EIGHT times a Ryder Cup golfer and 37 years the BBC’s voice of golf Peter Alliss helped this year’s Farnham Lions charity golf day raise almost £8,500 for children’s hospice charity Shooting Star Chase.

He allowed himself to be auctioned with the winning bidder enjoying a lunch at Hindhead Golf Club with four friends, Peter Alliss himself, Chris Osborne the Hindhead captain and Geoff Jeal the chairman of Lions Golf.

The winning bidder Graham Cribb, himself a Hindhead Golf Club member will join the others for a special lunch prepared by Simon Fisher, the club’s steward. The bidding money will all go to the charity and Farnham Lions are sponsoring the lunch.

The event itself was staged in wonderful weather, missing the torrential rain of the day before at the excellently prepared Hindhead Golf Club and in aid of Shooting Star Chase’s hospice Christopher’s in Guildford.

The overall result was close to £8,500 and was warmly received by Simon Beresford, the community fundraising manager from Shooting Star Chase.

He said: “It was a brilliant day, a superbly managed event and my sincere thanks go to the Farnham Lions for their organisation and to all the golfers who played and contributed handsomely to this splendid total.

“The money will go to refurbish two family rooms where families can spend precious time with their terminally ill child.”

Eighty-seven players in teams of three contested the event; the overall singles winner was L O’Rourke with 41 stableford points from Paul Sopp and Brian Sherman both with 38 points.

The team prize went to The Biggest Losers made up of L O’Rourke, M Dangerfield and J Zabell with The White Hart at Tongham, C Akass, D Randall and D Thacker in second place and the Chip-‘n’-Dales, Mark Sherman, Brian Sherman and N Everett in third spot. The best lady was Karen Hawkins with 33 points.

The charity auction this year was conducted by last year’s president Keith Harris who extracted more than £3,000 from the golfers for some wonderful prizes.

Farnham Lions wish to acknowledge the wonderful support from everyone at Hindhead Golf Club, who have confirmed Thursday, August 25, as the date for next year’s event which will be the 20th Farnham Lions’ event at Hindhead.

To find out more about Farnham Lions visit the website www.farnham

lions.org.uk.