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.

Second day – Heads held high

“Given it’s Surrey, we are without our leading bowler, and effectively batted one short, I think that’s been two pretty good days for Somerset. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely to be enough, but we are certainly making them work for it.” So said the text from the online watcher at the end of the day. That assessment pretty well tallied with my own thoughts after two days sitting in the stands at The Oval. Surrey are a powerful team. The top six in their batting order had all played Test cricket for England, 158 Test matches between them at the start of the match. Gus Atkinson had become one of England’s bowlers of choice and his pace stood out from the rest over the first two days. The pitch, whilst still green at lunch on the second day, did not offer as much assistance as it had on the first. The Somerset bowlers though stuck hard to their task but the class of the Surrey top six told.

The lunchtime scores, Somerset 87 for 0 from 29 overs on the first day, Surrey 99 for 0 from 29 overs on the second, suggested there was little between the sides at that stage. But Somerset had had to work harder to reach lunch without losing a wicket than Surrey. The second afternoon saw Surrey pull ahead. They were 218 for 3 at tea against Somerset’s 164 for 5, a clear shift in the balance of the match. And yet, the Somerset bowlers did not wilt. They bowled with persistence and vigour despite the fact that they must have been tiring, and the fielders for the most part retained their sharpness. In the evening session, the bowlers took four more wickets, holding Surrey to 321 for 7, 38 runs ahead. With the new ball only 16 overs old, there was the hope that the Surrey lead might be kept to two figures. As the text said, Surrey had been made to work for their advantage.

The day began with a crowd little more than half the size of that of the first day. They were overlooked by Surrey’s vertiginous Victorian Pavilion, the County Championship pennant atop it alongside the Union Flag and the Somerset flag. Surrey were exercising their right to fly the pennant for the third successive season, and the strength of their side and the depth of the squad that lies behind it demonstrated how difficult it would be to dislodge them. It was as if the edifice on which the pennant flew was a symbol of Surrey impregnability. They won the Championship seven years in succession in the 1950s, and the mind could not help but wonder if they might do it again in the 2020s. As to the weather, the day began under thin, high cloud which the sun occasionally found its way through, feeling uncomfortably hot when it did, at least on my skin.

As to the cricket, with me again sitting square near the top of the Galadari Stand, that began in the same classic toe-to-toe fashion as the first day. Somerset opened the bowling with Josh Davey, Vauxhall End, and Lewis Gregory, quashing the first-day rumours that he would not bowl, at the Pavilion End. Surrey, in the form of Rory Burns and Dom Sibley, seemed to score more freely than had Somerset, but after the first hour they were 48 for 0 from 15 overs, only a fraction over the three an over Somerset had scored on the first morning. Perhaps the impression of free scoring came from the five boundaries, four neatly driven through the arc between midwicket and straight mid-off, with the fifth deftly late cut past the three slips by Burns off Davey. There were less beaten bats than on the first morning, but Davey beat Burns, and Kasey Aldridge, when he replaced Davey, beat Sibley, the Surrey members in the Pavilion expressing their appreciation of the quality of those two balls with applause.  

Surrey added another 51 runs in the second half of the morning but struck only three fours off the bat. The scoring was maintained largely through the assiduous gathering of singles with Burns outscoring Sibley by nearly two to one. Worryingly from a Somerset perspective there was little sign of the batters being beaten until, curiously, Tom Lammonby replaced Aldridge at the Vauxhall End. He beat Sibley twice in an over and found the edge of Burns’ bat, the ball running past the slips towards the Pavilion for a sharp two, “Running Burnsie!” the shout of encouragement from the crowd. With lunch approaching, Burns went to his fifty off Gregory with another late cut for two, this through backward point towards the gasometer. For the spinner’s over before lunch, Jack Leach was given the ball from the Pavilion End, Burns tried to sweep him, and top-edged the ball towards long leg where it fell safely two thirds of the way to the boundary. Another two to Burns. This time the shout was, “What a rotten shot.” Credit, it seems from Surrey supporters for their team when it is due, and not when it is not.

For the second day in succession, I spent much of the lunch interval on the outfield with hundreds of others in now glorious, if uncomfortably hot, sunshine. The twenty, thirty and forty-somethings that make up such a large proportion of The Oval crowd were there in numbers too. Many of them sat in small circles picnicking, salad being the snack of choice for many. There were too, quite a few unfamiliar faces in Somerset colours which is often the case at London matches. It seems there is a significant Somerset cricket-watching diaspora in London, one-time home of the Somerset Wyverns. The area of the outfield in front of the Bedser Stand, on the other side of the Pavilion from the old Laker and Lock Stands, appeared to have been reserved for small, informal, often father and son, games of soft-ball cricket. As I walked up the steps at the side of the old Laker Stand, one Somerset supporter summed up the feeling at the end of the morning, “They are on top.”

