Top Norfolk professional Neil Lythgoe and amateur partner Trevor Cave conjured up an elusive 59 in the latest Norfolk Alliance meeting at King's Lynn.

Their 13-under par score won the team prize by three shots and Lythgoe took the individual professional honours with his five-under par 67. The pair notched up birdie after birdie as they chased their aim of breaking 60 in cold, blustery weather.

'We'd been talking about the possibility of breaking 60 with seven holes to go. I said to Trevor that we had to try and get to 59 because it might be a long while before we had another chance,' said Lythgoe, from Royal Norwich.

'The course was playing short and if you were ever going to shoot a low score that was the day. But usually when you start talking about something like that it never happens. It was so nice to chalk it up.'

The pair took full advantage of the conditions. Lythgoe had seven birdies in his round and Cave, a nine-handicapper from Eaton, had three gross birdies and used his three-quarter handicap allowance to bring in a host of the net version.

'I reckon Trevor probably went round in one-under gross. He is such a competitive player and when he gets on a run he goes into a different zone. He's brilliant when you get a chance of a good score – he just keeps going for birdies.'

By the time they reached the turn, Lythgoe was four-under on his own card and they were eight-under as a team. They got another birdie on the tenth and picked up four more as they made their way home.

Crucially, Cave got a par, net birdie, on the 17th to take the team score to 13-under – and they played the last with care. 'We knew we were 13-under and that we had to hang on and we parred the last,' said Lythgoe.

Professionals: 67 Neil Lythgoe (Royal Norwich), 68 Andrew Collison (Bungay & Waveney Valley), 70 Ian Ellis (Costessey Park).

Betterball medal: 59 Neil Lythgoe and Trevor Cave (Eaton), 62 Bryan Gunn (Barnham Broom) and David Taylor (Eaton), 65 Andrew Collison and Russell Hood (Bungay), 66 David Israel and John Brighton (King's Lynn), John Rix and Roger Finney (Eaton), Darren Cossey and Maurice Stafford (Royal Norwich).