NEIL Arnold had a wonderful weekend at Colchester Golf Club.

He got an astonishing 45 points on the Saturday Walk-on-Stableford earning him a three shot cut in his sixteen handicap and then got married on Sunday.

Not that the start of the round gave any indication what was to come.

After an opening par he doubled the second followed by three more bogies.

Then his feel good factor must have kicked in with three pars followed by an eagle on the par five ninth which saw him turn with 23 points on his card.

A birdie on the 11th with three pars and the rest bogies on the back nine gave him 22 points to put him seven points clear of Cai James (5) in second place.

James’s round showed how lower handicappers should use their shots.

After turning on 18 points he had birdies on the 13th and 14th and bogies on his three shot holes to give him his 20 points.

James’s second spot was after a countback with Peter Roberts (16).

John Fisk (23) had 37 points with Simon Hutton (9) and Kevin Petch (5) both on 36 points.

Sunday saw another excellent day’s scoring. Duncan Stewart (10) and David Harper (18) made the best of it in the Curtis Cup, a better-ball bogey competition.

On paper their winning score of plus eleven should have settled it, but it took a countback from Steve Sharman (12) and Guy Lennox (9) to get their names on the trophy. Not that these two pairs had it all their own way.

Mike Mayes (12) and Mike Akin (13) had plus ten along with Robin Tucker (19) and Jim Bentley (22), both returning similar plus tens to share third spot.

Philippa Deman and Wendy Smith playing off half their combined handicaps of 17 were the outright winners of the Ladies’ Foursomes Stableford with 39 points.

They were two shots clear of two couples sharing 37 points Hazel Davis and June Warburton (26). Losing out on the countback were Alison Cordran and the ladies’ captain Fiona Prentice who played off 23.

In fourth place, playing off 13 and scoring 35 points were Shelley Persent and Mandy Rix.

In the veterans’ stableford on Wednesday Brian Dobson (17) got the nod after a countback from John Cross (28), both scoring 39 points.

Third and fourth place were taken by Mel Barker (16) and Terry Bacon (17) both scoring 37 points.