County Championship 2025. Division 1. Surrey v Somerset 25th, 26th and 27th April. The Oval.

Surrey. R.J. Burns (c), D.P. Sibley, O.J.D. Pope, J.L. Smith, B.T. Foakes (w), D.W. Lawrence, R.S. Patel, J. Clark, A.A.P. Atkinson, J.P.A. Taylor, D.J. Worrall.

Somerset. S.R. Dickson, A.M. Vaughan, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (c) (w), K.L. Aldridge, L. Gregory, M. Pretorius, J.H. Davey, M.J. Leach.

Overnight. Somerset 283. Surrey 321 for 7. Surrey lead by 38 runs with three first innings wickets standing.

Final day – A crushing defeat

It happened quickly when it happened. Somerset had gone into lunch already in difficulty at 30 for 2, still 54 runs behind, with Sean Dickson unlikely to bat. Those two wickets were only the beginning. Less than six overs after the restart, Somerset were 38 for 7, the first two of those wickets falling within four balls of the resumption. As had been the case throughout the match, the Surrey bowling was accurate and piercing. Rarely did a ball present itself to be hit, there was always something to keep out, and all were bowled with more pace than Somerset had been able to muster in the Surrey innings. Surrey’s catching was exceptional too. It all spoke of a team bursting with skill, discipline and the belief of a side which had just won three consecutive County Championships. Given that Somerset had lost a bowler of the quality of Matt Henry just before the start of the season, and Craig Overton just before the start of the match, they had come out of the first two days remarkably well. They were behind in the match, Surrey were 38 runs ahead with three wickets standing at the start of play, but on the first two days Somerset had started well, fought back hard after a first innings middle order collapse and were still in the game when the third day started.

The third day was London Marathon day and my tube from outer London was soon packed with spectators making their way to vantage points along the route. Many carried homemade placards containing words of encouragement for friends or family members running in the race. “Go Sweetie Go!” and the like. The chatter was incessant, optimism was everywhere, rather like it is among cricket supporters before the start of a match. Off the tube, I arrived at The Oval a few minutes after the start, the pre-match optimism of two mornings before now metamorphosed into watching the hard grind of a Championship match at its mid point.

A walk around the concourse from the Hobbs Gates found me reaching the top of the steps into the Conference Centre Stand at the Vauxhall End just as Gus Atkinson mistimed a drive off Migael Pretorius. The ball was caught by Alfie Ogborne, fielding in place of Sean Dickson, reaching above his head at mid-on. Surrey 339 for 8. Atkinson 25. Lead 56. Five overs later, Dan Worrall attempted to drive Josh Davey and was caught by Kasey Aldridge over his right shoulder at second slip. Surrey 358 for 9. Worrall 6. Lead 75. Wickets falling but Surrey progressing. Dan Lawrence had shepherded Surrey’s lower order from parity with Somerset when Ben Foakes had been out at the fall of the fifth wicket towards a now substantial lead. Along the way, he drove Pretorius square to the Galadari Stand for four to take Surrey past 350 for their third batting point to cheers from the increasingly cheerful Surrey crowd, and then, two balls later, cut him square for four more to extended applause as he registered his own fifty from 67 balls. When James Taylor was last out, bowled through a defensive bat by Aldridge, Surrey had reached 367, Taylor 4, Lawrence 55 not out, and had a lead of 84.

The crowd, smaller than on the second day, by my eye around 1,100 at the start, was steadily growing in warm April sunshine with only a hint of cloud in the sky. As Somerset began their second innings against that lead of 84, The Oval was quiet. Not the quiet of tension, more a quiet of relaxation and familiar expectation born of winning those three Championships. The expectation perhaps grew when Archie Vaughan tried to glance the fifth ball of the Somerset innings, bowled by Worrall, and was caught down the leg side by Foakes. “Surrey, Surrey, Surrey,” the chorus that broke out from the old Laker and Lock Stands. With the score 0 for 1, no Dixon, and Davey walking out at three to join Tom Lammonby who had been promoted to open in Sean Dickson’s stead, Somerset’s task looked an uphill one. Davey invariably looks competent with the bat, although rarely seems to progress beyond the 20s or 30s. He is Somerset’s go-to nightwatch and immediately settled to the task before him. “But,” the anxious Somerset thought, “for how long?”

