The Return of Depressed Surrey Fan!!!!

Hello again to all Surrey fans on this site, Guildford, Corporal, Gooch etc I hope you are still all with us.

Last season was a right off for me (as I knew it would be) due to work commitments. I always knew that my cricket season was going to be a few glances at the scores on my mobile phone and not alot else, and then following the tragic incident with Tom Maynard I didnt really follow the rest of the season. Anyway hope your all well and my main goal of staying up last season was achieved.

An interesting winter already, Smith,Solanki and Keedy all in and Spreigal,Jordan, Hyphen out. Disappointed to see Lancefield go as you know I had high hopes for him which will now be transferred to Rory Burns. Surprised to see Gary Wilson still with us, have never been convinced myself. Just read that Corporals young charge Matthew Dunn has signed an extension which is good news. Im sure we have not seen the last of the signings as we have only brought in three players and have lost 6-7.

Anyway I hope to to be back on the board regulary this coming season to enjoy all the highs and lows that are guarenteed being a Surrey fan

Hi Much Happier - I hope I can call you that with our having survived in Division One and last season now behind us.

Anyway, great to hear from you again. Thanks for all your work so we could enjoy the Olympics safely.

By his own admission, Goochie was badly affected by the Maynard tragedy but returned with a few lovely cameos late season. I'm sure he'll be fully back next year.

The Corporal, Carrot and one or two others are still putting in appearances here. The Corporal will be pleased about his young charge Matt 'Clive' Dunn. The officers' mess has been in mourning since the passing of the real Clive, aka Corporal Jones.

I'm warming to Wilson. Continuing the Dads' Army theme, he's hardly John Le Mesurier but a real sergeant type, barking out orders from behind the stumps. He might well be needed - Steve Davies is bizarrely in Australia at the moment with Elton John and other friends!

Lancefield was bl**dy unlucky not to get an opportunity this year. I wish him well, where ever and what ever he ends up doing.

Smith looks a great signing. I'm concerned Solanki's and Keedy's best days are behind them. Five months now and we'll see ....

Good to hear from you Guildfordbat

Hope Gooch is alright, dont mind admitting I went right off cricket for a few months following the tragic news found it hard to be enthusiastic.

Talking about admissions I have just bought a new house and hope to move in the new year, but I will be moving from my current home in Surrey (well close enough) into the county of Sussex

WHat are your thoughs on Smith?? A run machine if he plays regularly?? He is also better at the shorter stuff than people think so all we need is to sign Chris Gayle as our second T20 overseas player and it will be fireworks.

On a serious note Smith is a fantastic signing I ve already had a couple of friends who are armchairs crickets fans asking about getting to a few Surrey games this season to see him and with Tremlett out of the England picture we could have a strong line up this year.

How have the youngsters progressed last season??? Is Roy going to be as special as we hoped? Burns seemed to do well whenever I checked and both Meaker and Dernbach did well for England despite my reservations it was far to soon for them.

MuchHappier - from all I hear, Smith should not only bring runs but a more serious approach on and off the pitch.

Burns and Meaker were pick of the youngsters last season. Roy didn't kick on as I expected although understand he was badly affected by Maynard's death. Important season coming up for him.

A 17 year old batsman, Dominic Sibley, who is still at school has been signed on a 2 year summer contract. One to look out for.

Meanwhile, Dernbach will do fine if he becomes half as good as he thinks he is!

Welcome back MuchHappier and hope house move goes well. ChichesterSurreyFan puts in an occasional appearance on these boards so you will have some company in Sussex.

Agree all the above - Burns, did remarkably well last season; Meaker coming on well. Should also give a quick plug for Batty whose standing has risen with posters in light of his efforts as stand in captain at a time of crisis in the club.

Culture in parts of the club needed a big turn around. Looks like Smith won't stand any nonsense. Adams' influence should be diminished given that he was so tied up with the Hyphen experiment, which ultimately failed. Hope Roy and Dernbach in particular may benefit from a better working environment!

Pleased about "Clive's" extended contract. Hopefully (not least from Guildford's point of view) that the likes of the Viscount, Clive, Tremlett will mean that Lewis will fade into the background as far as first team is concerned.

Evening all! I'm trying to return for a hopefully less brief stint than before on the Surrey pages. Different commitments meant I struggled to get much cricket into the summer from a player or spectator perspective, same as Muchhappier by the sounds of things (lets not revert back to depressed just yet).

