15 years ago today

A look back at the 10th course played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

We visited the 10th course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour on this day in 2006. On a bitterly cold 23rd December 2006 Emily, Christopher and I headed along to the Horse and Harrow Pub in West Hagbourne, Oxfordshire to have a game on their beer garden Crazy Golf course.

And what a course it was - we'd not seen anything like it before. And we haven't seen anything quite like it since!

Crazy Golf at the Horse and Harrow Pub in West Hagbourne, Oxfordshire - December 2006

We revisited the course in April 2011 and while it was a bit drier, it was still a very mossy layout.

Crazy Golf at the Horse and Harrow Pub in West Hagbourne, Oxfordshire - April 2011

Little did we know back then that our interest in crazy golf would become an obsession and that we'd visit 982 courses in the last 15 years.

Together with Christopher and his family we've now been to a grand total of 1,017 courses since we all picked up a putter on the 30th September 2006.

Crazy Golf at the Horse & Groom pub in Ningwood on the Isle of Wight

A look at the Crazy Golf course at the Horse & Groom pub in Ningwood on the Isle of Wight.

My friend and minigolf rival Matt Dodd found this Crazy Golf course at the Horse & Groom Pub in Ningwood on the Isle of Wight last summer.

Visit the Horse & Groom pub's website for more information.

I'm looking forward to my next visit to the Isle of Wight and a game on the unique pub crazy golf course.

Crazy Golf at The Beaver Inn, Appledore, Devon

There's a Crazy Golf course at The Beaver Inn, Appledore, Devon.

Many thanks to my friend and minigolf rival Alan 'Storming' Norman for sending over these photos of the Crazy Golf course at The Beaver Inn in Appledore, Devon.

It looks like a very nice layout and one we've added to our To Play list when we're next down that way on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

It's always fun finding minigolf courses in pub beer gardens.

Visit The Beaver Inn website for more information.

------------------

Join our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour enewsletter mailing list

Crazy Golf at The Gaggle of Geese pub in Buckland Newton, Dorset

There's a new Crazy Golf course at The Gaggle of Geese pub in Buckland Newton, Dorchester, Dorset.

The team at The Gaggle of Geese pub in Buckland Newton, Dorset have spent some of the lockdown period building a Crazy Golf course.

We're looking forward to giving it a play on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in the future.

We've played a few pub minigolf courses - but there aren't nearly enough of them in our opinion.

------------

Check out the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour Newsletter archive and sign-up to receive future editions

Crazy Golf at the Horse & Harrow Pub in West Hagbourne, Oxfordshire

Thirteen years ago today we visited the 10th course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

On a bitterly cold 23rd December 2006 Emily, Christopher and I headed along to the Horse & Harrow Pub in West Hagbourne, Oxfordshire to have a game on the beer garden Crazy Golf course there.

In all the years and hundreds upon hundreds of courses we've seen since, none have been anything quite like the 9-hole course.

Crazy

Back in 2006 we never realised how BIG our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour would become. To date we've visited 942 courses!

We popped back to the pub for a look at the course in April 2011.

How the course looked five years later

Looking online it doesn't look like the course is in the pub's beer garden anymore.

Darts at The Players' Entrance in Stockport

Playing darts at The Players' Entrance indoor sports park in Stockport.

Darts at The Player's Entrance in Stockport

Earlier today I called in to The Players' Entrance in Stockport's Merseyway shopping centre as the venue was hosting a special darts event.

Stockport darts superstar Nathan 'The Asp' Aspinall is competing in the PDC World Championships this month and the event saw the launch of a new partnership with the Stockport Disability Darts League and a link up with The Players' Entrance and Stockport schools.

The Stockport Disability Darts League set-up at The Players' Entrance

Nathan Aspinall is ranked number 12 in the world and is the 2019 UK Open champion, the 2019 US Darts Masters champion and was a semi-finalist in the 2019 PDC World Championships.

It was brilliant to meet Nathan and I had the chance to play against him in two games on one of the electronic soft-tip dartboards.

Nathan 'The Asp' Aspinall and me after our two games of darts. Guess who won?

The Playerss Entrance now has a disability darts area with dartboards and oche set-up so that players of any ability can compete against each other. The backing board has two dartboards - one for standing players and one for those seated - that can be quickly flipped after each player's throw.

I'm a big fan of both playing and watching darts. It's an inclusive game and can be picked up and played easily.

Visit The Players' Entrance website for more info, opening times and prices for the sports and games on offer.

Check out Stockport Disability Darts League for more information.

Visit Nathan 'The Asp' Aspinall's official Facebook Page too.

Crazy Golf at The Railway Hotel in Garswood, St Helens

A visit to the Crazy Golf course at The Railway Hotel in Garswood, St Helens.

Last Saturday we visited Garswood in St Helens, Merseyside as Emily had recently spotted what looked like a Crazy Golf course in a pub beer garden. The sighting was correct and The Railway Hotel in the St Helens village did indeed have a course!

Sadly the 9-hole Crazy Golf course was no longer in use. While we didn't get to have a game, we did however enjoy sitting in the sun in the beer garden before moving on to our next location.

A nice spot to spend a while on a sunny Saturday afternoon

We'd love to know more about the history of the pub beer garden Crazy Golf course. It looked like it had been there for quite some time. It's the sort of course a minigolf time machine would be perfect for so we could see what it was like when it was first built.

The course was the 906th visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Hole 1

Hole 2

Hole 3 - 'Middle Hill', an obstacle found on Eternit Miniature Golf courses

Hole 3

Hole 4 also has a hint of an Eternit course about it

Hole 5

Hole 6

Hole 7

Hole 7

Hole 8

Hole 9

Hole 9 - we reckon this was a very tricky last hole to play

We've visited a few pubs with minigolf courses. The Railway's course reminded us most of the old concrete course at The Dolphin pub in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire.

