14th place and finishing in 11th place in the men’s competition. Emily was runner-up in the women’s event and 17th overall. The pair’s Great Britain B team finished the international championship in fourth place.
 
At October’s ‘Castle Golf’ World Crazy Golf Championship in Hastings Richard was once again a finalist and finished the tournament in 17th place of 53 players in his sixth appearance for England.

Richard finished the season ranked in a career-high of 5th place in the 2012 BMGA Season Only Rankings. Emily was ranked 37th in the 120 player strong rankings. In the BMGA Strokeplay Order of Merit Rankings Richard finished in 15th place of 96 players, with Emily in 41st place. In the BMGA Matchplay Order of Merit Richard was ranked 15th of 60 players, with Emily in 41st place. The World Minigolf Sport Federation Rankings are due to be updated in December.
 
In non-ranking BMGA events Richard finished in 6th place of 30 players in the Crazy Golf Pro Championship in London, while Emily and her team were runners-up at the BMGA Oswestry Games Pro-Am Minigolf Classic.
 
Richard and Emily also competed in a number of independent Minigolf competitions in 2012 with wins coming for Richard in the Crazy Golf with Bompas & Parr June Championship Playoff and overall victory in the grand final at the rooftop Crazy Golf course at Selfridges London.
 
Richard said “It’s been a great season and I was very pleased to win a BMGA Tour title event at the Oswestry Games along with two of the championship events at the Bompas & Parr rooftop Crazy Golf course at Selfridges London. My fifth place ranking in the 2012 BMGA Season Rankings was my best placing to date and apart from a couple of disappointing results this year I’ve played really well. Closing out the year with a podium finish in the national club championship was a good end to a long and successful season.”
 
Emily said “This year has gone by so fast! We’ve had some really great tournaments in some interesting and fun places. Hastings, as always, was a brilliant venue on the multitude of times we visited there and will always be one of my favourite Mini Golf destinations, especially as I managed a second place finish in the Planet Hastings Crazy Golf Champions this year. That was definitely my highlight.”

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Doggone Minigolf!

Animal Crackers on the UK Minigolf Circuit.

2012 has been a cracking year for minigolf, but this year has seen three curious incidences of Dogs making appearances at a British Minigolf Association Tour event!

At today's BMGA British Club Championship held at the 9-hole Mini Golf course Basingstoke Golf Centre in sunny Basingstoke a small scamp of a dog interrupted proceedings by making its way onto the course, have a sniff of a few players, roll in some bushes, sit on my foot, pose for a photo and run off into the trees next to the nearby Putting Green.

The small dog gets to know Emily Gottfried from the Cambridgeshire Mini Golf Club as the rest of her team look quite bemused
The Basingstoke intruder makes its getaway

At last month's tenth annual Castle Golf World Crazy Golf Championship the BMGA Tour welcomed it’s newest, and some might say biggest, fan in a dog that went crazy for the Minigolf action on holes 16, 17 and 18 of the Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course on Hastings Seafront! Many a veteran player was enchanted by its behaviour and confusion as it marvelled at the multitude of multi-coloured Golf Balls dropping off a small ledge and disappearing down a hole.

One dog with no man at the World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings

The first dog encounter of the season was at the BMGA British Masters held at the 18-hole Splash Point Mini Golf course in Worthing's Denton Gardens back in April. The park area is popular amongst dog walkers and their pets and during the action (handily filmed by the team at the coincidentally named 2dogimaging) one 'lovable' canine called "Bonnie", perhaps looking for its own 'Fenton' moment, made itself known to the players in the tournament and the wider world by running all over the course!



There was also a cat on the course at the BMGA British Club Championships at Basingstoke. However, no photos of this feline were snapped as players were too busy shooing it off of the course.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Minigolf on the Golf Stinks Blog

Check out the latest post on the Golf Stinks Blog - it's all about Minigolf!

