Surrey news/articles

First topic message reminder :

Smith was back in this country today - and at Anfield to watch Liverpool beat Man City! That's nice for him. Now, I'm not suggesting he should spend his days off picking up litter in the Lock Stand at the Oval but it is important he starts to deliver for the club paying handsomely for his services.

Corporal - I obviously can't guarantee how things will play out (can anyone ever concerning Pietersen?) but that is certainly now the expectation. Thought it best belonged here with the Surrey boys. PM on its way to you as well.

Well, if that is what happens next I see that Sibley and Harinath are trying to make sure they are in good nick for selection.  So far, they have put on 142 in the second innings for Surrey second XI.

Corporal - that's good. They had put on about 80 in the hour I was there. Harinath seems noticeably more aggressive at the crease than he ever used to.

guildfordbat wrote:the current Leics match is likely to be Pietersen's last.

I read he is rejoining IPL on Friday.


for a variety of historical reasons (and Charles Colville), I have never warmed to Surrey as a team - however really impressed that they look to be the first team to have parted company with Pietersen amicably.

And on to cricket.

Do Surrey have the bowlers to contest the promotion battle this season?

Tiger - that is the concern and was flagged before the season started.

Tremlett is very important. Not only does he generally keep things tidy and chips in with a few wickets of his own but he gives others, particularly Dunn, more freedom to attack. However, Tremlett is oh so fragile.

As for the slow stuff, Batty is an experienced pro who knows his game whilst Ansari is an intelligent bowler who is improving. That said, they have nothing like the killer touch of Saqlain and Salisbury. For all the abuse Solly gets heaped on him here, he was mighty effective for Surrey and really cashed in on Saqlain's magic at the other end.

Much as the supporters at the Oval appreciate the undoubted world class talent of Sangakkara, there is an increasing murmur that it was an overseas bowler the club most needed.

Meanwhile... Sibley 142* for the seconds at lunch v Warks.  I expect he would be next in line for a batting slot in first team.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Meanwhile... Sibley 142* for the seconds at lunch v Warks.  I expect he would be next in line for a batting slot in first team.

Yes, certainly in the Championship. Kapil is in contention for Friday's t20 or so I believe.

meanwhile surrey sign wahab riaz for the opening two games of the t20 blast.

From my man Spills today -

Surrey are trying to bring in on loan Notts seamer Luke Fletcher to play in the Championship.

Whist we've posted here before about our battalion of seamers (Copyright: King Carlos), something needs to be done. Dernbach and Tremlett are crocked, Linley is still coming back from major knee surgery and Balcombe and Meaker are, in the words of Spills, ''struggling for form''.

Furthermore, Spills quotes Stewart: ''We're in danger on seriously overbowling Matthew Dunn and Tom Curran because of the problems we've got. We need to give one of them a break this week.'' I take that as a clear reference to the CC match starting on Monday at Northants.

Something else of interest which Spills writes - ''Azhar Mahmood ... no longer counts as an Englishman''. I didn't know that and don't know why. However, it does mean that even when they are all available we can only play 2 of Azhar, Sanga and Henriques in the same t20 side.

Fletcher now confirmed on a 3 game loan. Making him available for the CC matches against Northants, Kent and Glamorgan.

A shrewd loan IMO as I rate him highly as a bowler plus he isn't a complete mug with the bat. If Tremlett, Linley and Dernbach are injured and Balcombe is bowling as badly as it seems then he will offer some much needed experience to this attack.

With Batty seemingly struggling for fitness for FC cricket I wonder if we could look to use a 4 man seam attack for any of those games with Fletcher, Meaker, Curran and Dunn supported by Ansari?

Or depending on how he does in the t20s could Aneesh Kapil even come in at 8 as a 4th seamer?

Meanwhile, as Surrey struggle to make up a seam attack, George Edwards takes 4/20 off 3 overs on his Lancs debut in their victory over Leics.

Olly wrote:Right folks - these nicknames you guys have (ie. Burger Van) - who are the players and why are they nicknamed as they are?!

(If I'm gonna be a fan I'm gonna do it right)

The nickname amongst Notts supporters of our new loan signing Luke Fletcher is ''Norman Stanley''.

