As events drew to a close yesterday, Worcestershire’s tails were up to such an extent they felt they could polish off the Surrey tail given the extra half hour. They duly lodged their request in the hope they could force a result in what would have amounted to two days’ cricket before the arrival of the rain forecast to descend on New Road today. Their polite inquiry was turned down. In the opinion of the umpires a result was not so close at hand. Surrey will no doubt be flattered that some still rate them good for a fight, even though the consensus amongst their hard core of fans is that things have got so bad some or all of the cricket committee should seriously consider their position.

Apart from Scott Newman, who took 56 balls over another attractive half-century, not one of the Surrey batsmen looked like applying themselves. Mark Butcher departed to a loose drive in Andy Bichel’s first over after tea. The record of England number three against Worcestershire now reads a disappointing 92 runs at an average of thirteen.

But the rot really began when Andrew Hall weighed in with a spell of three for 20 in seven overs. Mark Ramprakash and Adam Hollioake went in the space of three balls, the latter to one that kept a little low. Newman followed twenty minutes later, albeit for the left-hander’s eighth score of fifty in more in 15 championship knocks.

For Hollioake, it was a fourth duck in eight such innings. Indeed, since the beginning of May, only once has the former Surrey captain survived more than twenty deliveries, all of which suggests that for the first time in his career he is getting into the side more for his bowling than his batting.

Jonathan Batty was out to a bat-pad catch off his former team-mate and namesake, and even though the circumstances called for dour resistance Alistair Brown chose to entertain. It was not long before he was out playing across the line for a 55-ball innings of thirty-one.

Graham Thorpe, whose appearance was delayed because he had not been well enough to take the field earlier in the day, and Martin Bicknell were there at the close; secure enough in all probability to survive for half an hour longer, but nevertheless part of a shell-shocked side.

Earlier in the day Stephen Peters completed his third hundred in consecutive innings at New Road, while Stephen Moore recorded his second championship century in a row.

Peters took nearly half an hour adding to his overnight score of 92, but eventually went to three-figures off 167 balls. Then, when the youthful pair were within fourteen runs of breaking Glenn Turner and Alan Ormrod’s record for Worcestershire’s first wicket against Surrey, made on the same ground in 1978, Peters, who was born later that year, cut Hollioake to backward point. The 25-year-old finished with 108 in 181 deliveries.

In Hollioake’s next over Graeme Hick, who still needs one more hundred to match W.G.Grace’s tally of 126, was out driving and Moore, who was given trials by Surrey as an 18-year-old, was out on the stroke of lunch for a career best 146 off 260 balls spread over six hours when he followed a wide ball in an attempt to add to his 22 boundaries.

After Vikram Solanki edged an Ian Salisbury leg-break to the keeper, Smith and Hall flayed a weary and uninspired Surrey attack for an unbeaten 129 in 86 minutes for the fifth wicket to bag maximum batting points, after which the Worcestershire skipper chose to give his bowlers the best part of three hours at the visitors’ batsmen. The question remains, how long will they get at them today?

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