Tried my best to keep up with the county scores and news throughout the season however. The tragedy with Tom Maynard did put me off for a while as well to be honest.

The most brutal summary I can really give on the season was that if I'd been told at the start we'd spend most the season without Hyphen,Maynard,Ramps,Davies and Tremlett for whatever reasons I'd probably have settled for staying in Div 1. (I don't mean that in a heartless way as commenting on the events of last season in a detached manner inevitably sounds, but it's the simplest summary I've got in me!)

On next season I'm currently caught between optimism and unease thinking about the squad that's forming. I agree with Guildford on Smith being an excellent signing in the circumstances with solidity in the batting and leadership being exactly what we need at the moment.

Some of the others I'm not so sure about however. Solanki seems like an odd one to me as it once again puts Harinath back down the pecking order, and with the way Burns kicked on at the end of last season I can't see Harinath getting a chance near the top of the order. Keedy was a shock but also understandable in a way; with Kartik departing to make way for Smith we once again needed a spinner and they're bloody hard to find! As a proven player he may be a good short term signing but is once again a quick fix not a long term solution.

Personally I'd rather have seen Lancefield stay than Solanki come in. An experienced batsmen like him could do a lot of good in the squad for the likes of Roy and Burns in fairness however.

I'm not really sure what the CC side will look like at the moment:

1.Smith (c)
2.Burns
3.Solanki
4.De Bruyn
5.Roy
6.Davies (wk)
7.Harinath
8.Batty/Keedy
9.Meaker
10.Tremlett
11.Dernbach/Lewis/Linley

That would be my personal choice with the current squad.

Looking at that I wouldn't be at all surprised to see another batsmen signed before the start of the season as other than Wilson (who may be away with Ireland) there's really no more depth after those 7. Makes it feel even odder that Lancefield was let go really!

Obviously having Tremlett in there is very dependent on fitness but if we can get him on the pitch the bowling's looking pretty good. Personally I'd have Meaker above Dernbach in the pecking order now as I haven't been that convinced by Dernbach in the CC for a couple of seasons. I felt it was harsh to leave Linley out for him at points last season anyway.

I'd expect Adams to play both Keedy and Batty using De Bruyn as a third seamer if Tremlett isn't fit.

I reckon Harinath should keep his spot at 3, with Ansari dropping down the order, to leave a side something like:

G Smith (c)
R Burns
A Harinath
V Solanki
Z De Bruyn
S Davies (wk)
Z Ansari
G Batty
S Meaker
C Tremlett
G Keedy / J Dernbach (depending on pitch)

That should allow Ansari to bowl more and Burns should definitely benefit from batting with Smith. Wilson is unlucky to miss out after topping the averages in the few games he played last season, but he is first reserve.

Jbd - Ansari will be away at uni for the first part of the season. So in your line up that would presumably allow Roy a chance early in the season to establish himself. But it is of course entirely possible that any of Roy, Solanki, Harinath or the Brain may have played themselves sufficiently out of form that Ansari walks into the team when he is available.

Can't see Ansari getting much bowling in the cc. If the pitch is expected to take spin we will have two spinners in the team anyway. (Possibly 3 if KP puts in an odd guest appearance! )

Corporal - I'd probably start with Wilson ahead of Roy given how they both played last season, but definitely make sure that Roy gets a good few FC matches and plays almost all of the one-day stuff.

On Ansari bowling, I think it would be useful for Surrey to have a second decent spinner for when they play three seamers as De Bruyn did very little this year as the fifth bowler to make me feel confident in his bowling.

Jbd - agree Wilson would be a good bet for a run in the team. Tho' I can never quite keep up with Ireland's fixtures but they seem to come up fairly often and seem to conspire against regular inclusion in the Surrey first XI.

Until the Brain's upturn at the tail end of last season I would have predicted his form was verging on terminal decline. Ditto Sokanki was failing to get in the Worcs first team....There may be more space for Roy and/or Wilson than we might expect....

