A trip to Great Yarmouth

We've just had a few days in Norfolk and had a couple of trips to Great Yarmouth. It's absolutely great for fans of Crazy Golf. We counted 4 different courses open but we only had time to play 3 of them. There was a course on the caravan site we were staying on in Belton too.

First up was Pirate's Cove.

What a fantastic course. We were a little put off at first by the price, £7 per adult, but that's for 18 holes and the course is huge. We soon realised that it was good value. It stared off with a chance to select your favourite colour of ball from a dispenser using a token from the sales desk.

Then, if you thought your ball was a bit dirty there was a ball washing machine. Flaming Nora loved this and it was hard to drag her away to get started on the round. Each hole is quite long and several of them use different levels with one of them having 3. There's plenty of water flowing around; small plaques with snippets of information about pirates, so it's educational too; the holes are in excellent condition with a lovely playing surface; and it's beautifully landscaped with hardly a weed in sight. Check out their website for pictures.

In our last post Flaming Nora wrote about what her fantasy course would be like and this course ticked a lot of those boxes. We both agreed that it was probably the finest course we've ever played.

Next we went to Pirate's Cove's sister course further along the prom: Castaway Island.

This is a very similar course to Pirate's Cove but a little smaller and consequently only cost £6 per adult. My brother-in-law informed me later that it is built on the site that up until last year housed an old Arnold Palmer course. It's a shame that another Arnold Palmer has gone but its replacement is still good.

Unfortunately we didn't take any photographs but there are some on their website.

The last course we played in Great Yarmouth was in Merrivale Model Village.

The model village is a wonderful attraction on the seafront and well worth a visit in its own right but included in the price is the use of their own crazy golf course. It's not the greatest course you'll ever play but once you've paid your admission to the village there's nothing to stop you playing again and again and the whole family had a great time. There are lots of pictures on their website.

Unfortunately we felt a little golfed out by this point and so didn't try the Adventure Golf course in the Pleasure Beach Gardens.

Finally, we stayed at the Wild Duck caravan park in Belton which has its very own mini golf course. It's a private site so I don't think you can play on the course unless you're staying there. To be honest you're not missing much. It's in need of a little care and attention and at £4 per adult for 9 holes it's a bit overpriced and they don't even give you a scorecard.

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My fantasy crazy golf course - what would it contain?

Yesterday we played a game of pirate crazy golf at South Shields. It's a course we have played many times before and we had a good time.  The score, as you can see, was very close indeed.

South Shields - Smugglers Cove Adventure Golf, May 28 2016

While we were playing this course, I started thinking about the best bits of all the crazy golf courses I've ever played.  Putting all my favourite bits from all my favourite courses together would create my fantasy crazy golf course.

What would it contain?  Well...

1. Music
A catchy tune that jingles its way out of hidden speakers around the course and will ear-worm you forever. There's one of these at the Pirate crazy golf course in Scarborough.
"Yo-ho, Yo-ho, Yo-ho, Yo-ho; A pirate's life for me!"

2. Surprise

The course at Tynemouth has surprise water sprays on some of the holes. Always gets a good laugh - when you get sprayed yourself. Gets an even bigger laugh when you watch someone else get sprayed.

3. Seats

Somewhere to sit and wait while you're stuck in a traffic-jam queue on a course.

4. A bar

Tenerife, 2015

Having somewhere to sit, preferably with a beer, before or after you've played.  A lovely addition to a mini golf course but one we've only ever seen before abroad - in both Belgium and Tenerife.

5. A free game 

Saltburn, 2016

Whether it's making the bell ring at the end of a game, or some other way of rewarding a good final shot well played, there's a lot of fun in winning a voucher for a free game.

6. No concreteThere's not much I dislike about crazy golf, but playing on a concrete course is less than ideal. It puts me off so much that I would choose not to play a concrete course. The ball just runs, and runs and runs.

7. Water

Tynemouth 2015

I love, just love, having water involved in one of the holes.  (Not to be confused with 2 - Surprise above!).  One of the holes at Pirate Golf in Scarborough has running water which transports the ball down a slope and deposits it on the green. Lots of fun.  And if there is a danger of the ball going into a lake or pond on the course, a fishing net to get the ball out of the water is ideal.

