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No play was possible on the first day of Surrey’s Specsavers County Championship Division One match against Yorkshire at Guildford.
Heavy overnight rain, which continued this morning, left ground staff facing a lengthy mopping-up operation. The rain briefly stopped, and the covers started to come off shortly after umpires Jeremy Lloyds and Tim Robinson had decided there would be no play before lunch.
But the rain returned shortly afterwards and after an early lunch at 12.30pm play was abandoned for the day at 1.10pm.
Surrey are still looking for their first victory in their title defence while unbeaten Yorkshire are looking to put the pressure on leaders Somerset.
With the rain due to continue until later today, Yorkshire coach Andrew Gale fears the start may be delayed tomorrow, despite a better forecast.
Gale said: “It’s frustrating. It’s so tough to win games in three days in first-class cricket, particularly when the pitches are good like they have been at Headingley the past two weeks. They were four-day pitches. If we’d have got four days on them, we’d have probably got a result.
“It may be a little bit different on an out-ground. The only problem is, we might not start on time tomorrow. They haven’t got half-a-million pounds worth of drainage like they have at the main county ground at The Oval. All they can do is their best.”
The thoughts of Jonathan Doidge…
A miserable first day saw the weather very much the winner, but there’s optimism that there will be action on the remaining three days, though whether it will be enough to get a result either way is hard to predict.
Yorkshire will look to put two dominant recent draws behind them and try to topple last year’s champions, who are yet to win this season.
The Tykes will be without David Willey, who has not travelled due to family reasons, which leaves coach Andrew Gale with Mat Pillans, Matthew Fisher or would-be debutant Jordan Thompson to choose from to fill the void left by the England star. Whichever way that goes, it will be a great opportunity for someone, with Matthew Waite and Tim Bresnan both still sidelined.
Surrey’s record here is terrible, having won just one of their last seventeen matches at the venue, but tempering that, Yorkshire are also 0-2 down in previous visits in 1991 and 2002.
This year’s team has nothing to fear, despite the presence of the likes of Rory Burns and Morne Morkel in the home ranks. The Tykes are playing well, and with a bit more luck they could certainly have been in second place in the table at this stage.
On a personal note, I am looking forward to broadcasting with Mark Church. It was probably as far back as 2002 when I last did so, and then I was a studio presenter and Mark was out in the sticks at a county venue providing his usual excellent coverage for a another station that we both worked for.
I can still recall me crossing to him for an update and he was talking about a player “having a nibble outside off stump.” Maybe it’s just a southern ‘thing’, I’m not sure, but I am sure we’ll have some great fun bringing this week’s match to you via the BBC Sport app and website.
