Surrey County Cricket Club (Surrey CCC) is a
first-class club in
county cricket, one of eighteen in the domestic
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
structure of
England and Wales
England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...
. It represents the
historic county of
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
, including areas that now form
South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, London Borou ...
. Teams representing the county are recorded from 1709 onwards; the current club was founded in 1845 and has held first-class status continuously since then. Surrey have played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England, including every edition of the
County Championship
The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...
(which began in 1890).
The club's home ground is
The Oval
The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...
, in the
Kennington
Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between the ...
area of
Lambeth
Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...
in South London. They have been based there continuously since 1845. The club also has an 'out ground' at
Woodbridge Road
The Sports Ground, Woodbridge Road is a cricket ground in Guildford, Surrey. The ground was given to the town in trust in 1911 by Sir Harry Waechter, Bart. Guildford Cricket Club play their home matches on the ground. Surrey County Cricket C ...
,
Guildford
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...
, where some home games are played each season.
Surrey's long history includes three major periods of great success. The club was unofficially proclaimed as "Champion County" seven times during the 1850s; it won the title eight times in nine years from 1887 to 1895 (including the first official County Championship in 1890); and won seven consecutive titles from 1952 to 1958. Surrey won 23 of its 28 county matches in 1955, the most wins by any team in the County Championship and a record which can no longer be beaten (as fewer than 23 matches have been played each season since 1993). Surrey have won the County Championship 20 times outright (and shared once), a number exceeded only by
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
, with their most recent win being
in 2022.
The club's badge is the
Prince of Wales's feathers
The Prince of Wales's feathers is the heraldic badge of the Prince of Wales, during the use of the title by the English and later British monarchy. It consists of three white ostrich feathers emerging from a gold coronet. A ribbon below the corone ...
, used since 1915, as the
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
owns the land on which The Oval stands.
The club's traditional colour is chocolate brown, with players wearing brown caps and helmets, and the club is sometimes known by the nickname 'Brown Caps'.
History
Earliest cricket in the county
It is widely believed that cricket was invented by children living on the
Weald
The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...
in
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
or
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
times and that the game very soon reached neighbouring
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
. Although not the game's birthplace, Surrey does claim the honour of being the location of its first definite mention in print. Evidence from a January 1597 (
Julian calendar
The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...
– 1598 in the
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...
) court case confirms that ''creckett'' was played by schoolboys on a certain plot of land in
Guildford
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...
around 1550.
[Altham (1962), ch. 1.] In 1611, King
James I James I may refer to:
People
*James I of Aragon (1208–1276)
*James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327)
*James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu
*James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347)
*James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
gave to his eldest son, Henry,
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
, the
manors of
Kennington
Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between the ...
and
Vauxhall
Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...
, where the home ground of Surrey – The Oval – is today. To this day, the
Prince of Wales's feathers
The Prince of Wales's feathers is the heraldic badge of the Prince of Wales, during the use of the title by the English and later British monarchy. It consists of three white ostrich feathers emerging from a gold coronet. A ribbon below the corone ...
feature on the club's badge.
Cricket became well established in Surrey during the 17th century and the earliest village matches took place before the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
. It is believed that the earliest county teams were formed in the aftermath of the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
in 1660. The earliest known
first-class match
First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...
in Surrey was
Croydon
Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...
v
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
at Croydon on 1 July 1707. In 1709, the earliest known inter-county match took place between
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
and Surrey at
Dartford Brent
Dartford Brent was an extensive area of common land on the outskirts of Dartford in Kent. Historically, it was the scene of a confrontation between King Henry VI and Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York in 1452 and in 1555 thousands of spectat ...
with £50 at stake. Surrey would continue to play cricket against other representative teams from that time onwards.
Probably its greatest players during the
underarm
The axilla (also, armpit, underarm or oxter) is the area on the human body directly under the shoulder joint. It includes the axillary space, an anatomical space within the shoulder girdle between the arm and the thoracic cage, bounded superior ...
era were the famous bowler
Lumpy Stevens
Edward "Lumpy" Stevens (1735 – 7 September 1819) was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket in the 18th century. He was an outstanding bowler who is generally regarded as the first great bowler in the game's his ...
and the wicket-keeper/batsman
William Yalden, who both belonged to the
Chertsey
Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in the ...
club.
1845–1864
Surrey CCC was founded on the evening of 18 August 1845 at the Horns Tavern in
Kennington
Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between the ...
, South London, where around 100 representatives of various
cricket clubs
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
in Surrey agreed a motion put by
William Denison
Sir William Thomas Denison (3 May 1804 – 19 January 1871) was Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1847 to 1855, Governor of New South Wales from 1855 to 1861, and Governor of Madras from 1861 to 1866.
According to Percival S ...
(the club's first secretary) "that a Surrey club be now formed". A further meeting at the Tavern on 22 October 1845 formally constituted the club, appointed its officers and began enrolling members. A lease on Kennington Oval, a former
market garden
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumer
A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or s ...
, had been obtained from the
Duchy of Cornwall
The Duchy of Cornwall ( kw, Duketh Kernow) is one of two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Lancaster. The eldest son of the reigning British monarch obtains possession of the duchy and the title of 'Duke of Cornwall' at ...
– which owned the land – by a Mr Houghton, and the ground's first game had been during the 1845 season.
Mr Houghton was of the old
Montpelier Cricket Club
The Montpelier Cricket Club was prominent in English cricket from about 1796, when it began to compete against Marylebone Cricket Club and other leading "town clubs", until 1845 when its members were the prime movers in the formation of Surrey Co ...
