Northamptonshire took longer than expected to make the 81 they needed when play began yesterday to score their first championship win this year. The Surrey spin duo of Nayan Doshi and Mark Ramprakash held them up for 25 overs before Jimmy Ormond replaced Ramprakash and hastened the home side’s charge for the line.

Only when Toby Bailey and Graeme Swann departed in consecutive overs – Bailey leg before sweeping and Swann to a catch on the deep square leg boundary – did it look as though Northants might fail to achieve their objective. But the coup de grace was applied when Martin Love, who made an unbeaten 49, hit the winning runs with three consecutive fours off Ormond’s part-time twirlers.

After the match Love’s skipper, David Sales, said this of his contribution: “Martin has fitted into our team very well and played two very good innings. He did exceptionally well to stay there right to the end and make sure of it for us on what was a 'patience' pitch."

Sadly, patience is a virtue that neither James Benning nor Adam Hollioake possessed when the visitors were in a deep hole twenty-four hours earlier. Indeed, Hollioake has now had only three scores over 16 in his last dozen championship knocks, and were it not for injuries and Test calls his place in the four-day side would surely be under severe scrutiny.

The only thing Jonathan Batty will have cause to look back on with fondness in this game will be his 300th first-class dismissal; achieved on the second day when he caught Graeme Swann after Ormond had long turned to bowling off-spin.

Batty deserves better than he is getting from the majority of his charges, who are a pale shadow of the Surrey side that recently won three championships in four years. No longer are the Brown Hats chirpy and confident in the field, which suggests that even if the injury list were not as long as it is, Batty would find it difficult to inspire should inspiration be needed.

It can be far from ideal that Mark Ramprakash, who, other than Batty, is the only one free from any suggestion that he has not given of his best this term, is relied upon to supply all the runs for Surrey. Despite making centuries in this match and the previous one against Warwickshire, the fact that he has been dismissed cheaply second time round has contributed to defeats on both occasions. Mind you, Ramprakash often finds himself coming in with the ball still new. Since mid-May, when Butcher and Newman shared in a partnership of 124 at Edgbaston, Surrey’s opening stand has put more than 23 runs on the board on just one occasion in the championship.

Nevertheless the Oval outfit have found themselves in winning positions. But it seems the only thing they are likely to win this season is the ‘Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory’ award, if one existed that is. Only four teams have ended up on the losing side after posting a 400-plus total in the first innings in the championship this summer. Essex, Gloucestershire (both in this round of matches) and Worcestershire have done it once. Surrey have now managed it twice – the other occasion being at Lord’s at the start of the campaign.

Their coach Steve Rixon said after yesterday’s confidence-sapping loss: “Ramprakash's innings was a master at work on a very difficult wicket. He showed you it could be done and put us in a situation we should not have been able to be beaten from. But we have been fairly consistent in losing wickets and going from a good situation to a bad one quickly. It is all extremely frustrating.”

The former Australian Test cricketer added: “We are working very hard behind the scenes to plan for the future and I have no qualms that it will come together. But it looks like things might take a bit longer now. If we are going to be a force in years to come we are going to have to do it with the kids coming through. The likes of Rikki Clarke and Newman are the ones we must look to, because the Hollioakes and Ramprakashs will not always be around.”

But Surrey see a white knight arriving in the shape of Brett Lee, though according to Rixon he will not be available before the championship encounter at Canterbury. It might be the only time he turns out for the Oval outfit if selected by Australia for the ICC Champions Trophy – for the Aussies are due to begin their preparations in Amsterdam the week after.

With the Australians due to announce their squad today, perhaps there is more to come in the saga of Surrey’s 2004 season.

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