I imagine Smith will have a strong say in team selection. Could come in useful when there are decisions to be made on the bowling front eg as between Lewis, Viscount, Dernbach. At times (I imagine Guildford would agree ) Lewis was picked later in the season when he wasn't really delivering anything much on the bowling front. Possibly this was mainly because he was oddly (and expensively?) signed for two seasons at what must be the very tail end of his bowling career.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:

I imagine Smith will have a strong say in team selection. Could come in useful when there are decisions to be made on the bowling front eg as between Lewis, Viscount, Dernbach. At times (I imagine Guildford would agree ) Lewis was picked later in the season when he wasn't really delivering anything much on the bowling front. Possibly this was mainly because he was oddly (and expensively?) signed for two seasons at what must be the very tail end of his bowling career.

Agree in the strongest possible terms.

As regards other selections and possible factors:

* Graeme Smith is expected to miss 6 of the season's CC matches - we're going to need all the batting cover we can muster.

* I hope Steve Davies starts next season in the right frame of mind - Alec Stewart said at a members' forum circa September that Davies had been badly affected by Maynard's death. Whilst most of the squad are now back in full time training at the Oval, Davies is bizarrely in Australia wiith Elton John and a group of his friends.

* Tom Jewell could be a valuable team member and play the bridging role at number seven that Jordan was eventually unable to take. Jewell will need a good pre-season to make a claim.

* Never a good idea to bet too much of the pension fund on Tremlett being regularly fit and available!

A Steve Davies update is that according to his his Twitter he has now moved onto China with Elton!

He said that he still doesn't know when he is coming back, but seems to be having a good time, so I would hope that he will be well and truly ready to get back to Training when he gets home finally.

Hi Kidderlad -welcome to the board. Been some turbulent times down at the Oval... Yes it all sounds a bit mysterious. I'm half wondering whether at some point there will be a sudden announcement that Steve Davies has retired from all cricket with immediate effect in order to progress an ambition to become a rock star....

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Hi Kidderlad -welcome to the board. Been some turbulent times down at the Oval... Yes it all sounds a bit mysterious. I'm half wondering whether at some point there will be a sudden announcement that Steve Davies has retired from all cricket with immediate effect in order to progress an ambition to become a rock star....

Thanks, glad I found this place!

Yes, that would be typical of Surrey, we offer a new three year deal to somebody who then totally quits the game!

Welcome to 606v2 Kidderlad.

Yes the Davies situation is odd at the moment. Can only hope it leaves him 'refreshed' shall we say for when he returns! Desperately need him to find form this season given his versatility in where he bats in the order and his ability in all formats.

Corporal - What's the latest news on KP in terms of his Surrey contract. I can only guess he'll sign a full time England contract again after that century in which case we can only guess he'll be staying. Not that Surrey will see much of him anyway with England contracts I guess! Also him and Smith could be an interesting given their history together.

We can probably expect Smith to be beyond that stuff now given his experience though! As for KP we can hope

I agree Ansari will be lucky to get many overs in the CC this season with Batty and Keedy around. When oh when will we find a permanent solution to our spin woes!

Hi King Carlos. I don't know for sure re KP but I would have thought that now that "reintegration" has been completed it highly probable that he will be on central contract, still be attached to Surrey, and play at most only a very few games for us....

Welcome Kidder and welcome back King - I'm sure the Corporal is spot on about Pietersen.

His Surrey contract is directly linked to his England central contract. Once that ends, he's no longer with us (unless something new and separate is negotiated). However, he remains on our books for the entire duration of his central contract.

We saw more of Pietersen in Surrey colours in 2012 because of his spat with Strauss and Flower etc. Assuming no further falling out, I would guess he'll play one or two CC matches with a handful of limited overs appearances in 2013.

Ah right, pretty much as I thought re KP. Cheers for clearing it up!

I guess a few games from a batsmen of his quality is better than none at the end of the day.

I can't decide whether I'm more worried about the depth in the batting for CC or the one day stuff next season at the moment. I'm guessing/hoping we'll sign a batsmen as our second overseas player but can't really think who could be on the shortlist.

1.Smith
2.Davies
3.Roy
4.Solanki
5.De Bruyn
6.Wilson?
7.Ansari
8.Batty
9.Meaker
10.Lewis/Tremlett
11.Dernbach

That's all I can really think for the 40 over stuff, with the second overseas batsmen hopefully joining the line-up for 20/20. As said the batting is looking worrying with Burns/Harinath not yet showing the sort of game you'd associate with one day cricket.

From that I'd say it's even more vital that Davies and Roy hit the sort of form we know they're capable of to add some firepower to the batting.

Jewell could definitely become a key player in case of injury adding some batting down the order along with his bowling as Guildford stated earlier.