GolfNEWTON Green Golf Club, which has more than 600 members, is to receive more than £10,000 in sponsorship to help it celebrate this year's centenary.

Golf

NEWTON Green Golf Club, which has more than 600 members, is to receive more than £10,000 in sponsorship to help it celebrate this year's centenary.

Chairman Dora George said: "Birthdays like this do not come around very often and we want to celebrate in style. A full programme of events has been lined up and the money we have raised will ensure we do the year justice, both to ourselves and our sponsors.

We have probably exceeded the expectations of many in relation to how much money would come in from outside. We view the support as a great vote of confidence in the club."

Jeweller Jonathan Lambert will be the main sponsor for the year. Estate agents Sworders will sponsor a golf festival week in July. When the club was formed players used to take their drives for two holes across the main A134 Sudbury to Colchester road. The original nine-hole part of the course will be re-instated for a celebration event on May 20 which is 100 years to the day when the club first teed off.

The Golf Collectors' Society will stage a match using hickory-shafted clubs there will be an invitation day for Suffolk club captains, a centenary ball and a match against Colchester Golf club who also celebrate their centenary.

A 16-page programme of events will soon be published. March 16 will see an official reception will see the launch of a 100-page, full colour history of the club written by member Alan Vince.

A special feature will be water colours by Neil Jacobs, a retired art college department head, who has exhibited works in galleries across the country.

Local legal firms Steed and Steed, Wayman, Long, Tomlinson and Dickinson as well as Bates, Wells and Braithwaite and the Newton Green Trust will enable copies of the £3,500 production to be distributed free to members.