Surrey seconds lost earlier today by 8 wickets in their Championship match against Kent. 'Viscount' Linley took the 2 wickets to fall in Kent's second innings. This followed an economic albeit wicketless return in their first innings. He could just be in contention to make the first team squad for the CC match against Kent at Beckenham starting on Sunday.

guildfordbat wrote:Surrey seconds lost earlier today by 8 wickets in their Championship match against Kent. 'Viscount' Linley took the 2 wickets to fall in Kent's second innings. This followed an economic albeit wicketless return in their first innings. He could just be in contention to make the first team squad for the CC match against Kent at Beckenham starting on Sunday.

No call up for the Viscount.  The same squad as last time, ie the 11 who played against Northants plus Clive and Burke.  Awaiting Jimbob's new thread.  Potentially could see Clive replacing Meaker...

Hi Corporal - yes, guess this match was probably a week or so too early for the Viscount. After the stuttering start our seamers have made to this season, he must still have a chance of getting into contention for a first team spot.

Admittedly it was only in a one day friendly match, but I was pleased nonetheless to see that Freddie the Burger Van took 5 - 15 today. Could come in handy if #ansariforengland has less future availability as a spinner for Surrey.  

king_carlos wrote: ....I wonder if we could look to use a 4 man seam attack for any of those games with Fletcher, Meaker, Curran and Dunn supported by Ansari?....

The way things have been I would settle for getting 3 pacemen fit to play in the same match!

Just checking out progress of 2nd XI v Hants today.  Scorecard makes interesting reading: "Unsure, caught unsure bowled unsure, 3."

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Just checking out progress of 2nd XI v Hants today.  Scorecard makes interesting reading: "Unsure, caught unsure bowled unsure, 3."

You sure about that, Corporal?

There was a members' forum before play today which I attended. It was fronted by Richard Gould, Chief Executive, with Alec Stewart being the star turn.

Stewie covered it as a Q&A session. Key aspects as I remember them:

* It was only the possibility of playing for England again that resulted in Pietersen returning to Surrey this year. Stewie regards it as clear that that possibility has now been extinguished. In view of that and Pietersen's forthcoming overseas commitments, Stewie suggested this could be Pietersen's last first class match. You heard it first, Surrey boys.

* There is a chance that Pietersen could play for Surrey in the t20 against Sussex in mid June at Arundel. Surrey are pursuing this possibility as Sanga will be away playing Test cricket and Roy could be with the England ODI squad.

* Stewie was both philosophical and appreciative about Pietersen - ''We've been good for him and he's been good for us. He's always welcome here.''

* The position concerning Ansari continuing to open the batting whilst becoming more of a front line bowler ''will be monitored but there are no plans at the moment to change it''. Stewie emphasised that Ansari ''is a genuine all rounder and he wants to open''. I put to Stewie that whilst he was certainly a ''genuine all rounder'', I was struggling to think of other front line bowlers who had opened the batting. Stewie responded, ''that's a good observation and we'll continue to assess it''. [That's the best I could do for you, JimBob! ] He gave me a thumbs up later as he left the meeting which suggested I wasn't completely on the wrong track. There again, perhaps he was just pleased to get away!

* If chosen for the ODI squads, Roy and Ansari will miss 3 CC matches. Stewie thought both were worthy of a call up. He gave his opinion that Ansari was ''a better cricketer than Rashid''. I feel that's quite telling. Stewie is pretty straight and upfront. If he felt Rashid was better, he may well have kept quiet; however, he certainly wouldn't have made the claim he did.

* Trem and Viscount both play today for the seconds at Wimbledon. They should both be in contention fot the Glamorgan CC match at Guildford with an outside chance for next week's Leics fixture.

* Rather oddly, Stewie said that Balcombe was currently unavailable as ''he is ill''. No further details or timescale were given.

* Of young players coming through (seconds and/or Academy), honourable mentions were given to Anish Kapil, Bradley Erasmus and Sam Curran.

