We would like to thank all those Clubs, and their members, for supporting us by hosting
county events during the year, namely:-
County Matches:- Addington Palace GC, Coombe Hill GC ,Hindhead GC, Royal Wimbledon
GC, St. George’s Hill GC, Sunningdale GC, Walton Heath GC, Wentworth GC, Worplesdon GC.
Seniors’ Matches:- Royal Mid-Surrey GC Hankley Common GC, Woking GC
County Championships:- Banstead Downs GC, Betchworth Park GC, Clandon Regis GC,
Cuddington GC, Malden GC, Milford GC, Reigate Hill GC, Surrey Downs GC, Walton Heath
GC, West Surrey GC, Woodcote Park GC.
Junior Matches:- Bramley GC, Chobham GC, Cuddington GC, Farnham GC, Guildford GC,
Purley Downs GC, Sutton Green GC, West Byfleet GC, Windlesham GC.
County Card Meetings:- St Georges Hill GC, West Byfleet GC, West Hill GC, Hindhead GC,
Hankley Common GC, Walton Heath GC.
FIRST TEAM REPORT FROM DAVID CORBEN
After a difficult season the First Team entered 2016 full of optimism. Over the winter we lost
no players to the pro ranks and had an abundance of youth who had got their feet wet the
season before. As always I must thank John Noble and Jim Christine for all their efforts both on
and off the course.
We started the season with the winter friendlies. The previous year we had experienced some
less than satisfactory results and aimed to both rectify these and build towards the league
games. Sunningdale provided a beautiful opener where a strong singles performance led to a
solid victory. Retribution followed at Royal Wimbledon and Walton Heath for the previous
year’s losses. A solid victory at Wentworth finalised a slam of early season victories.
At Addington Palace in late May, Sussex offered our first league test. The team capitalised on a
solid 3-1 foursomes lead to bring home victory with half the singles matches left on course.
Special note must be made of Angus Flanagan’s win after leading the singles out in the
afternoon, a small stepping stone to future successes.
Buoyed by the win over Sussex we headed to a pristine Coombe Hill to face Dorset. We
believed the course’s acute difficulties would be an advantage to us but after the morning
foursomes the match was in the balance at 2 -2. The afternoon continued to be tight but two
heavy victories towards the tail gave us impetus. It came down to the experienced Kieran
Lovelock to hold firm for his personal victory and a 7 – 5 team win.
Our next match, Hampshire away, proved disastrous before a ball was even hit. A list of injuries
and unavailability’s amongst our more youthful players meant we took an experienced team.
Summer traffic made for a tiring journey and our issues heightened when we lost a player in
the practice round to injury. We thank Alfie Fox for being able to fill the gap with little notice.
The team struggled to get going and we succumbed to a heavy defeat. Pride dented we had
to look towards the last match with Kent, safe in the knowledge that a win would secure the
league.
Rochester & Cobham hosted the league’s final match and decider. From the off we always
seemed to be behind in the foursomes, but slowly the tide turned. A strong comeback from
Mark Booker and David Ryles out 2nd saw the match go to 1 -1 just as our final pair of
Crockett and Lovelock secured their usual point. At 3 down with 5 to go our third pair seemed
doomed; cue a hole out from Tom Neve to give a spur to the fight and a resulting half point.
At lunch the match was 2.5 – 1.5 to Surrey.
We endured a difficult start to the afternoon and unfortunately lost the first four matches,
thereby requiring wins in the final four matches for victory. On paper it seems unlikely but with
strong leads in two and slender in the other two it was feasible. After finalising three of those
matches, it was down to the final game. Following approach shots into the green it came
down to the final putt with ours agonisingly sliding by. A halved game, halved match and the
league went to Kent by half a point. The glass was most certainly half empty.
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