Triple champions Surrey offer blueprint for county cricket success in 21st century | Andy Bull
There’s a page or two left yet to turn in the cricket season, three final one‑day internationals between England and Australia, and the lees of the County Championship, which ends this weekend. It’s all due to finish at stumps next Sunday, eight days’ autumn-side of the equinox, although whether the weather allows it is another question.
The story of the year includes three Tests against a West Indies team who were a little worse than expected, and three against a Sri Lankan side who were a little better, four thumping victories in short order, one match at Old Trafford that looked as if it might go close, and the solitary defeat by eight wickets at the Oval.
You may have missed it, but the best red‑ball cricket played in England this year wasn’t at Lord’s, Edgbaston, Trent Bridge, or any of the Test venues, but the County Ground at Taunton when Somerset beat Surrey the week before last. These days the championship is the background music of the English season, and sometimes the volume is so low people hardly even seem to notice it’s on. But this match was worth catching, and Somerset’s live stream drew more than 750,000 viewers over the four days, which is a bigger audience than a lot of matches carried live on subscription TV pull in.
It had all the twists and turns, tension, snap and crackle of a great Test. Somerset, second in the table, and chasing their very first championship title, turned over league-leading Surrey in the last hour of play. Jack Leach and Archie Vaughan took seven wickets for 14 between them in 18 overs, and Somerset won with five minutes to spare. It was the sort of cricket that makes you stop what you’re doing.
Vaughan, 18, and only just out of school, was part of an intriguing cast, 11 internationals among them; some like Leach and Ben Foakes, still trying to prove they deserve another chance to play international cricket, others, like Rory Burns, already resolved that it’s behind them. Shakib Al Hasan was there, playing for Surrey on a one-game deal, Tom Curran had come out of retirement from red ball cricket especially for the match. He turned the game one way by belting 86 from No 7 in the order, till Tom Banton turned it back the other after coming in at No 11 to bat on a broken ankle when his team’s lead was only 149.
There’s more of a rivalry between the two teams than you might know. There were a couple of incidents on the field a decade or so ago, and, as two of the more successful sides on the circuit, they’ve been jostling with each other across the competitions for the last few years. The town‑mouse, country-mouse contrast between the clubs is part of it, as are their respective records in the championship. Curran, who has come in for some pitiless sledging from the crowd at Somerset over the years, didn’t need too much encouragement to turn out against them this time. It seemed as if Somerset’s victory had set up one of the great climaxes.
It hadn’t. Last week, Surrey made short work of a home match against a Durham side which included two teenage fast bowlers, and Somerset made such a mess of their away game against Lancashire that the title was settled, in the end, in the early hours of Friday, when they lost their last four wickets before it was time to take the teabag out of the pot. The championship, like the game itself, is made to wax and wane. For the players, it’s a full‑time job, but for everyone else it only makes occasional demands on your attention.
So, Surrey have won their third consecutive title with a week to spare. They’re the first club to take three in a row since Brian Close’s Yorkshire in the late 60s. Which fits. They are the best-run club in the country.
They have natural advantages others don’t, but they know how to make the most of them too. And while Lancashire’s chief executive Daniel Gidney has been complaining that England players (and their agents) don’t care about the championship, it was noticeable how many of Surrey’s white ball internationals turned up for them when the title was on the line in the last two weeks.
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They may not be one of the great championship teams. There are even a couple of older Surrey sides who you would back to beat them more often than not.
But the club seem to have come closer than anyone else to figuring out how county cricket ought to work in the 21st century.
They’re partly a professional team, partly a player‑development hub, and partly a community resource. It’s one thing having money, another knowing what to do with it. Which is a lesson some people around the counties are going to learn the hard way when next year’s windfall comes in from the private investment in the Hundred.
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