The extent to which Chris Adams will have to reinvigorate Surrey in his capacity as their cricket manager was never better emphasised than when they lost eight wickets for 73 runs before lunch. There was a modicum of movement, no more, for the quicker Gloucestershire bowlers, and a worrying lack of adherence to technique among the batsmen.
Surrey, having been 102 for one, collapsed to 183 all out. A series of strange shots more suited to some form of wandering cavaliers XI illustrated little sound defence and resulted, in two or three cases, to spooned catches to the slips, square leg and mid-wicket. Jonathan Batty could be exempted, in that Ian Saxelby made one lift off a length and Steve Adshead held an excellent right-handed low catch.
When Gloucestershire batted, Kadeer Ali and Rob Woodman put on 77 before Alex Tudor, extracting life out of the pitch through his height, removed them both. An unbeaten partnership of 136 followed between Hamish Marshall, who had scored only 251 runs in his previous eight championship matches, and Alex Gidman, reaching half-centuries at an almost identical rate of scoring. By the close, they were building what should become a substantial lead.
For a good batsman, Marshall’s recent record is dispiriting. His last innings of note was a century against Derbyshire at Chesterfield in early June: his average has hovered around 19 since then. He took here to the left arm spin of Rougana Herath and, once Tudor was out of the attack, dealt with anything quicker as well. His half-century included six fours and two sixes, one flicked over third man off Stuart Meaker.
The one heartening aspect for Surrey is that they surely cannot bat so poorly again. Mark Ramprakash, who has broken a thumb, has masked any batting deficiencies through the sheer number of runs he has scored. His absence here has given an opportunity to Arun Harinath, a left-hander who has broken into their first team at the relatively late age of 22, but he had failed to add to his overnight 18 runs when he poked at a ball just outside off stump from Steve Kirby and was taken at second slip.
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Surrey: First Innings
(overnight 96-1)
†J N Batty c Adshead b Saxelby 43
A Harinath c Marshall b Kirby 18
*S J Walters c Adshead b Kirby 2
U Afzaal c Adshead b Franklin 23
C P Schofield b Saxelby 5
S C Meaker b Franklin 3
A J Tudor not out 17
H M R K B Herath c Ali b Ireland 1
T E Linley c Kirby b Ireland 6
J W Dernbach c Franklin b Kirby 18
Extras (b 1, lb 5, nb 4) 10
Total (58 overs) 183
Fall of wickets: 1-70, 2-102, 3-104, 4-112, 5-127, 6-136, 7-137, 8-138, 9-150.
Bowling: Saxelby 12-1-64-2; Franklin 12-5-28-3; Kirby 17-7-32-3; Ireland 17-7-53-2.
Gloucestershire: First Innings
Kadeer Ali c Walters b Tudor 39
R J Woodman c Batty b Tudor 32
W T S Porterfield b Linley 5
H J H Marshall not out 72
*A P R Gidman not out 62
Extras (b 1, lb 7, nb 6) 14
Total (3 wkts, 64 overs) 224
C G Taylor, J E C Franklin, †S J Adshead, I D Saxelby, A J Ireland and S P Kirby to bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-77, 2-84, 3-88.
Bowling: Dernbach 17-3-52-0; Linley 15-6-37-1; Tudor 14-2-47-2; Meaker 5-1-28-0; Herath 13-1-52-0.
Umpires: N G Cowley and R K Illingworth.