Great Britain Minigolf Team in action at the EMF European Minigolf Championships in Portugal

Sept. 2, 2012 - PRLog -- Great Britain competed in the EMF European Minigolf Championships in Porto, Portugal from the 29th August to the 1st September. Finishing in 12th place overall the team saw three players making their full overseas international debuts.

In the tournament held on the two 18-hole Minigolf courses at the Clube de Minigolfe do Porto, Germany won the EMF European Championships with a team score of 1147. Switzerland was second and Austria was in third-place. In the men's team competition Great Britain finished in 12th place with a team score of 1429. Sweden, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Finland, Slovakia, the Netherlands and Russia also took part in the event with a total of 87 players competing in the men’s European Championships.

The GB Minigolf Team consisted of a line-up of players who regularly compete on the BMGA Tour. The players were Marc Chapman (England, Kent Minigolf Club), Freddie Blackburn-Shaw (Scotland), Adam Kelly (England, Kent Minigolf Club), Tony Kelly (England, Kent Minigolf Club), James Rutherford (England, Cambridgeshire Mini Golf Club) and Seth Thomas (England, Cambridgeshire Mini Golf Club).

Great Britain Minigolf Player Rankings at the 2012 EMF European Minigolf Team Championships (8-rounds):
•   72nd James Rutherford
•   78th Marc Chapman
•   82nd Adam Kelly
•   84th Tony Kelly
•   85th Freddie Blackburn-Shaw
•   86th Seth Thomas

Great Britain Minigolf Player Rankings at the 2012 EMF European Minigolf Strokeplay Championships (10-rounds):
•   73rd James Rutherford
•   80th Marc Chapman
•   81st Adam Kelly
•   83rd Tony Kelly
•   84th Seth Thomas
•   85th Freddie Blackburn-Shaw

During the EMF European Championships a number of British Minigolf Records were matched and broken.

Adam Kelly scored the lowest round ever played by a British Minigolfer. In his second Miniaturegolf (Eternit) round he scored an incredible 20(-16) only two-shots off a perfect round. That broke the 18-hole record of 22(-14) on Eternit previously held by Jon Angel.

James Rutherford scored an eight-round total of 217 and a ten-round total of 271 to set new lowest total scores on the Miniaturegolf (Eternit) and Concrete (Beton) Minigolf course playing surfaces.

British Minigolf Association Chairman Sean Homer said “Congratulations to our Great Britain team of Freddie Blackburn-Shaw, Seth Thomas, Adam Kelly, Tony Kelly, James Rutherford and Marc Chapman for their superb efforts at the European Championships in Porto over the past few days. As well as doing Great Britain proud in the event we also saw a new Great Britain Eternit record set by Adam with a superb round of 20, a truly outstanding score! And there was a Great Britain record for the lowest ever total score by a Brit in the event set by James with an eight round score of 217 and a ten round score of 271. A brilliant result from all of our GBR team. Well done from everyone at the BMGA!”

In the latest World Minigolf Sport Federation Rankings List Great Britain is ranked 19th of 31 countries. The top three places are taken by Germany, Sweden and Austria.

To date 42 BMGA Tour Players have made a total of 115 appearances representing Great Britain in adult and youth World and European Championships, Nations Cup competitions, the Asia Open, the World Adventure Golf Masters and the Czech Open since 1999. In 2012 the British Minigolf Association has sent teams to the WMF World Adventure Golf Masters in Hastings, England; players to the EMF Nations Cup and a full team to the EMF European Minigolf Championships in Portugal.

The BMGA Tour consists of Minigolf ranking events that take place at Minigolf, Crazy Golf and Adventure Golf courses across the UK. In 2011 there were 22 Ranking BMGA Tour competitions and a total of 12 players lifted BMGA Tour titles in Open, Invitational, Club and Doubles events. For further details about the BMGA and UK Minigolf please email mail@minigolf.org.uk or visit http://www.minigolf.org.uk

The Great Britain Minigolf Team was sponsored by UrbanCrazy. Based in London, UrbanCrazy is an innovative and exciting company, designing and building permanent and portable Crazy Golf, Mini Golf and Adventure Golf courses and supplying a wide range of Miniature Golf accessories. For further details about UrbanCrazy please visit http://www.urbancrazy.com

Further details about the European Minigolf Sport Federation can be found at http://www.minigolf-europe.org  

The official website of the 2012 EMF European Championships is http://www.minigolfporto2012.com

For full results of the EMF European Championships Team Competition please visit http://www.fp-minigolfe.com/results/119/result.htm

For full results of the EMF European Championships Strokeplay Competition please visit http://www.jfsantos.net/bangolf/ec2012/result.htm

Further details about the World Minigolf Sport Federation can be found at http://www.minigolfsport.com