Gorleston Golf Club

Two equally solid rounds of 74 at Halesworth gave Danny Western 16th place in this year’s Suffolk Amateur Championship and thus qualification to play in the President’s Mashie Matchplay event this coming weekend at the same course.

Worthy winner of the championship was Stowmarket’s Sam Forgan, who will unfortunately be forced to miss the National County Champions Tournament in September as he will have returned to university in the United States.

It will be quite some time before James Chadd forgets his epic eight hole play-off in this year’s Mail on Sunday Classic played earlier in the year which finished in near darkness and it was possibly on his mind when he and new partner David James met opponents from Costessey Park in the first round of this year’s HowDidiDo National Pairs competition as the match entered extra holes. Once again a marathon developed but on this occasion the eventual winner was darkness with the pairs still tied after playing five extra holes. A date of July 4 for the renewal of combat has been arranged when the whole match will be replayed.

The pairing of Chadd and James thought they had found success on Saturday in the Famous Grouse Medal Foursomes having returned to the clubhouse posting a nett score of 69�; a very impressive round in the blustery conditions which proved a stern test for most. However, to provide their second disappointment of the week were the pairing of Daniel Blatchford and Ian Utting who returned an excellent nett score of 69 to secure victory by the narrowest possible margin.

On Sunday the club’s representative side visited Caister for the first leg of this year’s Howlett Smith Trophy and gave themselves the advantage of a 12 hole margin for the return leg in August. Victory on the day was thanks mainly to the pairing of Keith Crews and Angus Smith who recorded a magnificent nine hole victory over their opponents in the afternoon session. The Gorleston team were very complementary with regard to the excellent condition of the links course at Caister, the friendliness of our hosts and the superb post match cuisine.

The second round match in the County Parks Trophy was held at Gorleston on Tuesday with the senior men’s team hosting West Suffolk club Flempton and success in three of the four matches gave Gorleston an overall victory by 17 holes.The Ladies friendly team enjoyed their third win of the season by 2� matches to 1� while playing away at Barnham Broom on the Hill Course despite the early wet conditions.