2020 saw Covid-19 try its best to prevent companies trading, halted celebrations, took away Christmas parties and impacted on peoples social lives. But here at UrbanCrazy we tried to make the best of it and continued to trade the best way we could.
Back in January, UrbanCrazy’s portable course arm of the business started the year with a bang, with an event for staff and guests of Blackrock Investment Management Company at a venue in Berlin . We also built and exported some of our portable courses and exported them to various companies across the pond in the USA including to an event company, a university and even a minor league baseball team, Go Lancaster Barnstormers! We were also delighted to have been commissioned to design, build and supply an interactive, mechanical course for an family entertainment centre in Saudi Arabia including features such as: an operating windmill; a tall crank-up penny drop game; a pinball table and a giant retro arcade game.
January also saw the annual World Championships of Ping Pong at Alexandra Palace hosted by Matchroom Sport. We were honoured to entertain the public for the 6th year running at this event with some of our new themed tables making their debut at the event. They really made a big impact, impressing those who played on them, including the pro players themselves.
Our design and construction team provided designs for a course being built on a beach front in Lagos. Sadly we haven’t had the chance to visit yet ourselves, but we hear that it is very popular. We were also delighted to design and install a 9-hole minigolf in a stunning location for HPB at Coo Palace, in Dumfries and Galloway, as well as an amazing 18-hole themed course at Pembrey Country Park in South Wales. We are extremely proud of this course that we created to replace an aging existing course on the site, and despite a few setbacks in the shape of Covid-19 and nationwide lockdown, we managed to get it done. The course was finally able to open its doors in August and to record numbers, which just goes to show some things are worth waiting for!
Interestingly, when lockdown ended, the minigolf industry, which was already enjoying a rise in popularity prior to lockdown, experienced a major boom due to the fact that it is a perfect activity for the current times. It is predominately played outdoors, is easy to remain socially distanced throughout, and is something that appeals to adults and children no matter what your age, gender or skill level. As a result, our balls, putters and other miniature golf equipment were flying off the shelves as minigolf provided itself as a great source of entertainment across the UK.
The pandemic caused many minigolf, crazy golf and adventure golf courses to think more about how to keep their equipment sanitised and safe to use. UrbanCrazy, together with its sister company SanitiStation came up with a sturdy, automated sanitiser tower, with the ability to not only disinfect hands and golf balls, but also has a special compartment to clean and sanitise putter grips. These models are able to be used either inside or outdoors with mains power or batteries (with an operating capacity of up to 105 hrs), as well as a staggering capacity of approx. 40,000 doses. Options can include: an antibacterial wipe dispenser; a glove dispenser; a non-touch waste bin; wheels with brakes; and a wrist/head thermometer which displays temperatures.
The Coronavirus outbreak also held up the delivery of a minigolf course we designed and built for the new Dublin HQ of Facebook. We hope we can get installed in the not-too-distant future for staff and guests to enjoy. Sadly, another course we constructed for the very worthy organisation, Team Jak Foundation in Livingstone, has also not been utilised yet due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, due the current situation, the foundation has had to close its doors in the interim to children to whom it offers social and emotional support to help them through their cancer ordeal. We hope that things will change in 2021 and our course will be able to bring some joy and they will certainly have our support.
With people staying at home with not too much to do, watching TV became a popular past time, and we were invited to produce a special crazy golf feature hole for an episode of a new ITV series, ‘Peter Crouch: Save Our Summer’ which went down extremely well, so much so that Peter Crouch himself asked if he could keep it! We also featured in an TV commercial alongside Harry Kane and our course was also recorded for an episode of the E4 series, ‘Celebs Go Dating’ to be aired in January, so set your reminders and keep an eye out for it!
Towards the end of the year, we were commissioned to design some mechanical and interactive crazy golf holes for a new facility in Dubai and are delighted to have some construction work lined up throughout 2021 – so watch this space for some new and exciting projects coming soon!
We know that this has been a bit of a crazy year all round and we wish you all a happy, healthy, sweet and successful new year – Keep Calm & Carry On (playing minigolf)!
