Week Twenty Six
Still running a little behind here but I am catching up slowly but surely. This week sees the end of the Newcastle golf trip which involved one of the greatest things I have ever seen in my life. Big statement that but what happened on that fateful night in Amble, all present will never forget. It is also officially the half way mark for the year. Staggering.
Special guests include: Jamie Collins, Freddie Dixon, Tom Grimes, my biggest fan (Chris Hazell), Tom Wright and Tom Goldwater
Still running a little behind here but I am catching up slowly but surely. This week sees the end of the Newcastle golf trip which involved one of the greatest things I have ever seen in my life. Big statement that but what happened on that fateful night in Amble, all present will never forget. It is also officially the half way mark for the year. Staggering.
Special guests include: Jamie Collins, Freddie Dixon, Tom Grimes, my biggest fan (Chris Hazell), Tom Wright and Tom Goldwater
Summary of Seaton Carew Golf Club
Name: Seaton Carew Golf Club
Type: Golf Course
Location: Seaton Carew Golf Club, Tees Road, Hartlepool, TS25 1DE
Date Visited: 30/06/14
Price: Fair
Rating: 4/5
Review
One of the two golf courses I am going to review in this weeks edition. If you don't like or play golf I advise you to skip to the next place I visited in the week which was the Blue Bell pub...unbelievable scenes.
The seven competitors.
From Left: Freddie Dixon, Chris Hazell, Me, Jamie Collins, Tom Wright, Tom Grimes, Tom Goldwater
Moving back onto this golf course. So for the golf lovers out there, this golf course was ranked in the top 100 golf courses in the United Kingdom and was the most prestigious of all the courses we played at over the week. To put things in perspective they had just held the UK British amateur championships the week before we had arrived so it's got to be fairly decent. How many times did I just say golf courses? Oh well.
This wasn't a day to remember for me however because, despite being the reigning champion, I played absolutely horrifically. For those of you who play golf, you will be able to tell how bad it was when I inform you that I only got 16 points on Stableford scoring. Horrific.
Enough about me and back to this links course. Seaton Carew was and still is a proper links course with horrid rough which punished poor drivers of the ball, see last paragraph as proof. It also had magnificently well kept greens which were in fantastic condition and ran true. The holes were relatively challenging too....well I thought they were. It was a lovely course and certainly one I would recommend playing if you find yourself up north.
Price was fairly decent as well coming to under £30. The only danger/setback of this place was that the car park is right next to the 18th green, which puts your car in serious danger. Apart from that you can have no complaints of this golf course. Actually one more, the course planner (God knows why I bought one anyway) didn't go in order from hole 1 to 18 which was fairly annoying and created unnecessary further admin. Decent golf club though.
Not my image but the 18th and the Clubhouse. Car park precariously placed to the right.
Summary of The Blue Bell
Name: The Blue Bell
Type: Pub
Location: 32 Albert Street, Amble, NE65 0LU
Date Visited: 30/06/14
Price: Phenomenal value
Rating: 4.25/5
Review
Sit down and listen up kids because I have one heck of a story to tell you. Christ I've built this up quite a lot actually, I may have oversold it....who cares.
Well I'll set the scene first. It was the Monday night after the second round of the competition and the evening activity was to do a pub crawl around the village, Amble. Now at first I was unsure how well this would go down as Amble is a very small fishermansesque village. However upon further research I was surprised to see quite a number of pubs dotted around and all very near to our villa (holiday home).
The Villa (holiday home) for the trip
The Blue Bell was the highest recommended online of all but we did go to 3 others first. Now the reason I won't review the other 3 was because we were only in there for one drink before moving on to the next. Effectively they were all identical. Pool table? Check. Guinness extra cold? Check. Questionable toilet Facilities? Check. Tatoooed local giving us the eye? Check. 7 pints under £20? Check. You get the gist.
When we arrived to the Blue Bell it was a different thing all together. Firstly no pool table. Instead what they did have was a charming landlord called Steve and a pub full of proper locals who were all extremely friendly. Now the geordie accent is relatively strong and hard to pick up so I couldn't tell you exactly what they were saying but I can tell you that they were all smiling and had top quality banter.
Then things got interesting. Tom Goldwater aka Goldy is renowned amongst us as being fairly handy with a set of darts. Steve the landlord was apparently a very decent player in the county leagues up north and had given Phil the Power Taylor a run for his money before. Big chat was exchanged and then a game of darts between the two was announced. With that we moved next door to the second half of the pub where a small darts arena was there waiting for us.
Goldy took on Steve, who was throwing his darts backwards and still scoring 100's (obscene darting talent on show). The game was evenly matched until Goldy hit the holy grail for amateur darts players. He got a 180!!! Cue pandemonium amongst our party. Even Steve and the whole pub couldn't contain themselves and celebrated too! Everyone went, excuse my french, f**king mental! It was unbelievable. For those of you who don't play darts or understand...to score a 180 if you are not a professional darts player is bloody hard neh impossible...its the equivalent of the crossbar challenge on a full football (Soccer for the American readers) pitch. It was insane.