, 70 members of which formed the nucleus of the new Surrey County club. The
Honourable Fred Ponsonby, later the
Earl of Bessborough
Earl of Bessborough is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1739 for Brabazon Ponsonby, 2nd Viscount Duncannon, who had previously represented Newtownards and County Kildare in the Irish House of Commons. In 1749, he was given t ...
was appointed as the first vice-president.
Surrey's inaugural first-class match was against the
MCC at The Oval at the end of May, 1846. The club's first inter-county match, against
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, was held at The Oval the following month and Surrey emerged victorious by ten wickets. However, the club did not do well that year, despite the extra public attractions at The Oval of a Walking Match and a Poultry Show. By the start of the 1847 season the club was £70 in debt and there was a motion to close. Ponsonby proposed that 6 life members be created for a fee of £12 each. His motion was duly passed, and the club survived. The threat of construction on The Oval was also successfully dispelled in 1848 thanks to the intervention of
Prince Albert.
In 1854, Surrey secured a new 21-year lease on their home ground and the club went on to enjoy an exceptionally successful decade.
being “Champion County” seven times from 1850 to 1859 and again in 1864. In 1857, all nine matches played by the county resulted in victory. This was the time of great players like
William Caffyn
William Caffyn (2 February 1828 – 28 August 1919), known as Billy Caffyn, was an English cricketer who played mainly for Surrey County Cricket Club and various England representative sides. He played in 200 first-class cricket matches, 89 of t ...
,
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
,
HH Stephenson
Heathfield Harman "HH" Stephenson (3 May 1833 in Esher, Surrey – 17 December 1896 in Uppingham, Rutland) was a famous English cricketer during the game's roundarm era.
Stephenson bowled right-arm fast roundarm, batted right-handed and was a ...
and
Tom Lockyer
Thomas Alun Lockyer (born 3 December 1994) is a Welsh professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Luton Town and the Wales national team.
Club career Bristol Rovers
Lockyer was born and raised in Cardiff. He joined Cardiff ...
, and a fine captain in
Frederick Miller
Frederick Edward John Miller (November 24, 1824 – May 11, 1888) was a brewery owner in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Born as ''Friedrich Eduard Johannes Müller'' in Riedlingen, Württemberg, he founded the Miller Brewing Company at the Plank Road Br ...
. An incident in 1862, at the instigation of
Edgar Willsher
Edgar "Ned" Willsher (22 November 1828 – 7 October 1885) was an English cricketer known for being a catalyst in the shift from roundarm to overarm bowling. A left-handed bowler, and useful lower-order batsman, Willsher played first-class crick ...
in a match between Surrey and
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, led to the introduction of
overarm bowling
In cricket, overarm bowling refers to a delivery in which the bowler's hand is above shoulder height.
When cricket originated all bowlers delivered the ball underarm, where the bowler's hand is below waist height. However, so the story goes, Joh ...
into cricket.
1866–1882
Following a brilliant season in 1864 when the team won eight and drew three of its eleven first-class matches, Surrey went into free-fall in the latter half of the 1860s, owing to the decline of key players Caesar, Stephenson and Mortlock and a puzzling inability to find quality bowlers to support the incomparable
James Southerton
James Southerton (16 November 1827 – 16 June 1880) was a professional cricketer who played first-class cricket between 1854 and 1879. After a slow start, he became, along with Alfred Shaw, the greatest slow bowler of the 1870s. He played in th ...
,
[''Baily’s Magazine of Sports and Pastimes'', Volume 17 (1870) p. 25] whose combination with wicket-keeper
Ted Pooley virtually carried the team. Although Southerton broke many bowling records and
Harry Jupp
Henry Jupp (19 November 1841 – 8 April 1889) was an English professional cricketer who was the opening batsman for Surrey County Cricket Club from 1862 to 1881. He played in the first-ever Test match, scoring England's first Test fifty.
Li ...
developed into the most prolific scorer among professional batsmen, Surrey's record in purely county matches during the seventeen seasons from
1866
Events January–March
* January 1
** Fisk University, a historically black university, is established in Nashville, Tennessee.
** The last issue of the abolitionist magazine '' The Liberator'' is published.
* January 6 – Ottoman tr ...
to
1882 was 59 victories, 107 losses, two ties and 37 drawn games. The team bottomed out in
1871 when they did not win a single county match for the only time until 2008. Southerton, except in 1872 when fast bowler
James Street helped him to win seven of twelve games, had no adequate support in bowling after underarm left-arm spinner
George Griffith
George Griffith (1857–1906), full name George Chetwynd Griffith-Jones, was a prolific British science fiction writer and noted explorer who wrote during the late Victorian and Edwardian age. Many of his visionary tales appeared in magazin ...
declined, and except when Richard Humphrey achieved prominence in 1872 the batting depended almost entirely on Jupp. The fielding was also generally below the standard expected of first-class cricket.
The appointment of renowned sports administrator
Charles Alcock as secretary of the club – a paid position for the first time
– in 1872 coincided with an improved performance, but despite qualification rules being changed so that Southerton played every game for the county (up to 1872 he did not play whenever
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
, the county of his birth, had a match on) Surrey declined to a lowly record in
1873. As mainstays Jupp and Southerton declined from
1875
Events
January–March
* January 1 – The Midland Railway of England abolishes the Second Class passenger category, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies follow Midland's lead during the rest of the ...
