Surrey’s game against Sussex at Whitgift School was badly affected by rain on the first two days. Sussex won the toss and chose to bat first, not wanting to bat last on a wicket which seemed likely to deteriorate.

However the first morning belonged to the Surrey bowlers who pinned Sussex down to 91 for four at lunch. Stuart Meaker captured the wickets of the openers, both caught behind by Gary Wilson, in his fourth over, and Jimmy Ormond and Mohammad Akram also took wickets in this session. Ormond took another in the first over after lunch but then Sussex came back into contention as Michael Gould (36) and Ben Brown (35) put on 47 for the sixth wicket and Gould and Beeny (38) added 49 for the seventh. All three of these batsmen fell to the leg spin of Ian Salisbury who finished with three for 28. The rain that had threatened most of the day finally set in at tea time with Sussex on 213 for eight and there was no further play.

The Sussex innings survived only another six overs on the second morning as Jimmy Ormond picked up the last two wickets with the help of Gary Wilson who took five catches in the innings. Ormond took three for 28, Meaker two for 56 and Mohammad Akram two for 31 as Sussex were dismissed for 236.

The Surrey reply started slowly against an accurate spell of bowling from Chris Liddle. Chris Murtagh scored only one run from 44 balls before he was dismissed, caught in the gully by Ragheb Aga off the bowling of Liddle. Matt Spriegel (55* from 112 balls) held the innings together with James Benning (59 from 51 balls) until play was again suspended for the day with the score on 136 for two.

On the third morning the teams agreed to try to bring the game to a result. Surrey declared on their overnight score of 136 for two, 100 runs behind. Sussex batted to set a target for Surrey to chase. Meaker and Dernbach opened the bowling with some fire and had Sussex 39 for three but then Michael Thornely (75) and Jeremy Green (56*) put on 98 for the fourth wicket, assisted by some declaration bowling by Chris Murtagh. Sussex declared at lunch on 179 for four setting a target of 280 for Surrey to chase in a minimum of 64 overs.

Surrey lost the wicket of Chris Murtagh early but Spriegel and Benning shared a stand of 43 before Benning (33) was caught at slip to make the score 57 for two. From that point there was a steady procession of batsmen to and from the wicket as the Sussex spinners Ollie Rayner (four for 32) and Will Beer (four for 38) turned the ball on a helpful pitch to spin Sussex to victory as Surrey were all out in just under two hours. Sussex won by 151 runs and took 16 points to Surrey’s four.

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