Ingleton Wood Golf Day in aid of St Helena Hospice Tuesday, 4th October 2016

We recently held our inaugural Ingleton Wood Golf Day which took place at Hintlesham Golf Club in aid of St Helena Hospice based in Colchester.

St Helena Hospice exists for the patients, families and carers, serving North East Essex and the Colne Valley area of mid-Essex. They help local people with an incurable illness to live well and die with dignity and choice.

We were delighted that so many teams and individual players accepted our invitation for the event, and due to an overwhelming number of entries we took the decision to slightly revise the timings for the day in order to accommodate all teams and for the event to run as smoothly as possible.

Guests arrived for brunch from 11am and enjoyed bacon rolls and fresh tea and coffee whilst registration took place for the Stableford fourball better ball including a yellow ball competition. The yellow balls were purchased for a donation of £5 to the hospice and scorecards and rule sheets issued. Once everyone was ready, teams made their way to their assigned holes for the prompt 12-noon shotgun start. The weather was kind to us and although not too hot, when our Business Development Coordinator Kat whizzed past on her golf buggy offering ice cold drinks and snacks, these were welcomed!

Teams started to finish their rounds and arrive back at the Clubhouse around 5pm in time for a refreshing beverage or two before Kevin Carpenter’s world renowned trick shot show! The impressive display left our guests in awe as Kevin demonstrated a number of tricks, one of the highlights being Kevin ‘taking aim’ for a couple of cheeky golfers across the course that had been pinching all of his golf balls! Kevin encouraged some members of the audience to try and few of his tricks at the amusement of onlookers!

Following the trick shot show, our guests settled down to their tables for a delicious two-course dinner. A few words of thanks were delivered by David Cresswell, Partner at Ingleton Wood and Trustee of St Helena Hospice, followed by fellow Trustee Roger Sirman who explained how fundraising events such as these are so important. All of the services that the hospice offers are free for people to access. The yearly cost of these services is around £8.7million. Around two thirds of this cost is raised through the support of the local community, equating to around £5.8million a year that they need to raise.

The prize giving took place in between courses for the winners of the yellow ball competition, longest drive and nearest the pin being announced as well as the overall winning team being Ellison’s Solicitors! For balance we also handed out the infamous wooden spoon prize to Paul Allen of Landscape Planning, better luck next time! We also held the draw for the £5 raffle, with a number of great prizes on offer including an Ipswich Town Football Shirt signed by the first team, fine bottles of port, wine and champagne, golf clubs, a golf lesson donated by Hintlesham Golf Club and more. Many thanks to Bauder, St Helena Hospice, Beardwell Construction and Building Insight who also donated raffle prizes.

We are pleased to confirm we raised a total of £2,404.80 for the hospice! Thank you to everyone that took part and donated generously, your contribution is very much appreciated.

See below for photographs from the day including a video of the trick shot show!