Shame if this is KP's last first class match for Surrey - but like Stewart said we can't moan, he's been magnificent when playing for us

Thanks for the informative update, Guildford.

roy has been called up for england's ODI series against new zealand
sadly son of boris hasn't

Cheers for the excellent report again Guildford!

Popped down the road and saw a bit of the 50 over Trophy game between Surrey seconds and Sussex seconds today. We were about 130/4 off 30 when I arrived with Harinath, Sibley, Solanki and Kapil already gone. Burkey and Academy player Bradley Erasmus were at the crease and really motored from that point making 80 odd and 52 respectively. Chris Green from one of the Ryman clubs smashed a quick 40 odd in the final overs to get us up to near 300 at the end of our allotment.

Sussex's bowling looked respectable if not that threatening when I was watching. I recognised some of the names - Liddle, Piolet, Zaidi and Beer (disappointingly he only bowled 2 overs of his leg-spin). Saddest sight though was Tymal Mills who has back problems posing a large question mark over his career - as planned apparently, he bowled a few overs at the start (before I was there) and then went off to watch the rest of our innings sitting in front of the pavilion.

The general view was that our total was competitive and gave us a good chance but, given the small ground and fast outfield, victory didn't seem assured. We needn't have worried at all! Sussex were utterly feeble with the bat and were all out for about 70 in the 21st over.We only needed to use four bowlers and they all got wickets - Teal (a seamer and trialist from Guildford impressed as he bagged 4), Burger Van (getting some nice turn and bounce, 3), Viscount (bit down on pace I thought, 2) and Burkey (looking quite sharp, 1).

I particularly liked that we never let their batsmen get back in the game. Stewie, Ford and Batty were all there watching, hope they appreciated that as well.

Interesting update, Guildford.  How long before Burger Van is mentioned in England's desperate search for a spinner?

Pleased to see that John Edrich now has a long overdue pair of gates!

Do you have to pay to get into a days play of a CC match? (at The Oval or at Guildford?)

Olly wrote:Do you have to pay to get into a days play of a CC match? (at The Oval or at Guildford?)

Olly - yes, about a tenner but nothing if you're there as my guest. PM me if interested.

Corporal and all - just seen on the Club website about the Bedser Bridge just being opened up the road from me in Woking. Excellent to pay tribute to the Surrey twins in the town they lived, with statues of Alec and Eric at each end of the bridge. However, anyone else think it inappropriate that the ever economical Alec is depicted being hit for six even if it is by his beloved brother?

guildfordbat wrote:Corporal and all - just seen on the Club website about the Bedser Bridge just being opened up the road from me in Woking. Excellent to pay tribute to the Surrey twins in the town they lived, with statues of Alec and Eric at each end of the bridge. However, anyone else think it inappropriate that the ever economical Alec is depicted being hit for six even if it is by his beloved brother?

Just hope that Alec has a good sense of humour in the hereafter!

Pleased to see the Burger Van took 5 - 109 against Sussex for the 2nd XI

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:

Pleased to see the Burger Van took 5 - 109 against Sussex for the 2nd XI

Frying tonight!

guildfordbat wrote:

JDizzle wrote:Might be a bit late to this news, but surprised Winslade has been released. Although Surrey do have a surplus of seamers I guess, with Tremlett, Dernbach, Dunn, Curran and Meaker. Probably missed a few too. Even more surprised that no-one had picked Winslade up (or that's my impression from a quick Google), looked promising for the U19s.

Hi JD - to that list of seamers, you can add Linley and new signing Balcombe. A couple of young all-rounders also bowl seam up, Kapil and new lad Burke. Then there's Sam Curran (younger brother of Tom) - only aged about 16 but highly thought of and expected to be coming up on the rails before long.

...

Throw this post from January out there for any teenage poster thinking of calling me a jinx again soon!

Interesting that Burger Van took another 5 wickets in second innings as Surrey 2nd XI beat Sussex in a close contest.  He finished with 10 wickets in the match. The other five wickets in the second innings were taken by triallist spinner from Cambs University, Josh Arksey.