"There's Nothing Miniature about this Golf"

It follows on from a piece written on the site last week "Golf Through Miniature Eyes".

There's another good piece on Minigolf on the Golf Stinks Blog at "Variations on the Game of Golf - Mini Golf".

Links:
- Golfstinks
- Golf Stinks Blog

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The Other Olympics

A great new book about international multi-sports competitions!

I’ve recently finished reading the new book ‘The Other Olympics’ by Matt Roebuck and must say what a great read it is.

During 2011 the author, Matt Roebuck, travelled around the world visiting thirteen international multi-sports games (the ‘Other Olympics’) and took in events such the Games of the Small States of Europe, the World Transplant Games, the Island Games, the European Masters Games, World Skills 2011 and the Pan-Armenian Games!

It was great to read about people's motivations for getting involved in different sports and multi-sport events as athletes, organisers and officials.

Whether you are involved in sport as an athlete, official, coach, media, organiser, committee member, volunteer or in any other capacity I think The Other Olympics is well worth a read.

I heard about the book after it was mentioned in a tweet by the TINTYPE Gallery when the author managed to score a hole-in-one on the very tricky (and crazy) ‘window hole’ at the Crazee Golf exhibition in London.

As someone who plays a lot of Minigolf (and a fair few other sports and games) and helps to organise and promote events on the British Minigolf Association Tour and within the World Minigolf Sport Federation I found the book interesting on a number of levels. Whether sports, associations, multi-sport events are big, small or somewhere in-between they have to deal with similar problems and issues, while there are also great opportunities to get people involved in sports.

The Other Olympics website has a comprehensive listing section of ‘Other Olympics’ from 2011, this year and for 2013.

While not featuring in the book (as it took place this year rather than last) it was great to see the World Alternative Games does appear on the Other Olympics website. I had a great time running the WFJF Finger Jousting Championships at the event and also came away as one-half of the World Egg Throwing Champion Team at the event! An excellent event in a great town (the smallest in the UK!).

This year I was also involved in bringing the sport of Minigolf to its first multi-sports games in the UK when it was included in the 2012 Oswestry Games in Shropshire. The Oswestry Games (aka The Oslympics) consisted of over 30 sports and 50 sports & cultural events over a ten-day festival of sport. It was a mammoth undertaking from the team at Oswestry Sports Council, but well worth it. You can check out the report from the British Minigolf Association activities at the Oswestry Games here.

Minigolf was also a part of the Hans Christian Andersen City Games in Denmark in July this year and back in 1989 the sport (Bahn Golf) was a demonstration event in the IWGA World Games in Karlsruhe, Germany. The World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) is also hoping to have Minigolf included in other multi-sport events in the future.

Please have a look on the links below for more about The Other Olympics and details of how you can buy a copy of The Other Olympics book.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Portaputt Crazy Golf in Cwmbran, Wales

New portable Miniature Golf course business launched in Cwmbran, Wales.

My friends, fellow British Minigolf Association Tour rivals and teammates in the Midlands Minigolf Club – the Kukielka family – have launched a brand new Minigolf business called Portaputt Crazy Golf supplying a 9-hole Crazy Golf course layout available to hire for events.

Portaputt Crazy Golf course, Cwmbran
The Portaputt Crazy Golf course at the World Alternative Games 2014

I’m looking forward to giving the course a play and checking out the obstacles they’ve created for it.
Portaputt Crazy Golf has a great logo – check it out here – featuring a 9-hole Minigolf course in the lettering of “Portaputt”. Brilliant.

Portaputt Crazy Golf offers the course and staffing for hire at fetes and festivals, community events, children’s parties, weddings, fundraisers, school events, pubs & hotels and corporate events. For more information, testimonials and to get in touch with them please visit Portaputt.co.uk

Related blog posts:
Crazy World of Minigolf Tour list of courses visited and played
Wales
Minigolf etc. - English to Welsh translations
- Portaputt

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Chrizy Golf in Manchester - for six weeks only!