Goldy and Steve in front of the famous 180
Calm down Jack. Well to round off, the pub had a fantastic atmosphere, the landlord was a legend, the clientele were very friendly and true to Amble - the pricing was very cheap too. That on top of the 180 moment meant we all had a fantastic time in the pub and we all left the pub very merry, in every sense of the word.
Summary of The Old Storehouse
Name: The Old Storehouse
Type: Restaurant and pub
Location: Links Road, Amble, Northumberland, NE65 0SD
Date Visited: 01/07/14
Price: Ok
Rating: 2.85/5
Review
It was our final night of the golf trip so we all went out for a bite to eat at a restaurant in Amble. The first place which was recommend to us was fully booked so we went to The Old Storehouse which was recommended to us by Colin, who had leased us the villa (holiday home) for the week.
Now the Old Storehouse came with a quite a bit of hype to it. Apparently the place didn't use to be great until it recently had a £2 million refurbishment. This £2 million refurbishment was the talk of the town so as our party took the small stroll from our villa to the restaurant we were expecting good things. In my opinion those good things never arrived.
The restaurant/pub from the outside looked like an upmarket cricket pavilion and in the inside it had the feeling of a village community hall. What probably didn't help that vibe was that it was Betty's 80th birthday party next to us which meant there were 50 OAPs next to us which certainly didn't generate a lively atmosphere.
On to the food itself, well the one thing you couldn't complain of was portion sizes. They were absolutely massive. Around half of us braved the starters which were called light bites (a very incorrect description) on the menu. I went for the beer battered fish goujons on ciabatta and it was bigger than most mains I usually had. It was ok food but after I finished it I was pretty full. Sure enough out came the mains and I didnt have much, if any, left in the tank.
The Old Storehouse post '£2 million' refurbishment
The main was ok but nothing special. The place, in my eyes, didn't live up to the hype. The atmosphere in the place was fairly flat, the lighting was poor (it was aggressively light) and the food was just ok. I know you shouldn't complain about the portions being big but I'm going to. Due to the large size of the starters, I mean you eat what you're given right?, it ensured that the main meal was a battle rather than an enjoying experience. A battle I didn't win.
Wouldn't come back here and wouldn't recommend.
Summary of Bamburgh Castle Golf Club
Name: Bamburgh Castle Golf Club
Type: Golf Course
Location: The Wynding, Bamburgh, Northumberland, NE69 7DE
Date Visited: 02/07/14
Price: Fairly normal
Rating: 4/5
Review
It was the final round of the golf trip on the final day and Bamburgh Castle couldn't of been a more fitting course to end it on. Another links course and this was literally right on the coastline with some stunning views. The course itself wasn't the most challenging but it was still a decent course. The final 3 holes, some would argue, the course designer may have run out of room and decided to stick in three par 4's which were under 300 yards just to make the full 18.
Despite my criticism of the final three holes it did however make our competition very interesting because of it. Jamie Collins went into the final day with a 6 point lead over Freddie Dixon. The competion was as good as over or was it? With three holes remaining Freddie then scored a birdie followed by an eagle to shorten the deficit to a mere 2 points. At one stage Jamie had lost his ball on the 17th and all looked lost (no pun intended) for him and his title hopes. In the end he found his ball and on the final hole played very solid and well, which he had done throughout the tournament to be fair, which cemented his maiden GNI title. Hats off to the lad.
The boys that finished in the top three in action. Jamie Collins (The winner) far right.
Back to the course and I must say it was a very nice course indeed. It came with many recommendations from people who had played up North before and I can see why. The weather was fantastic, which it had been throughout the week leading to the farmers tan I am still currently occupying, which definitely made the course easier.
We stayed in the clubhouse after for the presentation and a bite to eat. The food was well priced and very nice. I chose the 'freshly caught' crab sandwich which was delightful and then gave the tour closing speech before begrudgingly presenting and handing over the trophy to Mr Collins. Well done Jamie.
Lovely course and a lovely tour....if I may say so myself.
Me presenting the trophy to the current champion Jamie Collins. Terrible hair day for me though!
Special Shoutout
Winner: Tom Goldwater
Winner: Tom Goldwater
I feel a bit sorry for Jamie Collins as in any other week he would be photo'd above in this prestigious honour. Unfortunately for him it has to go to Goldy. That majestic 180 in front of a pressured crowd while 7 pints deep, was the highest level of sporting talent I have ever seen live. Call me on it for overreacting or exaggerating but for those who were there... you know. Archive that photo.
Poem Advice
You may drive through Hartlepool
With your car doors locked
But Seaton Carew was superb
Where Mr Collins rocked
The Blue Bell in Amble
Full of local banter and fun
Goldy got a 180
Sporting achievement done
The Old Storehouse restaurant,
£2 million refurb they've just had
The portions sizes were huge,
Even for a big growing lad.
Bamburgh Castle Golf club
A stunning setting on the coast
Maybe a little too easy
I still struggled so can't boast
Thanks again as always for reading. Apologies about the deterioration in the quality of the poems. Also I know this week may not have been as enthralling as others due to it featuring only Northumberland places. However, don't worry....its all London places next week baby.
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