Key events
An email drops from the very stoical Ben in block 23 (waves from the comfort of the press box). “Covers starting to come off. Lunch has been moved to half twelve, hopefully that means they expect most of an afternoon’s play. The racket from the schoolkids is something to behold but at least it’s not a dreary atmosphere.”
Lunch at 12.30 at The Oval
But, they are are peeling off the sheets…
“A pretty good day at the office”
Dan Lawrence spoke to the reporter’s network last night after his wham-bam double century.
“That was a pretty good day at the office!
“I’m chuffed with the position we’re in and of course to get the 200 – and my [Surrey] county cap as well.
“For the first couple of hours it felt like it was a pitch on which there might be a ball with your name on it but this morning we just tried to take the game on as far as possible and see how conditions turned out later.
“When I first went out there, in the conditions we had earlier, I certainly wasn’t expecting to be scoring a double hundred!
“It was really just a case of trying to put the pressure back on Hampshire’s bowlers.
“A double hundred is something I’ve always wanted to achieve in first-class cricket, but when I looked at the wicket this morning I didn’t think it would be something that would happen today!
“I’ve felt in really good order this season so far and today I just tried to be as positive as possible once I got in.”
Still raining, but now to a chorus of thousands of schoolchildren squashed into the stands. Oscar from the Cricketer tells me that last year’s schools’ day coincided with Dom Sibley’s triple century. Out of the frying pan…
Hello Gary Naylor. “Whenever I’m on the 77 back to Tooting and I see The British Interplanetary Society building, I smile a little at the thought of this, prompting bittersweet memories of the sublime Karen Carpenter and of how very strange the 70s were.”
Another in the occasional series of things I’ve seen from the train – the British Interplanetary Society building near Vauxhall and a plaque to Oscar Wilde at Clapham Junction. Any experts on these things, do write in.
Five and a half thousand children have just arrived at The Oval for schools’ day – activities and rain watching.
Simon expertly wraps things up.
More cracking writing from Andy Bull.
Osman Samiuddin is a wonderful writer and this long read/podcast on Imran Khan is unputdownable/switchoffable.
Yesterday’s report
On a spearmint green pitch at the Oval, Dan Lawrence had one of his unstoppable days – an unorthodox tub-thumping of Hampshire. With fierce eye and rampaging bat he bashed 218 off 190 balls, and became the first player to hit four Division One centuries this season, with his highest first-class score.
The Oval had been the site of Lawrence’s maiden first-class hundred, for Essex in April 2015, when he was only 17. Eleven years later, it was the venue for his first double century, reached with a peerless inside-out drive over extra cover. All around the ground spectators rose, as they had when he passed 100 and 150, and would again when he was finally dismissed with Surrey eight down, heaving for one final six off Sonny Baker.
Lawrence was also awarded his county cap, not given away lightly here, from the director of cricket, Alec Stewart, at tea, with 2,150 runs for Surrey in the bank.
This one-off Championship match, sitting alone in the schedule because of fixture congestion, was always a bit of an anomaly. But Surrey’s marketing team, with a keen eye for good publicity, invited day-four spectators at Lord’s, whose cricket had been curtailed, to cross the Thames for only a fiver on production of their ticket – and 250 did, joining a crowd of 4,700.
Surrey were sporting a new‑look side, shorn of their England players and with a string of injuries including Ben Foakes, still out of action after bowling at the fag end of the draw against Essex in April. Bottom-of-the-table Hampshire were boosted by the return of Baker from Lord’s.
The morning session had been steady, earnest even, with Hampshire winkling out Rory Burns and Will Jacks cheaply, and when Dom Sibley followed soon after lunch, the decision to bowl looked a good one. But then Lawrence and Ollie Pope (76) stepped on the accelerator, in a partnership of 255 in 37 overs.
To rub salt in the wound, Surrey were awarded five penalty runs when a cheesed-off Delano Potgieter, who had just been crunched for two fours by Lawrence, fielded off his own bowling and flung the ball back, throwing down the stumps.
Hampshire came back well with the new ball in the evening as Surrey lost six for 31 but the damage was done. Nick Gubbins and Toby Albert survived 5.2 overs before bad light stopped play, but the day belonged to Lawrence.
Preamble
Good damp morning to you all. The weather is wet and then wetter this morning, though might cheer up this afternoon. Still, plenty of time to chew over all matters cricket BTL and wonder if Dan Lawrence, whose double century lit up The Oval yesterday, might ever win his England place back. Do join us between the spreadsheets.