A new Miniature Golf course has been set-up in Manchester for Christmas!
 
A recent blog post by the team at Putterfingers.co.uk alerted me to the fact there is a new Minigolf course (with a bar) in Manchester – Chrizy Golf!
 
The 9-hole Crazy Golf course and bar, run by Fluid bars, is located at Piccadilly Place in Manchester and is open from 12pm-11pm Monday to Saturday. From details I’ve seen the course takes advance bookings only, so check out the Chrizy Golf Facebook page for info.
 
But you’ll need to be quick if you want to play the course as its only open for a six-week run from the 12th of November until Christmas Eve!
 
'Chrizy Golf' is another new synonym for the game of 'Minigolf' - check out my blog post on "Types and Variants of Miniature Golf visited and played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour", the Putter King post on "The Many Names of Miniature Golf" and the extensive list of "Miniature Golf Synonyms" compiled by Tim 'Ace Man' Davies at MiniatureGolfer.com.
 
The Chrizy Golf course will also be hosting a tournament – THE CHRIZY GOLF MASTERS! Keep an eye out on the Chrizy Golf Facebook page for more info.
 
Fingers crossed we’ll be able to make a trip to Manchester again this December. Emily and I had a nice day out there last year for the Birdies Pop Up Golf launch event and had a nice wander around the city’s Christmas Market.
 
The team at Chrizy Golf have been encouraging players to wear Christmassy and/or Golfy attire when they visit. I'll definitely be digging out my Christmas hat for a visit. It reminds me, I’ll need to buy a cheesy new Christmas Jumper ready for any Crimbo ‘do’s’ I go to this year!
 
 

Friday, November 16, 2012

Playing the GolfParc course at the London Golf Show

A bit of Pitching on the GolfParc Mini Golf layout at the London Golf Show at Earls Court.
 
At the 2012 London Golf Show my fellow Minigolfer Oliver ‘The Machine’ Florence and I had a go on the GolfParc Golf set-up and a nearest the pin competition laid out by the Golf Coaches on the course. In the three-hole contest Ollie picked up the win and was complimented on being a short game expert by one of the coaches. Kind words for the big man.
 
On the green of the GolfParc course

GolfParc is part of Factory Eleven, a business that design innovative sports equipment and in addition to Golf Parc they have a Cricket and Tennis set-up. The GolfParc layout was good fun and well made - it's designed for younger players so they Clubs were undersized for us.
 
 
The Velcro covered balls were a nice touch as it allowed you to stop the ball dead next to the hole with your shot (as deftly demonstrated by Oliver). The GolfParc equipment has been designed to help with the understanding of the fundamentals of Golf in a fun and interactive environment.
 
Back in May the GolfParc team ran an online Minigolf game competition to raise awareness of the Golf Parc kit.
 

Las Vegas Long Putt Challenge at the London Golf Show

Attempting the ‘Las Vegas Long Putt Challenge’!
 
While at the 2012 London Golf Show at Earls Court last week my fellow Minigolfer Oliver 'The Machine' Florence and I had a go at winning a trip to Las Vegas on the ‘Las Vegas Long Putt Challenge’ 70 foot long Golf Hole!
 
We paid for six balls and played three each. Ollie quickly took his three goes but was unable to win. I came remarkably close with my second shot, but it wasn’t to be and we left empty handed. A shame as Las Vegas is such a great place to visit.
One of my three attempts before it ran passed the hole
The Long Putt Challenge at the London Golf Show was part of a promotion for the Las Vegas Challenge Golf Amateur Golf Challenge. The actual competition at the Bali Hai Golf Club offers a player who can score a hole-in-one on a designated hole a chance to win £1,000,000!!!

Corncob Crazy Golf in another Hastings!

I spotted this new variant of Miniature Golf recently - Corncob Crazy Golf.

