surrey vs somerset County Championship

Team Director Chris Adams has named a thirteen man squad for Surrey’s opening LV=County Championship game against Somerset at the Kia Oval starting on Wednesday.
Graeme Smith will captain Surrey for the first time and new signings Gary Keedy and Vikram Solanki are named in the squad. Chris Tremlett, Jade Dernbach, Stuart Meaker and Tim Linley are all included and Zander de Bruyn comes straight into the thirteen after returning from a winter in South Africa.
there is no place in the squad for roy or lewis
Graeme Smith (capt)
Rory Burns
Arun Harinath
Vikram Solanki
Zander de Bruyn
Steven Davies
Gary Wilson
Gareth Batty
Gary Keedy
Stuart Meaker
Chris Tremlett
Tim Linley
Jade Dernbach
its good to be back

Hope Tremlett plays well on his long road to recovery.

Afternoon jimbob.

Roy misses out then which annoys me but is understandable I guess, The Brain's bowling gives him the nod and Solanki was always going to play plus Wilson's pre season form gets him a deserved spot in the side. I could well see it being Dernbach and Linley who miss out and we go 2 spinners/2 seamers.

Carrotdude wrote:Afternoon jimbob.

Roy misses out then which annoys me but is understandable I guess, The Brain's bowling gives him the nod and Solanki was always going to play plus Wilson's pre season form gets him a deserved spot in the side. I could well see it being Dernbach and Linley who miss out and we go 2 spinners/2 seamers.

afternoon carrot

Perfect thread to start the season, JimBob. Well played!

I mentioned on the ''Surrey news and articles'' thread that Adams confirmed at last night's AGM that ''we will play the extra batsman'' with 2 or 3 seamers depending on the conditions on Wednesday morning. I therefore believe the first seven - probably, in fact, the first eight - listed above will all play.

I'll be surprised if Keedy takes the number one slow bowling spot from Batty although it's not impossible.

Assuming Batty does play, you can also add Meaker for 9 definite starters. After that, perm any 2 from Keedy, Dernbach, Linlnley and Tremlett. My wild guesses would be that Keedy (conditions) and Tremlett (still getting back to fitness and not fully trusted in just a 4 man attack) will miss out.

In some ways Roy can consider himself unfortunate. Two fifties in the first 2 pre-season games and more runs in all the friendlies than Solanki. Solanki and de Bruyn both being picked ahead of Roy on the basis of their experience and past reputations. However, Roy made it a lot easier for Adams to leave him out through his 2 failures last week against Gloucs seconds. I'm still a massive fan but he needs to be adding some consistency to his game.

Meanwhile, Lewis now appears little more than a reserve who is blocking the way of younger talent such as Dunn, Edwards and Jewell. A totally unnecessary signing as said too often before.

Still juggling plates but hope to get along tomorrow ....

Good to see the match articles going for the new season jimbob!

I'd agree with much of what guildford has said above.

1.Smith (c)
2.Burns
3.Harinath
4.Solanki
5.De Bruyn
6.Davies (wk)
7.Wilson
8.Batty/Keedy - probably Batty for his batting and performances last season
9.Meaker
10.Linley/Tremlett - probably Linley as Tremlett may not be trusted until he proves his full fitness in some 40 over games at full intensity
11.Dernbach

The above is how I'd imagine Adams is looking at. If Tremlett is fully fit I'd select him and Linley ahead of Dernbach for FC games however. I would also toy with the idea of having Davies at 5 rather than 6 - he's so destructive I'd love to see him in the top 5 if possible.

guildfordbat wrote:Perfect thread to start the season, JimBob. Well played!

I mentioned on the ''Surrey news and articles'' thread that Adams confirmed at last night's AGM that ''we will play the extra batsman'' with 2 or 3 seamers depending on the conditions on Wednesday morning. I therefore believe the first seven - probably, in fact, the first eight - listed above will all play.

I'll be surprised if Keedy takes the number one slow bowling spot from Batty although it's not impossible.

Assuming Batty does play, you can also add Meaker for 9 definite starters. After that, perm any 2 from Keedy, Dernbach, Linlnley and Tremlett. My wild guesses would be that Keedy (conditions) and Tremlett (still getting back to fitness and not fully trusted in just a 4 man attack) will miss out.