, matters were ameliorated by the discovery of class amateur batsmen in
Bunny Lucas,
Walter Read
Walter William Read (born 23 November 1855 in Reigate, Surrey, died 6 January 1907 in Addiscombe Park, Surrey) was an English cricketer. A fluent right hand bat, he was also an occasional bowler of lobs who sometimes switched to quick overa ...
and
William Game
William Henry Game (2 October 1853 – 11 August 1932) was a cricketer for Sherborne School, Oxford University cricket team, Oxford University and Surrey County Cricket Club, Surrey. He also played rugby union as an outside back for Oxford Unive ...
, but apart from
1877 Surrey never won half as many games as they lost and the inadequacy of the bowling on flat Oval pitches was a severe handicap.
Dominance in the early years of the Championship (1883–1899)
In 1880, although the county's record remained bad, Surrey began to make the steps that would return them to the top of the table with the appointment of
John Shuter
John Shuter (9 February 1855 – 5 July 1920) was a cricketer who played for England and Surrey in the late 19th century. He is best remembered for captaining Surrey to a string of wins in the County Championship around the time it became offic ...
as captain and of Walter Read – established as a class batsman but previously available only in August – as assistant secretary. The death of Southerton and retirement of other veterans paved the way for new talent in
Maurice Read
John Maurice Read (9 February 1859 – 17 February 1929 in Winchester, Hampshire) was an English professional cricketer. Harry Altham wrote of him in ''A History of Cricket'', "Maurice Read had been recognised as a dashing player up to Test ma ...
,
William Roller
William Eyton Roller (1 February 1858 — 27 August 1949) was an English cricketer who played for Surrey from 1881 to 1890 when they were Champion County six years running.
Roller was born in Clapham Common, the son of Frederick William Ro ...
, left-arm spinner
Edward Barratt and pace bowler
Charles Horner to lay a foundation for long-term success in the middle 1880s. With the rapid rise of
George Lohmann
George Alfred Lohmann (2 June 1865 – 1 December 1901) was an English cricketer, regarded as one of the greatest bowlers of all time. Statistically, he holds the lowest lifetime Test bowling average among bowlers with more than fifteen wicke ...
in
1885, Surrey challenged for the unofficial title of Champion County for the first time in twenty years; then, by winning 32 of 42 matches in 1887, 1888 and 1889, Surrey were first or equal first in the final three years before official County Champions emerged.
Surrey then won official County Championship titles in 1890–1892 under John Shuter. After a disappointing season in 1893 when their batting failed on Oval pitches rendered fiery by several dry winters and springs,
Kingsmill Key took over and led Surrey to further titles in 1894, 1895 and 1899. Leading players in these years were batsman
Bobby Abel
Robert Abel (30 November 1857 – 10 December 1936), nicknamed "The Guv'nor", was a Surrey and England opening batsman who was one of the most prolific run-getters in the early years of the County Championship. He was the first England player ...
and a trio of top bowlers: George Lohmann,
Bill Lockwood and
Tom Richardson. In 1899, Abel's unbeaten 357 helped Surrey to a mammoth total of 811 against
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
; both scores remain club records over 100 years later.
1900–1939
![Jack Hobbs 1925](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Jack_Hobbs_1925.jpeg)
The start of the 20th century brought a decline in Surrey's fortunes, and they won the title only once during the next fifty years, in 1914. At the request of Surrey's captain
Lord Dalmeny, the
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
(later
Edward VIII
Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India from 20 January 19 ...
) allowed the use of his
feathers
Feathers are epidermal growths that form a distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on both avian (bird) and some non-avian dinosaurs and other archosaurs. They are the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates and a premier ...
on the club badge. The club's most famous player was
Jack Hobbs
Sir John Berry Hobbs (16 December 1882– 21 December 1963), always known as Jack Hobbs, was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey from 1905 to 1934 and for England in 61 Test matches between 1908 and 1930. Known as "The Mast ...
, who began playing for the county in 1905, and he had a notable opening partner till 1914 in
Tom Hayward
Thomas Walter Hayward (29 March 1871 – 19 July 1939) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Surrey and England between the 1890s and the outbreak of World War I. He was primarily an opening batsman, noted especially for the qual ...
, who scored 3,518 runs in all first-class cricket in 1906, equalled
C.B. Fry
Charles Burgess Fry (25 April 1872 – 7 September 1956) was an English sportsman, teacher, writer, editor and publisher, who is best remembered for his career as a cricketer. John Arlott described him with the words: "Charles Fry could b ...
's record of 13 centuries in a season and, in one six-day period, scored two centuries at
Trent Bridge
Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nottingham. Trent Bridge is also ...
and two more at Leicester. He scored his hundredth hundred at The Oval in 1913. Between the two World Wars, Surrey often had a good side, but it tended to be stronger in batting than in bowling; Hobbs played until 1934 with another good opening partner in
Andrew Sandham. Hobbs scored more runs (61,760) and compiled more centuries (199) in first-class cricket than any other player in the history of the game. In recognition of his contribution to the team, the
eponym
An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Usage of the word
The term ''epon ...
ous Jack Hobbs Gates were inaugurated at The Oval.
The side was not completely bereft of quality in the bowling department, however:
Alf Gover
Alfred Richard Gover (29 February 1908 – 7 October 2001) was an English Test cricketer. He was the mainstay of the Surrey bowling attack during the 1930s and played four Tests before and after the Second World War. He also founded and ran ...
took 200 wickets in both 1936 and 1937, a fine achievement for a fast bowler on the flat Oval track. The Oval pitches of this period tended to be very good for batting, and many matches were drawn. The club captain for much of this period was the affable and bohemian
Percy Fender
Percy George Herbert Fender (22 August 1892 – 15 June 1985) was an English cricketer who played 13 Tests for his country and was captain of Surrey between 1921 and 1931. An all-rounder, he was a middle-order batsman who bowled mainly l ...
