HAMPSHIRE captain Toby Burden admits he won't mind if he is not able to field a full strength team when his side face Surrey in 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, who took over the Hampshire captaincy little more than two months ago after Lawrence Cherry, from Stoneham, was offered the dream job of managing The Montgomerie GC in Dubai, at the age of 27.
Toby, 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 in July, meaning they have to beat Hampshire on Sunday to have any chance of catching them at the top of the South Division, with just Kent to face later this month.
Burden, who was 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 just over the Surrey border.
Toby said: "I would love to see an all-Hampshire quarter or semi-final but the draw on Wednesday 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. Ben was on the bag for his brother Dan, at Royal Troon, battling Justin Rose for the Claret Jug just a fortnight ago.
"Dan won the English in 2016 - the year we lost in the English County Finals when he was also in the Yorkshire team.
"I was only just getting my amateur status back around that time but it will be brilliant if any of our three players can go on and reach the English Amateur final - and have the chance to join the greats who have won it, like Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood and Danny Willett, who of course has a Green Jacket at Augusta to his name now.
"People should not forget 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.
"Scott Gregory reached the final in 2014 and nearly did it again three years later, a year after he had become the Amateur Champion. Harry won that title in 2017, and not having had anyone win the world's oldest amateur championship in 130 years, two came along at once.
"Jamie Mist from Hayling got to the English semis the summer Scott was crowned Amateur Champion, having played junior golf together.
"That's what the power of these performances bring. Our guys play and practice together all over the country, sometimes even Europe, and when they see one of them doing really well in the big championships, the others think - and believe - they can go on and emulate that success.
"It was the same when Neil Raymond and I went Down Under in 2009 after Sam Hutsby had played in the Walker Cup against Rickie Fowler a year earlier. We wanted to force our way into the England set-up and we both did well down there.
"A year later Darren Wright won the Brabazon Trophy beating the likes of Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood and a very young Jon Rahm at Hoylake - 12 months later Neil won it to keep it in Hampshire, and then became the first player to defend the English Amateur Strokeplay in more than 50 years.
"I turned pro in 2010 after Hampshire qualified for the English County Finals but Neil's success, being a Corhampton member, certainly spurred on Scott Gregory, who saw him play in a Walker Cup and wanted to do the same.
"When Harry broke that English Amateur record, that was another spur for Scott, who had the chance two years later, but then won the Amateur before Harry, which he wanted so he had the double.
"Only two players had won both before and again he was the youngest breaking Sir Michael Bonallack, our most successful amateur ever."
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 announced on Thursday.
Toby 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, and in Kev Flynn and Simon Andrews, we have a superb coaching team who help us prepare the right game plans."
Liphook's George Saunders missed going through in the top 64 for the matchplay by just a shot for the second time at the English Amateur, so is available, while former European Junior Open winner Buenfeld, from Stoneham GC, may also have to be replaced.
North Hants pair Robert Wheeler (71, 73), who was a regular first team player last year, and James Atkins (73, 69), who reached the semi-finals of the county championship at Blackmoor, finished three and one shot outside the qualifying mark, respectively.
Blackmoor's Sam Parsons, who stopped Henley winning a fifth Sloane-Stanley Challenge Cup in June's Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Championship Final, is back having been unavailable for the six-man at The Dyke GC, at Brighton, three weeks ago.