In some ways Roy can consider himself unfortunate. Two fifties in the first 2 pre-season games and more runs in all the friendlies than Solanki. Solanki and de Bruyn both being picked ahead of Roy on the basis of their experience and past reputations. However, Roy made it a lot easier for Adams to leave him out through his 2 failures last week against Gloucs seconds. I'm still a massive fan but he needs to be adding some consistency to his game.

Meanwhile, Lewis now appears little more than a reserve who is blocking the way of younger talent such as Dunn, Edwards and Jewell. A totally unnecessary signing as said too often before.

Still juggling plates but hope to get along tomorrow ....

Are you likely to be going on Friday or Saturday at all, guildford? I'm hoping to get there for one of these weather and game situation dependant.

Carrotdude wrote:

Are you likely to be going on Friday or Saturday at all, guildford? I'm hoping to get there for one of these weather and game situation dependant.

Hi Carrot - take your new pads and you might get a game!
I'll send you a PM shortly.

I have a gut feeling that Tremlett will play, on the basis of why include him in the squad if he is not fit enough to play. Which then means two of Keedy, the Viscount and Dernbach missing out - possibly the first two.

The reason for signing Lewis for two years at the very tail end of his career looks ever more mystifying..... If he wouldn't sign for only one year there is an obvious answer to that.

Pleased to see Wilson having a go in the starting line up. Worried that the Brain + Solanki may equate in total to one reasonable batsman.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:

Pleased to see Wilson having a go in the starting line up. Worried that the Brain + Solanki may equate in total to one reasonable batsman.

Whilst I accept you can argue both ways about Roy the batsman at the moment, he is unquestionably a magnificent fielder and that at least will be missed in the CC opener.

morning all
somerset have won the toss and will bat

Tremlett and viscount miss out

Morning all!! Been a long winter but it's good to be back
Our bowling 'attack' looks very thin to me, but hoping for a good day, followed by the Hammers making it a good night as well!

Dernbach is back! 11-1 and the impressive figures of 3.1-3-0-1

thegooch7 wrote:Dernbach is back! 11-1 and the impressive figures of 3.1-3-0-1

Well in Norah! The famous 'mystery ball' does for Trescothick!

meaker 12 of the 14 extras a tribute to jon lewis no doubt

37 yo Brain replaced by 38 yo Keedy, while 'young' Norah at 35 starts to take some stick from Peterson!

115 for 2 at lunch only jade bowling well
smith given his county cap during the lunch break

At the Oval.

Started under very grey cloudy conditions with the floodlights on. Seemed well suited for the Viscouint but not to be.

Nothing terrible from Surrey at this stage but sadly nothing standoutish brilliant either. Dernbach best of the bowlers closely followed by Batty. Peterson trying to target Batty and knock him out of the attack - either could win that contest. Meaker revved up but disappopintingly wayward. De Bruyn tidyish but not much else. Keedy looking like a solid but unspectacular professional in a couple of spells of 2 overs each.

Fielding generally ok. Smith very much the observing captain from first slip. Davies looks in good shape behoind the stumps and can't be blamed for Meaker's balls that have gone past him.

Sun out now and looks a batting afternoon ....

right on cue dernbach strikes 117 for 3

Cheers for the report guildford, enjoy the sunshine!

Thanks, Goochie. Good news about Tyrone, just need to nail scumbag Carl now

Meanwhile, Peterson has advanced to 75 - a century looks on the cards. Brain bowling too much - price of playing only 2 frontline seamers. Meaker back on ....

He'll get his comeuppance guildford!!

Runs coming far too freely now, desperately need a break through

comment from the ground the brain would struggle to get stephen hawkin on this performance

viscount on for the injured harinath

not playing the extra seamer has backfired

4wkts for dernbach so far

Already looks like the bowling's not good enough (again) and that we'll struggle to bowl teams out twice (again). Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, as they say in France.

the brain strikes

wkt for the wayward meaker

344 for 8 at stumps
cant help thinking it would have been a lot better with the extra seamer

Was Meaker as bad as his figures suggest? Bowling line up might have worked if both Meaker and Dernbach had been on good form.

Everything I heard today suggested Meaker bowled as badly as he ever has for us. It's been a long time since he had an off day so I'll let him off this time

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:Was Meaker as bad as his figures suggest? Bowling line up might have worked if both Meaker and Dernbach had been on good form.

Yes, pretty much. Some of his bowling was reasonable but there were just too many balls that were short and wide which Petersen, in particular, feasted on.

Also, Davies conceded 21 byes. Not all but the majority from wayward Meaker deliveries.