8. Uniqueness
There's a crazy golf course at Seahouses in Northumberland. The holes are all, what appear to be, hand-made miniature buildings of local attractions. Much as the pirate-themed adventure golf courses are fun and well made and plastic and bright, I would like more quirkiness please!
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Scarborough - Pirate Crazy Golf

Ahoy me hearties!  To Scarborough for a weekend.  Our favourite crazy golf course in the whole of Scarbados was closed. Instead, we played the Merlin pirate crazy golf. It's one we've played a few times before and know it to be a good course, fun with the rafts and nice holes to play.

It was a bitterly cold day, despite the sun shining.

And here are the scores. SunnyJim won by 4 points. Although, if we had been playinbg by the rules, Flaming Nora (aka me) wouldn't have been allowed to run on hole number one for 10 shots. Instead, this would have been the maximum of 6 shots, bringing my score down by four to meet Sunny Jim's 39.

It was a draw, then, I think!

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Saltburn - So good we played it twice

When we heard that UrbanCrazy were building a new Mini Golf course in Saltburn-by-the Sea we got excited. It's a lovely seaside town with a funicular and a pier and a miniature railway, with a gorgeous long beach and fantastic views. We like the place and it's only a fairly short train ride away from home. So on a sunny but chilly day we headed down there to try out the new course.

The course is down on the seafront just north of the pier and the bottom of the funicular. It's new, it's clean and it's a great deal of fun.

There's even a shed, or is it a beach hut?

As you can see from the pictures there are lots of curves. This means that bouncing off the edge of the holes can be a but unpredictable and you can easily end up back where you started.

As it's so new, the greens are very fast too so even a perfectly aimed shot can go bouncing over the hole if you're not careful.

And at the end there's a chance to win a free round. There's no skill involved, just get the ball up the slope and then watch it bounce around in the box and hope it lands in the part which makes the bell ring.

Here are the scores from the 1st round: Barry won and Glenda won a free round.

But that wasn't the end of it. After a walk along the beach, a pint at The Ship and some Fish & Chips, we went back for another game. This time Glenda won. Neither of us won a free round this time but we don't need that as an excuse to go back, just some free time and a sunny day.

To find out more about the course, check it out on Facebook.
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Saltburn Mini Golf

It's Sunny Jim's birthday this coming weekend. And as a birthday day out we're heading to Saltburn to play on the new minigolf course there.

We will be blogging after we've played the new course and will be tweeting on the day too.

You can find out more about the new Saltburn MiniGolf here.
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Ahoy me hearties! Pirate golf in South Shields

To South Shields for a game of adventure golf at the Smugglers Cove on the sea-front. It's a game we've reviewed on our website and one that we've played many times before.  It's the closest mini-golf game to our home, so as it was a nice sunny day today we thought we'd make the most of it and set out on the bus for the 20 minute ride. 

It's a 12 hole game, costing £4 per person (£3 for children and OAPs).  It's in a lovely spot right near the sea and opposite North Marine park which is worth a look in and if it's running, a ride on the mini steam train that runs around the park too.

The game is pirate-themed (why are so many crazy golf courses pirate themed? anyone know?). The course itself appeared to have been relaid with a new surface on each hole. This felt like walking on new carpet, quite spongy underfoot. It also meant that the playing surface was quite slow and it took a little bit of getting used to.

Most of the holes aren't particularly difficult but there are a couple of nasty things which can slow down play such as banks that you think the ball will go up more easily than it does!  Definitely a good course and one we'll be back to play next year when it reopens after the winter.

Scores:
Sunny Jim 34.
Flaming Nora 38.
Loser bought fish and chips.
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Ahoy me hearties! Pirate mini-golf in Scarborough

To Scarborough (again! wahey!) for a weekend away. It was a gloriously sunny and warm early October Friday afternoon when we arrived and so we headed to the pirate adventure golf on the sea-front in the North Bay.

It's a course we have played a few times in the past but due to its popularity, it's quite difficult to get on the course some times so we haven't played it for a while.  We have often turned up to play there only to find the course full of families having fun and that's great, but it means a long, long, long wait for us two crazy golfers as we wait for groups of family and friends to crack on and get going ahead of us.

However, this sunny Friday afternoon we had the course to ourselves. Just us. Just the two of us playing a round on the pirate golf, it was marvellous!

 It's a 9 hole course and costs £4.50 per person which is a bit steep, admittedly. But there is the fun of lots of pirates all over the place, a hole (above) with running water in it to help the ball down the chute and two pirate rafts you have to stand on and pull yourself over to the other side of the course.

And then there's the "Yo-ho! Yo-ho!" song that goes on in the background which will ear-worm you for days.

The pirate golf is part of the sea-life centre in Scarborough and is well worth playing.
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