When play restarted, I gave best to the sun and retreated to a seat in the shade under the Oval Conference Centre at the Vauxhall End, roughly behind a fourth slip position to the right-hander facing the bowling from the Pavilion End. It quickly became apparent that the pitch is closer to the seating there than square of the wicket in the Galadari Stand. I was an over or two late taking my seat but entered the stand in time to see the left-handed Burns driving Migael Pretorius sharply through mid-off to the boundary in front me. He had already clipped Pretorius behind square and driven Davey through midwicket, both for four, giving every impression of intending to take the game by the scruff of the neck, with little sign of Somerset breaking through. When I sat down the score was 118 for 0, 165 behind.

Three overs later, the afternoon brought some hope to Somerset supporters as, for a few overs, it began to follow a similar pattern to the first afternoon. Davey, running in from the Pavilion End got a ball to lift sharply. It surprised Burns whose head jerked back sharply as he tried to withdraw his bat. The ball caught the edge, flew low to Aldridge, the only slip, standing almost at second, where he took the catch knee-high while falling to his left. Surrey 129 for 1. Burns 76. Deficit 154. Another three overs and Ollie Pope attempted to cut Gregory, the ball moved in a shade, no more, but late. Pope was tucked up and chopped the ball onto his stumps. “Yeah!” said a Somerset supporter, more relieved than excited. Surrey 136 for 2. Pope 1. Deficit 147.

Surrey were 37 runs ahead of where Somerset had been when they lost their second wicket. The new arrival, Jamie Smith, quickly dispatched Davey through midwicket to the old Laker and Lock boundary and Gregory through extra cover to the gasometer boundary. But then, the persistence of the Somerset bowlers slowed Surrey as the Surrey bowlers had slowed Somerset on the first afternoon. There was only one more boundary, also from Smith, in the next dozen or so overs, 52 runs coming in singles and twos off Davey, Gregory, Aldridge and an over from Jack Leach. Smith caused a few anxious gasps when he played and missed several times trying to play Gregory wide of off stump, but Sibley played his trademark anchor role, inching his way unforgivingly forward. He finally reached his fifty from 151 balls with an on drive off Leach to deep midwicket on the Archbishop Tenison side of the ground. Surrey 184 for 2.

The Somerset bowlers were keeping their nerve, but Surrey were making solid progress and the gap between the scores was narrowing. “Can’t you do something about Smith?” asked the text from the online watcher. I couldn’t, but off the next ball, Sibley advanced down the pitch to Leach and appeared to try to clear the Oval Conference Centre behind me, played around the ball and had his off stump pushed back a couple of inches. “Anyone who can get Sibley to gallop down the wicket must have something,” the online comment. A relieved cheer from Somerset supporters the response at the ground. Surrey 188 for 3. Sibley 53 in eight minutes under four hours. He had reached the boundary just three times during his vigil. Surrey deficit 95. Somerset clinging on.

In the nine overs to tea after the departure of Sibley, 30 more runs were added, a continuation of the hard-fought three runs or so an over at which the match had largely been played. There was a straight drive from Foakes to the Pavilion off Pretorius, a square cut, also from Foakes, off Lammonby, brought on for some pre-tea overs, and an exquisite, flowing extra cover drive from Smith off Leach in the penultimate over which crossed the gasometer boundary. Otherwise, three well-placed twos and the remainder in singles kept the Surrey score moving and their lead slowly rising. Their score at tea, 218 for 3. The shrinking deficit, 65. Despite the efforts of their bowlers, the pressure on Somerset was growing and it was noticeable that the scoring rate had begun to rise above three an over.

As the afternoon had progressed, the Surrey crowd could be heard growing in confidence about their team’s performance. The chatter became more relaxed and steadily more voluminous. With tea approaching, it was as if a wall of chatter was emanating from the, now packed, crowd in front of the Pavilion and the old Laker and Lock Stands. The shape of the ground, or rather the stands at each of the ends may have contributed to this. The tall Laker and Lock area and the equally tall Bedser Stand act like two wings bending forward from either side of the Pavilion, edging towards the huge concave Conference Centre Stand at the Vauxhall End. I imagined the wings at the Pavilion End projecting the sound of the chatter across the outfield towards the Conference Centre and the curve of the Conference Centre acting like some great radar dish collecting the sound and reflecting it onto the crowd in front of it. However it was generated, it was a sound unlike any I had heard at any other Championship match.