Meaker did get things back together at the end and fairly rattled Overton's stumps but we had to wait too long for a fast sraight ball!

Dernbach bowled well and responsibly. Do feel the conditions would have suited Linley more than Keedy. Despite the prize scalp of Petersen, de Bruyn too often didn't look threatening and in my book is some way off being an acceptable third seamer.

A decent fighback late on but pretty poor earlier, particularly in the afternoon session. A lot to do. We're going to need the cliched captain's knock from Smith - maybe even more as Harinath went off injured (shoulder - diving attempt to stop a boundary) mid-afternoon and never reappeared. Hopefully not serious but don't know ....

5 wkts for jade
363 for 9

meaker gets the last wkt
384 all out

Third degree looks to be batting ok, but it's rain to the rescue............for now!

jimbobgooner wrote:5 wkts for jade
363 for 9

I've been made to eat my words prior to the game there! Well done to Dernbach and let's hope this now continues in FC cricket for the season.

Current situation doesn't look great but could've looked much worse at one point. Good to see Burns playing well as we really need him to settle into that opening role for the season if we're going to lose Smith for parts of it - we don't want the situation of last season where Jordan, Kartik .... my dog etc had a go opening the batting!

Play due to restart at 5.45 following a rain interruption (apparently heavier than at Lord's a mile away where they are already playing!).

Surrey will have an uncomfortable hour or so when they resume on 66-2 with skipper Smith and the Baron back in the hutch. At least, by all accounts, Burns and Solanki were playing sensibly before the heavens opened.

In his knocks in the pre-season friendlies, Solanki respectively made scores of around 1, 12, 20 odd, 30 odd and 40 odd. On that basis, we can expect a half century - certainly needed!

PS King Carlos - many supporters feel your dog was unlucky not to win a contract extension!

Are we sure we have signed the right South African???
Only joking Im sure Smith will get a hateful but it was disappointing that the first chance I get to check the score and Im just in time to see Smith out for 2!!
Good to see Burns start well and from all accounts Dernbach bowled extremely well which is good to hear as consistancy hasnt always been there with him, we need Meaker
to follow in his steps now.
I was extremely surprised to see Batty and Keedy both in at this stage of the season especially as Tremlett is apparently fit!
Anyway we need somebody to score a century wold be great if it was Burns.
I havent followed pre season at all so Im hoping somebody can tell me that Wilson has been getting hundreds all over the place as I have never believed he has been quite good enough
and he has never really proved me wrong.

Just read Burns nickname for the first time, must admit I like it

MuchHappier - I understand where you're coming from about Wilson but he is a scrapper and, yes, he did very well in the pre-season games with the highlight being an undefeated century. He couldn't really have done much more.

Smith will obviously be disappointed by his failure today but also, I would guess, philosophical that no one is guaranteed runs every time. He's made very clear that he's here for the long haul which is probably the most important thing.

I'm sure that if we were playing 5 frontline bowlers (de Bruyn isn't really frontline), then Tremlett would be one of the first names inked in. However, the view is that we can't depend on him to regularly get through the necessary workload with just a 4 man attack, particularly one with only 2 main seamers.

Yes, Third Degree is a good name for Burns. Another one I like is Arun (Harinath) the Baron.

Solanki has just gone but Third Degree appears to be digging in!

I understand about Tremlett just surprised with the Two spinners, if not Tremlett then the Viscont has never let us down!!

solanki plays on looking to pull poor shot in the circumstances

the brain goes for 1

98 - 4 at close, still needing more than 130 to avoid the follow on. Very disappointing.

need these two and wilson to score big tomorrow.
the thought of following on is making me

well, l certainly have to eat some humble pie about JD!.... Probably a bit too early to be making judgments on Surrey's chances for the season... but I'm a little worried about our bowling prospects... but maybe if we can somehow get ourselves up to about 250 odd, save the follow on... we might be able to scrape out a draw.... If we lose this match, what about ringing up 606 and calling for the whole management team at Surrey to be sacked I always enjoy listening to the football phone in after teams first matches of the season.. and you can guarantee that there will someone ringing up wanting someone to be sacked

guildfordbat wrote:Play due to restart at 5.45 following a rain interruption (apparently heavier than at Lord's a mile away where they are already playing!).

I would be very surprised if it was heavier than at Lord's. Absolutely bucketed it down.

Disappointing stuff from Surrey really. All the reports are that Dernbach bowled really well, but the rest seems to have been very iffy in all departments (starting with team selection).