Surrey's Whitgift Festival

I would like to say how dissapointed I am that Surrey have pulled out of playing a game at Whitgift this season after ten years of partnership with the School.

The annual week at Whitgift is always a good one, there is a high Surrey fan base in Croydon and the crowds always attend these games, I know that
it was not Whitgifts choice and they are not very happy about it. Surrey ahve said that it is due to fixture congestion because of the olympics, I have heard that
due to the olympics the Oval test match has been moved from its usual date which has impacted on the Whitgift games.

Now I know that there is more to it than follows but I cant just see why if the normal dates are unavailable why they cant just pick another game from the list and say " Lets play that one at Whitgift instead"?
They could even close there eyes while doing this if they wish.

For me it is just a disappointment, but I know of two lets say older fans who are Surrey members and have links to WHitgift who are very angry and are talking about not renewing membership.

MuchHappier - I sympathise enormously. The atmosphere generated at small local grounds is tremendous and it's always also a lovely feeling to watch cricket on your own doorstep. That's why I adore the Guildford Festival so much.

There was some speculation on the wallpaper site (Surrey World on the Net) when the fixture lists came out that the players had been disappointed by the facilities at Whitgift in 2011. From memory, the portakabins got a bad write up. There were also apparently some suggestions that the head's attitude could have been better.

I was surprised there's not even a seconds game planned for Whitgift this season. I know that wouldn't have been any real compensation for you but it might have shown that Whitgift was still in the Club's thoughts.

With the CC season due to be cut to 14 games from 2014, it's hard to see Whitgift getting back on the menu. Sorry.

'MuchHappier' so are you still - or have you downgraded to 'disappointed' or, heaven forbid, reverted to 'depressed'??

Pleased to hear from both Much Happier and Simon. Holds out the promise that we will meet or exceed last summer's high standard of posting about Surrey - based on good humour and real love of the game! Going into Div 1 we may need that extra bit of solidarity to keep the spirits up! Guildford is an ever present and enormously valued member of 606v2, and Carrot and King Carlos among others are already around from time to time - so, it's starting to come together and we've even had the first sign of spring, a suggested starting XI for Surrey. My levels of anticipation for the coming season are rising very well ...

And if someone could come up with an ethical way of poaching the wisdom of Offdrive from the wallpaper site my joy would be complete

Ah Corp, if only the XI in the middle perform as strongly as we longsuffering diehards who have the mixed blessing of supporting them...

welcome back guys, everyone looking forward to the start of the season

CF - indeed. And a quick reminder from Alec Stewart's blog on the BBC website about what his Surrey team mates used to get up to at this time of year:

"Others got creative in the quest for gainful employment and two of my Surrey team-mates, Ed Giddins and Nadeem Shahid, even tried their hand at selling Christmas trees. Unfortunately, they weren't the sharpest of businessmen and they always wondered why sales dried up in January."

[quote="Corporalhumblebucket"]CF - indeed. And a quick reminder from Alec Stewart's blog on the BBC website about what his Surrey team mates used to get up to at this time of year:

"Others got creative in the quest for gainful employment and two of my Surrey team-mates, Ed Giddins and Nadeem Shahid, even tried their hand at selling Christmas trees. Unfortunately, they weren't the sharpest of businessmen and they always wondered why sales dried up in January."[/quote]

still waiting for grayson to sign a spinner!