The tea interval, and half a dozen overs after it, was taken up walking around The Oval concourse, partly in front of the seating and partly behind the Stands. Two things took my attention. One was the succession of plaques around the ground dedicated to ex-Surrey players and their individual cricketing deeds for Surrey and England. Great names of the past such as Jim Laker, Ken Barrington and, as the plaque quote from John Woodcock, once considered the doyen of newspaper cricket correspondents, insisted he was always known as, Peter Barker Howard May. Although, in Somerset at the time, I seem to recall he was referred to as plain Peter May or PBH May. The sight of dozens of such plaques brought a twinge at the thought of their counterparts having disappeared from Taunton. The second thing that caught my attention was something you rarely see at Championship matches anywhere. Groups of the twenty to forty-somethings consuming significant quantities of alcohol and increasing in volume in a rather more boisterous way than the rest of the crowd.

By the time I had returned to my seat, Smith had passed his fifty from 83 balls and Foakes had established himself with 30 not out. Surrey had reached 236 for 3, adding 18 runs in the seven overs since tea. When Smith leaned back and cut Leach through point to the Galadari Stand to bring up the fifty partnership, the cheers, perhaps as much for the sheer quality of the stroke as for the partnership, rolled off the chatter around the ground and laughter erupted from the partying groups. The cricket was not all Surrey though. Foakes was beaten by Leach and when Smith tried to drive Aldridge back over his head with a swiftly swirling bat, he miscued and the ball and was caught by Gregory running back from mid-on. Surrey 246 for 4. Smith 58. Deficit 37.

Dan Lawrence, the new batter, soon glanced Aldridge to fine leg for four to register Surrey’s 250 before Davey took the new ball from the Vauxhall End and Gregory from the Pavilion End. Both Lawrence and Foakes were beaten in the first two overs and Lawrence, playing defensively, edged Davey just wide of Aldridge at the second of two slips, although the ball would have bounced well short of a third. Then, with the first ball of his second over, Gregory beat a hurried jab from Foakes and knocked his off stump out of the ground. One of the bails flew to where a leg slip would have stood and the ball rolled two yards towards point. Comprehensive as the commentators used to say. Surrey 266 for 5. Foakes 42. Deficit 17. Somerset fighting.

As Somerset pegged Surrey back, tension began to bite and Aldridge took a step forward at second slip. Lawrence attempted to keep out a ball from Davey, edged, and again the ball flew wide of Aldridge. He reached low, but it evaded him and ran for four. Aldridge stayed down on one knee, his hand holding his forehead as he looked forlornly after the ball. Did it carry? Impossible to tell from my Vauxhall End seat and the reaction of spectators around the ground suggested not from anywhere else either. A replay suggests it might have fallen a foot short but, as so often with these things, the crucial bounce looked to have happened between frames. So close. Surrey four runs closer to Somerset’s score. Ryan Patel, batting with three slips, pulled Davey for four and was then beaten to ratchet the tension up another notch.

A notch further when the left-handed Patel attempted to pull Gregory, was deceived by some late away movement and skyed the ball to backward square leg. Tom Abell set off from first slip like the proverbial hare in an attempt to get there, but he was beaten by another hare, Leach, running flat out from fine leg and catching the ball inches off the ground with a full-length dive to a huge cheer from the still large number of Somerset supporters in the ground. Surrey 282 for 6. Patel 7. Deficit 1. Somerset were fighting but the Surrey score still rose as Lawrence and Jordan Clark launched a short, sharp counterattack. Three fours came in two Pretorius overs, although one, from Clark was edged, if well wide of the slips. Five singles from an Aldridge over took Surrey past 300, but still Somerset fought. A hurried drive from Clark gave Pretorius his first wicket when he edged the ball to Rew. Surrey 305 for 7. Clark 9. Lead 22. The wicket brought Gus Atkinson to the crease and Aldridge found himself being pulled into the Galadari Stand in front of the gasometer and, two balls later, driven through the off side to the Bedser Stand boundary to cheers from what, as the tussle between the sides heightened, had become a very noisy Oval.

Then, with the match beginning to boil, the day ran out of time. Surrey closed with a lead of 38 and, despite the fight from Somerset and the loss of four wickets in the evening session, remained intent on taking the game to Somerset. It had been a day in which both sides had given their all, but in which Surrey had ended with the upper hand. It was also a day after which the supporters of both sides had been able to walk out of the ground with their heads held high.

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