It had been almost exactly a year since Mark Butcher last played first-class cricket, and it was all too long before that when he was scoring runs with impunity against Australia.
He will be 37 during the Test match against the touring team on his home ground, the Brit Oval, this August and he will not be playing in it. Yet as he amply demonstrated yesterday, he can still bat.
His driving, straight and through mid-off and mid-on, was to the fore in his innings of 65 with 11 fours, one in which he outscored Mark Ramprakash, an achievement in itself. Owing to knee trouble, Butcher had not batted since the end of May last summer. His first scoring shot, coming to the wicket after Surrey had lost their first two wickets for 58, was a dodgy one, but he was soon timing the ball sweetly.
Happily, with the inaugural Test here little more than a month away, there was nothing awry with the new drainage system or with the pitch, cut seven strips away from where England will play Australia.
Scott Newman went in the first over when play eventually began at 1.10pm on this, the second day, leg-before to James Harris, and Michael Brown went in similar fashion to a quicker ball from Garnett Kruger, but these were self-inflicted dismissals.
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Surrey: First Innings
S A Newman lbw b Harris 0
M J Brown lbw b Kruger 40
M R Ramprakash not out 50
*M A Butcher lbw b Shantry 65
Murtaza Hussain not out 2
Extras (lb 2) 2
Total (3 wkts, 48 overs) 159
U Afzaal, S J Walters, †J N Batty, J W Dernbach, R J Harris and A Nel to bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-58, 3-156.
Bowling: Harris 16-2-55-1; Shantry 12-5-32-1; Kruger 9-2-45-1; Cosgrove 5-1-17-0; Croft 6-1-8-0.
Glamorgan: G P Rees, M J Cosgrove, B J Wright, M J Powell, *J W M Dalrymple, †M A Wallace, J A R Harris, R D B Croft, W D Bragg, A J Shantry, G J P Kruger.
Umpires: N L Bainton and J H Evans.