And so Middlesex rocked up at the Oval for the London Derby in the Blast. Surrey are serial underachievers in this competition. There is some misconception in legacy media about how we are the short-format kings. That’s absolute bollocks. We’ve won it once and that was over a quarter of a Century ago.

Hey hoe. Derby days down at the Oval are always fun. It’s a shame that our friends over the river couldn’t return the favour with their poxy 7,000 crowd back at HQ when Surrey were the visitors at Lord’s. That Sunday midday scheduling was just bonkers and should never be allowed to happen again.

The talk ahead of the game on Wednesday evening was that the Oval was a sellout. It didn’t quite get there looking at the telly pictures but it came close. The demographic was the usual Bright Young Things, fresh from their day jobs in the city.

This was a key match for Surrey. A record going into the game of played 2, lost 2 shows that our progress in the Blast was in the balance.

The traditional pattern for Surrey in this competition is to rampage in the group stages and then fall apart when we get down to the business end of the competition. It seems that we have accelerated this pattern this season, with a super quick start and then a super quick tail off already.

Surrey did seem fired up, taking to the field when play started. There was in particular some tight bowling from Will Jacks. Middlesex were poor with the bat. TC has seen better death bowling overs as he delivered three wides and gifted Surrey a paltry more three runs to their final total.

The young Middlesex side came out looking a little sheepish in the field. The game never really got going as a spectacle or even a contest.

Shout out to J-Roy who fell for short on his 50. Olly Pope got us over the line with a timely half century. Surrey won the game with 35 balls to spare, which is something of a comment on the lack of parity between these two once great teams.

A most unsatisfactory performance from Surrey in the T20 Blast this afternoon against Kent down at the Oval. I know I really shouldn’t give a toss about the Blast. I stopped attending pretty much soon after the COVID years. It’s still Surrey, wearing a Surrey top and none of this nonsense franchise business.

I really couldn’t be arsed logging down any of the scores. Spoiler alert: there wasn’t really anything worth shouting home about for Surrey. Not a single player stood out with either bat or ball. There was a very lacklustre batting performance, followed by a spell in the field when nothing really happened for the home team.

I’m not quite sure what to make of this Surrey white ball team. I’m not quite sure what to make of the Surrey red ball team right now either, to be honest.

We seem to be going for a mix of young academy talent with the old pros. I was a little cynical with the likes of Jason Roy, Laurie Evans and Reece Topley still hanging around, but apart from the last couple of games, they’ve held their own, so to speak, in the Blast.

It does seem a very one-dimensional team. I’m not saying the solution is a return for The Skipper opening with Sibley, but if we go deep in the competition and make it to finals day, then the scheduling with the ECB makes it unlikely that we’ll have any of the star name players available anyway. So why not just go with youth and build for the future?

What hurt a little more today was seeing Adam Hollioake as head coach for Kent. I can’t but help think this is a trial run ahead of hopefully taking over the top job at the Oval one day.

I felt a little sorry for the many families that were there. Sunday was deemed family day down at the Oval. It didn’t look like happy families, to be honest.

Will I ever make a return to the Blast? Unlikely. The prices and the piss poor performance have put me off. I’ve got another championship away day planned for next week. Let’s see if Surrey can try and salvage something from what has been a very average start to the season.

To The Oval! …on Friday morning for Day 1 of the ‘rrey Vs Sussex. Did you think I would stay away? Not a chance, Comrades. Nothing had changed - the way I like it. We even managed to blag my FAVE seats in all of S Ldn, perched up on high in the top tier of the SSE, with S Ldn stretching out all around us to enjoy.

We also chose the perfect day for a cricket jolly day out. The blue sky up above was tempered with a light breeze blowing across SE11. Everything was ideal - apart from us missing the first wicket. Whoops.

Surrey won the toss and took to the field. there has been plenty of debate already this season about the state of The Oval wicket. Bowling has become problematic. Various technical reasons have been given for the failure for Surrey to skittle sides out, as was the case two, three and four years ago.

We needn’t have worried on Friday morning. The ‘rrey were aggressive from the start, with Jordan Clarke even taking a fifer before luncheon. Matt Fisher backed him up brilliantly from the Vauxhall End, with Reece Topley waiting in the wings whenever the double act needn’t a break.

Plans for wiff waff at The Oval Table of Dreams at luncheon were abandoned. It was just too bloody hot. I was semi-suited and booted with a posho jacket as well. Instead we retired to the relative shade of the first tier of the SSE.

Sussex came out after luncheon and regrouped. I hit the BOOZE. M then rocked up and joined us for the final session. It felt like I had never been away…

Chin chin.

I passed some half term kids playing cricket on the North side of Clap’ham Common during the morning run. Nothing too odd about this - except that we’re approaching Halloween.

There was around half a dozen of the ankle biters, probably around Year 5 or Year 6 primary school age.

They were taking it incredibly seriously as well, fully padded up and even a protective helmet on show.

GOOD EFFORT.

It was a refreshing change from seeing the S Ldn yoof playing football - or throwing fireworks at one another during this time of year.

What was all the more remarkable was that they were playing on the Common grass, or what’s left of it, late autumn. It must have been one hell of a sticky wicket.

Later in the day I found myself walking around the Harleyford Road and past The Oval. The Hobbs Gate was padlocked up.

It was a most sorry sight, reminding me that we are deep into the Winter Well non-cricket season.

Hang on. There’s an England ODI series that no one really gives a shit about taking place on the other side of the world right now, yeah?

I took my enthusiasm from the Clap’ham Common kids, tbh.