It's played in Hastings, New Zealand and players use a ball that is tennis ball sized and a Putter made from a corncob!?

Hastings, England is the host of the World Crazy Golf Championships, I wonder if the other Hastings (of which there are many) have any more crazy minigolf variants?

Playing the new UrbanCrazy Minigolf course at the London Golf Show

Playing the 308th course on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.
 
Last Friday fellow Minigolfer (and sometimes Blogger) Oliver ‘The Machine’ Florence and I headed to the London Golf Show at Earls Court to check out the brand new ‘Signature Course’ from Minigolf suppliers UrbanCrazy.
The new UrbanCrazy Minigolf course
The team from UrbanCrazy were at the three-day event and their 9-hole layout was in a great spot with plenty of people taking the chance to play a round of Miniature Golf.
Playing hole 8
Ollie and I played four 9-hole rounds and an 18-hole matchplay contest on the course with Ollie setting an impressive course record of 15(-3) with his last round. A score that would go unbeaten for the duration of the show!
Ollie on target on hole 6
The new UrbanCrazy course has some interesting and tricky obstacles and playing surfaces – they are not all flat felt! One of the holes was made of metal.

Following the Brown Sign for a Hole-in-One on hole 5!
The course became the 308th played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and 512th visited overall since September 2006.
Ollie's nemesis until the final round where he scored an Ace to take the course (and show) record - the 9th hole

Minigolf match results:

Game 1
Richard – 20(+2)
Oliver – 23(+5)
 
Game 2
Richard – 22(+4)
Oliver – 25(+7)
 
Game 3
Richard – 22(+4)
Oliver – 23(+5)
 
Game 4
Richard – 18(par)
Oliver – 15(-3) *course record
 
Game 5
18-hole matchplay:
Oliver won 1 up

Hole 7 - the toughest hole on the course
While chatting to the UrbanCrazy team we were told that some of the attendees had mentioned seeing the World Crazy Golf Championships on Trans World Sport and Sky Sports News and the BMGA Minigolf Team on BBC Quiz Show Eggheads. I also talked to one of the stallholders and when I mentioned Minigolf she said she’d heard about it from watching Eggheads on the BBC Channel in Tenerife!
Ollie attempts to win a flight
The UrbanCrazy course also had a bonus 10th hole which offered anyone who scored a hole-in-one on it a chance to win a pair of European flights courtesy of Monarch Airlines. Neither of us made the Ace on the hole. The course and 10th hole challenge were also raising funds for Lords Taverners, a charity that gives young people a sporting chance.
 

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Results of the 2012 Putter King Miniature Golf Scavenger Hunt

Allan Cox of Australia wins the 2012 Putter King Miniature Golf Scavenger Hunt!
 
Reigning and defending 'Putter King' Allan Cox from Australia managed to retain his title as the Putter King Miniature Golf Scavenger Hunt Champion as he achieved a massive haul of 2,875 points in the 2012 Putter King Miniature Golf Scavenger Hunt!
 
His points haul was a 'mere' 2,800 points ahead of my total!
 
The Putter King contest was an international affair with the top five competitors hailing from Australia, the USA (three players) and the UK (me).
 
Last year I was the runner-up in the contest after a sudden-death public-vote play-off after Allan and I tied for the lead!
Emily and I in our Putter King Kits at the 2011 BMGA English Open minigolf tournament at Wroxham Barns, Norfolk
 
Blog Links:

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Minigolfing in Bath, Wookey Hole, Cheddar and Brean (but not Bristol)

Visiting another thirteen courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour!

Between the 10th and 13th of November 2012 Emily and I were in Somerset and while there managed to find and play a few new courses as part of our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

When heading off on a trip to anywhere we’ll generally have an idea of where there may be a course to visit and play and we’d noted a few to have a look at while visiting Bath, Cheddar and Brean. On our trip we visited a total of 13 courses (five of which we’d been to previously) and managed to play four of them. This was a bonus as it is ‘out of season’ at the moment.

