Waiting game for Hampshire captain Burden ahead of South East League crunch trip

The showdown to qualify for the South East League Final for a second year in a row takes place up the A3 at Hindhead on Sunday.

For three Hampshire players came through the early knockout round of the English Amateur Championship up in the North East on Thursday, opening up a real possibility at least one of

them could reach the quarter-finals on Saturday at Hartlepool’s Seaton Carew GC.

Burden took over the Hampshire captaincy little more than two months ago after Lawrence Cherry was offered a dream job in Dubai, at the age of 27.

Burden, the first player from Hayling to hold the post since it was created in 1951, is desperate to beat Surrey, who drew the first match with Sussex last month, meaning they have to beat Hampshire to have any chance of catching them at the top of the South Division, with just Kent to face later this month.

Burden, Cherry’s vice-captain when Hampshire beat Berks, Bucks and Oxfordshire in October to win the Daily Telegraph Salver for the first time since 2012, does not mind the disruption to his planning for the crunch game.

He said: “I would love to see an all-Hampshire quarter or semi-final but the draw means Charlie Forster and Joe Buenfeld can only meet in the third round on Friday afternoon.

“But that does of course mean Hampshire are guaranteed to have a player in the last eight, which would be fantastic for the players and the team.”

Jo Hacker is also in the bottom half of the draw after knocking out the defending champion Ben Brown on Thursday afternoon.

“It will be brilliant if any of our three players can go on and reach the English Amateur final,” said Burden of a tournament previously won by the likes of Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood and Danny Willett.

Five Hampshire players have reached the semi-finals since Harry Ellis went on to become the youngest-ever English Amateur Champion aged just 16, in 2012, breaking Sir Nick Faldo’s record from the mid-1970s.

Burden is convinced Hampshire have the talent again and Forster made his Great Britain and Ireland international debut against Europe in the St Andrews Trophy last week, at Royal

Porthcawl GC.

Charlie was included in the England squad for the first time for next week’s Home Internationals against Scotland, Wales and Ireland, when the 10-man team was announced on Thursday.

Burden added: “I have been planning all week for the need to change the team for Surrey, if events in Hartlepool go our way. I have a couple of players on standby having picked my original eight a week ago.

“Competition is really fierce after the six-man when we were just two shots away from the English County Finals. I always want to beat Surrey. We can draw the match and still go through, but we are not going be defensive and try to avoid defeat.

“They have lost a couple of their bigger names to the pro ranks and didn’t have the success we had in the qualifying rounds for the matchplay at the English Amateur.

“Whatever team I end up putting out on Sunday, we have players like Darren Walkley, who has won the Devil’s Punchbowl, Hindhead’s big Surrey Order of Merit Open, plus county champions like Ryan Henley and Martin Young, who have played their plenty of times.

“It’s a heathland course that hosted Open Local Qualifying plenty of times – we know the risk the heather brings if you are not accurate off the tee, and how the greens play.

“To get to the final two years running is what the team have been striving for and, despite Lawrence leaving, nothing has upset the great team spirit we have.

"In Kev Flynn and Simon Andrews, we have a superb coaching team who help us prepare the right game plans.”