Davey and Tom Lammonby quickly settled into a positive, energetic approach. If the ball was pushed wide of an inner ring fielder, the placing of four slips creating space, they scuttled through for a single. As well as the singles, Davey drove Atkinson straight back to the Pavilion for four and Lammonby drove Worrall through the covers to the Archbishop Tenison’s boundary. Increasingly, they scored through the leg side, Davey turning Atkinson square to the Galadari boundary and Lammonby turning him for three towards the Archbishop Tenison’s boundary. Davey’s leg side strokes though tended to be played in the air adding to the doubts about how long he could hold the crease. Then, just before lunch, Lammonby was slow getting his bat in line for a defensive stroke against Lawrence’s off spin, was struck on the pad and Somerset were 25 for 2, Lammonby 12, still 59 behind with Surrey circling. Davey was joined by Tom Abell and almost immediately edged Jordan Clark low and very close to the hand of a diving second slip. On another day it might have been caught and, at lunch, Somerset’s 30 for 2 with five sessions of glorious weather forecast to stretch ahead of them looked worryingly shaky.

During the lunch break, there was again a wonderful atmosphere at the Pavilion End of The Oval’s cavernous outfield now under a sun warmer than on either of the first two days. A Sunday afternoon in the park sprang to mind. I had spent the morning in the shade of the Conference Centre Stand at the Vauxhall End and entered the outfield between the stand in front of Archbishop Tenison’s School and the Bedser Stand. Reaching the middle involved navigating my way through a multitude of informal junior cricket matches. There were brothers and sisters bowling to brothers and sisters, children bowling to parents and parents to children. I discovered the lengths of improvisation to which children would go to play cricket at The Oval when I was struck on the leg by a sharpie top bowled by a son to his father. I really should have called it wide, but they were having too much fun, so I moved on to the informal picnic area leading to the Galadari Stand. Groups of 20 and 30-something young men and women sat in threes and fours. There were a few half dozens too with their lunch spread out before them on the grass. The cricketers and the picnickers were as joyous as each other and as full of chatter as the marathon goers on the tube as they lived an experience which might stick in their minds for years to come. And then, between the two, the walk to the middle to ‘inspect’ the pitch together with a hundred or more others, rather older for the most part than the picnickers and cricketers, and standing dutifully in a line with a respectful three or four yards between them and the cut strip. As I joined them, there was no rope or cones to separate us from the pitch, just an invisible line which joined the dots formed by three or four stewards stood along the full width of the huge Oval square plus a couple of others to keep people off the Vauxhall End. And then, a ring of a bell, some gentle nudging by a steward or two and the outfield crowd cleared itself.

And then followed a half hour of some of the most devastating match-winning cricket I have seen. Perhaps Horsham 2012 out did it, but not much else had over my years watching the game. Somerset’s innings, and their match, suddenly found itself in ruins as five wickets fell in the course of the next six overs. Two fell in the first four balls after the resumption. First, Abell shouldered arms to Clark, bowling from the Pavilion End, and was bowled by a ball which cut in. Somerset 34 for 3. Abell 4. Somerset deficit 50. Two balls later, Davey came down tentatively in defence and he too was bowled. Somerset 35 for 4. Davey 17. Deficit 49. “Come on Somerset!” shouted a defiant voice from the old Laker and Lock Stands. It availed Somerset nothing. In the next over, from Worrall, Tom Banton, who had been at the crease for six balls drove, again tentatively as my eye saw it, and was caught and bowled inches above the ground. It was a brilliant reaction catch, the sort that sides brimming with confidence take. Somerset 37 for 5. Banton 3. Deficit 47. Surrey were now relentless. Three overs later, Aldridge attempted to pull Clark, looked a shade late on the stroke and edged the ball into his stumps. Somerset 38 for 6. Aldridge 1. Deficit 46. An over later, James Rew whipped Worrall square. The ball left the bat like a bullet from the barrel but Lawrence at square leg took off on the diagonal to his right and intercepted the missile one-handed. It was an astonishing catch which left Foakes with his gloved hands on his head in disbelief at what he had seen. It capped Worrall’s catch for brilliance and left Somerset helpless on 38 for 7, still 46 behind. Rew 0 from 15 balls.