Related blog posts:
- What a weekend of minigolf!
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Bar Billiards at The Railway pub in Stockport

Finding a Bar Billiards table at The Railway pub in Stockport.

We're big fans of the old pub game of Bar Billiards so were very pleased to find a table at The Railway pub in Stockport on Saturday!

Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to play it as the pub had problems with its water supply and had to close while the emergency works were completed.

Bar Billiards Rules

We're looking forward to returning for a game or two in the future.

The Railway Pub in Stockport - you can see the table if you look in through this window

In 2017 we played the Bar Billiards table at The Blossoms pub on the A6. Like The Blossoms, the table at The Railway uses the four peg arrangement.

The table looks to be popular!

Coming from down south we're more used to seeing three pegs. We haven't seen too many four-peg tables on our Barmy Bar Billiards Trail. The ones at The Cheshire Cheese pub in London and The Chequers Inn at Knebworth spring to mind.

The nice and 'easy' 50-point holes are guarded by the white mushrooms in the four peg game

Related blog posts:
- Bar Billiards
- Pub Games
- Stockport
- Pubs

Bar Billiards at the Golden Star pub in Norwich

We had a brilliant time in Norwich last weekend and it was a nice surprise to find a Bar Billiards table to have a game on too.

We're big fans of the traditional pub sport and the tables can often take some hunting out.

The four-pin layout of the pegs is a tough variation on the three-pin game

The table at the Golden Star pub used the four-pin set-up, a variation on the rules that makes the game trickier to play as two of the pegs/mushrooms partially block the 'easy route' into the 50-pockets.

It's a neat set-up at the Golden Star

The table had some nice features, including the cue holders at the baulk end.

I really like the cue holders built into the end of the table

It was a very old table owned by Alfred Sams & Sons of Hoddesdon, Herts. We hadn't seen that particular badge on other tables we've played on our travels.

Some lovely old design and features

An old National Bar Billiards Association badge

In our game (played using three-pins) I won with a score of 980 to Emily's 0. Emily had knocked down the black peg with her shot at the 200-hole to wipeout her tally of 510.

Emily in action

The final score

Emily going for it on the final black mushroom shot

The Golden Star is worth a visit and the Bar Billiards table there is well worth a play. It's only 50p a game too.

The Golden Star pub - you'll find the Bar Billiards table at the back of the pub, by the blue door on the left hand side of the photo

It's great to know that the pub plays host to competitive events as part of the Norwich Bar Billiards League too. Check out the links below for more info.

League Rules

Links:
- Golden Star, Norwich
- Norwich Bar Billiards League

Related blog posts:
- Bar Billiards
- Norwich

PLONK Golf at the Sidewinder pub in Brighton

There's a new PLONK Golf minigolf course at the Sidewinder pub in Brighton.

The team at PLONK Golf have created a new minigolf course at the Sidewinder pub in Brighton.

The course is the only pub beer garden Crazy Golf course in Brighton and features 9-holes. It's open until 10pm daily.

Check out the PLONK Golf and Sidewinder websites for more info.

PLONK Golf also have minigolf courses in London at venues in Battersea, Brixton, Hackney, Dalston and London Fields. They also recently launched PLONK PUZZLE PUTT - a Crazy Golf Escape Room!

The team are also taking a course on tour around the UK in 2018.

On our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour we've played the Plonk Golf courses at Efes Snooker Club in Dalston and at the Duke of Edinburgh pub in Brixton.

Flight Club Darts in London

A quick visit to Flight Club in London.

While on a recent trip to London I called in at Flight Club to check out the Shoreditch darts venue. I'd heard good things about it and some friends have had a 'do' there before.

One of the many dart boards set-up over the two levels at Flight Club in Shoreditch

I really liked the array of darts memorabilia and ephemera adorning the walls. It looked top notch.

A little bit of the old darts memorabilia to be found on the walls

There's a wall of dart boards at Flight Club. No Quadro board though

I spotted a Pin-Bagatelle board next to one of the dart boards downstairs too

It's always nice to see a celebrity leaderboard

Check out the Flight Club website for more info on the Shoreditch and Bloomsbury venues, opening times and prices.

I had a nice welcome from the staff at Flight Club and look forward to throwing a few arrers there in the future

Related blog posts:
- Darts
- London

Bar Billiards at The Goose in Jersey

Spotting a Bar Billiards table at The Goose in Beaumont.

I haven't blogged about Bar Billiards for a while so it was nice that Emily sent over a snap of the table at The Goose in Beaumont in Jersey. Unfortunately she was unable to play it though as it was broken.

Jersey is a hotbed for Bar Billiards and the venue for World Championship tournaments. Although we struggled to find any tables there during our holiday last summer!?

Related blog posts:
- Bar Billiards in Jersey
- Bar Billiards
- Jersey

Crazy Golf at The Alexandra Inn Penzance

Playing the beer garden Crazy Golf course at The Alexandra Inn Penzance, Cornwall.

On the 7th June 2015 we visited Penzance and found that The Alexandra Inn had a Crazy Golf course in its beer garden!

The very crazy and unique miniature golf course became the 34th visited on our roadtrip around the south west of England, the 374th played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and the 633rd visited since September 2006.

In our minigolf match-up on the course I won with a score of 43 to Emily's 55.

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Mini Golf in the South West of England

Video:
- Crazy Golf Hole-in-One at The Alexandra Inn in Penzance

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems. Please do sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.