There was a bumper turnout for the Spring Open at Thetford and the highlight of the day was a hole-in-one by Adrian Symonds of Benton Hall GC.
Adrian aced the 208-yard 11th hole but it was not quite enough to secure victory in the better-ball pairs event.
Adrian and partner Jeff Riley, pictured below, took third place on countback with 36 points, one behind winners Paul Swindells and Tony Murikrisna (Crews Hill) and runners-up David Sissons (Royal West Norfolk) and John Yuill (Newmarket).
There were two special events at Thetford over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.
Phil Beer and Sharon Caws won the Powell Cleek mixed event on Monday with 33 points, one ahead of Graham and Linda Norman. Other scores: David and Margo Horsburgh 31, Roger and Vera Squirrell 29.
The Beer Challenge on Saturday was set by the steward, Phil Beer, and was won by John Ward, Peter Croker, Mike Horley and Nolan Guthrie with 92 points. Other scores: Ian Farnham, Tony Brooks, Colin Butler and Andrew Horsburgh 89 on countback from Mark Leeder, Bryan Hopkins, Ted Leeder and Kevin Stannard.
Previous winner Paul Reade of King’s Lynn teamed up with Costessey Park’s Darren Nicholls to win the County Handicap Foursomes title at Thetford at the weekend.
The pair played some excellent golf in tricky conditions to beat home pair Charlie Bick and Nick Gursky 3&1 in an entertaining final.
Competitors had mixed weather to contend with over the weekend, with showers on Saturday, wall-to-wall sunshine on Sunday and a brisk wind throughout.
But the course was in wonderful condition, well groomed with greens as speedy as one could wish for, and it provided an excellent test of golf for the 74 pairs involved.
The first day saw the field whittled down to eight pairs for the matchplay stages and defending champions Kevin Webb, the new county captain, and his partner Ian Rafferty, both of Costessey Park, made an early exit this time after managing 58 Stableford points, four below the qualifying mark.
In the first flight semi-finals Bick and Gursky were matched against Aiden Tanner and Roy Gee of Costessey Park, with the home pair going through after winning by one hole.
Reade and Nicholls played Warren Blackwell and Paul Donaghy, another Costessey Park duo, in the other semi-final and won by two holes.
The semi-finals for the second flight event saw Tom Nudd and James Smart of Royal Norwich play Trevor Cave and Allan Crerar of Eaton, with Tom and Allan going through 2&1. Then father and son Andrew and Jack Cullington of Bawburgh faced Patrick Saunders and Neil Augustin of Weston Park, with the latter completing a one hole victory.
In the afternoon the first slight final was one to remember with some strong play from both pairings as Bick and Gursky gave as good as they got. But in the end the experience of Reade with the support of partner Nicholls paid dividends as they picked up the Carrick and Thompson Bowls.
The second flight final was a keenly-contested affair with both pairings having their chances but some inspired putting eventually saw Saunders and Augustin emerge as the winners by a margin of 5&4.
The presentation ceremony was held in the clubhouse with the county president Doug Gilchrist and the vice-president Graham Turner supported by Thetford Club president Max Ayres and club captain Andy Dunn.
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