Author: Marcus Hook

After lifting the County Championship trophy for the third time in as many years, Rory Burns rated this summer’s defence of Surrey’s crown as the toughest.

Back in June, they also came up short in the final of the 20-over Charlotte Edwards Cup.

After Surrey were confirmed as county champions for a third successive season, head coach Gareth Batty hailed Rory Burns as one of the great county captains, alongside the likes of Adam Hollioake and Stuart Surridge.

Surrey’s ten-wicket victory over Durham places them on the verge of clinching a third consecutive County Championship title.

Marcus Hook previews the T20 Finals Day – as Surrey bid for long-overdue glory in the competition.

As the next round of matches coincides with the end of the third and final Test against Sri Lanka and the start of the white-ball series with Australia, the South Londoners will be without all of their England players.

The South Londoners’ five-wicket victory over Durham on Tuesday night hung in the balance when Curran junior joined Sibley in the middle, with the Oval outfit still needing 110 in 13.4 overs after Durham had recovered from a poor start to post 162-8.

The South Londoners’ innings and 63-run County Championship victory sees the gap between them and the chasing pack increase from 23 to 35 points with four matches to go in Division One.

It has been widely reported that Surrey are on the brink of signing the former England seamer Matthew Fisher from Yorkshire.

The game was still in the balance until Saqib Mahmood took three wickets in six balls to rip the stuffing out of Brave.

Blake, who hit a maiden century, found a useful ally in 19-year-old Sykes (87 not out from 56 balls), making only his second appearance for Surrey, to complete a rebuild after his side had slumped to 53-3.

I’ll never forget where I was, 13 years ago, when I heard about the footballer Gary Speed, having only just seen him on TV the day before.

As soon as the awful news reached me, I was transported – as I often was when I thought of Thorpey – back to his county debut in 1988, which I count myself fortunate to have witnessed.

The One-Day Cup has seen Dom Sibley don the moniker of ‘King of the out-grounds’ since Surrey have swapped the sophisticated surroundings of The Oval for 50-over trips to Rugby School, Guildford and Kibworth.

Surrey sank to 11-3 on a well-grassed Oval pitch before spinner Ben Kellaway become the first man in 44 years to claim wickets with right and left-arm bowling in an official county game.

The performances of Gus Atkinson and Jamie Smith in England’s three-Test whitewash of West Indies have had the pundits positively purring at the injection of new, young, Surrey-manufactured talent

We’ve reached that point in the domestic season when county cricket goes its separate ways for a month or so.

Set 184 to win, the hosts were in a spot of bother when Curran junior took guard at 27-3.

Four Surrey players have been named in England’s squad for the first two Test matches against West Indies.