It all happened so quickly. It was as if Somerset’s resistance of the first two days had suddenly been sucked out of them like the air from a fast-deflating balloon. As if there had been a sudden collapse of will. The Surrey bowling in that half hour had been exceptional, the catching brilliant, with the Surrey fielders prowling with expectation. Against that, the Somerset batting had looked tentative and indecisive as Surrey burst through. Perhaps three weeks on the road, three lost tosses on pitches where the toss had looked crucial, the loss of one strike bowler before the start of the season and another just before the start of the match, the loss of an opener in the second over of the match, 200 overs in the field against Worcestershire and long periods against Sussex and Hampshire, “It feels like we have had three weeks in the field,” said one Somerset supporter, had all played their part. Whatever the cause, Somerset were in total disarray with Surrey in rampant pursuit.

And then some resistance, futile for sure, but resistance at least. Pretorius joined Gregory and played one of his swashbuckling innings while Gregory went into his ‘they shall not pass’ mode. Immediately, the nature of the innings changed. Gregory looked as solid as a rock. There was an occasional piece of playing and missing from Pretorius as he tried to send yet another ball crashing to the boundary, but for the most part when Pretorius intended to hit the ball to the boundary, it went there. There was a stunning cover drive off Worrall, bowling from the Vauxhall End, to the Galadari Stand, the stand looking like a white polka dot sofa with spectators spread along its entire length. When Atkinson replaced Worrall, Pretorius drove him through extra cover to the boundary in front of the old Gasometer framework, it’s historic girder structure still in place as luxury apartments following its lines were being constructed within it. The next ball was a guided pull to fine leg for another four. Clark, from the Pavilion End, was uppercut by Pretorius wide of the slips for another four and another cover drive off Atkinson brought four more. That took Pretorius to his fifty from 69 balls.

It was not just Pretorius’s boundaries which pushed Somerset’s score along. There was a steady flow of singles from both batters, one of which took Somerset into the lead, as Pretorius and Gregory added 79 in 15 overs. It was though a partnership that was never going to change the game. Somerset were too far behind in the match, Pretorius had played such innings before, but they had always had their term and the Surrey team were brimming with intent and their supporters with expectation. It was only a matter of time before Pretorius launched one expansive drive too many, Foakes dived to his right and James Taylor had his first wicket of the match. Somerset 117 for 8. Pretorius 55. Somerset lead 33. Of the partnership of 79, Gregory’s contribution was 17. Within two overs, Jack Leach had been caught at slip and Surrey needed 36 to win. .

Thirty-six to win, but the niceties of cricket’s regulations are always followed to the letter and tea, being due, was taken. As can only be the case in such circumstances, when the players returned, the Surrey innings was little more than a formality. They did lose two wickets, Dom Sibley for 3, caught flicking Aldridge to Lammonby at square leg, and Ollie Pope for 1, leg before wicket to Josh Davey. They might have lost Rory Burns too. He edged Aldridge above Gregory’s head at second slip. Gregory did get his hands to the ball, but it fell to earth. And then, in the sixth over of the innings, it was over, Burns and Jamie Smith finding the boundary five times between them, the last, from Smith, a flick to fine leg which took Surrey over the line.

There was almost a session left unused in the day and spectators were invited back onto the outfield for a further half hour. Perhaps Surrey supporters picked over with one another the embers of a match which had edged Surrey’s way from the first afternoon, but which had taken that sudden blaze of Surrey dominance on the third afternoon to end so early. For this travelling Somerset supporter, all that was left was to walk along the Albert Embankment and past the Palace of Westminster heading for Embankment station in glorious April sunshine with nearly four sessions of cricket not to be played. As I left the Jubilee Bridges dozens of runners at the tail of the London Marathon were dragging slow, tired legs along The Embankment with their supporters still waving their placards of encouragement. The runners’ labouring progress looked, for all the world, like the remnants of a defeated army retreating from the field. It was an image, the relevance of which to my day was not lost on my numbed mind.

Result. Somerset 283 (T.A. Lammonby 76, L. Gregory 62, J. Clark 5-68) and 119 (M. Pretorius 54, D.J. Worrall 3-16, J. Clark 3-24). Surrey 367 (R.J. Burns 76, J.L. Smith 58, D.W. Lawrence 55*, L. Gregory 3-46) and 36 for 2. Surrey won by eight wickets. Surrey 22 points. Somerset 4 points.