From Spills today (Richard Spiller, Surrey Ad):

* Davies has a suspected broken hand and may be sidelined for several weeks
* Dernbach's return from a side strain has been cut short by a calf injury
* Dunn likely to be rested for Guildford with Henriques coming in (probably not a bad thing, Henriques is a lot better bat than Dunn and with so many batsmen missing ...)
* Solanki back in the running for a team place.

Guildford - thanks. Agree Solanki the obvious choice to try and plug gaps in batting. Although not, as far as I recall, making big scores in the second team he appears to be in at least reasonable form.

JDizzle wrote:.... How Van den Bergh burgled a contract in all of this is beyond me too! 'One of the worst cricketers to have a county contract' was a quote I heard about him from someone who'd seen him play an awful lot.

I recalled this comment about the Burger Van.     I have never seen him play and I have no idea whether he will ultimately make the grade, but it is encouraging to see Freddie taking wickets for the second XI.

The Viscount has gone on a months loan to Sussex

Olly wrote:The Viscount has gone on a months loan to Sussex

Utterly staggering.

Almost everyone else who can bowl at over 50mph is injured, ill, knackered or waiting for their latest sicknote.

Add to that - the Club continually talk about managing our bowlers and their workload, yet are happy to ship Linley off elsewhere for a month so soon after he's been recovering from major knee surgery.

The Viscount has long been regarded as the ultimate professional at the Oval. Never complaining, always doing what's been asked of him and accepting it all with good grace. If it was anyone else, I would be sure there was something more to it.

Can't say I'm that staggered at loaning out somebody coming back from injury to get games under his belt before he can make a run at the team here tbh

Olly - the club have traditionally been highly insistent about keeping a player coming back from injury under their own watchful eyes and 'managing his workload' (their regular words). The prevention of a re-occurrence of injury has been the determining factor. Yes, games will be good for a returning player but Surrey have always wanted to be in charge of controlling that.

The suggestion on the wallpaper site is that Linners has been told his contract won't be renewed at the end of the season and so he can now go and find - as he has with Sussex - a club to try and put himself in the shop window. That sadly makes sense to me. I'm sure if the player was still in Surrey's plans they wouldn't have been prepared to loan him out at this time.

And Linley takes 3 wickets in 5 overs

Linners ended up with a fivefer today. I was going to add ''on his Sussex debut'' but he actually played for them once in 2006 before moving to Surrey. News of his 5 wicket haul was incredibly well received at today's match at Guildford.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:

JDizzle wrote:.... How Van den Bergh burgled a contract in all of this is beyond me too! 'One of the worst cricketers to have a county contract' was a quote I heard about him from someone who'd seen him play an awful lot.

I recalled this comment about the Burger Van.     I have never seen him play and I have no idea whether he will ultimately make the grade, but it is encouraging to see Freddie taking wickets for the second XI.

I 100% stand by this comment I heard passed down from a friend of a friend!

And to be fair, the two times I saw him bowl live it was properly rancid stuff! But it seem every time I come on this thread he has taken wickets for the Second XI! I might have to revisit him once I've got my Tom Westley for England campaign off the starting blocks!

Hi all, Thanks for updates and reports from Guildford which are much appreciated. I was at Arundel on Sunday and I'm glad to see that both players involved in the collision seem to be making progress. Of course, it's of minor relative importance, but Sussex have kindly offered those of us present an LV=CC or RLC ticket as a gesture of goodwill. I'll be taking my 10 year old daughter and given our availability, it's a toss up between Day 1 of LV=CC at Horsham and an RLC day-nighter at Hove. What's the Horsham ground like? Is it a bit like Tunbridge Wells/Southgate (lawns and deckchairs) or more like Guildford (temporary stands... now permanent I hear!)?

MisterRipley - a warm welcome.

It's many years since I've been to Horsham but from hazy memory I tend to put it in the ''more like Guildford'' category with temporary stands.

Many thanks, guildfordbat.

In slightly bizarre news, Darren Gough thinks Batty should be England's spinner for the ashes. Thinks he is the best spinner in the country....

jimbohammers wrote:In slightly bizarre news, Darren Gough thinks Batty should be England's spinner for the ashes. Thinks he is the best spinner in the country....

I didn't realise Corporal opened the bar early this week...