First Team Report From John Noble (County Coach)
“Pre-Season”
The 2019 matches started on a lovely but fresh morning at beautiful Sunningdale.
First team debuts were handed to Ben Palmer, Josh Jamieson & Harry Crockett against a
Sunningdale scratch side that included 2 Surrey squad players, Will Dugdale and Will Shucksmith.
A tight morning of quality golf saw us lead 2½ - 1½ at the break and singles wins from David
Corben, Jacob Aaholm, Tom Spreadborough, Terry Nicholls and Harry Crockett saw us win by
7½ - 4½.
Next was another brilliant day on March 2nd at the superb Walton Heath, again against a
side including some of our squad players, Harvey Byers & Josh Jamieson. This match was 10 a
side rather than the League format of 8 a side. It would prove to be a tough day against stern
opposition using their local knowledge to its fullest extent and we were defeated 8½ - 6½ having
been on level pegging at lunch with only David Corben and Alex Tonge gaining singles wins in
the afternoon.
Our 3rd match was another 10 a side match on March 10th against a solid Royal Wimbledon
team. Debuts this time for U18 players John Richardson & Ben Partridge. The morning foursomes
looked tight for a long period of the morning before we got the upper hand with a 4 - 1 lead at
lunch. The afternoon singles went our way with the team gaining points in all but 2 of the 10
singles for an 11 - 4 win for the County.
Wentworth on March 17th this year changed from the traditional morning foursomes and
afternoon singles to just 10 singles kicking off at 11-00am. Again several Surrey players from age
group squads played for Wentworth against us. The matches around the magnificent West course
were closely contested with Surrey pulling away for a 7½ - 2½ victory.
The squad then travelled on March 23rd to Cumberwell Park in Wiltshire for a training camp
hosted by coaches Jim Christine & John Noble. 20 players from a mixture of First team players
and U18 players enjoyed the excellent facilities including the short game area where the players
played head to head matches against each other, and the awesome Par 3 course where we had a
27 hole competition amongst the group.
The pre-season concluded with a great match around the wonderful Hindhead. Hindhead fielded
a strong team including our past Captain and 2 times County Champion, David Corben, and
their strength and local knowledge added up to a 3 - 1 lead for the hosts at lunch. However, in
keeping with the passion and team spirit the Surrey boys fought back in the afternoon to secure
a 6 - 6 draw including battle backs from losing positions late on from Harry Crockett and current
County Champion, Jacob Aaholm.
Many thanks to all our Surrey clubs who have & will host matches both League and Friendly this
year. Your support is greatly appreciated.
First Team Open 2019 League campaign with away win in Sussex.
The First team League 2019 campaign started with an away match against Sussex at Nevill on
Sunday 26th May. Following a thorough practice round the previous day the foursomes were led
off by former County Captain and 2 time County Champion, David Corben, and his usual partner,
Harry Plowman Ollington, fresh from his first year at college in Minnesota. Next up was Angus
Flanagan, former England Boys Champion, and team mate of Harry at Minnesota, alongside
Lewis Hinton of Sussex Golf college. The 3rd pair was the Walton Heath duo Harvey Byers and
Surrey debutant Josh Jamieson, who had recently moved south from Scotland to work in London.
The anchor pair were current County Champion Jacob Aaholm and Ben Palmer, also making his
debut, having been promoted from the A Team. The morning didn’t go exactly to plan with the
first 2 matches going to Sussex, however a convincing win from Harvey & Josh and a fighting
Half point from Jacob & Ben in matches 3 & 4 gave us a foothold and a bit of momentum going
into the singles. Harvey was sent out at number 1 against Tom Thurloway. A fast start from Harvey
saw him 3up through 4 and was never behind closing out the match 3&1 and the Walker Cup
squad player was despatched. Angus followed this up with another convincing performance and
meant we led the match for the first time. Harry & Lewis both lost by the narrowest margin on the
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