2nd Stanley McLean Memorial Charity Golf Day a Major Success!

 The 2nd Annual Stanley McLean Charity Golf Day was held on 20th September at the beautiful Marriott Sprowston Manor Hotel and Country Club with 30 teams of golfers enjoying the sunshine and great golf.  The golf course was in fantastic condition with many competitors commenting on the greens saying they were the smoothest and quickest they had played on all year.

Ready for the golfers!

The day started with everyone arriving for their bacon loin roll and receiving their welcome gift of a Brighter Future's Mug stuffed with Titleist Golf Balls and a keepsake Poker Chip Ball marker amongst other items.  Golfers from as far away as Derby, Northampton and Maidstone made the journey to join a number of local golfers including Sprowston Manor Members and staff for a fun day of on course competitions.

Golfers arriving on the day

There were fantastic prizes to be had including nearest the pin prizes such as a laptop donated by InTouch Systems, Titleist Drivers and the chance for one lucky golfer to drive away in a brand new Mini from Cooper Norwich Mini.  Unfortunately nobody managed a hole in one but the cars looked great on the tee box and in the marquee during the dinner!

Your winners of the best dressed!

Woodfordes brewery donated boxes of Wherry Ale for all to enjoy as they went around the course, and Deb and Diane baked flapjakes, cookies and sausage rolls which were gone within 2 hours and raised over £100.  Local station Mustard TV showed up to feature one team of golfers whose total age exceeded 310 along with an interview and footage of the golf day which you can watch here . 

The teams of four were competing for the Stanley McLean Memorial Trophy, team prizes, individual prizes and everyones favorite competition, the dreaded yellow ball.  Unlike last year nearly every team returned their yellow ball, which was a sense of enormous pride as no one wanted to be responsible for losing it! 

The Norfolk Suite ready for dinner

Finalists of heads & tails

After the golf all the competitors headed to the Norfolk Suite for the drinks reception sponsored by InTouch Systems and the chance to bid on the silent auction items which included great golf courses such as West Sussex and Burhill, a signed Norwich City Football top and ball, a signed Stuart Pierce photo montage, and many many more.  The bidding was fierce and friendly with groups of tables egging each other on to drive the bids higher. 

Enjoying the meal and company

A fantastic 3 course meal was served and in between courses prizes and raffles tickets were drawn and handed out, with the main auction items held until last where the bidding again was both comical and very successful, raising over £4k just in auction items. 
The end of the evening saw the overall team winners handed out and congratulations to the team of Kevin Gooch, James Hazel, Dave Hewson and Sam Taylor who are the 2013 Stanley McLean Memorial Golf Day Champions.

Overall the day was a major success with over £10.2K raised so a huge thank you goes to everyone who played and donated so generously!

This money will go towards helping us to fund a portable echo machine at GOSH as well as fund the Quidenham EACH hospice for just one day, on what would have been Stanley's 3rd birthday: January 2nd, 2014.  Both Deb and I can think of no more fitting tribute to give back to GOSH and EACH in this way and we want to thank everyone who donated prizes, time and most of all played in the day and dug so deep.

I cannot wait for the 3rd Stanley McLean Memorial Charity Golf day on Friday September 19th, 2014 and hope to see you there!

Thank you again,

Brad