, whose closest colleague was the England captain of
Bodyline
Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia. It was designed to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's leading batsman ...
fame (or infamy),
Douglas Jardine
Douglas Robert Jardine ( 1900 – 1958) was an English cricketer who played 22 Test matches for England, captaining the side in 15 of those matches between 1931 and 1934. A right-handed batsman, he is best known for captaining the English ...
. In 1938, Surrey played a home match away from The Oval for the first time, at
Woodbridge Road
The Sports Ground, Woodbridge Road is a cricket ground in Guildford, Surrey. The ground was given to the town in trust in 1911 by Sir Harry Waechter, Bart. Guildford Cricket Club play their home matches on the ground. Surrey County Cricket C ...
in
Guildford
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...
.
After 1939, cricket took a break as the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
occupied the nation and The Oval was seized for
Government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
use.
1945–1958
From 1948 to 1959, Surrey were the pre-eminent English county team, finishing either first or second in the county championship in 10 seasons out of 12. They finished runners-up in 1948, shared the championship with
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
in 1950, won seven consecutive outright titles from 1952 to 1958, and were runners-up again in 1959. Their margins of victory were usually large. For example,
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
were runners-up in 1952 but finished 32 points behind.
Their great success was built on a remarkably strong bowling attack, with
Test
Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to:
* Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities
Arts and entertainment
* ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film
* ''Test'' (2014 film), ...
seamer
Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser (4 July 1918 – 4 April 2010) was a professional English cricketer, primarily a medium-fast bowler. He is widely regarded as one of the best English cricketers of the 20th century.
Bedser played first-class cricket fo ...
supported by the outstanding spin duo of
Tony Lock
Graham Anthony Richard Lock (5 July 1929 – 30 March 1995) was an English cricketer, who played primarily as a left-arm spinner. He played in forty nine Tests for England taking 174 wickets at 25.58 each.
Lock took 2,844 first-class wicket ...
and
Jim Laker
James Charles Laker (9 February 1922 – 23 April 1986) was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club from 1946 to 1959 and represented England in 46 Test matches. He was born in Shipley, West Riding of York ...
, the latter widely regarded as one of the finest ever orthodox off-spinners. Lock and Laker made the most of Oval pitches, which were receptive to spin, but the club's success was also due to the positive and attacking captaincy of
Stuart Surridge
Stuart Surridge (3 September 1917 – 13 April 1992) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Surrey. Though not known to be a remarkable batsman or bowler, Surridge became one of the most successful team captains in the history of Cou ...
, who won the title in all five years of his leadership from 1952 to 1956. The team fielded extremely well and a feature was some brilliant close catching. The team had excellent batsmen, especially the elegant
Peter May Peter May may refer to:
*Peter W. May, American businessman
*Peter May (cricketer) (1929–1994), English Test cricketer
*Peter May (writer)
Peter May (born 20 December 1951) is a Scottish television screenwriter, novelist, and crime writer. H ...
, and the determined and combative
Ken Barrington
Kenneth Frank Barrington (24 November 193014 March 1981), was an English international cricketer who played for the England cricket team and Surrey County Cricket Club in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a right-handed batsman and occasional leg-sp ...
.
1959–2004
A fallow period followed, and over the next forty years to 1998, Surrey won the County Championship only once, in 1971 during the career of England opener
John Edrich
John Hugh Edrich, (21 June 1937 – 23 December 2020) was an English first-class cricketer who, during a career that ran from 1956 to 1978, was considered one of the best batsmen of his generation. Born in Blofield, Norfolk, Edrich came from a ...
and under the captaincy of
Micky Stewart
Michael James Stewart (born 16 September 1932) is an English former cricketer, coach and administrator. A right-handed batsman, Stewart's international career was hampered by illness that curtailed his first overseas tour – serving as vice-ca ...
, but greater success was achieved in the shorter form of the game. In 1969, Surrey employed their very first overseas player: the very popular
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
i
leg break
Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...
bowler
Intikhab Alam
Intikhab Alam Khan (Urdu:) (born 28 December 1941) is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer who played in 47 Test matches and four One Day Internationals from 1959 to 1977. He captained Pakistan in 17 Tests between 1969 and 1975. He a ...
.
In addition to Intikhab, the Surrey attack in their Championship-winning side possessed four current or future England Test cricketers in
Geoff Arnold
Geoffrey Graham Arnold (born 3 September 1944) is an English cricketer who played 34 Test matches and 14 One Day Internationals for the England cricket team. His nickname of "Horse" was based on his initials of GG. He was a seam and swing bowl ...
,
Robin Jackman
Robin David Jackman (13 August 1945 – 25 December 2020) was an English cricketer, who played in four Test matches and 15 One Day Internationals for the England cricket team between 1974 and 1983. He was a seam bowler and useful tail-end bats ...
,
Bob Willis
Robert George Dylan Willis (born Robert George Willis; 30 May 1949 – 4 December 2019) was an English cricketer, who represented England between 1971 and 1984. A right-handed fast bowler, Willis is regarded by many as one of the greatest fa ...
and
Pat Pocock
Patrick Ian Pocock (born 24 September 1946) is a Welsh former cricketer, who played in 25 Test matches and one One Day International for the England cricket team between 1968 and 1985.
The cricket correspondent Colin Bateman opined, "The sel ...
