HOOK’S SHOT: After seasons of domination, Surrey’s performances, men’s and women, were underwhelming this summer, particularly in the County Championship. MARCUS HOOK crunches the numbers and suggests there could be significant changes coming to The Oval over the winter
It’s said that expectation is the root of all heartache. In cricket this summer, Surrey ended the County Championship with many a cause for concern.
‘Tough season’: Rory Burns
Surrey were County Champions in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and runners-up in 2025. But their form this summer, particularly towards the back end of the season (that is, after the Hundred nonsense was finally out of the way), was such that they barely warranted finishing seventh, with just two victories out of the 14 four-day games played.
Thankfully, Essex, Hampshire and Leicestershire were also off the boil.
While Warwickshire were romping to the title with five wins from their last six (including three by an innings), Surrey’s run-in read: Played 9, Won 1, Drawn 4, Lost 4.
Head coach Gareth Batty said: “We have not gone about our business to the standards we set this year.”
Skipper Rory Burns hinted that he might be considering his position, saying: “It’s not where we wanted to end up in the Championship. It has been a tough season for us. We have had some pretty rough days over the course of it. There have been some good learning experiences.
“I haven’t had time to fully reflect yet, but that is something I will do over the next month or so.”
Incoming: Zimbabwean Grant Flower will be Surrey’s batting coach in 2027
In terms of major changes, one is already inked in. Grant Flower will succeed Jim Troughton as batting coach. Flower, who made 288 international appearances for Zimbabwe, has said a reluctant farewell to cash-strapped Sussex, with whom he was instrumental in the club’s recent resurgence.
Sussex’s financial difficulties have also resulted in seamer Henry Crocombe swapping Hove for the Oval in 2027. The 25-year-old was Sussex’s leading wicket-taker in this summer’s County Championship with 40 victims at 23.52 runs apiece.
Given that Surrey registered the fewest first-innings bowling bonus points of any county in the Championship in 2026, Crocombe’s arrival is desperately needed.
Matt Fisher’s 37 wickets at 26.51 keeps him very much on England’s radar and even though Dan Worrall headed Surrey’s red-ball bowling averages with 28 scalps at 22.89, that injury sidelined the 35-year-old for almost half of the campaign suggests he faces a managed workload going forward. As does Jordan Clark, 36, whose problematic Achilles also saw him sit out six Championship fixtures.
If it wasn’t injuries, it was England call-ups making Surrey’s players unavailable for domestic duties. Fast bowler Gus Atkinson made just three red-ball appearances for Surrey, but, in August, when the Test series against Pakistan got under way, the absences of Dan Lawrence and Jamie Smith were even more telling given the extent to which Surrey suddenly struggled for runs.
Lawrence topped Surrey’s Championship batting averages with 982 runs at 65.46 while Smith averaged 50 in six outings.
At one stage it seemed that Ben Foakes’ involvement would be limited to three games after the wicketkeeper ripped a tendon in his shoulder sending down some part-time seam-up in the dying embers of the draw at home to Essex at the end of April.
New delivery: Henry Crocombe took 40 wickets for Sussex this summer
Happily, Foakes returned to finish with 636 runs at an average of 53.00. Ryan Patel also ended the season strongly with the bat and 20-year-old Adam Thomas is most definitely one for the future. But in the second-half of the Championship campaign three of Surrey’s former Test batters looked badly out of form. The final seven games saw Dom Sibley make just 208 runs at 16.00, Burns 345 at 26.54 and Ollie Pope 349 at 26.85.
Without question the match of the season was the low-scoring thriller with Yorkshire at The Oval which the hosts won by a solitary wicket thanks to Josh Blake’s gutsy 43 not out in 275 minutes, though not before Fisher had taken a career best 6-25 to skittle out the visitors for 82 in their second innings. Surrey had mustered just 83 in their first dig.
It was Blake’s final act as a Surrey player – his move to Leicestershire as first-choice wicketkeeper was formalised a week later.
The brevity of Surrey’s efforts with the willow gave the bowling unit little time to rest or recover between innings. Fisher went down with a groin injury and missed the last two matches, which saw a Glamorgan side that had folded for just 69 and 65 at Edgbaston the week before manage to pile up 594 at The Oval. Somerset scored 731 (the second highest total in their history) at Taunton, as Tom Abell became only the fifth batsman in history to take Surrey for a triple century.
Surrey reached the knockout phase in the Vitality Blast for a fifth season running. Semi-finalists twice and quarter-finalists three times in five years suggests they’re not far away from ending their 23-year wait for a second T20 title.
But Jason Roy, the stand-out player in this year’s competition, is not getting any younger. The 36-year-old hit 473 runs at an average of 43, including an unbeaten 103 off 58 balls against Sussex.
Despite losing 17 players to The Hundred – nine more than any other county – Surrey flirted with the possibility of qualifying for the knockout phase of the Metro Bank One-Day Cup thanks to the batting of Patel (476 runs at an average of 59.50), Thomas (58.33), Sibley (52.62) and Blake (47.66).
However, Surrey’s lack of cutting edge with the ball came to a head when Somerset ended their hopes by racking up 368-9 in the penultimate round of group matches.
Surrey’s women overcame numerous international calls to compete on all three fronts, but, like the men, ended the season with much to reflect on, in particular their failure to rise to the occasion when it mattered most.
Off-spinner Kalea Moore took 30 wickets in all competitions and was the pick of the bowlers, but slow left-armer Beth Miles (16 at an average of 16.81) missing two-thirds of the campaign coupled with leg-spinner Dani Gregory’s loss of form proved a limitation.
The middle-order batting always had the potential to be a point of difference thanks to Alice Davidson-Richards (625 runs in all competitions at an average of 28.41), Alice Monaghan (603 at 27.41), Kira Chathli (26.14) and 20-year-old Jemima Spence (24.85).
Outstanding: Kalea Moore was Surrey women’s best bowler this summer
But when things reached the business end it was the batting that ultimately let Surrey down.
In the semi-finals of the T20 Blast, The Blaze cruised to a six-wicket victory after dismissing Surrey for 105. The final of the Women’s County Cup, which was reduced to 13 overs per side following torrential rain, saw The Blaze overcome Surrey with an over to spare. After finishing third in the group phase in the 50-over One-Day Cup, Surrey missed out on one final crack at The Blaze after being bowled out in the eliminator for 109 by Hampshire.
Women’s head coach Johann Myburgh said: “In sport, you can try and quantify everything and find reasons for everything, but this is one where we need to give ourselves a bit of time to look objectively and then learn from it.
“My takeaways from the season are that we are showing real consistency as a group – we made two semi-finals and a final. We played consistent cricket and gave ourselves opportunities to win trophies. But we will look back at it and try and take the positives, but equally with the quality we should be winning silverware.”
Recent cricket columns from Marcus Hook:
- Holding and Selvey remember the historic Oval Test of 1976
- Gone missing: Surrey handicapped by loss of 17 senior players
- Boomer Harris setting records on way to Surrey’s T20 finals
- Blind man enjoys wonders of cricket comradeship at The Oval
- What the Foakes! Surrey keeper ruled out after bowling injury
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