Thousands raised at Stowmarket charity day event
Stowmarket Golf Club held their Captain’s Charity Day and raised a massive £6,212 towards Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), in aid of the Lily Webster Memorial Foundation, writes Chris Boughton.
The amount raised was a record for the club, with proceeds coming from team registrations, hole sponsorship, a prize draw and a charity auction.
Suffolk CRY representative, Melanie Webster, who was present throughout the day providing complimentary food and beverages at the halfway house, congratulated the club, players and those that supported the day, for their generosity.
She spoke of the initiatives that the funds will support in the local area, including screening clinics for young adults (14-35) and bereavement support to families impacted by sudden young cardiac death.
In the main golf competition, 30 teams of four took part and Gregory’s Gofers (Tony Palmer, Jacqui Gregory, Lee Gregory, Chris Lee) came first with a combined better ball score of 133 points.
Bury St Eds Golf Club
Bury St Edmunds Golf Club’s low handicap team, captained by Phil Smailes, visited Southwold Golf Club in the third round of the Hambro Cup.
After a narrow home victory in round two, the team were drawn to play away on a tricky nine-hole course that was well protected by knee-high rough and at times a blustery, punishing coastal wind.
Smailes has a strong squad to select from and made three changes to the winning second-round team.
The result was an eight-hole victory for Bury against the home club, who had beaten the holders, Newton Green, in the previous round.
The winning Bury GC team members were: Ben Coleman, Dan Smailes, Graham Sykes, Craig Nurse, Roger Nicholson, Max Adams, Steve Duffety and Steve Lankester.
Local rivals Stowmarket are their opponents in the semi-final, to be played at Haverhill GC, on August 14.
Stowmarket entertained a strong Rushmere side who had already won twice away this season.
All the morning matches were close and hard-fought, but Stowmarket edged them all to lead by six holes at lunch.
There were no changes to either team for the afternoon play and the first three matches were close again with Stowmarket easing further ahead.
The Stowmarket fourth pair, Forgan and Lockwood, however, were doing their best to fend off a spirited fight-back by their opponents.
Despite eventually losing this fourth match by five holes, the Stowmarket team, comprising of Andy Cunningham, Trevor Hellyeer, John Jameson, Mark Jones, Ben Forgan, Matt Lockwood, James O’Doherty and Kieran Issitt, took the other three afternoon matches to win overall by nine holes.
Bury GC Seniors will also play Stowmarket GC, on a neutral course, in the semi-final of the Beaumont Trophy.
Captained by Jon Mecham, trophy holders Bury beat a strong Newton Green, by six holes, away from home. Stowmarket beat Bramford Golf Centre, at home, by seven holes to secure their place in the semi-final.
The Suffolk GC play their quarter-final match, away at Felixstowe, this week.
Thetford Golf Club
Thetford Ladies’ first team also did well recently, winning their Division Three match against Swaffham, in the Norfolk Inter-Club League.
The winning team were Janice Fossey, Judith Pattrick, Sheena Setchell, Carolyn Beaumont, Margo Horsborough and Abigail O’Riordan.
Anne McHarg hosted two events at Thetford GC last week for her President’s Day.
There was a shot-gun start for the men’s Stableford in the morning and a mixed greensome in the afternoon.
The scoring was good for the Stableford, with the option to boost your tally by aiming for blue flags which were placed in more difficult positions than the flag of the day.
Terry Stephenson took full advantage to come in with a winning 46 points, two more than Tim Elliott. Andy Knowles took third place on count-back from club captain Alan Brown, Dean Scott and Chris White, all with 43 points.
Matt West won nearest the pin at the 16th and Mike Horley had the highest score on the blue flag holes with 21. In the afternoon, Iain Yule and Jess Dixon came in with 36 to win by one.
Robert and Sheena Setchell were second with 35 on count-back from Dave Smith and Pauline O’Sullivan.
The nearest the pin prizes went to Linda Connor and Iain Yule.
Steve Cobb won the seniors’ Courage Cup, at Thetford GC, last week with 39 points. The runner-up was Phil Halford on 38 (for other scores see page 159).
The Suffolk Golf Club
The Suffolk’s Ladies held their July Stableford last week in what captain Angie Lewis described as ‘lovely sunny conditions with lots of run on the ball’.
Two players took full advantage of the extra distance, off the tees, by breaking the 40-point barrier. Victoria Clark scored 43 off her 30 handicap and will have to play off 27 shots next time. Runner-up, Tisha Mortlock, handed in 41 points and is down to a handicap of 14. June Smart was third with 36 and Val Holden fourth with 34.