. Edrich was subsequently appointed captain in 1973 and led Surrey to second position in the County Championship in his first year in charge and then secured Surrey their first limited overs silverware the following year with victory in the
Benson and Hedges Cup
The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals.
It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...
. Edrich's replacement as captain,
Roger Knight
Roger David Verdon Knight (born 6 September 1946) is an English administrator, cricketer and schoolmaster. He was awarded the OBE in 2007. He is an Honorary Life Member of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and was President of the club from ...
, led Surrey to
NatWest Trophy
The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom.
It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class cricket, first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scott ...
glory at
Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...
in 1982. Following Intikhab Alam, other overseas players to appear for the county included the talented
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
opening batsman
Geoff Howarth
Geoffrey Philip Howarth (born 29 March 1951) is a former New Zealand cricketer and former captain, who remains the only New Zealand captain to have positive win–loss records in both Test cricket and ODI cricket. He was the third most success ...
and two extremely fearsome fast bowlers, the
West Indian
A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...
Sylvester Clarke and the young Pakistani
Waqar Younis
Waqar Younis Maitla HI ( Punjabi, ur, ; born 16 November 1971) is a Pakistani cricket coach, commentator and former cricketer who captained Pakistan national cricket team. A right-arm fast bowler, Waqar Younis is regarded as one of the grea ...
.
Following a relative drought of first-class success, and with growing concern over the club's internal structure, the club's members forced a
Special General Meeting
An extraordinary general meeting, commonly abbreviated as EGM, is a meeting of members of an organisation, shareholders of a company, or employees of an official body that occurs at an irregular time.' The term is usually used where the group wou ...
in 1995.
Following the resultant internal restructuring, a change of fortunes soon followed as new captain
Alec Stewart
Alec James Stewart (born 8 April 1963) is an English former cricketer, and former captain of the England cricket team, who played Test cricket and One Day Internationals as a right-handed wicket-keeper-batsman. He is the fourth-most-capped Eng ...
– son of Micky – led the team to the
Sunday League title in 1996. This in turn proved to be the catalyst for further success under the captaincy of
Adam Hollioake
Adam John Hollioake (born 5 September 1971) is a professional athlete who is the only international cricketer to compete professionally as a Mixed Martial Artist. He has also competed as a professional boxer. However he is most well known as a cr ...
and the influence of
Keith Medlycott
Keith Thomas Medlycott (born 12 May 1965) is an English former cricketer, a left-arm spinner and middle order batsman for Surrey and Northern Transvaal. He is known in the game as "Medders".
First-class career
Medlycott's career in first-class ...
, who was county coach from 1997 to 2003. County Championship triumphs in
1999,
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
and
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
were complemented with
Benson and Hedges Cup
The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals.
It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...
victories in
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
and
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
, a
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...
Division Two title in
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
and the inaugural
Twenty20 Cup
The T20 Blast, currently named the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (E ...
in 2003. This was in spite of the death of the highly talented all-rounder
Ben Hollioake, Adam Hollioake's younger brother, who was involved in a fatal car accident in early 2002. That same year,
Ali Brown
Alistair Duncan Brown (born 11 February 1970), commonly known as Ali Brown, is a former English cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club, before moving to Nottinghamshire for the 2009 season. He was nicknamed "Lordy", in allusion to ...
posted what remains today a world record
List A score of 268 against
Glamorgan
, HQ = Cardiff
, Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974)
, Origin=
, Code = GLA
, CodeName = Chapman code
, Replace =
* West Glamorgan
* Mid Glamorgan
* South Glamorgan
, Motto ...
at The Oval, beating
Graeme Pollock
Robert Graeme Pollock (born 27 February 1944) is a former cricketer for South Africa, Transvaal and Eastern Province. A member of a famous cricketing family, Pollock is widely regarded as one of South Africa's greatest ever cricketers, and as ...
's former record score in the first of his two one-day double hundreds for Surrey. Adam Hollioake retired after the 2004 season.
2005–present
The run of success came to an end in 2005 when an ageing Surrey team was relegated to Division Two of the Championship, but an immediate recovery took place in 2006 as Surrey won promotion as champions of Division Two. This proved short-lived however, and they were once again relegated to Division Two in
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
, failing to win a single game for the first time since 1871 and losing their last two games by an innings. Despite the end of a successful period, Surrey did post a List A world record score of 496–4 from 50 overs, the first of which was a maiden, against
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
at The Oval on 29 April 2007; Ali Brown top scored with 176 from just 97 deliveries.
The 2000s saw the retirement of Alec Stewart,
Mark Butcher
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* Fin ...
,
Graham Thorpe
Graham Paul Thorpe, (born 1 August 1969) is a former English cricketer who played for England internationally and Surrey domestically. A left-handed middle-order batsman and slip fielder, he appeared in 100 Test matches.
Early life
Thorpe was ...
and
Martin Bicknell
Martin Paul Bicknell (born 14 January 1969) is a former English cricketer. He played in four Test matches, with the last two, against South Africa in 2003, coming ten years after the first two in the 1993 Ashes series. England had played 114 ...
