On a glorious sunny Friday early in April, we gathered at Thetford Golf Course – a traditional favourite of CBGS due to its good early spring playing conditions, closeness to Cambridge and the delicious food in recent years.

A huge thanks to the 34 members and 14 guests who attended the day. The hospitality at the club was superb, the course was in great condition, and the carvery was once again superb.

The average point score on the day was a high 31.8 points, with 14 birdies, 157 pars, 330 bogies and 407 doubles or worse.

On to the winners:

Skills prizes

Nearest the pin on the 3rd – Fiona Stuart
Nearest the pin on the 16th – Paul Donno
Nearest the pin in two on the 12th – Stuart Gibson

Team prize

There was a tie for second place, with Smithers Smashers and Wagers Wackers battling it out on 128 points. On Countback, Smithers Smashers came second, with a team of Jason Smithers, Gary Hanson, Andy Turpin and Martin Harvey.
The Wright Stuff, consisting of Alan Wright, Janey Jury, Mark Graham and Robert Gardiner, came first with a big total of 133 points, with everyone on their team scoring more than 35 points on their round!

Individual guests

Janey Jury came second among our guests, with 39 points.
Our winning guest was Paul Donno with an excellent 40 points.

Individual member

On a high-scoring day, the top members have to get a big score.
In third place with 39 points, Philip Gilbey.
Second place was Jason Smithers with 42 points.
And the winner, with a rather spectacular round, was John Lawes, with an astonishing 47 points!
Congratulations on some cracking scores.
The focus on captaincy certainly isn’t helping my golf, and I picked up my second straight wooden spoon of 2025 with a total of just 19 points.

Cuts

Rob Smith and Raw Cawston – 1 shot cut
Alan Wright and Philip Gilbey – 2 shot cut
Jason Smithers – 4 shot cut
John Laws – 7 shot cut
Andrew Coury gained a shot back for a score of 21.

Fines

It was a good day for fines. My favourites were:

Team Past Captain for slow play (I’ll keep calling these, so please keep up with the group in front of you).
Team Past Captain for playing up without the bell.
There was a pair of golf shoes at dinner.
Martin Guildford was pleased to get a fine for hitting the ball so hard it trickled up to Andy Turpin in the group in front.
And the best fine of the day went to Philip Gilbey. Firstly for not wearing socks. But more importantly, he turned up, ate his bacon roll, had his coffee, then realised he didn’t recognise anyone because he was a day early!

Thank you very much to Fiona Stuart and the team at Aston’s Legal for sponsoring the day and providing some fantastic prizes. Having sponsors makes a big difference to these events and helps my chosen charity, Little Miracles, continue its wonderful work supporting families.

I hope you all enjoyed the day, and I look forward to seeing many of you at East Herts.

Kari Sewell