We have now visited a total of 520 Miniature Golf courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour since September 2006! Of these 520 we’ve been able to play 312 of them.

Minigolf Courses visited and revisited on our recent trip:
• #309 Bath (Victoria Park) – Victoria Falls Adventure Golf

Emily Gottfried playing the Victoria Falls Adventure Golf course in Bath
Emily playing the Victoria Falls Adventure Golf course in Bath

• #310 Wookey Hole – Pirate Island Adventure Golf

Richard Gottfried playing the 7th hole at Pirate Island Adventure Golf at Wookey Hole
Playing the 7th hole at Pirate Island Adventure Golf at Wookey Hole

• #311 Cheddar – Cheddar Crazy Golf

Richard Gottfried at the excellent Cheddar Crazy Golf course
At the excellent Cheddar Crazy Golf course

• Bath - (Combe Grove Manor, Brassknocker Hill, Monkton Combe) - Minigolf - Could not find it!

• #312 Brean (Leisure Dome Amusement Arcade) – Indoor Crazy Golf

Minigolfer Richard Gottfried at the Leisure Dome Amusement Arcade's indoor Crazy Golf course
At the Leisure Dome Amusement Arcade's indoor Crazy Golf course


The Smugglers Cove Adventure Golf course in Brean
The Smugglers Cove Adventure Golf in Brean


The Congo Adventure Golf course at Brean Leisure Park
The Congo Adventure Golf at Brean Leisure Park

Mini Golf Putting in Weston-Super-Mare
Revisit (#259) Weston-Super-Mare (Putting) - Putting

Crazy Hills Putting Crazy Golf in Weston-Super-Mare
Revisit (#261) Weston-Super-Mare (Crazy Hills Putting)


Fella's Crazy Golf in Weston-Super-Mare
Revisit (#260) Weston-Super-Mare (Fella's) - Crazy Golf

The courses we managed to play were all great in their own way. Victoria Falls Adventure Golf in Bath was a nicely laid out 18-hole course with some tricky obstacles and it was great to see it so busy on a not so nice November afternoon! The Wookey Hole Pirate Island Adventure Golf was a good little 9-hole course with some great theming and obstacles. The Cheddar Crazy Golf was a brilliant and unique 18-hole layout that was great fun to play. It’s a course I’d very happily play over and over again. Finding the indoor Crazy Golf at Brean’s Leisure Dome Amusement Arcade was a bonus and the course looked great and was fun to play. Some of the holes were very tough and nigh on impossible to score a hole-in-one on. As well as the large Congo Adventure Golf course in Brean there is also a tiny 9-hole Pirate Adventure Golf/Crazy Golf course on South Road.

While in Bath we had a look for the Minigolf course at the Combe Grove Manor on Brassknocker Hill, but after a drive around the grounds we couldn't see it. We did see a Golf Driving Range and a bit of a Putting green/course near one of the car parks, but not the Minigolf layout as can be viewed online.

Three of the course revisits we made were in Weston-Super-Mare where we found the Putting course at the Miniature Railway on the Beach Lawns to have closed down. This is to make way for a new Adventure Golf course that is planned for the site.

The new Pirate Bay Adventure Golf at Bristol Golf Centre was too tricky for us to find, it wasn’t signposted and after driving (queuing) around through the rush hour traffic we gave up our search and headed back to Luton. We will be back to give the new course a play in the future though.

Related Blog Post:
Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Monday, November 05, 2012

Watch the World Crazy Golf Championship on Trans World Sport this week

Tune in to Trans World Sport on Sky Sports this week to watch the feature on the World Crazy Golf Championship in Hastings!
 
This year’s ‘Castle Golf’ World Crazy Golf Championship was filmed for a feature that will be shown on the TV sports show Trans World Sport this week.
 