, who all represented
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, as well as
Saqlain Mushtaq
Saqlain Mushtaq BND ( ur, ; born 29 December 1956) is a Pakistani cricket coach and former international cricketer who, as of February 2022, is the head coach of the Pakistani national cricket team. Regarded as one of the best spin bowlers in t ...
who played for
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. Another England player in
Mark Ramprakash
Mark Ravin Ramprakash (born 5 September 1969) is an English former cricketer. A right-handed batsman, he initially made his name playing for Middlesex, and was selected for England aged 21. A gifted, and one of the heaviest-scoring, English b ...
had joined Surrey in 2001 and, despite the club's travails, became the nineteenth player to pass 15,000 first-class runs for the county, doing so at an average of over 70. Surrey did not threaten to achieve a return to Division One of the County Championship after their relegation, or to win either 40-over competition until 2011. However, the club did have more luck in the Twenty20 Cup following victory in
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
, reaching finals day in
2004,
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
and
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
, but failing to win the competition. 2011 saw a revival in the team's fortunes. They achieved a return to Division One of the County Championship by the margin of a single point, as they won their final four games of the season. They also won the
CB40
The ECB40, last known as the Yorkshire Bank 40 (YB40) for sponsorship reasons, was a forty-over limited overs cricket competition for the English first-class counties. It began in the 2010 English cricket season as a replacement for the Pro40 a ...
competition.
After narrowly avoiding relegation in 2012 (a season greatly overshadowed by the sad death of talented young batsman
Tom Maynard
Thomas Lloyd Maynard (25 March 1989 – 18 June 2012) was a Welsh professional cricketer who played for Glamorgan and Surrey, and was selected for the England Lions tour to Bangladesh. On the night of his death, he was stopped by police in Wimb ...
in June
), Surrey finished bottom of the Division One table the following year, and the Cricket Manager,
Chris Adams, was sacked during the course of the season. Under the new management team of Alec Stewart, appointed director of cricket, and
Graham Ford
Graham Xavier Ford (born 16 November 1960) is a South African cricket coach and former cricketer.
Formerly the head coach of the Sri Lankan national cricket team, he was also the head coach of the Ireland cricket team. A right-handed batsman, h ...
, recruited before the 2014 season to be head coach, they won the Division Two title in 2015 and were also beaten finalists in the
Royal London Cup. In January 2016 it was announced that Ford had left to rejoin Sri Lanka as head coach.
Michael Di Venuto
Michael James Di Venuto (born 12 December 1973) is an Australian cricket coach and former first-class cricketer who represented both Australia (in One Day Internationals) and Italy. The bulk of his first-class cricket career was spent playing ...
took over as head coach for the 2016 season and after a poor start, with Surrey bottom of Division One after seven games, the team had a strong finish to the season, finishing in the middle of the Championship and again runners-up in the Royal London Cup. The 2018 season saw Surrey dominate the Championship, winning the title with two matches remaining.
Branding
Since the club's formation, its official colour has been chocolate brown. Traditionally, and in current first-class matches, Surrey fielders wear a brown
cricket cap
A cricket cap is a type of soft cap, often made from felt, that is a traditional form of headwear for players of the game of cricket, regardless of age or gender. It is usually a tight-fitting skullcap, usually made of six or eight sections, ...
with their
cricket whites
Cricket whites, also known as flannels, the kit, costume or uniform worn by most cricketers, and usually consists of trousers, shirt and a jumper.
Originally, as indicated by the name whites, flannels were exclusively white or cream. Today, man ...
, whilst batsmen wear a brown helmet. As a result, the club is occasionally nicknamed the 'Brown Caps'.
[
Surrey's badge is a brown shield with white ]Prince of Wales's feathers
The Prince of Wales's feathers is the heraldic badge of the Prince of Wales, during the use of the title by the English and later British monarchy. It consists of three white ostrich feathers emerging from a gold coronet. A ribbon below the corone ...
and the club name. The feathers were adopted in 1915, when Lord Rosebery
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, 1st Earl of Midlothian, (7 May 1847 – 21 May 1929) was a British Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from March 1894 to June 1895. Between the death of ...
(a former Surrey captain) obtained permission to use them from the Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
, whose Duchy of Cornwall
The Duchy of Cornwall ( kw, Duketh Kernow) is one of two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Lancaster. The eldest son of the reigning British monarch obtains possession of the duchy and the title of 'Duke of Cornwall' at ...
estate is the landlord
A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant (also a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). When a juristic person is in this position, the ...
of The Oval. The feathers on the badge incorporate the number 1845, the year of the club's establishment.
Surrey's limited overs
Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket or white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty ...
sides have played under a variety of names. The name Surrey Lions was used prior to 2006 and from 2010 to 2012, whilst from 2006 to 2010 they were the Surrey Brown Caps. They currently simply use the one-word name Surrey. They have also used numerous colours for their limited overs kits, including combinations of black, blue, brown, biege, gold, silver and green. Currently, players wear a predominantly black kit with fluorescent blue decoration for one-day matches, and black trousers with fluorescent blue shirts for T20 games.
Grounds
Since their formation, Surrey have played the overwhelming majority of their home matches at The Oval
The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...
. The stadium currently holds 25,500 people and is the third largest cricket ground in England, after Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...
and Edgbaston
Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre.
In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family an ...
. The Oval was first leased by the club in 1845 from the Duchy of Cornwall
The Duchy of Cornwall ( kw, Duketh Kernow) is one of two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Lancaster. The eldest son of the reigning British monarch obtains possession of the duchy and the title of 'Duke of Cornwall' at ...
and it remains so to this day.
The Oval is a long-standing and frequent Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to:
* Test cricket
* Test match (indoor cricket)
* Test match (rugby union)
* Test match (rugby league)
* Test match (association football)
...
venue for the England cricket team
The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) since 1903. Engla ...
, traditionally hosting the last Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to:
* Test cricket
* Test match (indoor cricket)
* Test match (rugby union)
* Test match (rugby league)
* Test match (association football)
...
of each English summer, in late August or early September.
Surrey play some matches each year at Woodbridge Road, Guildford
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...
