Marcus Hook’s Surrey CCC column: Surrey’s title hopes are already approaching crunch point

It might seem premature, at the end of May, to suggest that Surrey’s chances of retaining their County Championship crown will be decided in the next fortnight, but both of the teams heading to Guildford to play them are already threatening to turn the second half of this year’s title race into a three-horse gallop.

Somerset, who are second behind Hampshire, and Yorkshire, in third, really will test a Surrey side that slipped to 65-5 in their first innings last week, against Kent at Beckenham, and then found themselves 92-6 in their first dig a few days ago up at Edgbaston, and in the grip of bottom-placed Warwickshire.

But for a masterly 57 not out from Ben Foakes – sorry, but I’m a huge fan – Surrey would have been following-on; which, last season, was an ignominy they inflicted on others. Only once were the tables turned – when they were skittled for 67 in the final game of 2018, by Essex.

Mustering just 188 on Tuesday, it was only the second time the Oval outfit had been bowled out for less than 200 in their first innings since May 2016.

Luck can often shape the destiny of the County Championship, and there’s every prospect it will play an even bigger part.

There’s the weather, of course, and when you’re struggling like Surrey were after day two in Birmingham, any prospect of rain can feel very welcome indeed. But, over the course of a season, the influence of the elements tends to even itself out.

However, since the move to eight teams in Division One and 10 teams in Division Two, you really don’t want any weather being around when you’re playing the weaker sides.

In Division Two, each county currently plays six sides twice and two teams only the once. In 2020 that will be the issue in Div One, with three being promoted this year and just one going down.

Next up, for Surrey, it’s Somerset. Given all the Weston-super-Mare festivals I went to as a kid – and for all the times the likes of Botham, Garner and Richards signed anything I waved under their noses – they should be my second team.

But what has to be applauded when it comes to today’s Somerset is that, like Surrey, they are built around a core of homegrown players; unlike Hampshire, whom they trounced last Saturday en route to lifting the Royal London One-Day Cup, in what could well be the last 50-over final ever to be played at Lord’s.

Finally, to end on a sad note, the Surrey cricket family was shocked this week to hear of the death of Nick Peters, who succumbed to cancer at the age of 51.

I’ll never forget the way Nick burst on to the scene in 1988, taking 4-47 on his first-class debut, opening the bowling for Surrey at the other end from Sylvester Clarke, to help shoot out Hampshire for 91.

After being released by Surrey two years later, Peters went into teaching, at Framlingham College and Trinity School, before studying for a new career as a clinical psychotherapist, which went on to include work at the Priory Hospital in Roehampton and Maudsley Hospital.