Pros:
- easy access, public park, no cost to park or play
- good baskets, navigation, and overall course flow (long and short tee signs are good, plus arrows on baskets to navigate)
- adequate tees (turf)
- fun golf with lines to hit and good use of the city park's offerings (also good park features for family - my wife and toddler spent enough time walking the park and at the playground that I got to finish my 18)
Cons:
- first tee a little hard to find (I gave up and threw to the correct basket from the wrong location)
- frequent interactions with course path and pedestrians
- holes 12 & 13 are easy to skip by accident
Other Thoughts:
I played this course and Quarry Park during a visit to Birmingham. While Quarry Park (on private land) was the better course, Bedworth Miner's Welfare DGC was a pleasant surprise. Both are worth traveling to if you're seeking disc golf in the UK. I know rhatton1 is working hard on several projects (I assume and hope that he has some help!) and new courses to improve the area's course offerings, and more courses like this would give the area a respectable selection indeed.
In summary, this is a standard public park course of medium length. The course plays primarily through a relatively open public park, though with strategically placed shot-altering trees throughout. The initial section was not my favorite, with several holes packed just a little too tightly together for my liking. The baskets for 4, 7, and 8 were very close together. The target basket was clear in all instances, but I imagine this initial half of the course could get awkward with a tournament or busy day of disc golf. Don't get me wrong: I had fun here and enjoyed the relatively short holes with some good lines. But overall the holes felt a bit crowded. Hole 5 was an exception, with a tight wooded line and good, challenging basket placement.
From hole 9 onward, the course noticeably started to hit its stride and cover more ground. Hole 9 was a par 4 with some ups and downs in terrain and decently placed trees. Hole 11 was also a fun par 4 from longs, and I benefited from a decent RHFH game to leave a 40m approach over an old golf bunker. Holes 12 & 13 were a nice touch, two more technical holes nestled into a more wooded part of the course (located up and away from the park path between hole 11's basket and 14's tee). 12 had a small window to hit but was fair, and 13 was a longer shot, also fairly obstructed off the tee and toward the green. (I spent a while looking for my favorite Star Teebird here, and thankfully found it suspended in a tree.)
The rest of the park returned to park golf, and for some reason I enjoyed these last five holes more than the first eight. 14 was entirely open but the basket was placed precipitously before a long downslope. 15 through 18 were fun open/technical shots using some mandos and good park trees to force lines.
I played on a weekday morning, and encountered just two groups of golfers. One pairing consisted of brand new players from Italy (studying in Coventry), and another group appeared to be locals but were leaving as I showed up. Other folks in the park included some workers trimming trees in the first half of the course and numerous pedestrians with or without their leashed furry friends. There were two holes where I waited for pedestrians to move out of range. On one hole (15), a dad and his buggy-riding toddler watched me empty my 5-disc bag on the fun downhill shot away from the park path. Safety was no issue, though it's the golfer's responsibility to make sure no one is in danger. My impression is that park users are growing accustomed to disc golf in their park, but that they're still undecided on how welcoming they will be. Don't put disc golf on the black list by putting someone at risk!
Rating & Discussion: I find myself wanting to give a 3.25, between "good" (3.0) and "very good" 3.5 (very good), and I'll bump to 3.5 because the park is used so well and because I was so happy to find good quality park golf in England. May there be many more like this when I get back to the UK!