On a day cut short by the rain, Surrey Second XI managed to push on and reach a healthy position as they acquired a lead of 271 runs over Warwickshire by the time the weather shut shop at Guildford.
After a full morning session of cricket, tea was taken early due to rain before the day’s play was called off without a ball being bowled in the evening session. Surrey closed on 280/7 with Nick Kimber (19*) and James Taylor (10*) sharing an unbeaten stand of 16.
Like last evening, the story of the day was the Surrey skipper Ben Geddes and his knock of 121, before he was bowled by pacer George Garrett in the 82nd over.
Carrying on from where he left, Geddes maintained his fluency, crossing three figures with a gorgeous back-foot punch through covers off Craig Miles.
Josh Blake was the first Surrey wicket to fall on the third day as he was caught behind by George Maddy off Danny Briggs for 31. Before departing, Blake and Geddes added 31 runs to the host’s overnight score of 127/2.
Tom Geffen reached 16, before Briggs trapped him lbw with Surrey on 186.
Conor McKerr then joined his skipper at the crease, and with the Three Feathers on 197/4, ROL Haydon rapped McKerr on his front pad and got him lbw for 10.
From there on, newcomer Tim Lloyd and Geddes held Surrey’s fort and took them to 238/5. However, the new ball did the trick for the visitors as Geddes was stopped in his tracks by Garnett’s wobbling delivery for an exquisite innings of 121.
Like the previous partnerships, the next pair of Lloyd (33) and Nick Kimber also got off to good start and increased Surrey’s total by 26 runs before the former became Briggs’ third scalp of the innings, edging a well-flighted delivery that was pouched in the slips by Ethan Brookes.
With Surrey on 264/7, Taylor arrived in the middle. By the time rain interrupted play, him and Kimber had added another 16 runs to the Three Feather’s total, pushing it to 280.
Leading by 271 and with three wickets in hand, the pair will resume Surrey’s innings on day four, with all results still possible.
A match report of day one can be found here and day two here.