From the Trans World Sport programme listing:
"This week, time with Belarusian football team BATE Borisov. Plus, meet the stars of the Professional Bull Riding Tour in Texas, and the Crazy Golf World Championships in England."
 
Trans World Sport will be shown on Sky Sports in the UK on the following days and times:
07/11/2012 - Sky Sports 1 at 10pm
08/11/2012 - Sky Sports 2 at 12pm
08/11/2012 - Sky Sports 2 at 4pm
09/11/2012 - Sky Sports 4 at 2pm
10/11/2012 - Sky Sports 4 at 9am
10/11/2012 - Sky Sports 4 at 1pm
 

Report from the Third Knowley Grail Minigolf Tournament

Results, report and photos from the third Knowley Grail Minigolf Competition.

The third edition of the Knowley Grail was contested between ten BMGA Tour Pro players and US Minigolfer Jon Drexler at the Hastings Crazy Golf course following the final of the 2012 'Castle Golf' World Crazy Golf Championship after the players had decided that two days of international competition just wasn't enough and that they enjoyed the freezing cold weather conditions too much to head to the warmth of indoors/their transport home.
David Donnelly plays the Waterwheel hole of the Hastings Crazy Golf course

The 'age-old' rules of the Knowley Grail state that all players in the competition must use the same Minigolf ball - a 'Pinky Diver' by Reisinger - renowned for its super bouncy qualities. Any player scoring a seven during the round of Minigolf is automatically eliminated from the rest of the one-round competition. If eliminated the unfortunate player must take up residence on the nearest chair/bench of shame.
With two Pinky Diver balls available the group of eleven split into two groups and commenced play on the 18-hole Seafront Crazy Golf course in Hastings. Defending champion James 'The Rocket' Rutherford was in group two.

In a first for the Knowley Grail not one player was eliminated from the round. Adam 'Ak47' Kelly came remarkably close to being sent to a seat of shame with a score of six, but apart from that score most players were grinding out the twos, getting 'robbed' off of the metal cups, and scoring a smattering of threes and not enough aces.
Play the 'Tony Kelly Spot The Ball Contest'...
A remarkable shot was played by Jon Drexler on hole four when he was able to miss an ace and end up in the left hand bunker having travelled through one of the other bunkers on the course. This 'Drexed' shot was repeated moments later by AK47!
The Perplexing Drexler Shot
Two players were standouts in the Knowley Grail in Hastings, with Hastings' own John 'Big Top Ted' McIver setting the clubhouse lead with a score of 38(+2). John 'Johnny Waffles' Moore was also looking to record a good score and also came in with a 38 to force a play-off. The sudden-death play-off was the second in a row in the Knowley Grail tournament, following Rutherford's win in Margate in September.

On hole two of the Hastings Crazy Golf course Ted beat John to lift the title and take the £11 prize money.
Big Al messes up the 18 hole


Ted wins

Bexhill-on-Sea's number one Minigolfer Alex 'Perfect Par' Pragnell awards Hastings' number two Crazy Golfer 'Big Top Ted' John McIver the Knowley Grail trophy
Results of the third Knowley Grail competition:
1. John/Ted McIver 38
2. John/Al Moore - 38
3. Richard Gottfried - 41
3. Brad Shepherd - 41
5. Will Donnelly - 43
6. Adam Kelly - 44
6. Tony Kelly - 44
6. Jon Drexler (USA) - 44
6. James Rutherford - 44
10. David Hartley - 46
11. David Donnelly - 49
 
The Knowley Grail minigolf competition was created by members of the London Minigolf Club following the Midlands Open tournament held at the 12-hole Minigolf course at the Four Ashes Golf Centre in Dorridge, Solihull. The LMGC members had spent the Friday perusing the charity shops of nearby Knowle and found a silver chalice on sale for £2.50. This became the trophy for the Knowley Grail tournaments.

Related Blog Posts:
- Report from the Second Knowley Grail Minigolf Tournament
- The Knowley Grail of Minigolf