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Stuart Surridge is not a name that would spring readily to mind to the modern generation if you were to ask for a list of the game's inspirational captains. But in his five seasons as Surrey's skipper in the mid-1950s he led them to five Championships, moulding a good team of talented individuals into a great side.

Not all captains set their stalls out on playing ability alone - Mike Brearley is the best modern-ish example. Surridge was a decent seamer, no more, and an excellent fielder. He was, however, an outstanding leader.

Since the war Surrey had tied for the Championship once and generally finished there or thereabouts. But with the considerable pool of talent available to them, more was expected. Surridge, who was a far from unanimous choice when he took charge after Michael Barton stood down in 1951, turned out to be the catalyst the team needed, setting them on their way to seven successive titles, a record second to none.

He was an interesting figure. An amateur - he was the third-generation head of the renowned bat-making firm that bore his name - he nevertheless played hard, causing Jim Swanton to note on Surridge's death that he was occasionally "too fierce... slightly akin to what one deplores today". He demanded attacking cricket and was happy to lose in the process - not that his side did very often. Crowds flocked to The Oval to watch the all-star line-up and were rarely left wanting for entertainment.

All this should make for a fascinating story. Sadly this book misses on almost every count.

Too much space is taken up with accurate but fairly dull accounts of matches, with scores and scorers deemed of more importance than any colour. Whereas someone like Stephen Chalke is brilliant at bringing old games to life, Lodge's account rapidly becomes a series of chronological summaries of matches. Surridge's and Surrey's performances are all documented but rarely are they taken beyond numbers. Even the descriptions of matches that should stand out, such as the game against Warwickshire in 1953, which Surrey won by an innings inside a day, barely rise above the mundane.

The observations about Surridge the man are few, and even those rely heavily on often long chunks of prose taken from other books. The final chapter, on captaincy, is little more than a sequence of lengthy quotes from previously published material.

Jerry Lodge is a charming man immersed in the county, and has produced a number of publications on subjects connected with the club. He is also a regular contributor to the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. And perhaps therein lies the problem.

This is fundamentally a statistical record of Surridge and does little to get underneath his skin. By the end I knew far more about the family firm - which certainly warrants a fair amount of space - and his relations than I did of the man himself.

It is difficult to write about someone from a generation of which few survivors remain, but a recent book on Tony Lock by Alan Hill actually gave far more of an insight into Surridge than this one did, and that is regrettable.

Stuart Surridge: Skipper of Surrey's Golden Era by Jerry Lodge
(The History Press, 2008) £18.99