, which holds 4,500 spectators. This is known as an 'out-ground' and currently hosts one County Championship match and one List A match each season. All other home matches are played at The Oval.
Surrey have played home matches at fourteen different out-grounds in total. The Oval hosted all but two Surrey home matches between 1846 and 1938. The following table gives details of every venue at which Surrey have hosted first-class, List A or Twenty20 cricket matches:
Rivalry with Middlesex
Surrey contest the London derby
Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
with Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...
, so-called because of the two traditional counties' proximity to, and overlap with, today's Greater London
Greater may refer to:
*Greatness, the state of being great
*Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality
*Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film
*Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record
*Greater (song), "Greate ...
, which was only created in 1965. The match generally draws the biggest crowds of the season for either team. In first-class cricket, Surrey have won more of the 256 London derbies than Middlesex, but the commonest result is the draw, while Middlesex have the slight edge in one-day cricket with 28 wins to Surrey's 26. Surrey have won 12 of the 17 Twenty20 London derbies.
Finances
Surrey County Cricket Club traditionally has relatively strong finances in terms of the county game (whose 18 counties' aggregate losses amounted to over £9 million in 2010), which is in no small part due to the capability of and agreement with its principal home ground, The Oval, to stage Test cricket on a yearly basis, alongside limited overs internationals. However, despite its reputation as an aggressively commercial club, this reputation took a hit with the club announcing pre-tax losses of £502,000 for the 2010 financial year, as turnover dropped by 20% to £20.5m. The club had previously benefited from a sunnier balance sheet due to the sale of ground naming rights and the re-development of the Vauxhall End at The Oval.
In the 2008 financial year, a year when the club did not win a single match in the Second Division Championship, Surrey had achieved pre-tax profits of £583,000 with a turnover of approaching £24 million, as membership swelled to 10,113. Record profit and turnover were announced for 2009 thanks to the staging of international cricket matches with the figures growing to £752,000 and £25.5 million, respectively. In 2010, the club was in a state of "financial strife," with twenty staff fired after lackluster attendance. The club began focusing under new leadership in 2011 on marketing the Oval.
Between 2007 and 2020, the club had a period of "steady revenue growth," and in 2020, the club was in the process of building a 95-room hotel across the road from the Oval House, to "diversify" its revenue mix. Surrey CCC launched a bond in September 2019 to fund redeveloping the Oval cricket ground. By 2020, its "off-field arm" brought in half the club's revenue. The club's finance director in March 2020 said a "record-breaking season" at the Kia Oval in 2019 would cushion the club from the financial impact of COVID-19. Events at the venue as well as "wider interest in cricket, resulted in a record year with annual pre-tax profit at around £6m that more than doubled the previous year’s profits and revenue of £40m," which was 30 percent higher than 2018.
Sponsorship
Surrey's current main sponsor is Kia Motors
Kia Corporation, commonly known as Kia (, ; formerly known as Kyungsung Precision Industry and Kia Motors Corporation), is a South Korean multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It is South Korea's second lar ...
, who paid £3.5m over five years to sponsor the shirts and the ground naming rights
Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...
for The Oval. The current kit manufacturer is Adidas
Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...
. Current secondary sponsors include Marston's Pedigree and BBC London 94.9
BBC Radio London is the BBC's local radio station serving Greater London and its surrounding areas. The station broadcasts across the area and beyond, on the 94.9 FM frequency, DAB, Virgin Media channel 937, Sky channel 0152 (in the Lond ...
.
Former main sponsors were Brit plc
Brit is an international general insurance and reinsurance group specialising in commercial insurance. It was acquired by Fairfax Financial in May 2015.
History
The Company was founded as ''Benfield & Rea Investment Trust'' in 1995. In 1996 it a ...
who paid £1.5m per year and AMP Limited
AMP is a financial services company in Australia and New Zealand providing superannuation and investment products, financial advice, and banking products (through AMP Banking) including home loans and savings accounts. Its headquarters is in Sy ...
who paid £250,000.
Players
Current squad
* No. denotes the player's squad number, as worn on the back of their shirt.
* denotes players with international caps.
* denotes a player who has been awarded a county cap
In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...
.
Notable former players
The following cricketers have made 200 or more appearances for Surrey in first-class, List A and Twenty20 cricket combined.
Club captains
Surrey have had 41 club captains
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
since 1846. The club captain leads the team on the field, unless he is on international duty, injured or otherwise unavailable. Surrey's most successful County Championship captain is Stuart Surridge, who won the title in each year of his captaincy in a five-year run stretching from 1952 to 1956. The current captain since his appointment in 2018 is Rory Burns
Rory Joseph Burns (born 26 August 1990) is an English cricketer who plays internationally for the England Test cricket team. In domestic cricket, he captains Surrey in first-class and List A cricket.
Burns made his Test debut in 2018. He le ...
. For the 2018 season onwards, the club announced the creation of a separate captain specifically for Twenty20
Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...
matches, with experienced bowler Jade Dernbach
Jade Winston Dernbach (born 3 March 1986) is a former professional cricketer. He represented Surrey (2003–2021), England (2011–2014) and Italy (2021).
He made his first-class debut in 2003 and won the NBC Denis Compton Award in 2004 and ...
being appointed to the role.
Officers
This list excludes those who are also listed above as notable players. Data is primarily taken from Surrey Yearbooks.
Presidents
The position of president is an honorary one. The president does not take a salary and is chosen from supporters of the club. Past holders of the seat have included former prime minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Sir John Major and a number of former players, an example of which is the 2011 president and 1960s Surrey slow left-arm bowler Roger Harman, who held the post for a single year, as has been customary in recent years. He was the 48th president.
