C Randall: Surrey set to end long wait (14 Jul 1998)
THE race for the Britannic Assurance Championship title in this weather-blighted summer has reached the halfway stage, and trends over the past five years indicate that the eventual champions will emerge from the top four counties at this mid-July
14-Jul-1998
14 July 1998
Surrey set to end long wait
By Charles Randall
THE race for the Britannic Assurance Championship title in this
weather-blighted summer has reached the halfway stage, and trends over
the past five years indicate that the eventual champions will emerge
from the top four counties at this mid-July point - Surrey,
Leicestershire, Sussex or Lancashire.
After the championship of four-day matches began in 1993, a consistent
pattern emerged. Usually, one of the top four would drop out of the
race, but the remaining three teams would always last the pace, one of
them finishing first.
Surrey, this year's leaders, have been prominent at halfway more often
than any county. This is the fourth time they have tucked themselves
into the top four in six years, but nobody at the Oval needs reminding
that they have not won the title since 1971.
Only twice have the halfway leaders finished as champions - Middlesex
in 1993 and Glamorgan last year - and even Warwickshire, in their
dominant 1994 and '95 summers, did not pull ahead until August.
Surrey, who play Middlesex at Guildford's narrow rectangular ground
tomorrow, should beat their London neighbours, but they face a second
half of the season with a high number of enforced absences, especially
if Ian Salisbury joins their crop of England players. Graham Thorpe
faces a long lay-off with the disc problem in his back.
At the bottom end of the table the general trend suggests
Warwickshire, Essex or Northamptonshire will finish last this season,
which is an unpalatable probability for any of the three. Essex could
become the first and only county to win the Benson and Hedges Cup and
finish last in the championship the same season, something that has
yet to happen in the NatWest Trophy too. An end-of-season placing of
16th is the lowest to date in both competitions.
Northamptonshire's game at Leicester, which starts today, should in
theory offer a guide to the gap in standard between bottom and top. If
Northants feel their lowly position is false, they have yet to prove
otherwise.
Chris Lewis, Leicestershire's captain, has the job of keeping the
losing Benson and Hedges Cup finalists on the right track after their
Lord's disappointment.
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)