SHL: Surrey National end 2018 season with home win against Surrey Downs

Posted on behalf of Vice-Captain Wayne

It all came good in the end!

With Captain Jaggs sunning himself in Turkey, the team was left in my hands with just the five players confirmed at the start of the week.

So, the first battle was getting a team together, which went up and down like a yo-yo, right up until the Saturday morning, when Mr Feasey confirmed his availability two hours before first tee.

The team were hungry to get the five plus point win to take us off the bottom of the pile or was it just the fact that they were unable to eat their uncooked breakfast?

The first pairing saw myself and Thomas taking on Matt & JC from Surrey Downs. The match got off to a flying start for them, we them making birdies on the 1st and 4th, so we knew we had a good fight on our hands. The front nine finished all square with both teams shooting under par scores. The back nine proved no different with nothing less than birdies required to win holes, but we got over the winning line two up with a nett 67. A fantastic match, best of the year for me and Thomas who remained undefeated this year.

Well, a good job Mr Feasey did turn up! A brilliant four up victory with Dan “never came in hole” Mason (sorry Dan, Lee’s words) with Lee shooting a fantastic one under par round, so the team score sheet was looking rather good at this point, but there was news that the third pairing were struggling and five down.

In came Robert with the fantastic news that they were only ever four down and he even missed a putt on the 18th to even win the match. Apparently, him a Simon Greenwood carried on the yo-yo with the match going in bags of won holes in a row. I don’t remember the exact figures, but they lost four holes in a row, then won another five, before they came back and were four up after 11 holes, so well done lads for not giving up the fight!

The next pairing saw a new face to the Surrey Hills League, Gabriel Acatriniei with my next years Vice Captain James Carter. I didn’t hear any troubles in the match and another solid two up victory, which at that point, put the team in commanding position with a 8 point lead, so barring a loss of nothing more than three points in the last game, meant we Mr Jaggs would not be receiving the wooden spoon on finals day, which is being hosted at SNGC on 26 October.

No worries, Ben Loderick-Osbourne and another new face Steve Bracey came into the clubhouse with the last win, one up, which saw the Surrey Downs boys finished bottom of the league.

A fantastic win and apparently the biggest of the year for us, 49.5 to 40.5, so Captain Jaggs has now suggested he must leave the country more often!

Bring on finals day and let’s hope to seeing more new faces in the league next year.

Wayne Nowak
Vice Captain