Surrey Golf YearBook 2020 | Page 24

the green and narrowly missed getting up and down whilst a solid par from Kent saw them win the hole and the overall match 6½ - 5½. The County First team season came to a conclusion on Sunday October 6th, contesting the South East League Final against BB&O at The Millbrook Golf Club in Bedfordshire. The team suffered a knock back before a ball was struck on Sunday as the consistent Ben Palmer woke up to a stiff painful lower back. However, the merit of having a quality travelling reserve paid off and meant Harry Crockett had practiced on Saturday and was able to step straight in. The morning foursomes were- David Corben & Shergo Kurdi Josh Jamieson & Ben Partridge Lewis Hinton & Harry Crockett Jacob Aaholm & Will Dugdale David & Shergo came up against a barrage of birdies and an eagle, and indeed were 2 under par themselves after 6 holes but were 3 down. Unable to pull it back our top pair went down 6 & 5. Josh & Ben in match 2 had a closer back and forth match eventually winning the 18th with a textbook par to secure a half point. Harry & Lewis also had a close game but manage to just keep nudging along in front resulting in a victory on the 18th green by 1 hole. Jacob & Will in the anchor match didn’t play their own high standards and succumbed to a 5 & 3 defeat. Surrey 1½ - BB&O 2½ David went out a No.1 against England squad member Oliver Huggins. Despite a uncharacteristic slow start David chipped away getting in front around the turn and came out a 2 & 1 victor. Lewis in game 2 was also behind on the front nine but again rallied around the turn to lead going in to the business end when a 25 foot birdie putt dropped on 17 to secure another point by 2 & 1. Josh batted at 3 and again this was another tight match resulting in a loss by 1 hole following a long birdie putt by Jack Haines on the last green. Debutant Ben Partridge fresh from his victory in the England Golf Champion of Champions, was our 4th man out. Despite being a couple up early the back nine, Ben came up against a dogged fight back from James Brockington eventually losing on the 18th green. 16-year-old Shergo Kurdi battled hard against the talented Adam Birdseye, who had 2 eagles during the singles. However our youngest squad member was too good for him coming out a 3 & 2 winner. Will and Harry playing at 6 and 7 respectively got off to slow starts and despite batting hard went down 3 & 1 and 4 & 3. This sadly for us meant BB&O had reached the 6½ points needed to win the trophy so despite Jacob making a superb birdie on the 17th to win his match 2 & 1 we finished South East group runners up for 2019. Surrey 5½ BB&O 6½ Many thanks to all our Surrey clubs who have & will host matches both League and Friendly this year. Your support is greatly appreciated. Senior Team Report From Pat Cunningham The training sessions at Burhill in February & March this year were very successful, so big thanks to John Noble and Jim Christine. Our friendly matches against BB&O, Hertfordshire, Middlesex’s 1st Team, were successful getting substantial victories in each of the matches. We had our trip to Jersey in April winning for the first time ever. A big thank you to Steve McNeill for his input into this trip. The League matches had us playing Kent away in Bearsted GC in appalling conditions. Unfortunately, we lost this match notwithstanding the excellent contribution the players made despite the weather. We then played Hampshire at the Army Golf Club and lost by the narrowest of margins and felt we were extremely unlucky losing four matches on the last green. We had an exceptionally good win against Dorset at Burhill GC and then played Sussex at Burhill GC in terrible conditions (the weather, not the course!) losing narrowly. The SE Foursomes was played at Royal Mid Surrey GC in great conditions and for the second year running we lost on count back to Sussex. Congratulations to Keith Collins for his hole in one. - 24 -