Secretaries and chief executives
The chief executive is the official in charge of the day-to-day running of the club. Prior to 1993, the position was known as secretary.
The current chief executive is Steve Elworthy.
The previous chief executive was Richard Gould
Richard Alan Gould (born 1970) is an English sports administrator who is the current chief executive of Bristol City Football Club.
A son of a retired football manager Bobby Gould, he was educated at Bristol Grammar School (1981–1988) and the ...
, who served the club between 2011 and 2021 (after a six-year tenure at Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
)
Managing Directors of Cricket
* Gus Mackay, Angus Mackay 2008-2010
Directors of Cricket
* Alec Stewart
Alec James Stewart (born 8 April 1963) is an English former cricketer, and former captain of the England cricket team, who played Test cricket and One Day Internationals as a right-handed wicket-keeper-batsman. He is the fourth-most-capped Eng ...
2014["Graham Ford Appointed Head Coach"]
Retrieved 18 October 2013 to date
Managers
* Micky Stewart
Michael James Stewart (born 16 September 1932) is an English former cricketer, coach and administrator. A right-handed batsman, Stewart's international career was hampered by illness that curtailed his first overseas tour – serving as vice-ca ...
1979-1986
* Alan Butcher
Alan Raymond Butcher (born 7 January 1954) is a former English cricketer who is part of a family known for its strong cricketing connections. Although only selected to play for England on one occasion, he was lauded for his skills in first-clas ...
2006-2008
* Chris Adams 2008-2013
Coaching staff
Coaches
* Arthur McIntyre (1959-1976)
* Fred Titmus (1977-1978)
* Ian Salisbury
Ian David Kenneth Salisbury (born 21 January 1970) is an English former cricketer, one of the few leg-spinners to play Test cricket for England in recent years. Salisbury played in fifteen Tests and four One Day Internationals between 1992 an ...
(2012-2013)[
* ]Graham Ford
Graham Xavier Ford (born 16 November 1960) is a South African cricket coach and former cricketer.
Formerly the head coach of the Sri Lankan national cricket team, he was also the head coach of the Ireland cricket team. A right-handed batsman, h ...
(2014 [-2016) ][Michael di Venuto: Surrey appoint Australian as head coach]
Retrieved 29 February 2016
* Michael di Venuto
Michael James Di Venuto (born 12 December 1973) is an Australian cricket coach and former first-class cricketer who represented both Australia (in One Day Internationals) and Italy. The bulk of his first-class cricket career was spent playing ...
(2016[-2020)
* ]Vikram Solanki
Vikram Singh Solanki (born 1 April 1976) is an English cricket coach and former first-class cricketer. In limited over international cricket, he played over 50 One Day Internationals for England as a batsman and occasional off-spinner.
In coun ...
(2020-2022)
* Gareth Batty
Gareth Jon Batty (born 13 October 1977) is an English former cricketer who is best known as a spin-bowler. He has represented England in all formats and was the captain of Surrey County Cricket Club between 2015 and 2017. In October 2021, Batt ...
(2022 to date)
Scorers
* Keith Booth
Keith Eugene Booth (born October 9, 1974) is an American basketball coach and former National Basketball Association (NBA) player. Booth played college basketball at the University of Maryland from 1993 to 1997. He was an assistant coach at his a ...
1995-2017
* Phil Makepeace 2018-2020
* Debbie Beesley 2021 to present
Honours
First XI honours
* Champion County (3) – 1864, 1887, 1888; shared (1) – 1889
* County Championship
The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...
(20) – 1890, 1891, 1892, 1894, 1895, 1899, 1914, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1971, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2018, 2022; shared (1) – 1950
** Division Two (2) – 2006, 2015
* FP Trophy
The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom.
It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class cricket, first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scott ...
(1) – 1982
* Clydesdale Bank 40
The ECB40, last known as the Yorkshire Bank 40 (YB40) for sponsorship reasons, was a forty-over limited overs cricket competition for the English first-class counties. It began in the 2010 English cricket season as a replacement for the Pro40 a ...
(1) – 2011
* NatWest Pro40 League (2) – 1996, 2003
** Division Two (1) – 2000
* Twenty20 Cup
The T20 Blast, currently named the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (E ...
(1) – 2003
* Benson and Hedges Cup
The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals.
It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...
(3) – 1974, 1997, 2001
Second XI honours
* Second XI Championship
The Second XI Championship is a season-long cricket competition in England that is competed for by the reserve teams of those county cricket clubs that have first-class status. The competition started in 1959 and has been contested annually ever ...
(6) – 1966, 1968, 1975, 1988, 1992, 2009
* Second XI Trophy (1) – 2001
* Minor Counties Cricket Championship
The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...
(4) – 1939, 1950, 1954, 1955
Records
First-class records
Limited overs records
Twenty20 records
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Surrey CCC Yearbooks
* ''Playfair Cricket Annual
''Playfair Cricket Annual'' is a compact annual about cricket that is published in the United Kingdom each April, just before the English cricket season is due to begin. It has been published every year since 1948. Its main purposes are to revie ...
'' (various editions)
* ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
'' (various editions)
External links
*
Independent sites
Surrey CCC Supporters' Club
Surrey
at BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...
Surrey
at Cricinfo
ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...
Surrey
at CricketArchive
at ECB
Surrey
at Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
{{English first-class cricket clubs
1845 establishments in England
English first-class cricket teams
Sport in the London Borough of Lambeth
Cricket in Surrey
Cricket teams in London
Cricket clubs established in 1845