Simon Byford’s golf column: Gemma du Feu and Ruby Reeve win prizes at Thetford Golf Club’s prizes
The Thetford Ladies held the first stage of the Club Championship, which comprised of a 36-hole event over two days with the best four gross scores going on to matchplay stages to find the ultimate club champion.
Gemma du Feu led the way in the first round with a gross 74, followed by junior member Ruby Reeve with a gross 80.
The nett competition had Ruby leading the way with a nett 71, closely followed by Miranda Edwards on nett 72.
Despite the weather, Du Feu held her lead coming home with a gross 76 for an overall total of 150. Ruby also showed great consistency with a gross 81 to finish on 161.
Meanwhile, Sue Saunders (164) and Laura Todd (165) secured the other final play-off positions.
Ruby was crowned the nett champion with a final round nett 72, 5 under across both days.
Weston Trophy
The latest rounds of matches in the ‘Champions League’ of Suffolk Ladies’ Golf, the Weston Trophy, have been played this past week with two of our teams in action.
The format is five scratch singles matches, all played to a finish.
Bury St Edmunds GC have played two matches, the first of which was at home to Felixstowe, who are always a tough opponent. However, Bury completed a clean sweep 5-0.
In their second match, another home tie against Rookery Park, this time Bury were unsuccessful and went down three matches to two.
Haverhill also had a home Weston match versus Diss this past week.
The game was extremely close with three of the matches going all the way to the 18th hole.
However, Haverhill used their home advantage to win those tight encounters to come out 3.5-1.5 winners.
Beaumont Trophy
The Beaumont Trophy is an inter-club county event for men over 55 with a handicap between 12.1 & 20.0.
This time it was pure knockout play, so lose and you go out. There are four pairs who play a complete 18 hole 4BBB match, playing for every hole.
The Suffolk GC played Rookery Park GC and had a convincing 14up win with all four pairings winning at least 2up.
Bury St Edmunds GC were also at home against Woodbridge GC and it was a very tight encounter in all four matches.
The first BSE pair won 1up and the next two pairs were halved, so it all came down to the last pair.
Fortunately for BSE, they returned a 2up victory to join The Suffolk in the quarter-finals with a 3up victory. Bury will play Hintlesham GC, while The Suffolk’s opponents unknown at this time.
Stowmarket GC
It was a week of Men’s events at Stowmarket GC.
First off was the Midweek Medal, in which Roy Barnes smiled his way to victory, charming The Count to give him the nod over Andy Grogan as both players returned a nett 68 in Division 1.
Division 2, as is often the case, saw the round of the day. Roger Taylor kept the perfect rhythm to score nett 65, beating Mick Atkins’ nett 66 by just one stroke.
There was also the weekend Stableford’s to contest. On Saturday, Grogan got his reward for his consistent play. This time his 38 points was good enough to top Division 1, ahead of George Prentice on 37.
Division 2 saw Mark Campbell score 39 for a two-shot victory over Scott Evans and Division 3 was also won with 39 points by Trevor Holley, with Mat Smythe in second with 35 points.
On Sunday, Rick Brothwell used The Count’s calculations to overcome Graham Tobin after the pair both scored 38 points.
The Count was also busy in Division 2 with three players all scoring 35 points. Paul Deeves came out on top ahead of Nobby Clark and Roger Burton.
Ian Duncan was the sole 35-pointer in Division 3, with Geoff Tarbun second on 34 points.
Bury St Edmunds GC
The Bury Men & Ladies held their June Medal competitions.
Russell Oakey shot a fantastic gross 68, nett 69, from his handicap of +1 to win Division 1. Charlie Goodridge was second with a nett 70.
In Division 2, Ken Kirwin also returned a nett 69 to top the pile, with Paul Hadley in second spot with nett 71.
In the Ladies’ Medal, Heather Chandler got the help of The Count to take victory over Lousie Andrews after the pair both returned 2 under handicap nett 72s.
The Bury Ladies also held their Coronation Foursomes qualifier, with the top pairing going through to the Regional Finals with a chance of national glory after that.
It was a competitive event with eight pairings beating their designated handicap allocation.
Pam Madams and Nicky Elstone emerged victorious with 40 points, just one shot ahead of Debbie Anthistle and Joan Garrett and Viv Kemp and Bev Allen, who both scored 39 points. Good luck to Pam and Nicky in the Regionals.
And a special mention this week to Bury St Edmunds junior Jacob Severn, who cleaned up in the Newton Green Junior Open, which is part of the Suffolk Junior Open Order of Merit series.
Jacob shot a gross 71 to take the Scratch and Stableford Prizes. He was also part of the winning Bury St Edmunds team on the day alongside Will Cobbald – well done Jacob.
The final word on the week must of course go to Tyler Weaver, the Bury St Edmunds amateur competing this week at Oakmont.
By the time this goes to print we will know how round one has gone, and be looking ahead to round two and a potential cut made. Good luck Tyler, with your brother Max on the bag, have a great golfing week – along with all the readers.
